What does GHC mean in GERMAN

A German Heavy Cruiser is a type of warship used by Germany during World War II. These cruisers displaced around 10,000 tons, and carried a main armament of nine 11-inch guns in three triple turrets. They were designed with the capability to conduct independent operations on the high seas and perform raid missions.

Nine German Heavy Cruisers were built in total. This includes six ships from the Admiral Hipper class and three from the Deutschland class.

The armaments for German Heavy Cruisers usually consisted of nine 11-inch guns in three triple turrets, as well as eight 5.9 inch guns in four twin turrets, two triple 53cm torpedo tubes and two quadruple 15cm anti-aircraft guns.

The first German Heavy Cruiser was commissioned on March 17th 1936, at Kriegsmarine Headquarters in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The cruiser was named Admiral Hipper after Admiral Franz Ritter von Hipper.

These vessels could displace around 10,000 tons which makes them larger than most other warships from World War II such as destroyers or destroyer escorts but smaller than battleships or aircraft carriers.

German heavy cruisers participated in operations on both the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans during World War II. They conducted raids against Allied naval forces and merchant shipping and acted as escort ships for U-boats operating under orders from Hitler's High Command.

The design of these vessels was largely credited to Adolf Hitler himself who had served briefly as an officer aboard one such vessel before ascension to leadership of Nazi Germany in 1933. However Karl Dönitz who would later assume leadership also played an important role as commander of its crew during several deployments.

At war’s end all remaining ships were ordered decommissioned by the Allies although some were retained for further testing purposes before their eventual scrapping in 1948-49.