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    Brief history of German Destroyer Z37. 3D computer drawings showing most of the exterior.

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    Kagero 16055 the Destroyer Z37 Super 3D

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    Brief history of German Destroyer Z37. 3D computer drawings showing most of the exterior.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    444 views82 pages

    Kagero 16055 The Destroyer Z37 Super 3D

    Uploaded by

    SaskJack
    Brief history of German Destroyer Z37. 3D computer drawings showing most of the exterior.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    ais) TET VA WTS ls 4 tod The German oe er 237 . . The German Destroyer 237 Narvik, 1944, Starboard side. Overview 237 was 3 German destroyer buit for the Kriegsmarine in Kiel during Wor War I She was laid down on 2 January 1941, launched on 24 ary 1941, commissioned on 16 July 194 and became operational © December 1942, though while she was going from Kiel to Swine unde to work up, she collided with a freighter and had to return to 5 repair yard The post-World War | Reichsmarine continued to use the term ‘pedo boat“for surface warships displacing less than 800 tonnes and ying torpedoes as their primary armament, and it was not until the frst rue destroyers were under construction, frorn 1934 onwards, that ‘the term Zerstorer (destroyer) came into vogue in Germany. [At the outbreak of the Second World War, Nazi Germany's Krieg: marine had 21 destroyers in service, while another one was just being completed. These 22 vessels, including three classes (Type 34, 34A ‘and 36) had all been ult in the 1930s, making them modern vessels, as no destroyers remained in German hands following the close of ‘the First World War. Including that final pre-war vessel, a further 19 ‘were brought into service during the war and more were captured ftom opposing navies, included the Italian Navy (Regia Marina) after the Italian Armistice with the Alles in 1943, During Wotld War I, destroyers were administratively grouped into one of several destroyer Fotlias ‘The practice in the pre-war German Navy had been to name its de- stroyers for the year oftheir Geian 2nd for naval officers who had cor manded torpedo boats in the Keiseriche Marine and been killed in ac- tion during World War This practice continued from 21 through to 222. Theteafer, the fifteen Narvik shies were unnamed, known ony by their hull numbers from 223 to 239. They were called Nawik because more of| these units were based at the Nonweatan port ofthe samme name, The structure of 19364 class unts was very similar tothe previous 1936 destroyer class, but the mudser was replaced with twin surfaces, and the outline of the prow was modified ta improve navigablity. Notwithstanding this, the ships hadi many problems of seakeeping in tough sea because the bow tended t0 ship too much water, The builder installed a twin turet on the Bow but this added too much Topweight in that section of the ship. The problems were partially solved by restructuring the stem The destroyers’ engines often had 4 problems with reliability due to the high steam pressures developed and at the end of the war, heavy corrosion was discovered Eight destroyers of new designs were planned between the end ‘of 1938 and the early 1940s, but with the outbreak of war all projects for new classes were set aside, and the Kriegsmarine ordered twelve new units ofthe 19360 class, Seven units were built according to the original plans, with just a {ow small adjustments to save materials and make building faster, as ‘well as some improvements to the engine, which, in fact, gave less ‘trouble than the previous models. Due to these changes, this batch of ships was considered a sub- class ofthe 1936A class and called Zerstérer 1936A (Mob), where ‘Mob" stands for “Mobilmachung® (Mobilisation). These seven destroyers, numbered from 237 to 239, were laid down in 1940 and 1941, The lat, five units, further modified, were called Zerstorer 19368 class. ‘All the vessels were built at Bremen’s Deschimag yard, except the last three of the 1936A (Mob) subclass (included 237) which were as- sembled at Kiel Kriegsmarine yards. ‘At the end of the war, some surviving ships had significant changes to their armament, Design, Propul n_and Armou The Kriegsmarine 1936A destroyer clas, including 237, was intended ‘to mount new 150mm naval quns, projected in 1936 to give a consid- erable tactic advantage to these ship, as most ofthe destroyers of that ppetiod had 120 - 127 mm guns, The original project provided the installation of four 150 mm guns In two twin turrets (one on the bow and one on the stem), but the ‘new turrets were not produced in time for the outbreak of World War I. s0 the ships were at first armed with four 150 mm guns in four single turrets (one at the bow, two on the stern and one toward the aft of the midships section} ater, the turtets on the bow were changed for ‘2 twin turret as in the original project. Two twin 37 mm and five ewin 20 mm antraicraft guns completed the armament, The anti-aircraft ‘atmament was considered inadequate and was progressively made more powerful during the course of the war, so other ships of this clas, though not 237, finally had ten 30 mm guns, twelve 20 mm guns and eight 53 mm torpedo-tubes. The installation of the 15cm twin turet (adding about 65 tonnes, topside) resulted in the Type 19360 destroyers being poor sea boats {and subject to speed restrictions in heavy seas, and, as a result, com- plaints by commanders. 