Ersatz Yorck-class battlecruiser
 Line drawing of Ersatz Yorck
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ersatz Yorck |
| Builders |
|
| Operators |  Imperial German Navy |
| Preceded by | Mackensen class (planned) |
| Succeeded by | O class (planned) |
| Built | 1915–1918 |
| Planned | 3 |
| Cancelled | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Battlecruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 227.8 m (747 ft 5 in) |
| Beam | 30.4 m (99 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 9.3 m (30 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 27.3 knots (50.6 km/h; 31.4 mph) |
| Range | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
The Ersatz Yorck class was a group of three
The name derived from the fact that the
As with the Mackensens, the three ships of the Ersatz Yorck class were never completed. This was primarily due to shifting wartime construction priorities; U-boats were deemed more important to Germany's war effort later in the war, and so work on other types of ships was slowed or halted outright. The lead ship, Ersatz Yorck, was the only vessel of the three to have begun construction, though she was over two years from completion by the time work was abandoned. The ship was broken up on the slipway and machinery that had been assembled for Ersatz Gneisenau was installed in the first four Type U 151 U-boats. Nevertheless, the work that had gone into the Ersatz Yorck design was not a wasted effort; when the design staff began work on the Scharnhorst-class battleships in the 1930s, they used the plans for Ersatz Yorck as a starting point.
Development
The fourth and final
The three vessels of the Ersatz Yorck class were to have been members of the
Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Reinhard Scheer, the commander of the High Seas Fleet, expressed his preference for GK2, the largest and fastest of the versions (with a top speed of 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph)), during a meeting on 29 April. Some consideration was given to the idea that the new battlecruiser design should represent a merging of the battleship and battlecruiser types—what was later termed a "fast battleship"—a concept Wilhelm II had been pushing for years. The so-called "grosskampfschiff" (large combat ship) would simplify construction and design work, but Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Georg Hebbinghaus, the head of the General Navy Department, pointed out that under the German Naval Laws, such a change would not be permitted and that the laws would need to be rewritten to allow the new type. Hebbinghaus nevertheless allowed that the design staff had some leeway in warship development that could be used to get around the legal restrictions.[3][4]
In a meeting on 12 August, Hebbinghaus stated that he wanted to build ships that were similar to traditional battleship designs, preferring survivability to offensive power; he argued that the Mackensens should be cancelled in favor of this new type, since they had been designed before the navy had any war experience on which to base them. Capelle stated that the last three Mackensens—Ersatz Yorck, Ersatz Scharnhorst, and Ersatz Gneisenau—and Ersatz Friedrich Carl if work had not proceeded too far along, should be reordered as a completely new design, GK6, which he submitted. This design called for a ship armed with eight 38 cm guns on a displacement of 36,500 t (35,900 long tons) with a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). Scheer objected to the decrease in speed, and for the time being, Hebbinghaus's and Capelle's proposals came to nothing. Another meeting on 24 August concluded that all seven ships of the Mackensen class would be built as designed, the General Navy Department noting that they would "still undoubtedly represent a very valuable addition to the fleet in 1919."[3]
Hebbinghaus again raised the issue of the main battery on 31 October, since by then it had become known that the United States Navy would be building the Lexington-class battlecruisers, rumored to be armed with 40 cm (16 in) guns, and that the British were arming their Renown-class battlecruisers with 38 cm guns. By this time, much of the construction resources of the German Navy had been redirected to the U-boat fleet, so the new ships could not be completed before 1920; as a result, the Mackensens would be inferior to the latest American and British designs. Hebbinghaus pushed for the battlecruisers to be armed with at least 38 cm guns, but preferably 40 cm or even 43 cm (16.9 in) guns. By that time, Ersatz Friedrich Carl had been laid down the previous November, and was too far along to be converted, leaving the last three Mackensens as the only members available to be rearmed. The Construction Department accordingly rushed to redesign the vessels to equip them with 38 cm guns, but the work was hampered by the fact that the navy had already ordered the machinery and armor plate for the ships, and work on the materials had already begun. Indeed, Ersatz Yorck had already been laid down in July.[2][5]
Design
During the re-design process, Scheer requested that the new ships have increased armament, armor, and speed compared to the first four Mackensens, but owing to the constraints imposed, only the armament could be increased, and the deck armor and speed had to be reduced slightly to keep displacement in check. Displacement rose about 2,500 t (2,500 long tons) compared to the Mackensen class, with about 1,000 t (980 long tons) of that increase being a result of the heavier 38 cm guns. The length and
