Thiaria: Other People's ships

Nice looking beast Garlic

I do wonder about the catapult too, it appears quite blocked and is thus unable to use its full length.

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
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It is not actually one catapult but two. On overheads it shows as one unbroken length but there are port and starboard launching sites. When you have over 120 feet of breadth to play with you do not need only one working catapult area, you can actually do two.

Another excellent addition, this looks very impressive!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Hello again!

Here's the last two AU Germans in a straight row:

22. Another study in uselessness: Spähkreuzer 1938
The Z-Plan covered not only large ships, but also their escorts; 24 oceangoing destroyers were included in the final draft. Like all other Z-Plan ships, these were designed for oceanic warfare without proper bases against a numerically superior enemy, and like them, they came out excessively large. The destroyers pushed the gigantomania inherent in all contemporary German warship designs to an almost ridiculous extreme. They needed to be faster and better armed than the opposition and have extremely long range; they were to carry six 150mm guns in three twin turrets, two 88mm heavy flaks complete with their own HA director, ten 37mm flaks, and ten 533mm torpedo tubes in two quintuple sets. Speed was set at 35 knots and range at 7.000 nm at 20 knots; to attain optimum seakeeping abilities, the forecastle was to be extended to the aft turrets. This package required a hull of 5.700 tons standard, nearly twice as large as the largest foreign destroyer of that era (and we are talking about something as huge as the French Mogador!). The size of the ship on the other hand required engines of 92.000 hp to reach design speed; the specified range could only be attained by adopting an all-diesel powerplant. The design was finalized early in 1939, but at that time there were no capacities for laying any such ships down. Unlike many other Z-Plan fantasies, the Spähkreuzer-project remained live even after the war started, but the emphasis on submarine production meant that no diesel engines could be made available. They were re-designed in 1940 with turbines and high-pressure boilers and increased bunkerage; range nevertheless was cut to 5.000 nm. Engine power however increased to 100.000 hp and speed to 37 knots. In this shape, the first three units were finally laid down in mid-1941. Three more followed early in 1942. The final design looked like this:

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Construction proceeded with low priority, and none were near launch readiness when Hitler in January 1943 cancelled all large warships then under construction. No names were assigned yet; the original Z-Plan called for designating them with the letter N- and a number, starting with N-1. By 1940, they were to be designated SP-1 and so on, but shortly after the first three were started, Hitler decreed that they receive proper names, taken from figures of German mythology. For the first six, the Names Hagen von Tronje, Dietrich von Bern, Beowulf, Siegfried, Heimdall and Gefion were proposed. Their cancellation was not mourned, as there was no requirement for this kind of vessel, whose size was only justified by their strategic mobility and did not support any worthwhile combat capability. The Fleet had already given up on oceanic surface raiding after the reverse in the battle of Faroer late in 1941, and by the time the second three were laid down, the Brest squadron of capital ships had already been recalled.

Greetings
GD

And... wrap!

23. The Handelszerstörers turned carriers
When the Z-Plan was finalized in 1938, twelve P-class armoured cruisers were planned to form a powerful raiding force, hunting for British merchant shipping all around the globe. Their presence should force the British to deploy their battleships everywhere, weakening the Home Fleet to the point it became manageable for Germany's core force of ten battleships (Scharnhorst-, Bismarck- and J-classes). Apart from the fact that this plan was timed to become effective not before 1945, several years after Hitler's armament frenzy would have utterly bankrupted the German state, and did not figure in what the British might build during that time, the ships themselves were of questionable quality. As on the L-class cruisers, all combat parameters were made subordinate to extreme speed (165.000hp diesels for 35 knots) and range (15.000 miles at 20 knots) requirements. Their long, sleek hulls displaced over 22.000 tons, but carried only six 280mm, six 150mm and eight 105mm guns each; protection was sufficient to keep 203mm shells out of the vitals, but no good against even old and weak battleships. When the war started, none had been laid down. In November 1939, the planned number of 12 was cut to eight, and the switch of all diesel engine production to submarine propulsion required a complete redesign. For the cruisers P through W, the names Goeben, Derfflinger, von der Tann, Zieten, Yorck, Mackensen, Schwerin and Roon were proposed, although none were formally named. After several alternatives had been studied, a slightly downsized vessel with 136.000hp turbines on two shafts (reportedly the same swiss-made BBC engines which were ordered by the Soviets for their Sovetskij-Soyuz-class battleships) and a speed of 32 knots was selected; range was cut to 10.000 miles and protection remained the same. Main and secondary armament was retained, but the heavy flak was increased to twelve 105mm guns in six newly developed twin turrets (same as planned for the J-class battleships). The design to which the ships were eventually laid down looked like this:

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As four 280mm turrets (removed from Gneisenau in 1940) were readily available, the first two of the class could be laid down in April and June 1941 at Blohm&Voss in Hamburg and the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven, respectively. Two more were to follow early in 1942, but were postponed for a year in September 1941 due to more pressing requirements. They were the last capital ships to be laid down for the Kriegsmarine; although they were not formally axed before January 1943, the third and later ships of the class were never started. After the battle of Faroer in November 1941, requirements were revised; the Handelszerstörers were re-designed as full-fledged fleet carriers, for which role their hull size and shape was (rightly) considered particularly suitable. Their design showed that many good lessons had been learned from the oversized, wasteful Graf Zeppelins. Their hulls received enclosed bows for optimum seakeeping, got rid of the redundant LA artillery and could accommodate a larger air component (48 versus 42) despite being a third smaller. The carrier conversion was finalized in July 1942; as the ships were not very advanced on their stocks, only a small delay would ensue for the first two, and the next two could actually be moved forward on the time scale, because no new main armament would have to be produced. The final carrier design looked like this:

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By late 1942, the Kriegsmarine optimistically expected to lay hands on the first pair in mid-1944, and lay down the second pair in early 1943 for completion in late 1945. Hitler's order to abandon all capital ship production in January 1943 ended the project; the hulls of P and Q, which were nowhere near launch readiness, were scrapped on their slips during the first half of 1943. If the Germans had bothered developing proper aircraft for them - they had an excellent long-range naval fighter in the shape of the BV-155, but in the antiship role were stuck with the antiquated Ju-87 - they would have made reasonably capable carriers, although their flight decks were still unarmoured and their hangars fully enclosed. On the plus side, they had an armoured main deck of 100mm, carried a good-sized air group, were well protected against underwater attack and had a powerful flak battery of 12 105mm guns and 24 fully automatic 37mm guns, plus 48 20mm cannon.

Greetings
GD

Magnificent work, as usual!

The cruiser P CVL conversions are excellent and well thought out. Were you going to do the overhead for them?

The quality of the drawings are excellent, as we have come to expect of you.

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

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