Hitler Wanted a Huge Battleship and Aircraft Carrier Fleet. Here's Why It Never Happened.

[rangerrebew]

Hitler Wanted a Huge Battleship and Aircraft Carrier Fleet. Here's Why It Never Happened.


Plan Z was destined for failure.
Robert Farley [2]

Battleships represented the core of the fleet. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the first step of the project. Armed with 9 11” guns, the two light battleships gave German builders valuable experience with large, fast ships, experience that had dissipated since the First World War. Unlike the other major powers, the Germans had no large battleships to reconstruct during the interwar period. Bismarck and Tirpitz represented the next step in the evolution, and were designed in explicit rejection of the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty. Although they carried only 8 15” guns, the Bismarcks displaced nearly 50,000 tons, well in excess of treaty limits.


Source URL (retrieved on February 27, 2018): http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/hitler-wanted-huge-battleship-aircraft-carrier-fleet-heres-24663

[Joe Wooten]

There was actually another Naval plan presented to Hitler in 1938 that emphasized more surface commerce raiders (heavy cruisers and pocket battleships) and subs. He rejected that for the plant this article talks about that would not be ready before 1946. He did not tell his admirals of his plans to start the war in 1939. If he had, Doenitz would hve probably had his way and had a much bigger sub fleet in 1939. That might have caused a lot more damage to the UK's merchant fleet.