Since so much here at SB are in a fluid state with regards to updates etc, and I have even been asked to update the Canadian Tribals for uploading, I have taken on one of my absolute favorites and brought it upto current standards here. It is MConrads Type 101 Klasse, or more generally known as the Hamburg-class destroyers of the Bundesmarine. They were the first post-war German destroyer designs; a special clause was included in the provisions in the permission granted by the WEU to allow the Federal German Government to have them built. The Hamburg was accordingly laid down in 1959 at H.C. Stülcken, at Hamburg, a yard which had no previous experience in warship design, since naval yards were explicitly forbidden by the Paris Peace Treaty (signed in 1955) Thus, relying heavily on both pre- and wartime expertise the ships; Hamburg (D-181), Schleswig-Holstein (D-182), Bayern (D-183) and Heßen (D-184) resembled a mixture of Kriegsmarine destroyer and cruiser designs. No missiles, either offensive or defensive were yet allowed, so the ships were the very last all-gun ships built; Heßen completing only in 1968.
The armament consited of a mixture of French, Swedish, Dutch amd indigenous weapons; the main artillery were the French 100mm M64/68, the 40mm secondary ones were Bofors manufactured.
Coined 'Hochhäuser' (high-rise buildings) in the Bundesmarine, due to their towering and massive appearance, they were primarily intended to serve in the relative calm seas of the Baltic, but by the time of my depiction of the Schleswig-Holstein, around 1990,they served frequently and with an impressively faithful frequence within the STANAVFORLANT as well as far as the Eastern Mediterranean. They frequently, too, made port visits to the U. S. and countries as far away as Chile and Brazil. The navy always had considerable concerns about their inherent stability, but they managed to weather rough storms on the Atlantic, dipping their low bows deep into the following seas, almost burrowing their entire hulls as they fought the highest wave crests, but also always equally elegantly coming out of them, intact, only a little more wetter!
So, here's the last completed, but first to decommission, FGS Hessen as completed, in 1968. For those of you who love torpedo-armed vessels, this ship ought to be a wet dream; no fewer than seven (7!) above water tubes are fitted: two in the stern, three in the bow for the German G7A dual-purpose torpedo, a weapon that had its origin in WW2. Furthermore there are two beam tubes for the US Long Mk37 A/S torpedo.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35725424/D_DDG_Type-101A_He%C3%9Fen.png)
My other rendition has the FGS Schleswig-Holstein depicted at the end of a long career (1964-94) as a unit of the STANAVFORLANT; ca. 1989/90, that is at the very same time when the German states were reunited and the Wall fell.
She has been modernized with Exocet MM38 SSMs at the expense of her 'Caesar' 100mm turret. Also her bridge has been fully enclosed, the five original WW2-vintage designed AWTT have been replaced with four SST4s in single tubes. The 40mm guns have been replaced with a newer design, still Bofors, though. And her radar suite has been upgraded. As a living testimony, a kind of naval dinosaur she soldiered on long after she could fairly have been considered obsolete, and was truly beloved by her crew and a grateful nation who, in spite of a new-found pacifistic sentiment, nevertheless was happy to have its impressive-looking high-rise ships.
So, here she is, Sophie X, as she was affectionately know by the naval community. I hope I have stayed true to the spirit of MConrad, while having replaced outdated equipment and corrected any measurement error existing.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35725424/D_DDG_Type-101B_Schleswig-Holstein-1.png)
