Shipbucket

I was thinking of introducing a third unit, which was rebuilt in a different way. The original design would have included the guns in their position as in the first version, whilst the second variant would have all the guns forward (like this one) and a hangar, which I will have to include tomorrow, since I am now in no position to draw it.

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

Progress so far:

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

May I use it for my AU?

Sure, when I'm finished

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

Modified first post.

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

Here we go:

June 21th, 1930
The Dutch goverment agrees on the ''10-year-fleet'' programme, which will have to
increase the power of the Royal Netherlands Navy. A sum of 30 million guilders (15 billion euro's nowadays)
is reserved for designing and building several new cruisers, destroyers and submarines. A total need for
10 new light cruisers, 24 large destroyers and 12 new fleet-submarines is issued.

August 23rd, 1930
The Dutch ministry of War gives the order to design a 3-ship strong class of ''floatplane-cruisers''. The ships
must be able to at least carry 4 floatplanes and asociated hangar. Also the ships must carry a range of weapons
sufficiently enough to protect itself against light cruisers or destroyers.

May 1st, 1931
The Royal Sheldt shipbuilders company offers a first design to the board of officials, whom enthoustiasticly agree
on the design, and gives the Royal Scheldt the order to built 3 ships. The design offered by the shipyard shows a
ship which is capable of carrieng up to 6 floatplanes launched by two catapults. The ship's armament consists out
of two dual Bofors 6'' guns and four single Bofors 6'' guns.

July 12th, 1931
The overall building progress of the new ships falls below expectations, which results in overbudgetting of the entire
programme. This also affects the new floatplane cruisers, and construction is being halted for over a year. Other projects
are delayed severly.

September 20th, 1934
Dispite the world wide recession, the building progress is continued and the ships get their future names assigned.
The three ships will be named HNLMS Amsterdam, HNLMS Rotterdam, HNLMS Batavia. On the 20th of September
the keel is layed for the first ship, HNLMS Amsterdam.

December 1st, 1935
The keel of the second ship, HNLMS Rotterdam is layed. The construction progress on the HNLMS Amsterdam is at this
stage 30%.

January 22nd, 1936
The world wide economy crices worseness and massive worker-strikes break out. The program has to deal with another
major blow-back. Meanwhile the building progress on the first two ships is again halted, the final design is modified. To
compete with the increased air-treath in the Dutch East Indies, 4 Hazemeyer 40mm AA-mounts are added to the design.
These where also installed on the new cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter.

November 14th, 1936
The workers are met in their demands for better wages and working conditions. The construction once again resumes,
however slowly, and finally the keel of the third ship is layed, the HNLMS Batavia. The modified design is being used
on all three ships, and by the end of July 1936 new machinery is installed on the first two ships.

January 23rd, 1938
After 4 years of construction and 2.3 million guilders over-budget, the HNLMS Amsterdam is launched. The construction
progress on the other two ships is 40% and 25% respectivly.

October 14th, 1938
The HNLMS Amsterdam is finally completed and is comissioned by Queen Wilhelmina the same day. The HNLMS Rotterdam
was set to be launched the same day, but due to a fire aboard it was posponed for four months.


November 2nd, 1938
The HNLMS Amsterdam embarks on a two-week journey towards the Dutch East Indies, where she is to patrol
the waters around Java and Sourabaya.

February 4th, 1939
The HNLMS Rotterdam is launched, she is expected to be in service within a year.

September 1st, 1939
The World War two breaks out in Europe, and the construction on the remaining two ships is
nearing completion. The HNMLS Rotterdam is towed out to Den Helder to complete the last 10%
of the building progress. The HNLMS Batavia is set to be launched on May 12th, 1940.

May 10th, 1940
Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands and the Dutch goverment declares war on Germany. The HNLMS
Rotterdam was still waiting to recieve her armament, radars and airplanes, but was ordered to sail to
the British naval base in Porthsmouth, together with several other Dutch naval ships. Construction
on the HNLMS Batavia was increased to 200% to launch her in time.

May 12th, 1940
The war has been raising for two days now and by that time the HMNLS Rotterdam has reached Porthsmouth.
Her majesty's goverment and kabinet, as well as the queen herself where relocated to Londen. The HNLMS
Batavia was ready to be launched, however the shipyard was bommed by German aircraft. A harbor crane had
fallen over the drydock, thus making it impossible to launch the final ship. The shipyard agreed to blow up the
ship to prevent it being captured by the Germans.

When the Netherlands admitted defeat on the the 15th of May, the HNLMS Amsterdam was ordered to stay
in the Dutch East Indies, to protect the archipel from any possible Japanese attacks. By the end of 1940 the
Dutch Armed Forces where reorganised in Londen, and ordered that all Dutch Naval vessels (including the Tromp,
Jacob van Heemskerck, Van Galen class destroyerd and the Rotterdam) had to continue the fight against Nazi
Germany. In early 1941 the HNLMS Rotterdam recieved new British armament, which was stronger against ships and
aircraft, increasing her AA-guns capacity by 400%.


To be continued...

_________________
“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

Vossiej
I like this new design, but two things which are wrong on your drawings.
One is the use of radar of Japanese origin on both ships (it is Type 22 air search radar) on the mainmast
Two is Type 79/279 radar on the mast of the 1937 design. Also the use of Type 277 radar on the mauinmast of the 1937 design is wrong, as the radar was developed only in 1942 onwards with centimetric magnetron (the radar used 10cm wavelength)

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

I based my radars off the Royal Netherlands navy sheet, it's in the Parts Sheets Discussion.