General characteristics
The Ersatz Yorck-class ships were an enlargement of the previous Mackensen-class ships. They were 227.8 m (747 ft 5 in)
Machinery
As with all German battlecruisers that had been built, the Ersatz Yorck-class ships would have been equipped with four sets of
The power plant was rated 90,000
Armament
The Ersatz Yorck-class battlecruisers were to be armed with a main battery of eight
The ships'
As was standard for warships of the period, the Ersatz Yorcks were to be equipped with submerged torpedo tubes. There were three 60 cm (24 in) tubes: one in the bow, and one on each flank of the ship. The torpedoes were the H8 type, which were 9 m (30 ft) long and carried a 210 kg (463 lb) hexanite warhead. The torpedoes had a range of 8,000 m (8,700 yd) when set at a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph); at a reduced speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), the range increased significantly to 15,000 m (16,000 yd).[2][14] The ships would have been supplied with approximately fifteen torpedoes.[15]
Armor
The Ersatz Yorck-class ships were protected with
The forward conning tower was protected with heavy armor: the sides were 300 mm thick and the roof was 130 mm (5.1 in). The rear conning tower was less well armored; its sides were only 200 mm (7.9 in) and the roof was covered with 50 mm (2 in) of armor plate. The main battery gun turrets were also heavily armored: the turret sides were 270 mm (11 in) thick and the roofs were 110 mm (4.3 in). The 15 cm guns had 150 mm worth of armor plating in the casemates; the guns themselves had 70 mm (2.8 in) shields to protect their crews from shell splinters.[16]
Construction and cancellation
The contracts for the ships had originally been allocated while still members of the Mackensen class. Ersatz Yorck, a replacement for the armored cruiser Yorck, was awarded to
The ships were never completed, primarily because by 1917, the shipbuilding industry had largely been diverted to support the
Already in 1918, the design staff revived the grosskampfschiff concept with a series of design studies that ranged from smaller counterparts to the British
See also
- H-class battleship proposals – a series of battleship designs for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that were also cancelled.
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ "GK" stood for "Grosse Kreuzer" (large cruiser), the German term for battlecruisers at the time.[3]
- ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone—quick loading gun) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/45 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, meaning that the gun barrel is 45 times as long as it is in diameter.[9]
- ^ The figures listed here are those for the Derfflinger class; specific figures for the Ersatz Yorck class are unknown. German naval historian Erich Gröner states "The outfit of Krupp armour was similar to that of the Derfflinger class."[17]
- AG Vulcan continued to work the battleship Württemberg into 1917, despite the fact that the Navy had determined that she could not be completed, primarily to clear the slipway so it could be used for other projects.[18]
Citations
- ^ Herwig, pp. 158, 200, 206.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Gröner, Jung, & Maass, p. 59.
- ^ a b c d Staff, p. 323.
- ^ a b Dodson, p. 127.
- ^ a b c Staff, p. 324.
- ^ Staff, pp. 324, 326.
- ^ a b Campbell & Sieche, p. 156.
- ^ Gröner, Jung, & Maass, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 131–133.
- ^ Staff, p. 326.
- ^ Friedman, pp. 143–144, 147.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, pp. 140, 155.
- ^ Friedman, p. 339.
- ^ Staff, p. 327.
- ^ a b c Gröner, Jung, & Maass, p. 56.
- ^ Gröner, Jung, & Maass, p. 57.
- ^ Nottelmann, pp. 320–321.
- ^ Weir, p. 179.
References
- Campbell, N. J. M. & Sieche, Erwin (1986). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 134–189. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-229-5.
- Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
- Grießmer, Axel (1999). Die Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine: 1906–1918; Konstruktionen zwischen Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz [The Battleships of the Imperial Navy: 1906–1918; Constructions between Arms Competition and Fleet Laws] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-5985-9.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Herwig, Holger (1998) [First published 1980]. "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.
- Nottelmann, Dirk. "From Ironclads to Dreadnoughts: The Development of the German Navy, 1864–1918: Part XA, "Lost Ambitions"". Warship International. 56 (4). Toledo: International Naval Research Organization. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Staff, Gary (2014). German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-213-4.
- Weir, Gary E. (1992). Building the Kaiser's Navy: The Imperial Navy Office and German Industry in the Tirpitz Era, 1890–1919. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-929-1.
Further reading
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1978). Battle Cruisers. Warship Special. Vol. 1. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-130-4.
- Dodson, Aidan; Cant, Serena (2020). Spoils of War: The Fate of Enemy Fleets after the Two World Wars. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4198-1.