The process of creating battle cruisers in Germany did not stop on ships of the Mackensen type, although it could, because in February 1915 it was decided to continue building a series of battle cruisers according to the same project, bringing their total number to seven, and no new ships until the end of the war, Germany did not order. However, on March 17, 1916, an epoch-making event for the German fleet took place - Alfred von Tirpitz left the post of Secretary of State of the Navy (Minister of the Navy) and was replaced by Admiral Eduard von Capelle, which is why the decision to continue the construction of battle cruisers on type "Mackensen" has undergone revision.
It all started with the development of battle cruisers, which were to be built after the seven "Mackensens": on April 19, 1916, the design bureau presented three versions of a new battle cruiser for consideration. All of them had the same composition of weapons: 8 * 380-mm guns in two-gun turrets, 16 * 150-mm guns, 8 * 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and five 600-mm torpedo tubes. Reservations, with slight deviations, were consistent with those used on the Mackensens. At the same time, the GK 1 variant had a normal displacement of 34,000 tons, the power of the machines was 110,000 hp. and a speed of 29, 25 knots with a maximum fuel capacity of 6,500 tons. The GK 2 variant was larger (38,000 tons), the power of the mechanisms was 120,000 hp, the fuel capacity was 7,500 tons and a speed of 29, 5 knots. The GK 3 variant with the same displacement and fuel reserves with the GK 2 variant had thicker barbets of the main caliber turrets (350 mm versus 300 mm), but at 5000 hp. less power, which is why it had to develop only 29 knots. As far as the author of this article could understand, the rest of the options differed only in the thicknesses (and, possibly, in shape) of the armored deck outside the citadel - if the first two provided for protection 50-80 mm thick in the stern and 50 mm in the bow, then the third had a reinforcement of up to 120 mm and 80 mm, respectively (but this is not accurate). At the same time, the armor within the citadel remained (like that of the Mackensen) very weak - only 30 mm.
Another difference from the Mackensens would be an increase in the number of boilers for oil heating from 8 to 12. The Germans were again not ready to switch to oil completely, this time the key argument was not the absence of oil production in Germany, but the fact that the armor protection “Mackensen was not considered completely sufficient for new ships, and to weaken it additionally by the absence of coal pits (which, according to the Germans, played a significant role in ensuring the survivability of the ship) was considered impossible. Reinhard Scheer, who by that time had already taken over the command of the Hochseeflotte, preferred the fastest version of the GK 2.
But all three of these options represented the development of battle cruisers, and this was completely satisfactory for the naval ministry, which continued to strive to divide the "capital" ships into battleships and battle cruisers. But the new secretary of state considered this approach outdated and spoke out in favor of merging them into a single class: accordingly, he proposed building new ships as high-speed battleships with armor and protection of a battleship, and a speed that allows them to operate in conjunction with battle cruisers.
Naturally, such a proposal led to discussions: the naval ministry proposed to revise the battle cruiser project, putting at the head not the strengthening of weapons, but the strengthening of armor protection, which, according to experts, gave the ship more chances in confrontation with battleships and did not violate the "Law on the Fleet" … Subsequently, such battle cruisers could develop into a type of high-speed battleship. At the same time, Rear Admiral Hebbinghaus (Hebbinghaus) advocated the abolition of the construction of four battle cruisers out of seven. The Secretary of State supported the Rear Admiral, but following the review, the order was suspended for only three battle cruisers, which had the designations Ersatz York, Ersatz Scharnhorst and Ersatz Gneisenau, in order to create them according to a new project. The GK 6 option was proposed, which had the same armament as the previously presented options, but the normal displacement of 36,500 tons and the speed reduced to 28 knots, the fuel reserves were supposed to be 7,000 tons (500 tons less than the GK 2 and 3). The thickness of the deck armor outside the citadel was reduced to 50 mm, and the thickness of the upper armor belt - from 240 mm to 200 mm, but the thickness of the barbets and the forehead of the towers was increased to 350 mm. Admiral Scheer did not approve of this decision, he believed that the battle cruiser should be faster.
In general, it turned out the following: for the umpteenth time, the Germans formulated the idea of a high-speed battleship, but they could not decide on its construction. For a battle cruiser, the displacement of 38,000 tons looked very large, and it was impossible to fit the ship needed by the fleet into a smaller size. At the same time, the resulting ship (yes, the same GK 6) was, of course, stronger than the Mackensen, but, apparently, the admirals decided that the increase in its combat effectiveness did not justify the additional difficulties that would arise when creating ships according to the new project. As a result, on August 24, 1916, the Secretary of State changed his mind and proposed to build "Erzats York", "Erzats Scharnhorst" and "Erzats Gneisenau" on the model and likeness of "Mackensen".
On the one hand, such a decision seemed to be entirely justified, because the comparison of the Mackensens with the British battle cruisers demonstrated the clear superiority of the German ships. However, this time the Germans for some reason completely ignored the possibility of a meeting between the Mackensens and the British high-speed wing, which consisted of battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type, with which the Mackensens would still have a hard time competing.
Be that as it may, but in August 1916 the Germans returned to the Mackensen project, but not for long: this time the British Ripals and Rhynown became the catalyst for the changes. The fact that the British were building new battle cruisers with 381-mm cannons became known in Germany on October 31, 1916, and in addition, at the same time information was received that the Americans, after much thought, were going to introduce ships of this class into the your fleet.
