Kriegsmarine Deutschland and Scharnhorst class WIP

Have you considered drawing their (Deutschland) proposed conversion to carriers?

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FFG Halifax Redraw

Beautiful drawings for some of Germany's most beautiful ships!

Charwhick wrote:

Have you considered drawing their (Deutschland) proposed conversion to carriers?

I, for one, am not familiar with that design Charwhick, but I'd to like to be. Do you have a drawing of it or a reference of some kind. That would be a cool addition.

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Unfortunately I don't; but I was researching various interwar and WW2 ships when I read about it. I'm fairly sure the project existed but I didn't look into how far they got.

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FFG Halifax Redraw

I would be interested to see any information on those planned conversions, too. I just read about in some throw-away lines in some books...

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Any help and source material is always welcome.

I'm very aware of the Seydlitz Conversion but of not the Deutshcland

EDIT:

From Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battlecruisers of the World and Wikipedia

Quote:

After Hitler had given the order in late January 1943 for the two remaining ships to be scrapped, the possibility of instead converting them into aircraft carriers was discussed. The hulls would have been lengthened approximately 20 metres (66 ft), which would have used 2000 tons of steel and employed 400 workmen. Conversion time was estimated at two years. Their flight deck would have been only 10 metres (33 ft) shorter than that of the Hipper class heavy cruiser Seydlitz, which had been prepared for conversion in 1942, and they would still have attained 28 knots. This plan was not pursued.

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Wildly unpractical but I'd like to see that. Sounds right up your alley DG_Alpha.

Hello,

thank you for the comments!

I have never heard about the proposal of converting the "Panzerschiffe" into carriers. Very intersting, indeed.
The information seems a little too sparse to draw them, though.

Some further progress on the "pocket battleships":

1.)
"Admiral Scheer" on her fourth patrol during the Spanish civil war.
On 31. May 1937 she fired her guns in anger for the first time: After her sistership "Deutschland" was attacked and damaged by Republican planes, "Admiral Scheer" was ordered to bombard the Republican held harbor of Almería in retaliation.
Due to heavy fog, the bombardement was rather unsucsessful and the destined target, the Rebublican battleship "Jaime I." had already left the harbor a day before.
[ img ]

2.)
"Admiral Scheer" after her major refit in 1940:
- The stern was completely remodeled and the ship`s length was increased by 1,9m.
- The heavy forward superstructure was replaced by a much lighter tubular mast.
- The funnel platform was enlarged and a new funnel cap to clear the smoke was fitted.
- A new mainmast was fitted behind the funnel.
"Scheer" left the shipyard on 31. July to run trials in the Baltic Sea.

This is her appearance when she left port to engage on her first comerce raiding mission, which lasted from 23. October 1940 to 1. April 1941. She sank 17 merchant vessels of 113.233 brt and the armed merchant cruiser "HMS Jervis Bay".
[ img ]

3.)
In September 1941 "Admiral Scheer" was stationed in Norway, when two depth charges detonated on her deck after a crew handling error. In the same month, she had to return to Hamburg for engine repairs.
[ img ]

4.)
In February 1942 "Admiral Scheer" and the heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen" were en route to Norway to support the battleship "Tirpitz".
During their voyage, they were intercepted by the British submarine "HMS Trident", which managed to score a crippling hit on "Prinz Eugen". Though the torpedo had caused heavy damage to the cruisers stern and rudder, she was able to reach her destination safely. "Admiral Scheer" arrived at Lofjord undamaged and idled there for the next three months.
[ img ]

5.)
In August 1942 "Admiral Scheer" made another sortie codenamed "Operation Wunderland" (wonderland). Its intended aim was to disrupt Soviet shipping in the Kara Sea.
On 25th August, "Admiral Scheer" spotted and sank the Soviet icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov". The vessel put up a fight and used her radio to warn other ships in the vicinity, thus compromising the mission of the cruiser.
As a result no other ships could be found and "Admiral Scheer" used her heavy artillery to bombard Soviet installations on Dikson Island instead.
On 30 August, "Admiral Scheer" returned to Narvik.
[ img ]

6.)
Up until November 1944, she was used as a training ship, when she was reactivated and deployed against the advancing soviet army.

In March 1945, after continous action against the Soviets in the Baltic Sea, "Admiral Scheer" was to receive replacements for her worn out 28cm barrels and thus was docked at the Deutsche Werke Kiel shipyard.
The cruiser met her fate on 9th April 1945, when heavy bomb hits by a British air raid, caused the ship to capsize and sink in shallow waters.
Most of the wreck was broken up - and interestingly, a car park was built over her final resting place.

My drawing depicts the final appearance of "Admiral Scheer" - the light AA was heavily upgraded, icluding the replacement of the 3,7cm twins with 4cm Bofors singles.
[ img ]

EDIT:
I screwed up the Arados' floats in my first post!

I have corrected the drawings...

Thanks for looking!
Edit: Newest Versions added

How interesting, the richness of details! For the first time (and I used to be an assiduous reader of Gröner's!) I've noticed that the Scheer actually had a covered admirals bridge low on her tubular mast!

Though I do not love the period, I do love these wonderful renditions!

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

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