I take this occasion to upload the first ship for my main AU nation: The Cretan Republic.
To be short (a complete history will be posted……. one day) the republic was created after French expedition under the Duc de Beaufort succeeded to lift the siege of Candia. Having developed its own mixed origins culture it remain a separate nation when Greece gained its independence.
Despite being a small country it have a strong navy: by the time of the Second World War, although ground and air forces had become independent, half of the Cretan military personal was serving in the navy.
The Cretan warship design have moved from strong French influence in the XVIII° century to a mixed style mainly influenced by Italy, Japan, and Soviet Union.
Neutral during WWI and considered as a minor navy, Crete wasn’t invited to sign the Washington Naval Treaty. But, as the Fascist Italy was considered the main threat to Cretan domination over eastern Mediterranean Sea, the limits of the coming London treaty were used as reference at least for the displacement of the ship.
The goal was to have something just ahead of the Italian battleships in order to save enough personal to operate three battleships.
The first Italian design, prepared in 1928, called for a 23.000 long tons ship armed with a main battery of six 381 mm (15.0 in) guns in twin turrets. Taking this as a starting point the Cretan admiralty asked for 25.000 long tons ship with an equivalent main battery but using triple turrets. The extra weight would be used to increase protection, and eventually speed. The main gun should also be designed for a greater range than the Italian one. This would enable to engage the enemy sooner and support more hits than there foe.
Although after 1930 the Italian Navy abandoned the design in favor of a heavier one, the Cretan project kept going on those bases. A bigger battleship would have meant reduce their number to two. This wouldn’t have allowed keep at least two units operational at any given time.
The last evolution of the project included the new devices designed for the ships being currently rebuilt (former Russian and Italian battleships), except the lifeboat fast launching system (see ships to come) who was design latter and the Bulbous bow who wasn't retained for this design.
The ship inherited of the Cretan characteristic compact conning-tower integrating the funnel.
This combined with only two triple main gun turrets could have drastically reduced the armored citadel, but the Cretan obsession for fire arc and quick target change (turrets were able to turn 360°) have thwarted this potential.
The main guns were finally derived from the 370 mm gun of the Spártakos (former Izmail), instead of brand new 381 mm. The original 356/52 mm Russian guns were being rebored at 370/50 mm. The final design was a 370/52 mm gun with a range of 43.730 m at a 35° elevation. Although range was marginally superior to the Italian opponent, they were supposed to have a smaller dispersion and a longer barrel life.
The secondary weapons were DP 130mm in 10 twin turrets.
Smaller weapons were planned but not yet chosen.
The ship would had 4 floatplanes using two retractable catapultes.