User:Iazyges/Context

Collection of context work for Kriegsmarine its destroyers in particular; assembled context is at User:Iazyges/Destroyer context.

Barbara
During World War Two, it became woefully clear that the German destroyers had severely insufficient anti-aircraft capabilities, and thus a project, codenamed "Barbara", was undertaken to improve them. During this project, numerous 20 mm anti-aircraft guns were to be added to all of the surface ships, including the destroyers. In 1944 a subproject was set up, to give small ships, including destroyers, 37 mm Flak M42 anti-aircraft guns.

In mid–1941, the decision was made to upgrade existing 37mm guns to either 40 mm or 50 mm guns. The decision was made to use the 55 mm Gerät 58 anti-aircraft guns, which were in development, and which were to be able to fire 2 kg at a rate of either 120 or 150 rounds per minute, and to be capable of single shot fire. It was to be gas operated and able to work on a triaxial or quad-axial mount. This project never reached fruition, and no guns of the type were ever mounted. Later on, the decision was made to replace all 20mm guns with 30 mm guns, but this too was not completed.

Random unsorted
The German Type 1937 fire control systems could not keep up with the faster aircraft in late WW2.

At the start of the war, Germany had the best radar systems for their ships, however they developed little over the course of the war, such that by 1941, the British radars were superior in range, accuracy and reliability. The Germans attempted to compensate for this by fixing heavy ships with radar warning receivers, but this did little to abate their disadvantage. By 1944, heavy ships were helpless against the Allies' radar-equipped ships and planes at night.

Near the end of the war, more and more of the major German ports were in range of British bombers. At first it was the French ports of Brest and La Pallice, but later it was the North German ports of Wilhelmshaven, Bremen and Kiel. Due to this, German ships were forced to go east into the Baltic, at Gotenhafen or other major ports, or else North, to Trondheim, Narvik or Alta.

From 1 October 1944 on, the US Air Force would carry out daylight raids upon German port cities.

While the German and British fleets lost a similar number of ships during the invasion of Norway, the losses were insignificant to the British but crippling to the Germans. The Germans lost three cruisers, ten destroyers, four U-Boats, and had two battleships damaged. The British lost one aircraft carrier, three cruisers and eight destroyers. However the loss was crippling to the Germans, as their operational surface fleet now only had one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and four destroyers fit for action.

From 1944 German surface ships were called upon to provide support the Army Group North, along the Baltic Sea coast. This often involved shelling land targets, something the German ship crews had no training in. This tactical use of cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats was difficult in the restrictive waterways of the Baltic, but, despite the difficulties and the casualties, it justified the continued existence of the surface fleet. Russia's continued advances along the east Baltic coast also spurred this change.

From the spring of 1945 to near the end of the war, the Kriegsmarine was almost entirely focused upon resupplying and supporting garrisons along the Baltic Coast. Later on, in May, the Kriegsmarine embarked upon the task of evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers from the east, ahead of the Soviet forces which were rapidly pushing westward.

Destroyer specific problems
Due to the use of overly complex and not fully tested steam plants, up to 20% of Germany's destroyers were sidelined at any given time, due to propulsion system problems.

The Kriegsmarine's destroyers required a special distillate for use in its steam boilers. Without it, the steam boilers would quickly break down and corrode. It was only created by special evaporators in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.

Radar
FuMO (Funkmessortung): Radar device. FuMB (Funkmessbeobachter): Radar detector.

Plan Z
Plan Z was a German naval re-armament plan, involving building ten battleships, four aircraft carriers, twelve battlecruisers, three pocket battleships, five heavy cruisers, forty-four light cruisers, sixty-eight destroyers, and 249 submarines. These ships were to be split into two battle fleets: a "Home Fleet", to tie down the British war fleet in the North Sea, and a "Raiding Fleet", to wage war upon British convoys. Upon the declaration of war however, Z-Plan was far from being finished. Germany's main enemies, France and England, had together (compared to the number Germany had upon entry, in parentheses): 22 battleships (0), 7 carriers (0), 22 heavy cruisers (1), 61 light cruisers (6), 255 destroyers (34), 135 submarines (57, of which less than half could actually serve in the Atlantic or North Sea). Due to the severe advantage their enemies had, Raeder remarked that the Kriegsmarine could not hope to win, and thus the only course for them was to "die valiantly".

Due to the time and materials needed to build the heavier warships, after the war started, and most of the effort was focused upon the submarines, what little material and workers went to the surface fleet, went largely to lighter surface ships.

Raeder was assured by Hitler that war would not occur until at least 1945. Raeder said the Plan Z fleet would be ready by 1948, but Hitler wanted to lower it to 1945. Because the war caught Germany so early, very few of the heavy ships were ready in time for the war in 1939.

