Posted on 10/28/2003 12:00:36 AM PST by SAMWolf
Picture of Prinz Eugen with detailed radar equipment
Die Hood im Juli 1924 im Panamakanal (Picture by Naval Historical Center)
POW
Norfolk
Suffolk
The H battleships were Germany’s latest battleship designs. It was by far the biggest and most heavily armed and armored battleships on paper. However, they were all cancelled before construction could even finish her hull.
40.6 cm/52 (16") SK C/34
42 cm/48 (16.5") SK C/40
These guns were intended for the "H" class battleships which were laid down in 1939 but never completed. This rifle was a good design but could be said to have had an excessively high muzzle velocity, hence giving it minimal deck penetration even at long ranges.
There were three versions of this weapon; the original prototype for proof and experimental testing; the naval version for the "H" battleships; and the coast artillery version, also known as Adolph. The coast artillery version had a similar construction to the naval version but with a larger chamber. An interesting feature of the coast artillery version was that, although employed in single BSG mountings, the guns were still produced in left and right versions, showing their naval heritage.
A total of seven of the 40.6 cm (16") guns were actually produced. Four of these guns were sent be be employed as coastal artillery in Norway to protect Narvik but one was lost in transit. The remaining weapons were installed at Trondenese near Harstad. The Norwegians took over these guns after the war and continued to actively use them for about a decade. They then sat idle and were placed on sale for scrapping in 1968. However, one of them still remains as a museum at Trondenes Fort.
Two of the other three guns were initially used in Poland and later at Hela to protect Danzig. All three guns were eventually used as Battery Lindemann near Sangatte in France where they fired at Dover.
As this gun had a rather thick barrel for its size, during the redesigns of the "H" class battleships during 1941 and 1942 (H-41 and H-42) it was proposed to bore them out and convert them into 42 cm/48 (16.54") weapons. One of the reasons behind this conversion was to give these ships a larger caliber weapon than those planned for any known Allied battleship. None of the guns already built were ever converted and no new guns were started. The SK C/40 model year for this version is my estimate.
Constructed of a loose barrel, which was universally interchangeable between production guns, a loose liner which only fitted a particular gun, B tube, a jacket over the rear end of B tube, a breech end-piece thrust over the jacket and kept in place by a threaded ring, a breech block supporting piece inserted in the breech end-piece and secured by a threaded ring. A retaining ring with two fittings for transmitting rotation forces was screwed onto the rear of the barrel. Used a sliding breech block.
The data that follows is specifically for the 40.6 cm (16") Naval version except where noted. Actual bore diameter of all versions was 40.64 cm (16.0").
History is indebted to Hitler for going off half-cocked and losing the war.
An interesting "what if" the DKM Graf Zepplin had been finished and accompanied the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
In 1935, Germany's first aircraft carrier was ordered, and she was launched as the Graf Zeppelin in December 1938. She was to provide the commerce-raiding capital ships and cruisers with air cover, and would have increased their potential for destruction considerably. A second ship, provisionally to be called KMS Peter Strasser after World War I head of the naval airship squadrons, was ordered the following year, but she was canceled in 1940 to release shipyard capacity for more urgent work.
Unfortunately the Germans overreached themselves. They had no experience of all the problems which had beset the early American, British and Japanese carriers despite of intense research done by scientists and engineers in smaller scales using modified merchantmen. But worst of all, the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring refused to allow his "empire" to be encroached upon, having said anything that flied in Germany belonged to him, by permitting the formation of a separate naval air force; even though the short-landing Fi 156, the clipped-winged Junkers Ju 87C and Messerschmitt Me 109T were ready. The result was that the Navy had to try to persuade the Luftwaffe to part with a small number of aircraft, and the wrangling went on until there was no hope of getting a carrier to sea.
Although the Graf Zeppelin had some advanced features she displayed her designers' lack of experience. The heavy surface armament was of little use and accounted for too much weight; the anti-aircraft armament was heavy but badly sited, all on the starboard side; the radius of action was low for a fleet carrier intended to operate with the capital ships on the Atlantic shipping routes.
The wrangles over aircraft were matched by arguments over the equipment of the ship, and construction was suspended in 1940. Work started on a revised design in 1942 but was stopped in 1943. The catapults were fitted partly on the flight deck when construction was ceased but they were never completed and eventually destroyed by a special German crew on 25 April 1945 when the hull was scuttled at Stettin. The ship was reported to be listing to the starboard with heel about 0.5 degree after scuttling. After Germany's surrender the Russians raised it. Loaded with booty and with her hangars full of sections of U-boats and other bulky items, she left Stettin in tow for Leningrad in August 1947. Afterwards, she was renamed by the Russians as "PO-101" (this designation means F(loating) B(ase) No. 101). The ship was further towed to the naval polygon off Swinemünde to be anchored as a training target for Russian dive-bombers and torpedo vessels. The tests began on 16 August 1947, and the Soviets installed aerial bombs on the flight deck, in hangars and even inside the funnel; in addition to bombs dropped from aircraft and two 533-mm torpedoe-hits. In total the carrier withstood 24 hits scored by the Russians before finally sinking to the bottom: two 1000kg, two 500kg, three 250kg and five 100kg aerial bombs; four 180mm shells weighing 92kg; six bombs dropped by fleet dive-bombers; and two 533mm torpedoe-hits.
He resisted the development of the aircraft carrier, the platform of the future.
The Russians captured this prize--and sank it.
Too close to call: equally stupid.
Oh, but, Harold, we can't afford a horseless carriage. . . .
Kursk sank again on History Channel last night, and we were again treated to Putin and his brass being in a stupid contest--refusing outside aid until the tenth to fourteenth days.
Putin won--he had more klaut.
Unbelievable decision when men's lives are at stake, but then the Commies never did place much value on life.
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