The S.M.S. Blücher was commissioned on 1 October 1909 and named after Gebhard Blücher’s ancestor who commanded the Prussian forces in the Battle of Waterloo of 1815. It was used as a training ship from 1911 to 1914 when she was transferred to the Scouting Group. The vessel saw several battles before she was lost in the battle of Doggerbank on 24 January 1915. Only 6 Officers and 275 men survived out of a crew of 1026. Gebhard’s Memoirs recalled the sinking of the Blucher “….. no invented co-incidences could be more startling than those of real life. When my wife so proudly christened the Blucher six short years before the outbreak of war no one could have foreseen its dramatic fate…”

• For more information:
  http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww1/germany/sms-blucher-1908
  http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_SMS_Blucher.html
  https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?13494http://www.militaer-wissen.de/big-cruiser-sms-bluecher/?lang=en
  https://www.rainhillremembers.uk/sms-blucher.html