The Head of Submarine Operations, Karl Donitz, estimated that in order to use the submarine fleet to cut off England's supplies, it would require 300 submarines, but he only had 56 total submarines, 10 of which were not suitable for action, and 30 of which could not serve in Atlantic conditions. Because of this, Raeder increasingly canceled further work on Plan Z, and prioritized work on the U-boats, in order to give balance to the navy as it was. In August 1942, after a string of embarrassing losses for the surface fleet—the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, and the severe damaging of the Scharnhorst—Hitler declared that he believed that "all [naval] resources" should go to the U-Boat programme. This led to disagreements between Raeder and Hitler, ending in Raeder's forced resignation in December of that year. He was replaced by Donitz, who, as the former head of U-Boat operations, was in favor of Hitler's submarine-centric strategy. In April 1943, Doenitz released a new construction programme. This new programme totally replaced that of the old one, which had focused on auxiliary ships and light surface forces. This new plan focused mainly on submarines, with an ideal output of 360 submarines per year.

The submarines sunk 4,779,068 t of merchant shipping, while the surface fleet only sunk 360,146 t.

Construction issues
In 1937 the Kriegsmarine hit major issues in construction, with the destroyers being behind schedule by three months. These issues were due to shortages in raw material, skilled laborers, and experienced managers. The issue was such that no new ships were ordered in 1937, until the backlog was cleared in 1938. When Germany entered the war in 1939, its shipbuilding construction was a whole 12 months behind schedule.

After January 1943, all heavy surface fleet ship construction was suspended.

Management problems
The Kriegsmarine was not ready for the rapid expansion of Plan Z. The Kriegsmarine budget grew twelvefold in less than six years. The managers of both the Shipyards and the naval construction bureaus were strained by the rapid construction of a large number of larger ships.

Workers
One of the main issues with the rapid building up of the Navy was the lack of experience among the workers. German naval engineers had been dormant for nearly a decade, and even during the Reichsmarine (the interwar fleet), much of the navy's large ships were old, so almost all construction was upon small ships only.

The technological difference between building merchant ships and warships also caused problems, as the warships were built by welding, not riveting. This style of building made for a lighter and stronger hull, but also required skilled welders, something Germany did not possess until the mid 1940s, by which time the war was nearly over.

The Kriegsmarine had by far the fewest number of workers creating its materials and ammunition: The Wehrmacht had 1,900,000 workers, the Luftwaffe had 2,000,000, while the Kriegsmarine had only 500,000 workers.

Many workers were concentrated on the U-Boats and the large battleships.

Steel and Iron
Hitler refused to lower steel allocation to the civilian sector, forcing the military branches to ration steel. The Kriegsmarine, which already received little of the steel, was forced to cut programs in order to make do. In May 1940, Raeder cancelled the aircraft carrier construction programs, allocating the steel instead to the H-class battleships, U-Boats, scout cruisers, and destroyers. Of these, only the U-Boats and destroyers were ever finished.

80% of Germany's iron ore came from Sweden.

Fuel
Like with many other resources, oil went mostly to the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht, with little of it going to the Kriegsmarine. Of the ten million tons of oil that Germany possessed at its peak (meaning total imports and production), less than 2 million tons went to the Kriegsmarine. Although Germany's wartime emergency building of synthetic oil plants was supposed to put out six million tons of oil, very little of this was intended to go to the Kriegsmarine. It is likely that the Kriegsmarine would have only gotten the fuel it needed to operate if the Soviet Union had fallen, and Germany had gained its rich oil fields.

Initially, the fuel situation of the Kriegsmarine looked good, as due to trade with the Soviet Union, Germany could get all the oil it required. However this was ruined by Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Raeder had begged Hitler not to invade the Soviet Union until England had surrendered, as it would destroy Germany's ability to supply oil to its troops. Hitler ignored him, and declared war. This led to more than two years of fuel shortages. Of what little oil was given to the Kriegsmarine, almost all of it went to the U-Boats, relegating the surface fleet to little more than a fleet-in-being.

During 1944, Germany's oil industry was damaged severely by Allied bombing. German production of diesel oil fell by 30%. From 1 July 1944, heavy fuel oil began to be rationed to the German military branches, and from 1 August 1944 diesel oil was also rationed. Coal fired ships also had problems, as the German railways were crippled by allied bombing, making transportation of coal much harder.

The loss of the Romanian oil fields to the Soviets during their 1944 summer offensive further crippled the navy's fuel supply.

From 3 January 1945 the Kriegsmarine cancelled all training operations, except for submarine training operations, due to severe fuel shortages.

The Kriegsmarine used oil from shale deposits between Narva and Tallinn, the loss of which, in July of 1944, crippled the navy's supply of fuel.

In April 1942, the Kriegsmarine got only 10% of the fuel it needed.

Ammunition
The Kriegsmarine had by far the fewest number of workers creating its materials and ammunition: The Wehrmacht had 1,900,000 workers, the Luftwaffe had 2,000,000, while the Kriegsmarine had only 500,000 workers.

Germany entered the war with a shortage of naval mines.

Design
Germany also rushed to include new steam plants, which, although theoretically of greater power density and fuel economy, required more steel, more maintenance, and a more trained crew. They were also ordered before tests were complete, meaning that many ships were delayed because modifications had to be made.

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