Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 19, 2011

Design 1047 was a series of plans for a class of Dutch battlecruisers prior to the Second World War. The ships were intended to counter a perceived threat posed by Imperial Japanese aggression to the Dutch colonies in the East Indies. The 1047s were shaped by the need to be able to fight their way through a fleet composed of heavy and light cruisers, and smaller destroyers. It was hoped that this capability would allow the battlecruisers to act as a fleet in being. A preliminary plan was drawn up without foreign assistance, but as the Royal Netherlands Navy had not previously designed a modern capital ship, and the only information available on modern designs came from public literature and editions of Jane's Fighting Ships, it was missing many of the post-First World War advances in warship technology. With assistance from Germany, a new design was formulated by February 1940. A visit to Italy prompted a rethink of the internal subdivision, which led to a set of drawings dated 19 April 1940. This is the last known design produced prior to Germany's invasion and occupation of the Netherlands. The ships were never constructed. (more...)

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