Thiaria: Other People's ships

Garlicdesign

Post subject: Re: Thiaria: Other People's ships

Posted: January 16th, 2016, 7:47 pm

Posts: 1071
Joined: December 26th, 2012, 9:36 am
Location: Germany

Hello again!

And on it goes:

10. True beasts: Bismarck and Tirpitz
The 1935 Anglo-German naval treaty allowed Germany the possession of 35% of Britain's capital ship tonnage. Great Britain at that time had sixteen capital ships totaling 514.800 tons, not counting three Indian ships and one Australian; this resulted in an allowance of 180.180 tons for Germany. Of these, Deutschland (officially rated at 20.000 tons), Scharnhorst, Gneisenau (26.000 tons each) and Graf Spee and the two Scheers (10.000 tons each) used up 102.000 tons, leaving 78.120 tons or more than enough for two full-fledged treaty battleships. The British suspected that the existing German ships exceeded the officially stated displacements, but did not force the issue, true to the spirit of appeasement. The initial design for the two new battleships aimed to honour the 35.000 ton limit, but as the details were ironed out, the ships grew and grew till their standard displacement scratched at the 45.000 ton limit which would be agreed upon in 1938. They were to carry twelve 350mm guns in four triple turrets, a mixed secondary armament of twelve 150mm and sixteen 105mm guns, plus the same light flak outfit as the Scharnhorsts. Airplane complement was doubled to four. Vertical armour remained the same at 320mm, but deck protection was improved to a total of 160mm (divided between two decks, which was less than ideal) and an upper belt of 145mm was provided, a feature no contemporary foreign battleship had (which might have served as an indicator to the Germans that upper belts were not really needed; retrospectively, the weight would have been better used to strengthen the main armoured deck). Engine power was the same as Scharnhorst's at 138.000hp for a design speed of 28,5 knots; the engines were however much sturdier than on the earlier ships and could be forced to over 150.000 hp for nearly 30 knots (depending on the state of the hull) in service over prolonged periods of time without significant problems. As construction proceeded, it became evident that the USA and Japan would build new ships with 406mm guns, a move which prompted the British to switch the main armament of their King George V Class from ten 356mm to nine 381mm guns. In late 1937, Hitler asked if it was possible to arm the new ships with eight 406mm guns, and was delighted to be told that the design already allowed for that without significant alterations or delays, requiring only 10 centimeters more draught. The 406mm guns were already under development since 1935 at Krupp's and could be made available by mid-1940. Both ships were completed in mid-1940 and early 1941, respectively, and named Bismarck and Tirpitz; at over 257m LOA and 44.700 tons standard, they were at that time the largest warships afloat worldwide. At the time of commissioning - still without covers for the aft HA directors - Bismarck looked like this:

[ img ]

Tirpitz differed only in minor details (arrangement of funnel platform, tower bridge and mast, position of cranes, newer type of 105mm mounts, bow shape). The failed breakthrough attempt that resulted in the Battle off Faroer was her first major sortie. During this engagement, all German ships had bright blue turret tops as visual IFF. Tirpitz sported a late variation of the lightning camouflage, looking like this:

[ img ]

At the time of her loss after a short, but incredibly violent career, Bismarck was only slightly altered from her configuration as commissioned, having received a modernized radar suite, covers for her aft AA directors, and sixteen additional 20mm guns. Before she met her fate, Bismarck looked like this:

[ img ]

Tirpitz continued to act as Germany's flagship in the Arctic and was very active in 1942 and 1943. In 1944, she turned from hunter to prey, being consistently harried by air strikes and the occasional midget submarine attack. She was frequently damaged and practically unserviceable after summer 1944. Fate caught up with her on November 12th that year, when she suffered two direct hits and three near misses from Tallboy bombs and turned turtle; 1.200 crewmembers died. At the time of her loss, Tirpitz had received a full suite of Würzburg-D radars for AA guidance (minus the aft director, where there was not enough space for the radar dish), fully automatic 37mm flaks in lieu of her semi-automatic ones and a total of 76 20mm cannon. On her last day, she looked like this:

[ img ]

Greetings
GD

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