Shipbucket

Due to the geographic location of Germany, mine warfare was of vital importance for the German Navy, as it dictated its movement freedom. For minelaying purposes, the Navy of 1920-1935 had no dedicated minelayers, instead all other ships (destroyers, cruisers etc.) had minelayer capabilities and should take over this role in war. In 1937 plans were made for dedicated minelayers, which were included into the Z-Plan. Four were planned, with another four to be ordered in case of mobilisation. The second batch would function as cadet- and artillery training ships and in reverse, the minelayers would take up this role in peacetime. All ships were ordered between 1938 and 1939, but cancelled with outbreak of the war.

The ship had a lenght of 145m, a displacement of 5,800t and a turbine engine for a top speed of 28kn. Armament included four 105mm twins, four 37mm twins and two 20mm singles. Up to 400 mines could be carried.

This is a later design, when the firepower had been increased and the onboard plane had been removed. More versions to come.

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Wow! I really like it! This gives me some ideas...

Fantastic drawing!
You're really doing awesome job with all these lesser-known German ships/designs.

...And then they got the Norwegain Minlayer... the big one.


BTW nice drawing.

Great work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

An excellent drawing of a very interesting design, and one I don't think I've come across before. Its good to get some of the Z Plan ships filled in at last.

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Really nice, really nice. 28kt minelayer would have been impressive indeed. Then again, taken how overblow the German mining in the Baltic was, not nesserically even needed
The Z-plan is progressing quite nicely indeed

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

Yes, the Olav Tryggvason, which got renamed to Brummer, because the original Brummer had been lost at this point. Still, Olav was smaller than any of these monsters. By the way, has the ship ever drawn before? If so, I would like to try the German conversion.

Anyways, thank you everyone for the nice comments. Here's the first variant: The cadet training ship variant was very similar to the minelayer variant, except for some smaller design elements. The most notable difference were the additional boats and the addition of two off-centerline mounted 105mm exercise cannons on the afterdeck. Also, the light AA had been increased, with the 20mm singles being upgraded to wins and another set on each side of the aft superstructure. As this was a training ship, the 37mm twins could be replaced with additional exercise cannons in peacetime.

_________________
My worklist
Any help and source material is always welcome.

Very interesting!

Nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB