The high characteristics of German technology allow us to close our eyes to many of its shortcomings. Many but one.
How were those "high performances" achieved? The answer is unlikely to appeal to even the most staunch supporters of German engineering. The increase in the selected characteristics of the Germans was always achieved either at the cost of a critical deterioration in the rest of the performance characteristics, or contained some hidden "nuances". Of course, these restrictions become known at the very last moment.
This was especially evident during the war years. The voluntarism of the command and the strange decisions of the developers cost the Wehrmacht and the Kriegsmarine big problems.
How can one not respect one's sailors in order to adopt Narvik-class destroyers?
"The power of fire is raging in me!" Indeed, the 1936A type Zershtorer surpassed all known destroyers in artillery power. But their overall combat effectiveness was in doubt. Why?
For destroyers built in 1930-1940 the optimal caliber was considered to be five inches. In practice, there was a variation of ± 0.3 inches, and a variety of systems were hidden under similar values. For example, the British 120-mm (4, 7”) naval guns, known for their massiveness, simplicity and compactness. The mass of a single-gun mount is within 9 tons, of a two-gun mount - 23 tons.
The Americans have short-barreled 127 mm Mk.12 guns. Their relatively light projectile (25 kg) and mediocre ballistics were compensated by "nimble" guidance drives and an unexpectedly high rate of fire. The mass of a single-gun mount on destroyers is 14 tons, and a two-gun mount is from 34 to 43 tons. Large indicators of mass are a consequence of the presence of powerful drives and the provision of automated reloading at elevation angles of the trunks of more than 80 °.
The most powerful among the naval "five-inch" guns were considered the Soviet 130 mm guns, whose shells (33 kg) stood out for their power. The Soviet Union did not have so many ships, and there was nowhere to wait for help from the destroyers. A powerful weapon with good ballistics was required. The weight of the B-13 single-gun mount is 12.8 tons.
The 130-mm B-2LM two-gun turret mount already weighed 49 tons, of which 42 tons were in the rotating part. The increase in mass is a direct consequence of the automation of the reloading process. Such massive artillery systems were not used on wartime destroyers; only the leader "Tashkent" managed to get them.
When it came to the Germans, their response was the destroyer "Narvik" with a "cruising" main caliber.
The very name of the 15 cm Torpedobootkannone C / 36 guns sounded enchanting. A six-inch destroyer gun!
The mass and caliber of the projectile are related by a cubic relationship
With an increase in caliber from 130 to 150 mm, the mass of the projectile increases 1.5 times. However, the artillery system itself becomes heavier. First of all, due to the automation of the loading process, which is necessary with such a caliber. It becomes problematic to manually move 50-kg ammunition even in the absence of rolling. The dimensions of elevators and conveyors are increasing. The mass of the turntable, all drives and mechanisms increases dramatically.
The simplest tower with a pair of "six-inches" weighed 91 tons.
We are talking about the British Mark XXI with 6”/ 50 cannons for light cruisers of the Linder and Arethuza class (early 30s). The cruiser towers had symbolic anti-fragmentation armor (25 mm), and the bulk of their mass was on the platform with the guns and ammunition supply mechanisms installed on it.
1-gun mounts of 6”caliber also had an impressive weight. For example, the 150-mm MPL C / 28 installation of the cruiser "Deutschland" weighed 25 tons.
At this point, the introduction ends and the criticism begins.
Dear Sirs, even if you are not specialists of Deutsch Schiff und Maschinenbau, what is your opinion? What problems did the Nazis have to face when creating a destroyer armed with five guns of a cruising caliber?
First and foremost: this is technically impossible
With the indicated difference in the mass of 5- and 6-inch artillery systems, the destroyer will simply tip over from the prohibitive "upper weight". Of course, if we are talking about full-fledged 6”.
But what if …
The true caliber of the German "six-inch" was 149, 1 mm, and their shells weighed 5 kg less than their British counterparts. The differences are not great to make a difference in combat. On the other hand, they did not lead to a significant reduction in the mass of the artillery system.
The technique did not tolerate bullying. But it was possible to recoup on sailors!
Manual feeding of six-inch ammunition, even in the absence of swaying, icy wind and lashing streams of water, was not an easy task … Not for real yubermens!
Why massive conveyors and rammers with an electric drive - let the Germans feed the shells with their hands. Hands!
In the absence of mechanization, the mass of the two-gun turret with anti-fragmentation protection was reduced to 60 tons.
The single-gun was packed in 16 tons. Of course, when placing the gun in a box-type shield installation, open to all winds, the process of manually reloading 45-kg shells took a little longer than it was in the calculations.
The firepower of the Narviks depended entirely on the weather conditions and the endurance of the loaders.
It turned out to be negligible in real combat conditions. Nobody expected this
1943 year. The blue veil of the December storm was torn apart by two silhouettes: the light cruisers Glasgow and the Enterprise. The task is to intercept the detected enemy formation in the Bay of Biscay.
Unlike the modern Glasgow, armed with twelve 152mm automated cannons, the Enterprise was an obsolete scout with only five 152mm cannons, where the shells were fed by hand. In this sense, it matched the destroyer "Narvik". Which on the horizon turned out to be five at once, accompanied by six destroyers!