237 was 121.9 metres (400 ft) long at the waterline and 127 me tues (417 ft) long overall, had a beam of 12 metres (39), a freeboard of {66 metres (22 ft), and a draught of 4 metres (13 ft). She hada dsplace- ment of 3,083 tonnes (3034 long tons; 3398 short tons) at standard load, and 3,691 tonnes (3633 long tons; 4069 short tons) at full load, Two rudders in the propeller stream gave better turning qualities, while wooden strakes added below the waterline assisting in course- keeping. A different arrangement of bunkers and tanks provided bet- te stability and the restrictions placed on fuel consumption (to assist with stabiliy) vere lifted, despite the remaining problem of the twin turret, On the other hand, a redesign of the frames forward brought Type 1936A destroyers had two Wagner turbines and six Wagner boilers, only one 200 kw turbo-generator, four 80 KW diesel generators, two shafts and two rudders. The Wagner was a high-pressure hot- steam boiler with natural water circulation, equipped with exhaust {ges and feedwater preheaters (two stear-heated and one fresh-steam stage), and had an effective operating level of 83 percent. The working pressure was 70atm with steam temperature at 480°C (later reduced to 450°C), Between 35 and 46 tonnes of steam could be ralsed per hour, ‘These gave the ship a rated power of 70000 shaft horsepower (52,000 kW), and a top speed of 385 knots (713 ken/h, 443 mph). She had a range of 2239 nautical miles (4,147 km; 2,577 mi, at her cruising speed of 19 knots (35 krn/h 22 mph). Armament In terms of armament, ships of the class were closer to light cruisers than the typical destroyer The use of 15 cm (59 inch) guns was atypi- cal of destroyers which tended to have guns around 120 ~ 127 mm (47 to $ inch) calibre. 37 had a pronounced clipper bow, a large TK The German Destroyer 237 15 cm twin turret forward, three TK 15cm L/ 48 in single gunhouses| ‘aftwith 600 rounds of ammunition, four 37 cm (1.5 in) antiaircraft {guns with 8000 rounds of ammunition, and ten 2 cm (0.79 in) anti- aircraft guns with 20,000 rounds of ammunition The 19364 destroyers were intended to carry two forward guns in ‘a twin turret, but as the twin turets were not ready in time, early class 1936A ships caried a single mounted qun forward The destroyers carried two light quadruple-torpedo-tubes on, rotating mounts, one set to port between the funnels and one set to the rear of the aft funnel, The torpedoes carried were the G7a type 1533 cm in diameter and weighing just over 1.5 tons. The depth charge complement of the average German destroyer, ‘was rather modest. Four depth charge launchers were installed, with two either side of the at superstructure, and two depth charge racks, each with three charges, on either quarter. Even during wartime, the number of depth charges carried would rarely have exceeded 30. Minelaying formned a major part of the duties of the German de- stroyer fleet. Two types of mine were used, The basic mine used was the EMC type (Ein-heitsminen ‘C), This was a standard moored mine, Just over Im in diameter with seven contact detonators.The second type commonly used was the EMF (Einheitsminen Femzundung). This was also a maored mine, but detonated by the magnetic field gener- ated by a passing ship. German naval radar sets, produced between 1935 and 1945, were predominantly developed by the Gesellschaft fur Elektroakustische ‘nd Mechanische Apparate (GEMA) company along with wel-known firms such as Telefunken, Siemens, Lorenz and AEG. In 1943, a new designation system was introduced: FuMO (Funkmess-Ortung), ac- tive search radar, and FuMB Metox (Funkmess-Beobachtung) passive detecting radar. 237 was fitted with FuMB Metox All destroyers of the Type 36A (MOB) were fitted with the so, called “Barbara style radar atray with large mattress-ype antenna, a searchlight platform on the mast, a rangefinder on the roof of the bridge structure that controlled the main forward twin turret, and another rangefinder aft that controlled the stern turrets. Both optical rangefinders were linked to a fe control computer station, ‘The standard livery of German destroyers prior to the outbreak ‘of war was the same pale grey colour scheme as on larger warships During wartime, various splinter camouflage schemes were adopted. 