Germany (1936) Battleships: Scharnhorst, Gneisenau The Kriegsmarine “terrible twins”: The Scharnhost and Gneisenau were the first Kriegsmarine battleships, completed shortly before the start of WW2. They were fast battleships, with an true emphasis on speed over protection. The second issue was the lack of a suitable artillery, as the 2,8 cm used since the Deutchsland … Read more
Germany (1928-35), Leipzig, Nürnberg The last light German cruisers: The Leipzig class represented the last two light cruisers of the German Reichsmarine (and Kriegsmarine). Same class but the second, KMS Nürnberg, was built to a slightly modified design and is sometimes seen separately by some authors. They clearly had sets of improvements over the “K” … Read more
Germany (1936-45) 194 produced (290 ordered) Type IX, the long-range U-Boat: During world war two, two main types of u-boats roamed the sea: The Type VII, basically a mid-range oceanic type, able to take position in the middle of the Atlantic without refuelling, and the Type IX, the cruiser type, able to reach the American … Read more
Germany (1940-44) – About 500 Amphibious ships German amphibious warfare in WW2: Prahme, converted riverine barges converted as landing ships in Wilhelmshaven, as part of the prevision for Operation Sealion, summer 1940. Whereas the focus on WW2 allied landings is very clear, the axis made a number of amphibious operations of smaller scale, first because … Read more
Germany (1933), About 700 subs A Massive Improvement of U-Boat designs: If German tanks, aircraft and small arms from the German manufacturing complex had won a considerable and fearsome reputation in WW2, German submarines truly reached the world stage as the epitome of the genre, with just the perfect balance of engineering, simplicity, and ease … Read more
“K” class light cruisers: Planned 1925, 3 ships Germany (1927), KMS Königsberg, Karlsruhe, Köln The “K class”, Reichsmarine’s innovative ships: After the launch of Emden (1925), the light ‘K’ class cruisers were immediately started on the basis of a modernized armament, three triple turrets, of which the last two were offset from the axis, one … Read more
You certainly have heard of the Type VIIC and the Type IX which roamed the seas during WW2 and almost strangled seaways to UK in 1942-43. But over 1,100 U-Boats has been built during this war, mostly deployed in the Atlantic and over twenty-four types designed, many if which were left as paper projects…
Type Ia, the oceanic type Germany (1936) U25, U26 The Unterseebooten Typ I, were in direct line inspired by the Spanish E1 and various other international orders (Turkey, Finland, Holland…) made at The Hague. They were oceanic types, therefore openly violating clauses of the Versailles treaty. By their general configuration, they announced the famous class … Read more
Seeteufel (1944) Germany (1944) Genesis of a tracked submarine The Seeteufel “Monkfish” was an evolution of the concept of human torpedoes and midget submarines that could be thrown out on the coastal areas when U-boats failed to achieve their objectives and survive to the allied total mastery of the skies and sea at that point. … Read more
Germany (1939) Aircraft Carrier, 90% completed. Germany’s aircraft carrier Contrary to most European powers, Germany never ventured into the Aircraft carrier genre, bar perhaps a few ad hoc conversions as seaplane tenders. The appearance and raid of HMS Furious on a Zeppelin base in 1918 was duly noted by the German admiralty, but it occurred … Read more
