If now someone says: "Ah, pocket battleships …" I don’t know what is in them a pocket battleship, let alone a battleship. Regular heavy cruisers, except with the main caliber, it turned out to be serious. But even in this regard, it does not quite match.
"Deutschlands" had a main caliber of 283 mm, and all normal battleships of that time - from 380 mm and above, up to 460.
Only Russian / Soviet battleships were stuck in the past and were content with a 305 mm caliber. But this is also the exception rather than the rule.
So what kind of battleship is this? Yes, no. But the cruisers turned out … peculiar. In principle, like all surface ships of Germany at that time. Indeed, sometimes it seems that the Germans went their own way in the development of warships.
From my point of view, the heavy cruisers of the Deutschland class have become the top of this strange approach to shipbuilding.
Let's plunge into history.
On June 28, 1919, following the results of the First World War, a peace treaty was signed at Versailles, one of the conditions of which limited the number of ships that Germany could have as a loser.
As a "line fleet" of Germany, six battleships were allowed to remain in service. The rest did not end their lives in the best way. Yes, in 20 years it was possible to build new ships, and there was an interesting limitation. The displacement of the new ships was not supposed to exceed 10,000 tons. And this was the only limitation.
And three years later, an agreement took place in Washington, about which I already wrote. And the maritime powers, of which Germany was not included, pledged to limit the tonnage of cruisers to 10,000 tons, and the main caliber to 203 mm.
And a funny nuance turned out: the Germans could build ships with the same limitation of 10,000 tons, but no one limited them in caliber, because Germany did not sign the Washington Naval Treaty!
And the Germans decided to take advantage of the suddenly overturned advantage. Or they thought it was an advantage.
Several projects were developed, but they were rejected for various reasons. But in 1924, the new commander of the "fleet" of Germany, Admiral Zenker, was able to clearly formulate what kind of ship the fleet needed.
It had to be unambiguously a cruiser-class ship, fast, in order to calmly get away from battleships and battle cruisers, and the armor and guns had to make it possible to confidently fight against heavy cruisers.
As a result, through complex calculations and experiments, the naval forces came to the conclusion that it is not worth increasing the main caliber unnecessarily, especially at the expense of speed and maneuverability. And the Germans had certain problems with the manufacture of large-caliber barrels, because some of the Krupp factories remained in the Ruhr zone occupied by France.
By 1927, three projects were ready:
- battleship monitor, four 380-mm guns, armor belt - 250 mm, speed - 18 knots;
- battleship, four 305-mm guns, armor belt - 250 mm, speed 18 knots (or 200-mm armor and 21 knots);
- something similar to a cruiser, six 280-mm guns, armor belt - 100 mm, speed 26-27 knots.
The commission voted for the third draft. He really looked more modern. And then the leadership of the fleet began to disfigure the project with their Wishlist.
To begin with, the composition of the artillery was changed. According to the project, the ship was supposed to be armed with eight universal guns with a caliber of 120 mm. The leadership of the fleet insisted on the installation of 150 mm guns, not universal. And the "hole" in the air defense was supposed to be plugged by 88 mm anti-aircraft guns.
In addition, there should have been room on the deck for torpedo tubes, and in the holds there was room for torpedoes and anti-aircraft shells in huge quantities.
Having changed the project in this way, everyone realized that it was not at all about meeting the allotted 10,000 tons. Therefore, the armor had to be cut to 60 mm.
In addition to weapons, the naval commanders also wanted to increase the speed to 31 knots, but this was really too much, so they had to calm down and lay down the first ship in 1929. It was Deutschland, after which the entire series was named.
In 1931, the foundation was laid for the Admiral Scheer, and in 1932 for the Admiral Graf Spee.
What happened constructively?
By that time, it had already become clear to everyone in the world that it was simply unrealistic to build a sane ship and put everything we wanted in 10,000 tons of displacement. Perhaps, the Japanese did it more or less, and even then with reservations.
Two turrets with three guns instead of three turrets with two saved precious weight. The armor was so-so, yes, the Germans were always strong in terms of competently booking their ships, but a miracle did not happen, whatever one may say. The ships were practically defenseless against 203-mm shells, and 152-mm shells could cause trouble.
The speed performance was satisfactory. Eight MAN diesels with a total power of 56,800 hp. provided a speed of 26-27 knots. And yes, the diesel engines guaranteed a very good cruising range, up to 20,000 miles at 10 knots. Slowly but surely.
Armament. The main caliber is a 283 mm gun in two turrets with a maximum rate of fire of three rounds per minute (in practice, two, ideally) and a firing range of up to 36.5 km.
Eight 150-mm guns were installed as an auxiliary caliber, four per side. The maximum theoretical rate of fire is up to 10 rounds per minute, but in real conditions it is two times less. The guns were housed in the towers, but the booking was frankly insufficient.
To protect against air attacks, 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and small-caliber installations were used, the number of which was constantly changing. Instead of 88-mm guns, twin 88-mm mounts were installed, the original eight 37-mm guns in twin mounts by the end of the war were supplemented by six 40-mm Flak 28 cannons, twenty-eight 20-mm Flak 30 anti-aircraft machine guns and two of the same 37-mm tools.
Mine-torpedo armament consisted of 533-mm torpedo tubes, which were located behind the aft tower of the main caliber along the sides.
The ships also had an air group. Each cruiser was equipped with a catapult, and the kit included two Arado Ar196 seaplanes, but in practice they managed one. By the way, this attitude greatly spoiled the affairs of the Scheer in the Soviet northern waters in the summer of 1942.
And the last, although in the mind it was necessary to start with him, but it was so conceived. Displacement.
Naturally, they did not meet the Washington limit, and jumped out for it. And if the Deutschland itself is not so strong (10,770 tons), the Admiral Scheer - already 11,540 tons, then the Admiral Graf Spee had a displacement of 12,540 tons. As you can see, the appetites were gradually growing.
So what's the output?
The output is very strange ships.
The autonomy and cruising range are just great. At the same time, the speed qualities are so-so. It is clear that any of the "Deutschlands" would have left the battleship, but … "Repals" and "Rhinaun", although they were released 20 years earlier, would have easily caught up and made a chop from this miracle.
Armament. The main caliber is good, no questions asked. Any heavy cruiser would have choked on a 283-mm shell, which, in fact, happened to the Exeter, which the Spee miraculously did not butcher into a nut.
But the presence of two auxiliary calibers, 150 and 88 mm, was not very justified. Many experts believe that if instead of 8 150-mm and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns, the Deutschlands had installed 128-mm station wagons in the amount of 12-14 pieces, it would definitely be beneficial, especially since 128-mm guns are not especially inferior to 150 mm.
Well, the number of auxiliary caliber guns was frankly not enough. After all, you will not waste your main caliber shells firing at unarmored vehicles, right? And on the actual battleships "Deutschlands" fired infrequently.
Reservation. Here the Germans departed from their principles and the booking was made really on a leftover principle. That is, the ships were poorly protected.
And what do we have in essence? We have not so much a cruiser hunter (for this, sorry, too slow and bad with armor), as a universal raider. A sort of real lone pirate, the thunderstorm of any unprotected (and even protected) convoy.
That, in fact, the combat practice of the ships and showed.
The Deutschlands turned out to be excellent lone raiders. Any transport meeting them would be doomed, and as for cruisers, both light and heavy, they were reliably scared off by the main caliber of German ships. Indeed, at the time the German cruisers appeared in the world, there were only a few cruiser-class ships (the British and the Japanese) capable of fearlessly fighting with chances of victory with any of the Deutschlands.
The battle at La Plata is the best confirmation of this. That the Spee mutilated Exeter and badly damaged Ajax. Another heavy cruiser, the Cumberland, was on the way as reinforcements, but something tells me that a not very enviable fate awaited him if the battle continued.
In the case of the Spee, the British simply outplayed the Germans morally. Continue the battle with Langsdorf, it remains to be seen how everything would have turned out.
However, until the moment of its death at the hands of the crew, "Admiral Graf Spee" sank 11 merchant ships, mostly British. So for whom he was more dangerous, it is clear and understandable.
Admiral Scheer was more successful, sinking 17 ships and capturing 3 more as a prize. But only two ships were destroyed in the battle, and even then it was the British auxiliary cruiser Jervis Bay, converted from transport, and the Soviet icebreaker Alexander Sibiryakov ", whose 76-mm cannons could not cause any harm to" Scheer "even theoretically.
