WONDER WARSHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1929, Page 7

WONDER WARSHIP

GERMANY'S POCKET battlesi!;?. (Hy MAURICE P RENDERGAST in •‘ihe Navy.”) For more than twenty years pas', naval nrcliitecis and marine engineers have ta ked, written, and dreamt of the Diesel-engined capital ship. '1 ><- day snch a vessel is no longer a vision. She is a. reality, and is on the sloe.;in a German shipyard. And she is a warship so wonderi it is not too much to say of her tin she capsizes the whole naval cosmos that she shatters all the existin •standards of ship values, and, lik the famous Fisher-Watts Dreadmiigt. of 1008, marks the end of an old or in warship design and the beginnin of a new. Thanks to the most mai vellotis machinery ever devised ft the propulsion of ships, a technical triumph of transcendental important" has been achieved.. That the Germans have been engaged on intensive (and most expen sive) research with Diesel engines hasbeen an open secret for nearly two years past. The end in view-—tli" app’icn-tion of internal-combustion engines for the drive of fast, surfacwar vessels—has been openly avowe by the Germans themselves. The new vessel is not a choice, bid a combination; she is, at one an' the same time, a small motor driver Dreadnought and a “Treaty-Cruiser Destroyer.” She does, in fact, def all present methods of ship-rating being a little faster than the faster of modern battleships and a littl more weakly armed than any battle cruiser. The German officials hav given their new creation the nonde script title of “Panzerschiff” or “ar moured vessel.” “The Vest-Pocke Battleship” is the popular term fo? her, and that sums up the ship quipneatly. Under the naval clauses of the Ver sailles Treaty Germany was license'’ to retain (and maintain) a battles])i' force of eight, old prc-Dreadnoughts of which six, could /be kept in ful commission and two in reserve. Pro vision was also made that these shipcould be rep'aced when twenty year 1 old, but it was stipulated that anv new “replacement ship” should no! he larger than 10,000 tons. As P happens, all the eight old German battleships have passed the specified age limit, and can now bo supplanted bv new bulls. Tn the German Naval . Budget of 1928-29 provision was made for the commencement of the first of the “replacement ships.” The vessel so authorised was laid down la-t September by the Deutsche Works (late Imperial Dockyard) at Kiel, under the designation of “Ersatz Preussen.” This is, of course, only a temporary title, meaning the ship built “to replace the obsolete battleship Prc"ssen.” When the new vessel is put afloat at Kiel she will then receive her permanent name. She will perhaps be Called the Admiral von Scheei or Deutschland.

The leading particulars of the Ersatz Preussen are:—

Disnlacement.—lo,ooo metric tons “Standard,” i. 0.. without inclusion of any fuel.

Hull. etc.—Weight economised by the use of high-grade steels, light castings, and tbe substitution of electric. welding of seams, etc., instead of riveting. By this means 550 tons (5.5 per cent of displacement) have been saved. Dimensions.—None officially declared by the German Ministry of Defence. So far as wo can measure these off by scale from a very sma" 1-1500th plan, the dimensions appear to be very approximately: Length 593 ft (w.D, GO4ft (0.a.). Beam 66ft. Draught described as shallow”—possibly not more than 16ft. Armament.—Main : Six 11-inch, in two triple turrets. Secondary: Eiglv 5.9-ineh, singly mounted in shields Anti-Aircraft* Four (4.1-inch), twin mounted in common sleeve. Torpedo tubes:- Six (size uncertain), in tw' triple revolving mounts, above water on quarter deck.

