Großdeutschland (1815-1947)

[heuhen]

DAMN!

[Imperialist]

Update: Added SMS Heinrich VI's alternate Mutterschiffe fur F-boote layout.

I have some early 1900's cruisers in the works (Stettin class), and have some torpedo boats which should be posted soonish

[Imperialist]

Stettin Class (1909)

The Stettin class of cruisers replaces the Kolbergs (1909) of OTL. These ships were follow-ons to the previous Nueß class cruisers laid down the previous year, albeit on a larger displacement (4,400 tons vs the previous 3,650 ton ships). This allowed for 2 knots greater speed, pushing the ships upwards of their designed 26.5 knots. There were 5 ships in the class: SMS Stettin, SMS Breslau, SMS Nurnberg, SMS Koblenz, and SMS Kassel. Initially armed with ten 10.5cm SK L/40 guns in single mounts, some ships were later modified to carry six larger 15cm SK L/45 guns, as it was shown in battle that Allied cruisers greatly outranged the 10.5cm guns at the time. One ship, SMS Koblenz, later had her aft guns landed and replaced with a crane and hangar for seaplanes to help supplement the scouting ability for the fleet when in operations.
Two ships were lost in during the war: SMS Kassel after being mined off the coast of East Africa, and the lead ship of the class SMS Stettin, after being sunk in combat with British armored cruisers in the Pacific. Post war, the surviving three ships were relegated to various duties, such as barrack ships, and were placed in mothball in the early 20's, before being sold for scrap in between 1929-1932.

SMS Stettin (1909)

SMS Breslau (1916)

SMS Kassel (1917)

SMS Nurnberg (1918)

SMS Koblenz (1919)

[Shigure]

nice kreuzers

[maomatic]

Excellent drawings!

[Imperialist]

Thanks y'all One more post for the moment, a whole swath of torpedo boats to swarm your enemies with

Devrient'sche Spierentorpedoboote Nummer I-III (1874)

After the Franco-German War in 1870, Germany was the first nation to try and build specially designed mine vessels that were small, inconspicuous, and fast. This was brought about when during the war, a destroyer flotilla was created from improvised watercraft. However, it was quickly realized that these improvised craft had none of the qualities previously stated. So in 1871, a competition was announced for the construction of said mine vessels. The firms Devrient and Waltjen succeeded in winning, constructing three boats each, numbered 1 to 3. (It should be noted that the designations of Nr. I-III were not three boats in total, but for the three boats from each of the firms). The ships were designed with a low carapace deck to reduce silhouette, and ensure stealthiness. These ships could have been called ancestors of the destroyer class, but in reality only reached around 8 knots max. With such a low speed, they were re-designated as minelayers (F1 to F6). In this roll, they served to protect Wilhelmshaven Fortress, and with the onset of the Great War, these minelaying tugs were moved to protect Friedrichschafen Fortress. Post-war, they were put up for sale, and served as patrol craft for the water police until 1925, where they were then sold again to the construction management of the Oder Channel in Griefenhagen.

Schuetze Class (1883)

After the failure of it's first type of destroyers, the Bremen firm "Weser" went to the British firm Thornycroft for help in building their next class of destroyers. However the ships of the Schuetze class didn't fair much better than their predecessors. Although these ships entered service before the Thornycroft Nr.IV/Th-2 (see below), they were numbered from Nr. V to Nr. XI. Together these boats formed the 1st Torpedo Flotilla (TF.1) and where used in training roles. The vessels were gradually scrapped from 1900-1908, with the last vessel being used as a target ship.

Thornycroft Nummer IV/Th-2 Series Type (1884)

A singular vessel of its type, "Nummer IV" was ordered from John I. Thornycroft & Co. in Britain. However, this type of midget destroyer did not catch on for the Reichsmarine, so the vessel was renamed to Seebaer (Sea Bear/Sea Wolf) and used in various experiments to test out a gyroscopic anti-role system. Fate unknown.

