Redbeard
Banned
As a sideshow in my Baltic Empire TL I've puzzled with a Royal Hansa Jagtkreutser design (Literally: "Hunting cruiser" like in Jagdpanzer - the homemade spelling is the 20th century Hansa semi Platdeutsch language). The Royal Hansa includes the Baltic coastlines, Scandinavia, N.Germany, Netherlands and GB.
The design is commissioned in 1940 or 41 and follows a line of battlecruisers built since early 20th century.
The Hansa had like everybody else started building Dreadnoughts, but had soon realised that the global interests of the Royal Hansa could not be trusted to lines of slow Dreadnoughts relying on the enemy seeking battle by themselves. So a smaller number of big and powerful battlecruisers had been built and in the Great War of 1917-20 these had, aided by wireless and aerial recon., first defeated the CSA Atlantic Fleet in the Caribean and next a French/Spanish Fleet trying to invade the Azores and which thought the Hansa Fleet was still in the Caribean.
As the Russians collapsed simultaneously with the Atlantic defeats, the anti-Hansa colalition practically fell apart. This was in the last moment for the Hansa and her allies (Central and South German states, A-H and Romania), who were hard pressed on land in both Europe and Canada and had Japan lurking in the Far East.
But anyway, at the peace conference in Geneva, it was also agreed to limit the naval race by parity (600.000 tons) between the Hansa and the combined fleets of France, Spain and CSA and a general 35.000 ton limit on capital ships. Russia was in chaos, and the Japanese were not part of the armistice - but also frightfully short of money. Italy and A-H were to have mutual parity. The Hansa was allowed to use part of her allowance in the semi-independent Dominions of Togo and India (each got a 30.000 ton BC with 12 30cm guns).
The first Hansa design after the Geneva Treaty was two 30 knot ships with two 41cm triples forward, commissioned in the late 1920's (Leopard and Panther). The design was seen as the final rejection of the ship-of-the-line tactic, and instead the idea was to have ships with superior speed to engage frontally and from individual directions (and in combintion with other ship types and airattack). This also put different demands on protection, where emphasis was put on decks, turret fronts, barbettes and forward bulkheads. Weight could be saved on belts, which during battles were at a favourable inclination relative to enemy fire due to the frontal engagement tactic (Called: Cross my T - if you dare!).
During the first half of the 30's only smaller ships were built, but the Design Bureau had experimented with perfecting the Leopard design, and by 1937 improvements in especially machinery techniques, hydrodynamics, facehardened armour and welding had made it possible to add two more 41cm guns and two knots to a 35.000 design, without compromising protection. A big challenge had been to give all three turrets frontal arcs without having C turret to0 high. It was solved by accepting a very low freeboard at turret A, but with a marked sheer in front and comprehensive sealing of the turret against incoming seawater. A turret not being able to fire at 0 degrees over the bow was accepted as a cheap price for two extra 41cm.
The Borgmeister Nansen class, of which four were laid down in 1937, had the following specs:
227 m long, 32 m wide
35.000 tons, 140.000 shp, 32 knots
8 41 cm, 16 12 cm DP, 76 4 cm AA, 2-3 floatplanes
Belt: 28 cm inclined
Deck: 15 cm over citadel and rudders
Fwd. Bulkhead: 38cm
Turret fronts: 41 cm
Barbettes: max 38 cm
The leader of the Design Bureau had the opposition in the Combined City Council smell a scandal, when he said to a newspaper that a primary design critera was that if a design looked good it would be good too. The Union Lord Mayor saved the day by declaring that he totally agreed with the designer and had himself with considerable success followed the same principle in both love and politics.
Regards
Steffen Redbeard
The design is commissioned in 1940 or 41 and follows a line of battlecruisers built since early 20th century.
The Hansa had like everybody else started building Dreadnoughts, but had soon realised that the global interests of the Royal Hansa could not be trusted to lines of slow Dreadnoughts relying on the enemy seeking battle by themselves. So a smaller number of big and powerful battlecruisers had been built and in the Great War of 1917-20 these had, aided by wireless and aerial recon., first defeated the CSA Atlantic Fleet in the Caribean and next a French/Spanish Fleet trying to invade the Azores and which thought the Hansa Fleet was still in the Caribean.
As the Russians collapsed simultaneously with the Atlantic defeats, the anti-Hansa colalition practically fell apart. This was in the last moment for the Hansa and her allies (Central and South German states, A-H and Romania), who were hard pressed on land in both Europe and Canada and had Japan lurking in the Far East.
But anyway, at the peace conference in Geneva, it was also agreed to limit the naval race by parity (600.000 tons) between the Hansa and the combined fleets of France, Spain and CSA and a general 35.000 ton limit on capital ships. Russia was in chaos, and the Japanese were not part of the armistice - but also frightfully short of money. Italy and A-H were to have mutual parity. The Hansa was allowed to use part of her allowance in the semi-independent Dominions of Togo and India (each got a 30.000 ton BC with 12 30cm guns).
The first Hansa design after the Geneva Treaty was two 30 knot ships with two 41cm triples forward, commissioned in the late 1920's (Leopard and Panther). The design was seen as the final rejection of the ship-of-the-line tactic, and instead the idea was to have ships with superior speed to engage frontally and from individual directions (and in combintion with other ship types and airattack). This also put different demands on protection, where emphasis was put on decks, turret fronts, barbettes and forward bulkheads. Weight could be saved on belts, which during battles were at a favourable inclination relative to enemy fire due to the frontal engagement tactic (Called: Cross my T - if you dare!).
During the first half of the 30's only smaller ships were built, but the Design Bureau had experimented with perfecting the Leopard design, and by 1937 improvements in especially machinery techniques, hydrodynamics, facehardened armour and welding had made it possible to add two more 41cm guns and two knots to a 35.000 design, without compromising protection. A big challenge had been to give all three turrets frontal arcs without having C turret to0 high. It was solved by accepting a very low freeboard at turret A, but with a marked sheer in front and comprehensive sealing of the turret against incoming seawater. A turret not being able to fire at 0 degrees over the bow was accepted as a cheap price for two extra 41cm.
The Borgmeister Nansen class, of which four were laid down in 1937, had the following specs:
227 m long, 32 m wide
35.000 tons, 140.000 shp, 32 knots
8 41 cm, 16 12 cm DP, 76 4 cm AA, 2-3 floatplanes
Belt: 28 cm inclined
Deck: 15 cm over citadel and rudders
Fwd. Bulkhead: 38cm
Turret fronts: 41 cm
Barbettes: max 38 cm
The leader of the Design Bureau had the opposition in the Combined City Council smell a scandal, when he said to a newspaper that a primary design critera was that if a design looked good it would be good too. The Union Lord Mayor saved the day by declaring that he totally agreed with the designer and had himself with considerable success followed the same principle in both love and politics.
Regards
Steffen Redbeard