5 The German Destroyer Z37 Narvik, 1944. Portside. Service During the early part of World War I, the Germans adopted the practice of using their light crusers to provide a covering force for destroyer units returning from minelaying operations, It was this rather strange policy of providing large ships as escorts for smaller vessels, rather than the reverse as was conventionally the case, combined with the notoriously unreliable powerplant of the German destroyers, which was to cause one of Germany's fist major naval catastrophes. The port of Narvk proved to be strategically valuable inthe early years of World War land the town became a facal point of the Nor wegian Campaign. In 1939, Germany's war industry depended upon iron ore mined in Kiruna and Malmberget in Sweden. During the sum: mer season, this ore could be sent by cargo ship to Germany through the Batic Sea via the Swedish port of Luled on the Gulf of Bothnia, However, when the Gulf of Bothnia fraze during the winter, more ship ments of the ore needed to be transported through Narvik and, from own the west coast of Norway to Germany. ion Churchill alized that the contral of Narvik meant stopping man imports of ron during the winter of 1940, securing the fields, sending supplies and reinforcements to Finland, then sh Winter War with the Soviet Union. So on & pil 1940, made to ley anti-shipping minefields around Narvik in aters, Coincidentally, Germany had prepared her sion of Norway, with the naval units alocated and 16 n of Nanvk was occupied without further opposition, ish Royal Navy quickly dispatched! several ships Germans completely by surprise, During the Top view. subsequent battles the Brtsh took control ofthe coast, destroying the Geiman destroyers and other German ships inthe area in just three days. As the German invasion of France had made Scandinavia largely ielevant, and since the valuable troops assigned to Narvik were badly needed elsewhere, the Alles withdrew from Narvik on B June 1940, The sare day, while operating inthe Narvik area, two German battle crus es sank the British aircraft carrer HMS Glorious during the withdrawal Without support from the Allied naval tsk force, the Norwegians were ‘outnumbered, and they had to lay down their arms on 10 June 1940, The action at Narvik was almost a disaster for the Kriegsmarine, but, strangely, Germans considered the campaign in Norway a suc cess, the capture and defence of Narvik itself as a victor the destroyers a heroic action rather than a disaster, and no one on the German side was held to account. By the end of 1940, Germany possessed a mere ten destrayers, the losses sustained at Narvik resulting in four flatlas being dis banded. German destroyer forces subsequently operated as escorts to heavy cruises in attempted raids on merchant shipping in the North ‘ea, with some success, before the fall of France gave the Kriegsmarine eal bases from which to mount offensive operations against ship ping off Britains south coast and western approaches. During 1942, Norway became the main base for mo: y's capital ships, and destroyers played an impostant part in operation from Norway as escorts to them. The possession of Ofotfiord provided he Kriegsmarine with a refuge for warships, outside the range of ai attacks from Scotland, [At the end of 1942 due to a disastrous operation by German de- stroyers near Kaafjord, Hite, furious atthe lack of aggression shown the loss of of Germa: by such a powerful force ordered the entire fleet of capital ships to be Scrapped (though the order was late scaled back). Subsequent opera tions forthe destroyer forces in the far north consisted predominantly ‘of escorting heavy units to and from Germany with some minelaying sorties thrown in. Fuel shortages were beginning to have a serious ef: fect on the availabilty of German warships, which suffered long periods (of enforced inactivity. Moreover the destroyers had a lot of technical problems that saw the numbers avalable regularly reduced, T high morale ofthe destroyer arm was seriously damaged. On January 1943, in Operation “Fronttheater’, some destroyers re-united forthe run to Norway, but when the squadron was sighted off The Skaw by RAF Coastal Command on the 1th, the operation ‘was broken off repeat attempt on the 25th, code-named “Domino with some destroyers, including 237, was similarly unsuccessful and the units repairing to Gotenhafen on the 27th, 237 was redeployed to France and on 3 March, salled from Kiel. Just 3 days later, she dam- aged hier starboard propeller after running aground at Le Havre and repairs were completed on 18th, During 1943 the Kriegsmarine found it necessary to steengthen the escort force in the Bay of Biscay both for Usboats based there and for inbound merchantmen, Germany was not reliant on imports by sea a8 Great Britain was, but the occasional blockade-runner making the voyage to France from the Far East with high-value ravy mater als was of such importance that as many as five destroyers would sail fo meet an inbound ship. In July 1943 237 and other destroyers tentered the Atlantic beyond the longitude of Cape Ortegal to meet Lp with Piero Orsedo, and on 23 December escorted Osorno into the Gironde. At the end of 1943 the number of operational Kriegsmarine de- stroyers was twenty, including 237 Late on 28 December 1943, some destroyers, 237 among them, sailed with six torpedo boats of 4. TFlotile to provide an escort for the blockade-runner Alstruey, inbound from the Far East. The blockade runner was intercepted and sunk by Aled aicraf, and other wo cruisers ‘were dispatched to intercept the German flotila,but the Germans wererit

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