17 six-inch versus 24 German. 22 torpedo tubes versus 76. Do not forget about the support from the Elbing-class destroyers. The 1,700-ton ships could not conduct an artillery battle in stormy weather, but they actively maneuvered and set up smoke screens, "diverting" part of the fire from Glasgow and the Enterprise. At this time, a German long-range bomber attacked the cruisers …
It would seem that it's all over. Glasgow alone, with the indistinct support of his partner, will not pull out this fight.
Over the next 3 hours, His Majesty's ship "Glasgow" killed everyone who was in the zone of destruction of its guns. German losses were the flagship destroyer Z-27, two destroyers and 400 people. their crews. In response, the Narviks managed to get their only shot at Glasgow. The Germans were saved only by flight in different directions - their squadron was scattered along the entire coast of France.
A similar result ended the battle between Z-26 and the light cruiser Trinidad, which was then continued by the destroyer Eclipse, which wedged in at the end of the battle. The German super destroyer sank, also failing to cause significant damage to the enemy with her weapons.
Another feat of the Narviks was the fight with the funeral procession in the Norwegian Sea. Then the cruiser "Edinburgh" was attacked with the stern torn off, which was being towed by British destroyers.
The day before the events described, the cruiser received hits from two torpedoes fired by the U-456 submarine."Edinburgh" lost control and practically could not move on its own. All that remained of the ship was its White Ensign battle flag, an artillery computation post, and weapons.
The destroyer "Herman Sheman", who risked approaching, was destroyed by the second volley. The two remaining Narviks (Z-24 and Z-25) hurriedly left the battlefield, frightened by the shots of the uncontrollable and sinking Edinburgh and two of its "tugs" - the British destroyers Forrester and Forsyth. Each of them was 1, 5 times inferior to the Narvik in size, and almost twice in terms of the mass of the salvo.
The Germans did not succeed in any super destroyer capable of taking on the tasks of a light cruiser
According to military experts, such unsatisfactory results have a simple explanation.
In any excitement and other things being equal, the cruiser has always been a more stable artillery platform. He could shoot more accurately and further.
The cruiser surpassed the destroyer in freeboard height, which mattered in the era when combat posts were located on the upper deck.
The cruiser had superiority in fire control.
Dimensions and displacement of light cruisers of the 30-40s. made it possible to install full-fledged closed towers on them, providing more or less comfortable conditions for the work of calculations. The thickness of the tower walls provided minimal splinter protection. And the technical level of the 30s made it possible to forget about the manual packing and delivery of shells of this caliber.
The Germans knew about all the shortcomings associated with the placement of heavy weapons on unsuitable ships even before the laying of the Narviks. The destroyer Z8 Bruno Heinemann was the first to receive the 15 cm TBK C / 36 gun as an experiment. The results were negative, seaworthiness and stability caused serious fears of the sailors. Bruno Heinemann hastily returned its original armament of five 128 mm guns.
Apparently, there was little bad experience with the Z8, so the Germans laid down a whole series of 15 destroyers of the 1936A and 1936A (Mob) types.
And "Narviks" showed themselves in all their glory. This number of failures led to a return to the traditional five-inch caliber (later type 1936B). But the idea of a "super destroyer" still did not leave the leadership of the Kriegsmarine. There was considered a proposal to build a "bicaliber" modification 1936B with the replacement of two bow 128-mm guns for a single 150 mm caliber. However, common sense prevailed. The complexity of fire control of two different calibers made such a project unpromising.
It remains to add that the choice of a disproportionate caliber for the destroyer completely deprived the Narvik's artillery of its versatility. It was almost impossible to conduct defensive anti-aircraft fire from main battery guns with elevation angles of the barrels of 30 °.
But this is just a small fly in the ointment.
Continuation of the weight catastrophe
Even having lightened the artillery as much as possible, it was not possible to completely cope with the excess weight.
No intensive methods worked, so the extensive path remained. Increasing the size of the ship itself.
Speaking about the destroyer Narvik, you need to understand that by European standards it was not exactly a destroyer. Its total displacement exceeded 3500 tons. For comparison: the total displacement of the "Stalinist seven", the destroyer pr. 7 "Gnevny", was 2000 tons. The total displacement of the modernized 7-U "Watchdog" is about 2300 tons. British destroyers, for example, HMS Zealous (the future Israeli "Eilat"), had about the same values - 2,500 tons.
American "Fletchers", built to fit the size of the Pacific Ocean, is not an indicator here. But even they were inferior in size to the German "overgrown".
"Narvik" was unexpectedly large, complex and expensive for operations in European waters. It was precisely such a project that the German industry was lacking in a perpetual shortage of resources.
On average, 1000 tons more displacement than competitors.
A crew larger by 100.
The power plant with a capacity of up to 75 thousand hp, in size and cost is very close to the power plant of cruisers.
It is worth noting that due to the overweight bow and the associated specific seaworthiness, most of the Narviks could not even come close to the calculated values of 36-37 knots. In practice, 33 knots were considered normal. Only destroyers with reduced armament (instead of a bow turret, one single-gun mount with a box-shaped shield) developed somewhat higher speed.
