Shipbucket

The 1957 Matchless above is from an AU project done by the Grey Funnel faction some time ago. It was a big What-if undertaking showing a possible development of the RN post war.
As a side note, I believe it was never really completed.

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

I was using 'above on Musketeer' and 'on Matchless 1957 above' simply to identify the turrets. To be really precise I should have said "The real Matchless never had them"
Nevertheless, I have seen (incorrect) suggestions elsewhere that M class destroyers had Battle class turrets installed before sale to Turkey, perhaps because such AU depictions can get taken out of the context their authors intended.

Hello again!

OK, first try with Dropbox after Majhost seems to have permanently gone belly-up...

I don't know if this really belongs here, but size-wise it seems just about right. What if - for whatever reason, entirely hypothetically - Germany had been limited to 20.000 tons per capital ship rather than 10.000 tons by the Versailles treaty (I know, for Great Britain everything about Versailles was negotiable except the 10.000 ton limit for new German ships, but just hypothetically)?

The result might have been that the pocket battleship Deutschland might have been turned out rather differently. According to SpringSharp, a 20.000-ton hull (21.500 tons after a little cheating) could pack 3x3 279mm/54 guns, 8x1 150mm/45 guns, 5x2 88mm/71 guns, 8x2 37mm/83 guns and a dozen single 20mm MGs, plus 2x4 500mm torpedoes. On a citadel a little longer than 120 meters, there also would be space for a catapult (the german ones were rather short) as soon as the political situation allowed for it. Design-wise, I modeled the ship after some of the late-WWI designs for fast capital ships with three turrets, two of them aft where a dedicated raider, which would spend much of its time evading enemy heavies, would need them most. It also would make sense to provide two more or less identical tube masts (with the majority of the heavy guns aft, the aft one would come in useful). Propulsion would have been provided by Diesels only, with the same engine installation as the Deutschland, but three rather than two shafts, giving 81.000hp for a little under 28 knots design speed - enough to evade anything existing at that time except HMS Repulse, Renown and Hood. A vertical belt of 280mm with extensive - if thin - plating at the ship ends (again, necessary for a raider which could otherwise be forced to abort mission by a few shell holes forward or aft close to the waterline from light cruiser guns) and an armoured deck of 120mm would make the ship tough enough to be immune against cruisers of any size, and even give it a chance to absorb a few 15" hits while eloping.



If she survived till 1944, there would be some modifications typical for German ships of that era. A clipper bow would be fitted to improve seakeeping; the torpedoes would likely be removed due to their awkward placement between the aft barbettes; fire control radar would be fitted to both main directors; an air surveillance radar would be fitted to the mainmast and a passive radar receiver to the foremast; and the number of 20mm guns would increase to 60 (11x4 and 16x1). And of course, she would receive some fancy camouflage.



Greetings
GD

Very nice

GD never fails to deliver awesomeness.

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Looking great. I love the sillouete and the layout of the superstructure, with those tubular masts.

EPIC job, GD...LOVE them!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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Nice work GD, that would fall neatly into my AU for Germany where they get to build 60% of 35,000 tons (21,000) ships.

You would have trouble working out if it was coming or going with that silhouette.

Don't forget the Kongos, at that stage Japan and GB were still supposedly buddies, if relations were somewhat strained.

She's beautiful!

Wow, Garlicdesign nails it again. Really nice drawing GD!

I do have a question, however - one of the others here (I think it was Krakatoa or smurf but for the life of me cannot remember for sure) have pointed out that it's beneficial for FC purposes to have as few different elevations on the turrets as possible ... would it be a good idea to lift the front turret 2px so it is at the same height as the Bruno turret?

Regards,
Ad

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