<http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/zplan/index.html>

The Z-Plan was Germanys fleet building program started shortly before World War 2.

In the mid 1930s a major discussion about a new fleet program started in Germany. There were two major opinions, what kind of program should have been chosen. One plan was focused on a large submarine fleet and a relatively small surface fleet for coast protection, this plan was preferred by the U-Boat fraction in the Kriegsmarine command. The other alternative was a mixed fleet of various surface ships and a much smaller U-Boat fleet, quite similar to the Imperial Navy in World War I or the British Royal Navy. In the end, this plan was chosen as the new fleet building program, after several modifications it was called the "Z-Plan".

According to this plan, the German Kriegsmarine should have grown to about 800 units, consisting of 13 battleships and battlecruisers, 4 aircraft carriers, 15 Panzerschiffe, 23 cruisers and 22 so called "Spähkreuzer" which were basically large destroyers. In addition to this many smaller vessels should have been build.

(The plan also included hundreds of smaller vessels such as fast torpedo boats, U-boats, and patrol boats)

Those ships should have been build between 1939 and 1946, in this time, the personal of the Kriegsmarine should have been enlarged to 201.000 men and over 33 billion Reichsmark should have spend for building the new units.

This project never got reality. Its very questionable that the German industry would have had the resources for such a construction program and that the other European Nations would stood still and not react to this program. The realization of the Z-Plan started on January 29th, 1939. Two H-Class battleships were laid down, three months later Germany quit the the fleet treaty with England and the dream "No more war against Britain" was gone.

But only four months later Germany attacked Poland and work on all Z-Plan projects was stopped. During the next months, all incomplete ships of the Z-plan were scrapped and the material was used to build additional submarines.


BATTLESHIPS


Size: 62496 t
Length: 277,8 m
Beam: 37,2 m
Draft: 10,2 m
Armament: 8 x 406 mm main guns;
12 x 155 mm;
16 x 105 mm;
16 x 37 mm;
24 x 20 mm; 6 x 533 mm torpedoes
Performance: 165000 shp, 30 kn

Schlachtschiff H Laid down: 15.07.1939, incomplete ship scrapped 25.11.1941
Schlachtschiff J Laid down: 01.09.1939, incomplete ship scrapped 25.11.1941
Schlachtschiff K Laid down: ordered 25.05.1939, order cancelled summer 1939
Schlachtschiff L Laid down: planned
Schlachtschiff M Laid down: order given Jul 1939, order cancelled 10.10.1939
Schlachtschiff N Laid down: order given summer 1939, order cancelled 10.10.1939

The six battleships of the H-class were the projected successors of the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz . Those ships, which would have been the core of the fleet build according to the Z-Plan, were mainly enlarged and improved versions of their predecessors. In difference to them, those ships were planned with commerce war in mind, therefore diesel engines were selected instead of the usual high pressure steam engine used by the German navy in those days. Design of these ships started in 1937, and a total construction time of 50 months was projected to complete a ship of this class. All ships were scheduled to be completed by 1944. Only two of the ships were actually started, Schlachtschiff H at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg on June 15th, 1939 and Schlachtschiff J at AG Weser, Bremen on August 15th, 1939. Construction was stopped on October 10th, 1939 as the focus in German naval construction switched to the construction of more U-boats instead of battleships. Up to this day, 1200 tons of steel was already used for the Schlachtschiff H , 3500 tons were in construction and another 12000 tons were already ordered. (Schlachtschiff J was still in an earlier phase of construction). In 1940, the used material was wrecked on the shipyard and used elsewhere.


BATTLECRUISERS


Schlachtkreuzer O
Schlachtkreuzer P
Schlachtkreuzer Q

In addition to the battleships of the H-Class, a group of 12 new armored ships (Kreuzer P ), successors to the famous Admiral Graf Spee , Admiral Scheer and Lützow , were part of the Z-Plan. The design studies for the three battlecruisers of the O-class (Schlachtkreuzer O , Schlachtkreuzer P , Schlachtkreuzer Q ) were simultaneous started to those of the new Panzerschiff design (Kreuzer P ) in 1937. In 1939 it was considered to replace three of the Panzerschiffe with the same number of this new battle cruisers. Construction orders were given to Deutsche Werke, Kiel, the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven and the Germaniawerft in Kiel in the same year, but none of the ships were started. Those ships were planed with the idea of commerce war in mind. Therefore, they should get a mixed propulsion system, diesel engines for long range medium speed cruises and additional turbines for high speed combat action.. The main task for this kind of battlecruisers was to engage enemy convoys and destroy transports and cargo ships. But in difference to the heavy protected H-Class battleships, those battlecruisers had armor protection of a cruiser only. So it's very doubtful that one of this ships would have been able to attack a good protected allied convoy.


AIRCRAFT CARRIERS


Kleiner Flugzeugträger (CVL)


De Grasse (Hilfsflugzeugträger II)


Europa


Gneisenau


Potsdam


Seydlitz

At the end of 1940 it got obvious that the Kriegsmarine needed aircraft carriers to support naval operations of the surface fleet. Since the construction of new aircraft carriers would have taken too long, several existing ships were planed to be converted to aircraft carriers. Ideas to convert the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisneau and the Panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer an Lützow were soon withdrawn, instead several passenger ships and two incomplete cruisers were chosen. None of these ships was ever completed as an aircraft carrier.