Deutschland / Lutzov could not even boast of victories over civilian courts. It can be safely attributed to the category of unsuccessful ships, since until the moment of its death the cruiser was mostly repaired, because as soon as it tried to take part in the war again, something happened to it.
So, in general, the Germans did not have a thunderstorm of cruisers, but a thunderstorm of unarmed transports. But these are the nuances of tactical use, I am inclined to support those who believe that the Deutschlands were originally created as raiders, not counter-cruisers. Too many coincidences, to be honest.
But when all the Deutschlands were already being built and equipped, they caused a serious commotion in the world. Everyone quickly realized what the Germans had built. And they realized that measures must be taken, otherwise the three outlaws on sea routes can do serious things. That actually happened in the performance of "Sheer" and "Spee".
So, having appreciated the merits of the new cruisers, Europe rushed to build something in response. The French, for example, began building the Dunkirk-class battle cruisers, and the Italians began to think about how to upgrade their old dreadnoughts to the state of high-speed battleships. In general, everyone had something to do.
Meanwhile, the Germans, having received the Deutschlands at their disposal, also thought about it.
They were more than aware of the disadvantages of these cruisers. It was necessary to go further, therefore, having adopted the pluses, the German military and shipbuilders began to think.
And if you increase the firepower of the ship so that not only dry cargo ships are afraid of it? Say, not two three-gun towers, but three?
And if not 8 barrels of 150 mm, but more? And more anti-aircraft artillery, and not 88-mm, but 105? Moreover, after the modernization, the same Sheer, having received 105-mm anti-aircraft guns, easily drowned dry cargo ships with them.
Well, the speed. Still, the coveted figure of 31 knots was very popular with the military, since the same Exeter and Cumberland gave out no more than 32 knots, which automatically made the ship difficult to catch in relation to heavy British cruisers. And the lungs were reliably scared off by the main and auxiliary calibers.
True, speaking of a speed of 31 knots, it was necessary to forget about diesel engines and return to steam turbines. So what is difficult? Yes, the cruising range would have dropped sharply, but this is all solvable.
Of course, all these changes would require spitting on the Washington agreements, or rather. to the Treaty of Versailles. But they already spat on them, the same "Dunkirk" from the French was obtained in the region of 22-24 thousand tons.
Well, in fact, in Germany they also forgot about these documents, more precisely, about the Versailles Treaty. The Germans did not sign the Washington DC.
And what happened?
Well, ship lovers have already figured out where I'm going.
That's right, the result is Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Also strange ships, not exactly battleships, but that's a completely different story.
Evaluating the same "Deutschlands" as ships of a different classification, except "strange", nothing comes to mind. Of course, you can believe the Germans, who have always insisted that these ships were invented as a response to the "Washington" cruisers of Britain and the United States, but there are many oddities.
Exeter (and the whole York type) looks cheap compared to any Deutschland. Despite the fact that she was the last heavy cruiser built before the war. And the "Washington" "London" does not look stronger against the background of the Germans.
However, the British built their heavy cruisers in series, "Yorks", "Kents", "Londons", "Norfolks" were built in series of 3-5 units. The Germans built three strange cruisers, each of which was clearly stronger than any British ship.
However, numbers are not always bad. And the battle at La Plata showed it. Yes, the human factor still played a role there, but nevertheless: one not the best heavy cruiser and two light ones in fact defeated the "Count Spee". Yes, morally, but it was not Exeter that was blown up, but a German ship.
It is possible that if the Germans had not acted alone, the result would have been completely different.
The crowd sentenced the British to the Spee, beat the Bismarck with a crowd, and sank the Scharnhorst in a crowd.
The newest and even very advanced German ships were defeated in battles with not the newest, but quantitatively superior enemy forces.
The time of single raiders has passed, it is just that they did not notice this in Germany right away.
Only this can explain the appearance of such specific and original ships. And - expensive in both senses. The raider-pirate idea of the Kriegsmarine turned out to be not the best ending.
But let's be honest: the Germans almost succeeded in trying to fit everything into the Washington standard. The Deutschlands came out as strange but interesting ships. But there was no place for them in World War II.
