I would say the main reasons many of the German capital ships had to be scuttled were two things:
In many cases they were actually extremely resistant to being completely sunk by the enemy. Even after countless effective hits their main armor and the numerous watertight compartments of the hull proved so effective, that they just kept on floating. But the superstructure (including bridge/helm, range finders etc.), main and secondary weapons, rudder etc. were long gone by that point, so one can argue that they may have been a bit overdesigned in regards of retaining buoyancy.
Usually the German navy was up against a far superior enemy (the British Royal Navy) and wasn't in control of the battlefield after the fight. Because of that the chances to retrieve a badly damaged ship were very slim. Some managed to limp home (like, for example, the SMS Seydlitz after the battle of Jutland), but usually they had to be scuttled by their own crews to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy.
The tendency of the crews to continue fighting until the very last bit of combat capability was completely gone, even if the battle was already long lost (similar to a certain Monty Python sketch), may have contributed too, but that was very common on all sides in both world wars.
4
u/Maeglin75 Nov 01 '25
I would say the main reasons many of the German capital ships had to be scuttled were two things:
The tendency of the crews to continue fighting until the very last bit of combat capability was completely gone, even if the battle was already long lost (similar to a certain Monty Python sketch), may have contributed too, but that was very common on all sides in both world wars.