User:Iazyges/Destroyer context

Destroyer Function
During World War Two, Destroyers served three basic functions: first, to act as screening ships to defend their fleets from enemy fleets, second, to attack the screening ships of enemy fleets, and third, to defend their fleet from submarines. How the destroyers were actually used varied upon the country. Germany abandoned the third function almost entirely, which showed in German destroyers' lack of strong anti-submarine armament, preferring to rely upon a massive fleet of trawlers which had been requisitioned and re-fitted as minelayers. The role of the destroyer began to vary much more heavily as WW2 progressed; where the British destroyers were built for escorting fleets, defending them from enemy planes, and sinking submarines, the Germans had destroyers were built to escort fleets, or act as torpedo boats.

Interbellum
After the end of World War One, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, which put heavy limits both upon the size and displacement of warships that Germany could possess. During the Interbellum, the period between the first and second world wars, almost all warship categories experienced a large growth in the average size of their ships, and the size of their armaments. As a result of the treaty, Germany could not possibly hope to compete with the ships of the Allied navies. Germany therefore began to ignore the treaties, at first covertly, but later openly after Hitler publicly denounced them. All German ships of the time had their displacements purposefully understated, so as to have their official sizes comply with the treaty. At first, these changes were made with the goal of being able to match or exceed the French and Polish destroyers, but later on, it was required that these destroyers be able to match British destroyers, a much harder goal. Due to the comparatively small number of German shipyards, compared to the British or French, Germany was forced to adopt a policy of overcoming their destroyers, so that they bore similar armament to light cruisers, to compensate for their low numbers. Several negative effects came with this however, such as making them slower, overweight, and less seaworthy. Another problem that resulted was that, although the German heavy destroyers matched British light cruisers in armament, they were much less seaworthy, and had far worse facilities for control and use of their guns.

Plan Z
Plan Z was a German naval re-armament plan, started in 1939, 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. Erich Raeder, the Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine, was assured by Hitler that war would not start until at least 1945. Raeder had wanted the deadline for Plan Z to be finished to be 1948, but Hitler lowered it to 1945. World War Two actually started in 1939, meaning that very few of Germany's heavy ships were finished in time for the start of the war. Germany's main naval opponents, 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".

Submarine Prioritization
Upon entry to the war, the Head of Submarine Operations, Karl Dönitz, estimated that in order to effectively use the submarine fleet to cut off England's trade, Germany would need 300 submarines. However, he had only 56 total submarines, 10 of which were not suitable for any action, and 30 of which could not serve in Atlantic conditions. Throughout the war, Raeder, and Dönitz, who went on to succeed Raeder as Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine, increasingly canceled further work on Plan Z, which focused on building up the surface fleet, 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 German battleship 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, which 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.

Project 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.