After that, the transition to 380-mm guns was virtually uncontested, and the Germans worked again six different variants of the battle cruiser with such guns, but the fact is that orders for three battle cruisers had already been placed, and Erzats York had already been laid down - this happened in July 1916. As a result, the temptation arose not to create a project from scratch, but to use the mechanisms that had already been ordered for these ships. As a result, the ships of the Ersatz York type actually became rearmed with 380-mm Mackensen guns. As we remember, the Germans, while designing the Mackensen, at some point came to a ship with a displacement of 33,000 tons and with eight 380-mm cannons, but fearing such a high displacement, they reduced the number of main caliber turrets to three. Now, one might say, they returned to this option again: "Erzats York", possessing protection at the level of "Mackensen", had a normal displacement of 33,500 tons and armament of 8 * 380-mm cannons.
Artillery
German 380-mm guns were seriously different from the British 15-inch artillery system, representing guns of opposite concepts: if the English 381-mm was a classic "heavy projectile-low muzzle velocity" on the contrary, there was a "light projectile - high muzzle velocity".
In other words, if the British cannon sent a projectile weighing 871 kg into flight with an initial speed of 732 m / s, then the German one sent a projectile weighing 750 kg with an initial speed of 800 m / s. However, hardly anyone would dare to call German shells weak: the content of explosives in an armor-piercing 380-mm shell reached 23.5 kg versus 20.5 kg of an armor-piercing "greenboy". But the high-explosive German shells significantly lost to the British - 67, 1 kg of trinitrotoluene against 101, 6 kg of liddite.
Other artillery weapons were represented by a dozen 150-mm guns and eight 150-mm anti-aircraft guns. The number of torpedo tubes was reduced to three, but their caliber was supposed to be 70 cm.
Power plant
The rated power of the machines was supposed to be 90,000 hp, it was expected that with such power, Erzats Yorkies would be able to develop 27, 25 knots. The maximum fuel supply was to be 4,000 tons of coal and 2,000 tons of oil.
The booking corresponded to that of the Mackensens, from which the Erzatz York differed only slightly in their large geometric dimensions (it was 4, 8 m longer and sat in the water 30 cm deeper, the width remained the same) and a slight change in the layout, in as a result, the chimneys were able to be combined into one pipe. This was considered a very progressive solution, as it moved the pipe away from the conning tower, allowed the mast to be shifted aft and thereby provided better viewing angles from the conning tower.
So, we can say that in 1916 the Germans nevertheless decided to take the step that should have taken place a year earlier - then everything was ready to create battle cruisers with an armament of eight 380-mm guns and a displacement of 33,000 tons. Of course, in any case, they would not have been part of the hochseeflotte and would have subsequently been ingloriously dismantled for metal, but, of course, in 1915 this was still unknown. Comparing not the steel giants, but only the naval thought of England and Germany, we understand that Ersatz Yorks in their performance characteristics could become a full-fledged counterbalance to the British "high-speed wing" of the five battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class. They would also have surpassed the English "Repals" and "Rhinaun" in all respects (except for speed). However, in 1916, when Germany laid down its last battle cruiser, Great Britain began building the Hood.
To be continued!
P. S. Running a little ahead, let's pay a little attention to one of the funniest incidents of German shipbuilding. After the characteristics of the British "large light cruisers" of the "Koreyges" class became known in Germany, German designers in March 1918 presented several projects of a similar ship. In the best traditions of German shipbuilders, the German "white elephant" was slightly better armored (in various projects the thickness of the armor belt was 100 or 150 mm), carried a slightly smaller caliber (four 350-mm cannons in two towers located at the extremities) and had, oddly enough, the speed is from 32 to 34 knots.
The composition of the auxiliary artillery is admirable - of course, at that time the armament of 8 * 88-mm anti-aircraft guns was quite adequate air defense - not because it really made it possible to protect the ship from an air attack, but because the air defense on other ships of the world was just as inadequate. But I wonder what Germany was counting on when planning to install an anti-mine caliber of four 150-mm cannons, of which only two could fire on one side?
The fastest version was supposed to have a rated power of 200,000 hp machines, but what is interesting - even on such a fast ship, the Germans could not completely abandon coal boilers - 40 boilers had to work on oil and 8 - on coal. The displacement of these projects ranged from 29,500 - 30,000 tons.
As we said earlier, the British had no reason to build light battle cruisers of the "Koreyges" class - ships of this type, in fact, were born thanks to the quirk of D. Fischer and were completely unnecessary for the fleet. British admirals tried to disown them even at the construction stage, proposing to convert all three Koreyges into aircraft carriers. The Korejges simply did not have their own tactical niche, everything they could could be done better or cheaper using monitors or heavy cruisers like Hawkins, or even ordinary light cruisers. In the face of "Koreyges", "Glories" and "Furyes", the British really got three "white elephants" (a rare animal, but incapable of work). But as soon as it became known in Germany, there was immediately initiated the creation of a ship "the same, only better." Having no tactical niche in the Royal Navy, "large light cruisers" (or light battle cruisers, if you like) could not be useful to Germany, and the only reason why work on them was started can be considered only "once the British is, so we need it. " In general, one can only express regret that the German naval thought, which in fact competed very successfully with Britain, until the very end of the war, could not get rid of the inner feeling of British superiority.