W-1 Class (1884)

Ordered from Thornycroft & Yarrow, the six destroyers of the W-1 Class (W=Weser, located in Bremen) were listed as Nr. XII-XVII (later renamed W1 to W-6). These were ordered along with the V-1 (V=Vulcan, located in Stettin; V-1 to V-10) and S-1 (S=Schichau, located in Elbing; S-1 to S-6) classes. The "Weser" ships initially were woefully under-powered, and even after being rebuilt - the alterations being so significant that they were assigned new tactical numbers! (W-11 to W-16). But even after this rebuild, they were still 1-2 knots slower than the ships of the S-1 class. As such, there were relegated to harbor patrol and training duties, but also sometimes participated in fleet exercises. On January 30th, 1899, all ships were decommissioned, and served as watch boats until 1910.

S-7 Class (S-7)

With Schichau being the Kaiser's primary builder of torpedo boats, the S-7 class were further developments of the previous S-1 class, with the addition of a third, deck mounted torpedo tube. More variants to follow*

Edit*: I also want to note that I had previously had posted ships of the S-7 sub-classes (S-24/32/33, S-42/58, S-66/74, S-82/G-88), but I realized I had made quite a few errors for those drawings. So I will be correcting those errors and then repost those ships later on with their appropriate modifications; as well as new drawings for the Th-1, V-1, S-1, White Y, & G classes.

[Imperialist]

Hello all, back once again! Going to revive this thread with some cruiser posting starting with the Regensburg class.

Regensburg Class (1911)

The successors to the Stettin Class, there were 4 ships in the class: SMS Regensburg, SMS Schweinfurt, SMS Halberstadt, and SMS Fleisburg. They continued the trend of being 3-stack cruisers and were on a yet-again slightly larger displacement of about 4,600 tons. These ships were originally built with twelve 10.5cm SK L/40 guns but eventually refit with seven 15cm SK L/45 as the war went on. The ships had fairly busy careers, engaging in combat with British, French, and Russian ships throughout the course of the war. SMS Halberstadt was lost after running aground while on patrol in the Baltic in 1917, and SMS Fleisburg was sunk after being mined in 1918, on the way to port after being in combat with a British reconnaissance squadron.

SMS Regensburg




SMS Schweinfurt



SMS Halberstadt

SMS Fleisburg

[emperor_andreas]

Awesome work!

[Imperialist]

Thanks Emperor Andreas! One more post for tonight, the Bayreuth class and their half-brother ships of the Tannenberg class.

Bayreuth Class (1913)

An incremental increase over the Regenburgs, the four ships (SMS Bayreuth, SMS Strassburg, SMS Eisenach, and SMS Merseberg) weighed in at 4,900 tons normal, and 6,200 tons at full load. Armament was the same as the precursor class, twelve 10.5cm SK L/40 guns but once again refit with seven 15cm SK L/45 throughout the course of the war, to be better on par with contemporary cruisers of other nations that they would face on the high seas. They were quick, with speeds pushing 28 knots, and were also armed with the standard pair of 8.8cm SK L/45 post-refit as well as four pairs of 50cm torpedo tubes above the waterline. However, they were a slight step away from previous German cruisers, as they had four funnels instead of the usual three.

Prior to the outset of the war, they conducted patrols to both protect (the Pacific/Africa) German interests and pursue them (the Caribbean/Latin America). At the outbreak of the war, two of the ships, SMS Strassburg and SMS Eisenach were patrolling the sea routes between Rio de Plata and Europe and proceeded to conduct anti-shipping operations on Allied merchant ships, capturing 26 merchant ships in the timeframe of September to October 1914 and sinking a further 18 merchant & passenger ships as well - with no casualties among either side. However, SMS Strassburg was lost due to a sudden magazine explosion in early 1916, before he could receive a refit to 15cm guns, and SMS Eisenach was caught out alone in 1917 by a British force while conducting further raiding operations off the coast of the West Indies.

SMS Bayreuth


SMS Strassburg


SMS Eisenach

SMS Merseberg


Tannenberg Class (1914)

Half-brother ships to the Bayreuths', the Tannenbergs (SMS Tannenberg and SMS Kolberg) were a return to the three-funnel look that most of the German cruisers had, but with the exact same armament of their forebearers. However, they were part of the Baltic fleet and participated in raids against Russian shore targets as well as in several skirmishes against Russian cruisers before the latter nation sued for peace in early 1917. After this, they took on components of the Grand Fleet until war's end in early 1918, when both European powers agreed to peace.

SMS Tannenberg


SMS Kolberg

[Albion00]

fantastic work!