Protection.—By a new system o'’ armouring and under-water sub-div-ision. invulnerability has been vastly improved. Vertical side protoctior by complete end-to-end belt of substantial thickness. Turrets heavil" defended. Two strong steel decks t( give security against aerial attack. Under-water defence said to be the stoutest and most elaborate ever incorporated in any war vessel. Machinery.—Special type of Diesel engines to design by the German Admiralty built by the M.A.N. Co at Nuremberg. Two sets of engines each 25,000 B.H.P. Total, 50,001 8.1-I.P. -Speed: 26 knots (possibly 27 i'l light condition). Fuel sufficient to give an endurance of 10,000 miles at 20 knots speed. Cost.—-Still undisclosed. Tt avhs. however, e’ioited in the Reichstag debate that whilst the Naval Budget only allowed 0450,000 for the shin. 04,009.000 worth of materials had already been ordered for her. This sum excludes the enormous amounts expended during the past few years on preliminary research and experiment with guns, machinery, etc.

Tli<? plans prepared show that, so far as outward looks are concerned, the Ersatz frousson is a simple and ‘draight-forwaid design. . Attention is ealleil to the peculiar square gunhouses (enclosing the. triple 11 -inch (runs'), which apparently have heavy, hoinh-deflecting crowns, Tli e rnaga-

zincs for the 5.9-inch guns arc near those for the Ll-inch, so that the centre of the hull can lie kept clear for the machinery. Tile policy of nioun • ing the eight 5.9-ineh pieces in op shields is questionable. However, when .the Ersatz Preussen is final, completed in 1930, these eight guns may lie better emplaced in four twinmounts and protected 'by “tin turrets.” It' is only on closer investigation that the startling novelties of the design become apparent; therefore do we here embark on the following comments:—

General Oroener stated in th" Reichstag that the 11-inch guns for the new “Vcst-Pocket-Battleship” could range 12 kilometers (7V nnlesV further than the guns of the old battleships. Moreover, the weight r, t metal delivered per minute was tli'-e times as great. We presume the Minister was making comparison with th old Preussens, armed with four Hi" (-lOcalibre) guns that fired a 661.41’ shell over a range of (about) 18,09 yards. If this can he so, then ca' dilations prove that the new “Panzorschifl” can hurl out 8 tons of metn ! per minute over a range of 30,0f 1 ’ yards, or 17 miles. This is almost equal to the extreme range of th ].sin guns, mounted in the Hood, the world’s mightiest warship.

A COMPARISON. The Minister of Defence has revea’ed that the new Marinetyp-M.A.N.” Diesel motors for the Ersatz Preus sen require only 8 kilogrammes (174 lb) per horse power, whereas the lies Diesel engines of 1918 require 50k" (1101 b) for every h.p. These new Navy Diesels are not towering, cumbrous, slow-running engines such a* are now used for the propulsion o! mercantile ships. The Diesels for th Ersatz Preussen are of the low-built, compact fast-running species, such a have been used in tbe past for th surface drive- of submarines. Thes motors can therefore be stowed unde a heavy armoured dock. Seventeen and a half pounds per horse-power! Is it realised what a marvel lias been accomplished ? If H.M.S. Hood could exchange he present steam-drive machinery for the new type of German Diesels, he’power would be raised, from 144,(XT* to more than half a million h.p. without an ounce being added to her weight! , The 144.000 s.h.p., steam-drive, machinery of the Hood weighs 535 r tons, or about 83Alb per h.p. The German “Marinetyp-M.A.N.” Diesels weigh only (about) ,17Alb per h.p. The Germans are therefore getting four and three-quarter times mon h.p. out of every ton of maehinen weight than we could get for tin Hood. If you multiply the Hood” 144,000 h.p. by 43 the result is 684,0'X) h.p. | What speed the British battlecruiser would do with this gigantic power we dare not contemplate- Enormous is a vista opened up before us by this new system of ship-propulsion The vessel engined with motors of n million horse-power is no more longer outside the bounds of possibility. And we thank our lucky stars that Germany is prohibited from buildin" submarines, for no technical obstacle now stands between her and the creation of 10,000-ton U-boats, driven by Diesels of 50,000 h.p. There is no type of warship that cannot be touched and transformed by the new engines. So long as Germany holds the secret of the new power-plant, then so long does she retain the means of producing ships that can outstrip all rivals. She may produce a new Die-sel-engined destroyer of phenomena pace, or the most efficient aircraft carriers yet devised. Thanks to the saving of s. Slier cent of the displacement in hull weights, and thanks again to an economy of about 10 per cent in machinery weights, the German designers have at their disposal about 1550 tons, and Ibis they have probably devoted to improved armour defence and underwater protection. Tt appears to u‘that, in the German ship, half (or nearly half) of the “standard” disnlacement can ho invested in protec tion. whereas the Hood (one of th" best protected capital ships in the world) had only about one-third her “standard” disnlacement devoted to defence. The• German “armoured vessel” may therefore bo the nearest approach ever made to the “unsinknhle warship.”