As for the quality of the power plant itself, this is evidenced by a simple fact. According to the Office of War at Sea (Oberkommando der Marine, OKM), during the war, every fourth German destroyer stood at the wall of a shipyard with disassembled boilers. More this was not observed in any of the fleets.
The reason is the high-pressure Wagner boilers with a working pressure of 70 atmospheres. For comparison: the working pressure in the boilers of the "Gnevny" class destroyers was 26 atm.
A classic case for German engines and power plants. Crazy afterburner, high specific indicators at the cost of merciless accidents.
In terms of fuel consumption and cruising range, German destroyers, despite their size, were also inferior to most of their rivals.
The only advantage of the Narvik power plant was its high automation: the staff on the watch consisted of 3 mechanics, whose work posts were equipped with electric cigarette lighters. Undoubtedly the most useful item on board a warship.
On the other hand, a failure in the automation led to a complete loss of travel. The Germans did not wait for the advent of electronics, relying on unreliable and vulnerable analog control and monitoring devices.
Despite the described convenience of the combat posts, the conditions for the deployment of personnel were appalling. Crowded cockpit seating, three-tiered hammocks, lack of living space. This was due to the lack of the need for long outings to the sea. Most of the time, the crews of the German destroyers lived on floating bases or in barracks on the coast.
There must be at least something good in this hopeless gloom of the mind?
Undoubtedly!
The Narviks carried the largest number of 20- and 37-mm anti-aircraft guns among all destroyers in European countries. However, it is not surprising given their size.
Another absolute success was the quality of the fire and drainage systems, which traditionally had a high priority on German ships. Their operation in emergency mode was provided by four standby diesel generators located in the hull and superstructure. And the six main bilge pumps had a capacity of 540 tons of water per hour!
Even after being seriously injured and losing speed and combat effectiveness, "Narvik" continued to stubbornly mark the enemy's radars. I had to shoot more and more to "finish off" the wounded animal.
However, some of them were lucky. For example, the Z-34, which was seriously damaged by Soviet torpedo boats. Despite the complete destruction of the engine room, that "Narvik" held out until the approach of the "Schnellbots" compound and with their help reached Swinemunde.
In general, the experience of creating a destroyer with "cruising" artillery was recognized as negative by the Germans themselves, who were forced to return to the construction of destroyers with a traditional composition of weapons.
The dimensions of the Zerstorer did not allow to realize all the benefits of switching to a larger caliber, and it had to pay a very high price
Fifteen of the 40 German destroyers that took part in the war were, in fact, limitedly combat-ready ships. And the superiority in offensive power declared for them remained unnoticed by the enemy.
Having touched on the topic of the Narviks, one cannot fail to mention their theoretical rivals.
If they were not the prototype and primary goal of the German super destroyers, then, in any case, they contributed to the development of the idea of a destroyer with powerful artillery.
We are talking about the French counter-destroyers, in Russian terminology - the leaders of the destroyers "Vauquelen", "Mogador", "Le Fantasque" …
The largest in size is the 4000-ton handsome Mogador, which was able to develop 39 knots on calm water. Armed with eight (!) Twin 138 mm guns, whose shells weigh more than 40 kg. To the credit of the French, they managed to achieve a combined loading, in which an automatic rammer of shells was used at elevation angles of the trunks of no more than 10 °. After that, it was required to manually submit a relatively light cartridge case with gunpowder. The mass of an open two-gun installation with a box-shaped shield was 35 tons.
If the Germans really saw the "Mogador" as a threat and an object to emulate, then this is evidence of the "competence" of the leadership of the Kriegsmarine. With its outward splendor and splendor, the Mogador turned out to be a meaningless project, all tasks of which were reduced to the tasks of conventional destroyers with more traditional sizes and composition of weapons. With a disproportionate difference in the cost of their construction.
For its direct purpose (conducting reconnaissance with a squadron of high-speed battleships) "Mogador" was even more useless than for artillery combat. Catapults with reconnaissance aircraft were already present on board all large ships at that time. There was no need for a high-speed reconnaissance ship.
In the 1930-1940s. none of the attempts to create a special class of warships with a displacement of 3, 5-4 thousand tons was successful in practice. The destroyer remained a destroyer.
For a radical increase in combat capabilities, it was required to add several thousand more tons of displacement, which automatically transferred the project to the class of light cruisers. No successful intermediate options were found.
It has already been said about the French counter-destroyers.
American "Girings" and "Sumners" spent their entire displacement on anti-aircraft guns and ensuring autonomy for operations on the endless ocean. They could not boast of either speed or a significant increase in artillery weapons (high-quality universal guns, but no more). Actually, they have nothing to do with it. These are ordinary destroyers of the Pacific theater of operations.
“Tashkent” with its “noble” origin and excellent speed qualities remained unarmed for its size.
But it is better to be unarmed than the way the Germans did. All of these ships were superior to the "Narvik" in terms of the aggregate performance characteristics and combat capabilities.
