The first major German warship sunk in WW2 was the "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled by her crew outside Montevideo, Uruguay on 17 December 1939.
The HMAS Sydney was involved in a mutually destructive engagement with the German auxiliary cruiser Komoran on November 19, 1941.
Unless sunk for target practice (meaning there's no bodies in them); all sunken warships are WAR GRAVES! Diving in a sunken "warship" (battle sunk) is walking the grey line between "pleasure diving" and "grave robbing."
There are a few German warships from world war I that could aspire on the role as "Most famous", my guess would be the battlecruise "Göben" or "Goeben" in English for the gauntlet that she and the light cruiser "Breslau" were running in the Mediterranean Sea in 1914Or it could be the cruiser "Emden", sunk of Christmas Island by the Australian cruiser "Sydney"
Lusitania was not a warship, it was actually sunk by enemy action, and civilians were on board. It was also sunk after a warning had been given.
DKM Tirpitz, sunk in a harbor by British bombers.
eldon
The HMAS Sydney was involved in a mutually destructive engagement with the German auxiliary cruiser Komoran on November 19, 1941.
The German warship Bismarck was sunk during World War II after sustaining damage from British warships and aircraft. After being disabled, the crew scuttled the ship to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
Battlecruiser DKM Schornhorst (actually went down fighting). Bismarck and Graf Spee both committed suicide (sunk themselves/scuttled).
The US destroyer Reuben James was sunk on October 31 , 1941, but it was by a German U-boat near Iceland. It was the first US warship sunk in World war II, this coming some five weeks before Pearl Harbor and a declaration of war against Japan and Germany.
NO
Clement
after the German u-boat sunk the lusitana which sunk 128 Americans
It was a warship not a cargoship.
Unless sunk for target practice (meaning there's no bodies in them); all sunken warships are WAR GRAVES! Diving in a sunken "warship" (battle sunk) is walking the grey line between "pleasure diving" and "grave robbing."
Launched in 1939, the Bismarck was one of Germany's two largest warships ever built. It was sunk in May of 1941 in the North Atlantic.
The RMS Lusitania was sunk on May 7, 1915. the US entered WWI in April of 1917.