The nameship of her class, Derfflinger and her sisters Lützow and Hindenburg have often been considered the best battlecruisers of World War I. With a winning combination of speed, protection and good fire power, they anticipated the pocket battleships that were to follow twenty years later. Derfflinger herself gained notoriety for her bombardment of the English coastal towns of Hartlepool (16 December 1914), Yarmouth and Lowestoft (24 April 1916). She acquitted herself well at the Battle of Jutland and despite enduring many direct hits including ten 15in. and ten 12in. shells, contributed to the sinkings of H.M.Ships Invincible and Queen Mary. Interned with the rest of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, she was scuttled, only being raised by the Royal Navy in 1939. Work was suspended because of the Second World War and eventually she was towed to a Clyde scrap yard in 1946.