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

Vossiej

Love this concept I have been "playing" with this all weekend my only comment is from a technical point about having the twin 4" guns on the top of the hanger they would cause a huge increases in top weight, would require a lot of reinforcing/strengthening of the hanger structure also a very long way from any ammunition resupply I have moved them to opposite the second funnel on my model.

Will now leave day job at the office !!!

Graham

Indeed, that is a possibility as well. I'll change it immidiatly!

May 22nd, 1941
HNLMS Amsterdam is still patrolling the waters around Java, and takes part in a large excersize with British and American Naval units.
Meanwhile, the HNLMS Rotterdam is finished. The ship is commisioned into service with the Royal Netherlands Navy and is much heavier
armed than her sister ship. Immidiatly the HNLMS Rotterdam is send towards the Dutch East Indies, to increase the naval presence there.
On May 23rd 1941, the HNLMS Rotterdam, together with HNLMS Tromp, HNLMS Kortenear and HNLMS Witte de Wit sets sail for the Dutch
East Indies.

December 10th, 1941
Two days after the Netherlands declared war on Japan, the HNLMS Rotterdam was doing her regular patrols, when one of her floatplanes sights
a Japanese submarine 400 miles within Dutch territorial waters. The submarine was sunk by depthcharges dropped by two floatplanes from the
ship. This made her the first allied ship to sink a Japanese warship in the region.

January 3rd, 1942
The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) was formed to co-ordinate Allied forces in South East Asia. On the night of January 10–11, 1942, the Japanese attacked Menado in Celebes. At about the same moment they attacked Tarakan, a major oil extraction centre and port in the north east of Borneo.

February 27nd, 1942
The Japanese amphibious forces gathered to strike at Java, and on 27 February 1942, the main American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) naval force, under Doorman, sailed northeast from Surabaya to intercept a convoy of the Eastern Invasion Force approaching from the Makassar Strait. The ABDA force consisted of two heavy cruisers (HMS Exeter and USS Houston), five light cruisers (HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java, HNLMS Amsterdam, HNLMS Rotterdam, HMAS Perth), and nine destroyers (HMS Electra, HMS Encounter, HMS Jupiter, HNLMS Kortenaer, HNLMS Witte de With, USS Alden, USS John D. Edwards, USS John D. Ford, and USS Paul Jones). The attack fails and the Allies suffer major losses.
Shortly after, at 21:25, Jupiter ran onto a mine and was sunk, while about 20 minutes later, the fleet passed where Kortenaer had sunk earlier, and Encounter was detached to pick up survivors. Doorman's command, now reduced to six cruisers, again encountered the Japanese escort group at 23:00; both columns exchanged fire in the darkness at long range, until De Ruyter and Java were sunk, by one devastating Long Lance salvo. Several minutes later a shell from the Japanese cruiser Haguro hit the foreward magazines from the HNLMS Amsterdam and within seconds the ship was covered in a blazing inferno. She went down at 00:23, taking with her 476 crewmembers.

February 29th, 1942
After emergency repairs the badly damaged Exeter and Rotterdam left for Ceylon; they departed Surabaya at dusk on 28 February and limped towards Sunda Strait, escorted by Encounter and Pope. However, the four ships were intercepted by the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro on the morning of 1 March. Moments earlier the HNLMS Rotterdam had launched all her aircrafts, carrieng at that moment navalised D-21's, capable of carrieng 500 pound bombs. Both the Japanese cruisers opened fire upon the Exeter, whilst suddenly the Nachi is blown to pieces. Japanese intell failed to notice that the HNLMS Rotterdam had escaped the day before, and thus the Japanese did not expect any air treaths. Soon after the HNLMS Rotterdam got severely damaged by gunfire from the Haguro, and had to break off the attack.

March 2nd, 1942
The news reached home telling the terrible defeat in the Java sea. Five Dutch ships where sunk with nearly 1800 crewmembers lost. The HNLMS Rotterdam was undergoing repairs at Darwin, and was ordered to stay in the area together with HNLMS Tromp. The ship remained in Australia for over 9 months for repairs.

January 3rd, 1943
The HNLMS Rotterdam and HNLMS Tromp joined the British East Fleet.

March 21st, 1944
The HNLMS Rotterdam participated in Operation Diplomat. It was executed in March 1944 by the British Eastern Fleet to practice operational procedures that would be used by ships allocated to the British Pacific Fleet. Part of the Eastern Fleet left Trincomalee and Colombo on 21 March and arrived at a point some 850 miles south of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). They rendezvoused, on the 24th, with three tankers escorted by the Dutch cruiser HNLMS Tromp and practised refuelling at sea for the next two days. Later, on the 27th, they met up with the US Task Group 58.5 which consisted of the carrier USS Saratoga and her three attendant destroyers (USS Dunlap, USS Cummings, and USS Fanning).

February 22nd, 1945
The ship participated with an attack on oil refineries at Pangkalan Brandon in Sumatra (Operation Lentil), and returned to European
waters in late January. The ship arrived in Portsmouth in February and was again assigned patrolling duyties in the English Channel.
As the war in europe came to a close, the HNLMS Amsterdam was one of the first ship to be re-commisioned in the Royal Netherlands
Navy. Due to the loss of her sistership, it was decided that the HNLMS Rotterdam was to be named HNLMS Amsterdam (II) to honor
all the fallen crewmembers during the Battle of the Java Sea.

Post-war history to be continued

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“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”