The Kiel-built “Vest Pocket Battle shin” can range over 10.000 miles at C Y) '-„ots. whereas the average steamdriven battleship can cover no mow than 45°0 miles at this speed. Th" Eysa-tz Preussen can cruise from IOV to China on a single load of fuel. Drawing a moral: “Can the Germans make a success of- this wonderful ship of theirs?” “Bv their fruits shall ye know them!” Firstly, as to armament: The Germans showed us al- - that their big guns and she]' could deal smashing blows. Secendlv. as to defence; The way in which th" German capital ships resisted destruction by shell-five, mines and torpedoes was an outstanding feature, of the Great. War. Thirdly, as to machinery: The M.A.N. Company has produced oim of the finest Diesel engines ever built for tlm drive of submarine?, and the firm has always he"u prominent. in the development of the internal combustion engine. We say tlm Germans have the past experience, tlm practical sense, the technical ability and the determination in make their new “armoured vessel?” a resounding success.

AXD WHAT THEN? “What can the 10.000-ton treatv cruisers do against the 10.000-1 n** (.ertnan ships?” Nothing, keep out of ranee, or run away! What chance would a “tin-clad”

treaty cruiser—virtually armourless—stand in a fight against a heaviA armoured antagonist, hurling out t tons of large-calibre shell per min u top “But if the Ersatz Preussen an

her three projected sister ships go: out into the great oceans and start ed Ito smash up our convoys, whatcould wc do?” There are only, four armoured warships in the world today fast enough to overhaul and figh< the Ersatz Preussen type. Those four are the big British lmttle-cruiscrs Tiger, Repulse,'Renown and Hood. And of these four, on'v the Hood has tlm barest of margins in the supcrioriUof extreme gun-range. Therefore d we find the German pigmy of 10,(XV tons to he a fighting match to a vo“ 4 o|n, n «i four tiyV-es her own sizethe Hood, the greatest war vessel U the world.

The Ersatz Preussen is virtually death-blow to the big battleship. Th 35,000 ton post-Jutland capital ship > no longer worth building oil th steam-drive basis.

“And the moral of that, my dear” Ois the Duchess used to remark), is Limitation of armaments in the en-' defeats its own purpose. “NeccssiU is* the mother of invention;” artifice: restriction of size simplv fosters iv vention and research. You may try to curb the size of motor cars by in posing drastic taxation on their en gine power, and what is the result As a motorist of more than twent years’ standing, we. say, without hes ; tn.tion. that tile 12 h.p. car of to-dav is faster, and has a better all-roun ' road performance than the 25 h.r car of 1910. You may try to restric' the size of warships by repressive ler islation, and what is the result? Tb Germans, with 12,000 tons, produce in 1928 a ship more formidable thatheir 19,000 ton battle-cruiser Voder Tann of 1908. Cut down the sir of warships 'by treaties and covenant if you will. The inevitable resu! will be that more hitting, driving an resisting power per ton will be al tained on every reduction of weigh! You end by getting “mechanised arm ies” and Diesel-driven fleets, smaller but more deadly and venomous, tlia’ the “bloated armaments” you hav* tried to abolish by legislation!