CARRIER-CRUISERS/CARRIER-BATTLESHIPS


Grossflugzeugkreuzer A II


Grossflugzeugkreuzer A III


Grossflugzeugkreuzer A IV


Grossflugzeugkreuzer A IIa


Flugdeckkreuzer E IV


Flugdeckkreuzer E V

During the year 1942, the idea of a hybrid warship appeared in the constructions department of the Kriegsmarine. The idea was to build a ship that could provide both, air cover for other Kriegsmarine units (including themselves) and were still usable for conventional commerce raiding. Therefore, a combination of an aircraft carrier and a cruiser/battleship was thought to be a solution for this task. Although those project never had a high priority and never cane even close to a possible realization, several design studies for this kind of ships were made. Two different types of ships were examined, a battleship sized "Grossflugzeugkreuzer" (Project A) , armed with 280 mm (11") guns and a battleship protection system and a cruiser sized "Flugdeckkreuzer" (Project E) armed with 150 mm (5,9") guns and a cruiser like protection system.


BATTLECRUISERS/PANZERSCHIFF



Kreuzers P1 to P12

In 1938 the first design studies for a Panzerschiff successor were made. The new Panzerschiff was called Kreuzer P , its specifications showed a bigger, faster and better protected version of the original design. In many respects it was a modification of the design of the Panzerschiff D and Panzerschiff E , the planned successors of the Deutschland class which were later modified to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Since those ships should be used for commerce war, they were designed to be superior to an CA with its artillery and faster than existing battleships. In favor for better armed ships it was chosen to build a huge number of this ships, according to the Z-Plan 12 of them should have been build. It was planed to lay down four of this ships per year, starting in 1939 so that the complete Z-Plan battle fleet would be operational by 1947. The first three of those ships should get the 280 mm (11") turrets removed from the Scharnhorst and Gneisneau during their conversion to 380 mm (15") guns. As it got obvious in 1939 that this conversion would not be able in 1941/42 when it was originally scheduled for, three of the planed Kreuzer P should be modified to get 380 mm turrets which were already in production. This lead to the battlecruiser O-Class. Although the ships were already assigned to shipyards, none of the Kreuzer P was ever ordered because of the start of World War 2.


CRUISERS



Kreuzers M to R

Early as spring of 1936, design studies for a new class of Light Cruisers started. All previous build CLs were not able to fulfill their planed task as commerce raiders because of their too short range, therefore the new CL called Kreuzer M should get an enlarged endurance. Like the earlier CLs those ships should get a mixed propulsion system consisting of diesel engines for slower cruise speed and steam turbines for high speed. In relation to their size, those ships would have been not very heavily armed and protected, compared with Allied designs like the British Southampton Class. After the first four ships (M,N,O,P) an improved version (Q and R) should have been build. Besides an slightly increased size, the heavy antiaircraft armament should have been increased and the fire control of these guns should have been improved. With a projected construction time of two and a half years, the orders for the first four ships were given on May 28th 1938 to the shipyards Deutsche Werke in Kiel, the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven and the Germaniawerft in Kiel. While first work started as early as November 1938, it was planed to lay down the keel for the first ship on November 1st 1939, but after the outbreak of the war, the used material was scrapped in the shipyard.

do you have any info on this "Spähkreuzer"?? ty...
nice find :thumb:

Where did Germany get all the money for their re armament program in just a short time? :bow:

if youre into scale modeling, i think theres a whole whatif series on the zplan, tho i havent seen one in our local shows here.... look at the guns of these babies.... :wow:
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Although called Spähkreuzer - Reconnaissance Cruiser - those ships were basically huge destroyers capable for Atlantic Operations. Based on traditional destroyer design, several project studies started in 1938 to develop a large destroyer of the size of a CL. Like most German CLs, those ships were planed to get a mixed propulsion system, geared turbines for high speed and diesel engines for long cruises.

It was planed to use this ships in combinations of the new battleships of the Z-Plan in the North Atlantic where the Spähkreuzer should be the eyes of a larger battle fleet.

With the lessons learned by the first naval actions in World War II, the plans for the Spähkreuzer were modified several times, after the "Spähkreuzer 38" later designs were called "Spähkreuzer 39" and "Spähkreuzer 40" which had improved range, armor protection and a float plane on board.

The first three ships (SP1, SP2, and SP3, formerly named Z40, Z41, Z42) were ordered in February 1941 at the Germania Shipyard in Kiel. In December of 1941, the engines for the next three ships (SP4, SP5, SP6) were ordered too, but not the ships themselves.


Only SP1 was laid down, but its construction planes were destroyed during a air raid. In April 1942, construction of all Spähkreuzer was stopped and the focus switched to the construction of normal destroyers


Dimensions

Size (Max): 5713 t | Length (Total): 152,2 m,
Beam: 14,8 m | Draft: 4,66 m

Weapons

150 mm main guns: 6
88 mm secondary guns: 2
37 mm anti aircraft guns: 8
20 mm machine guns: 8
533 mm torpedo tubes: 10

Armor

Deck: 10 mm |Belt: 18 mm

Engines

Shafts: 3 | Engines: 4
Type: MAN 6-cyl. diesel | Turbines: 2

Performance

Speed: 35.5 knots
Range: 7,000 miles at 17 knots

they drew up the z-plan taking into consideration that world war 2 would start in 1942 or 43.... when hitler jumpstarted the war in 39 to pre-empt the soviets in poland, the reich didn't have enough money... eventually the z-plan was scuttled, and its materiel used to build more u-boats.... some of the ships were already half-completed..... in one mag, it showed the hull of what would have been the kreigsmarine's first aircraft carrier.....

its kinda sad that their uber ships, the so-called carrier-battleships, a warship whose size the world has never seen before, didn't see the light of day.....

but at least one of their super battleships was able to set sail, sort of.... at least, its propellers and parts of its huge engines which the occupying americans confiscated and used to outfit a merchant ship...... :thumb:

thanks! :thumb: