The Dark Teutonic Genius Who Ruined the Kriegsmarine
Of course, the fact that the Kriegsmarine suffered a complete defeat in the Second World War, without really having fought (the surface part fleet), in contrast to the marine aviation and submarine forces, had several reasons.
Here, of course, a very important role was played by a certain lack of initiative on the part of the German admirals, due to which a decent number of ships were lost, the frankly small composition of the fleet, which could not compete with the British at all, and what we will now talk about. About the qualitative composition of the Kriegsmarine.
Everyone has heard this expression about the "gloomy Teutonic genius". I don't know how much of a genius he was, but the fact is that he was gloomy. And in a rather gloomy state, the entire leadership of the Third Reich's navy was engaged in, frankly speaking, strange things: building a fleet. But how...
In the interwar period, having lost the entire High Seas Fleet after the First World War, the Germans drew the right conclusions: it is impossible to fight Great Britain at sea, let's not look for adventures in the midships. And on top of that, Versailles pretty well cut off the oxygen supply to German shipbuilders.
But then 1933 began and Germany, which had become the Third Reich, began rearmament. That is, the creation of an army and navy, which in 1939, in fact, unleashed the Second World War.
That it was simply a finished adventure is clear and understandable today, but Hitler managed to cut off lands on which there was much that was useful in terms of industry and human resources. However, a more or less sensible plan for war with Great Britain appeared only in 1938. The so-called "Plan Z". Yes, and rearmament began already in 1933. At least a year later, destroyers of the "1934" type and submarines were being built in full swing.
And this is a very interesting point: the fleet was being built, but there was no plan for war with the main naval enemy. That is, the revival of the Kriegsmarine began simply and uncomplicatedly: we build, and then we'll figure it out! Yes, Mr. Kaiser didn't have much of a plan in this regard, but under Hitler, utter chaos began.
The beginning was quite good: Hitler and his comrades began to put pressure on the British with all their might, asking them to lift restrictions on the construction of their fleet, and they did it competently. The requests were in this vein: let us build a fleet that will be only a third of yours. And Britain will have nothing to fear, and we will be happy.
And the British… agreed! Yes, this is the same situation when if you can’t prevent a drinking party – lead it! If they had banned it, then perhaps everything would have gone down a completely different path, but the British, having tasted the delights of the Germans in the First World War, absolutely did not want a repeat, that is, catching German raiders all over the world and starving because of submarines. Although they had to again, everything could have been much worse.
The worst thing for Great Britain is a war on communications. The empire depended on supplies from its colonies, and if the supplies were interrupted, everything would collapse just fine. And there would be no need to even make a show of forcing the English Channel: the starving British would transport the occupiers home on their ships. Occupy them, just give them something to eat!
Therefore, a brilliant plan was born in the depths of the British Naval Ministry: yes, Germany is allowed to build ships, but the German fleet will be limited in tonnage proportionally to the British. And the cunning British simply will not build new ships, so the Germans will simply hit a tonnage ceiling: they will not be able to build new submarines or cruisers, this will be a violation of the treaty. And since this ceiling can only be increased by building new ships on the part of England, the Germans are stuck at a fleet limit that guarantees their defeat in a future war with England. And they are stuck completely voluntarily, no one forced them to sign this treaty.
And the treacherous British still have plenty of little ships from the First World War, which, let us note, despite their backwardness, fought quite well throughout the Second World War. Like the same Warspite.
No, guys, having eaten a deer on various intrigues, easily and naturally beat the German corporal. Hitler lost back in 1935, when the German-British naval treaty was signed. And when they finally managed to write "Plan Z", it was already too late to build ships for it. But the time came to dismantle the ships. And the order was given to complete the battleships "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz", the aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin", the heavy cruisers "Seydlitz" and "Prinz Eugen", but all the other ships were to be dismantled on the slipways. And there was something there...
But the Germans wanted to build more than just a fleet! In reality, everyone understood perfectly well that they couldn't take Britain head-on, since the Home Fleet alone was three times larger than the entire newly built German fleet. And there were also fleets in the Mediterranean and so on.
That's why the Germans decided to build a fleet of RAIDERS! That is, not only a large surface fleet, but also an underwater fleet, submarines were also given a significant role.
Here it is appropriate to cite one quote from the book by Eberhard Rössler “The U-boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines”:
"...The Naval Staff believed that a "balanced fleet" was necessary for a war with England: in a campaign against merchant shipping, the greatest effectiveness would be achieved through the interaction of heavy surface ships, air forces, and submarines... If offensive operations were carried out using submarines alone, significant success should not be expected." The following considerations were given as justification for the last point: the English had made significant progress in anti-submarine warfare (ASDIC), and there was also a possibility that submarine warfare would be conducted in accordance with prize law."
In general, it is presented very well: the German naval general staff understood back in 1938 that, following the example of the First World War, it would not be possible to organize a blockade of Britain using only submarines. Surface ships were needed that would disperse corvettes, frigates and destroyers with sonars, and naval aviation would counter the enemy in the sky.
What happened? Well, the fiasco of the Third Reich's naval aviation is solely on Goering's conscience, but with the surface ships, things turned out very peculiar.
The dark Teutonic genius whispered (apparently, together with Cthulhu) to one of the admirals the “recipe for success” and Germany began to build ships. And very strange ships, at that.
1. Bismarck-class battleships.
Yes, it has already become a classic, mentioning these monsters, but: if you compare the Bismarck with its British counterparts, at least with the King George V, the German battleship surpassed its British counterparts primarily in terms of speed and cruising range. Moreover, in terms of range, it was almost twice as long. And the Bismarck had a very impressive artilleryBut in terms of armor, the British battleships were better.
And this with approximately the same displacement. The Bismarck could travel 6 km further than its British counterpart at the same speed. The Bismarck was 000-4 knots faster, but the air force negated all the advantages. As a result, the raider battleships, frankly speaking, did not cause as much damage as was expected of them. Of course, the sunken newest battlecruiser Hood is true, but what does it mean for Britain to build a ship of this class, and what does it mean for Germany to lose such a battleship?
2. Scharnhorst-class battleships
Is this a battleship? No. This is not a battleship. The only thing these ships had in common with battleships was their name, because in terms of displacement and main caliber, they were something… abstract. Unparalleled in the world, as they would say now.
Rather, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau can be compared with the battlecruisers of the First World War, such as the Renown: approximately the same displacement (about 32 tons), approximately the same speed of 000-31 knots, but the range of the German ship was 32 km greater, and the armor was better.
But there were 20 years between these ships. Quite a long time. Nevertheless, the encounter between the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the Renown was not in the Germans' favor: the Renown's armor withstood hits from 283 mm shells from the German ships, but the Gneisenau had problems after being hit by a British 381 mm shell.
Taking advantage of their speed, the Germans escaped, spending an hour and a half to break away from the Renown. In general, the pair drank the British blood to their hearts' content, which was only worth two destroyers and an aircraft carrier sunk by the Germans, but the Glories had to pay for a long repair when the Scharnhorst choked on a British torpedo. And one was enough for the crew to have something to do in terms of survivability.
In general, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau cannot be considered battleships. They are battlecruisers with a focus on raiding. Although if you look at the performance characteristics of the battlecruiser Hood, they are not even considered battlecruisers.
And the best confirmation of this will be that very December battle, in which the Duke of York treated the Scharnhorst to 14 356-mm shells, and the destroyers achieved 19 torpedo hits. But if the first shell of the British battleship had not hit the boiler rooms, the Scharnhorst would have definitely left. And so – the finale...
But overall, the Scharnhorst was the ideal raider. Its 283 mm guns were more than enough to take apart any enemy cruiser, and its speed and range allowed it to operate on communications. The crew simply chose an enemy that was not their own, meaning that the raider was completely useless for battles in a squadron with heavier ships.
3. Heavy cruiser of the Deutschland class.
Also a raider. And a pronounced one at that. The displacement of the three ships of this type was different, fluctuating between 13 and 16 tons. The unique power plant of two-stroke diesel engines from MAN allowed them to travel simply staggering distances on one tank of gas (up to 000 km). Plus a decent speed for diesels, the same 32 knots.
As the practice of the Admiral Graf Spee showed, a battery of six 283 mm guns is enough to cope with even three cruiser-class opponents. If the Spee's commander had not been so hysterical, everything could have turned out differently. But it turned out that six sunken cargo ships and an equal fight with three British cruisers followed by sinking were all that the Spee could boast of, but the paradox is that it had more successes than its sister ships.
The ships were classified as heavy cruisers and yes, they almost matched it. But let's say this - again, armor was sacrificed for everything else, and as for the armament, the 10 203mm barrels of the Japanese Mogami look more impressive than 6 barrels, albeit 283mm.
Of course, any cruiser that came under fire from the Deutschlands would feel very uncomfortable, but here's the problem - the raiders were being hunted by larger class ships. The same Spee was being chased by two aircraft carriers, two battleships and one battlecruiser. And meeting such opponents did not bode well.
4. Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser.
And – again a raider! A huge ship, with a displacement greater than the “Deutschlands”, about 18 tons, with a decent speed (over 000 knots), relatively good range and very modest armor. The armament of these ships for such a displacement was more than modest – only 32 guns of 8-mm caliber, but a very impressive set of auxiliary and anti-aircraft calibers plus 203 (!!) torpedo tubes.
The ships turned out to be not very maneuverable precisely because of their size, which was demonstrated by the battle on December 31, when two British light cruisers, Sheffield and Jamaica, thoroughly damaged the Hipper, although everything should have been the other way around.
But as a raider, the Hipper practically destroyed one convoy in the North Atlantic.
"Blyukher" without firing a single shot at the enemy, went to the bottom from two 280-mm shells and two torpedoes of the Norwegians. The large ship in the narrow Norwegian fjords became a very easy target.
Almost all four of the listed classes of ships had a raider specialization. In principle, the Kriegsmarine could not have acted any other way, because there were not enough ships. But what was available was clearly used awry because there was no proper understanding of how to use these ships. Therefore, all these overweight raider cruisers did not bring the same effect as ordinary auxiliary cruisers made from civilian ships.
But Germany demonstrated its desire for something “unparalleled in the world” to the fullest extent. Indeed, the Deutschlands were unique ships in many respects. But their uniqueness backfired – the same Admiral Scheer could not meet a worthy opponent in Operation Wonderland for the reason that the USSR did not have ships in the North that could at least theoretically offer resistance.
But if you think that the issue is in battleships and super-heavy cruisers, then no. Gigantomania in ship construction was observed not only in these classes.
5. Destroyers of project 1936/1936A
A destroyer or destroyer is a class that everyone understands. A small ship with universal artillery and torpedoes.
The American Fletcher, certainly one of the best ships of this class, had a displacement of 2200-2300 tons. Our Type 7 Soobrazitelny - 2400 tons. But the German destroyers are something else.
It is very difficult to say why and for what purpose these ships were created. 3470 tons displacement with a length of 123 meters (Fletcher had a displacement of 4 tons and a length of 2200 meters with approximately the same set of weapons), the ships turned out to be fast (up to 114 knots) but not very seaworthy and slightly clumsy. Which in general affected their fate: 42 of the 5 destroyers perished in Norway, in the Battle of Narvik. Three from artillery fire from British destroyers and two from their torpedoes.
And only one, the Karl Galster, was able to survive until the end of the war and was transferred to the Soviet Union as reparations.
But the gloomy Teutonic genius would not be like this if he had not come up with something else! And this “something else” became the destroyers of the 1936A and 1936A (Mob) types.
Yes, these destroyers “lost weight” compared to the previous class and their displacement was 2700-3000 tons, but in terms of armament, there was a complete breakthrough: 4 or 5 (depending on the bow turret) 150 mm caliber guns!!!
In essence, it turned out to be a ship similar to the French destroyer leaders of the Jaguar or Guetard type. But even those frankly not small ships (2700-3200 tons) could boast of 130-mm or 138-mm main caliber guns. And here - 150-mm. The British light cruiser of the Arethusa type carried armament of 6 152-mm guns.
So here it turns out even close to a light cruiser. But the question arises - why? A destroyer with a displacement of 2 tons is not such a stable artillery platform as a cruiser with a displacement of about 700 tons. This is understandable. But nevertheless, for some reason, German designers made destroyers with cruiser armament. Approximately like a cruiser with guns almost of the class of a battleship (6 mm). And with approximately the same efficiency.
6. Torpedo boat type 1939 "Elbing".
What do we understand when we hear the phrase "torpedo boat"? Usually we imagine either our G-5, a small boat with a displacement of 15 tons, armed with two machine guns (DA or DShK) and two 533-mm torpedoes. Or the American Elko or RT-103, on which the future US President John Kennedy served. This is already a decent vessel with a displacement of as much as 56 tons, armed with a 37-mm automatic cannon, two 12,7-mm machine guns and four torpedoes. And with a crew of 15 people, these were the largest torpedo boats in the American fleet.
But they are not comparable to the German ones...
So, the torpedo boat of the gloomy Teutonic genius. This is a ship with a displacement of 1294 tons, a length of more than 100 meters, armed with 4 105-mm guns, 2 triple-tube torpedo launchers and 10 anti-aircraft artillery barrels of 37-mm (4 pcs.) and 20-mm (6 pcs.) caliber. The speed is not very high, 33-34 knots, the cruising range is 4500 km.
This is a German torpedo boat.
A total of 15 of them were built, of which 4 saw the end of the war. These were universal ships, quite effective in combat. Thus, five of these boats went into battle against six British destroyers and the light cruiser Charybdis, protecting the blockade runner Münsterland with strategically important cargo. As a result, the cruiser Charybdis and the destroyer Limbourne went to the bottom, and the convoy successfully broke through to Germany.
It's okay, the next generation of Type 40 "torpedo boats" was supposed to have a displacement of 1960 tons and carry armament of 4 128 mm guns, 4 37 mm guns, 16 20 mm barrels, 2 quadruple 533 mm torpedo tubes and four depth charge launchers. And 50 mines to make it even.
This horror was never built, but you must agree that the difference between this “torpedo boat” and a destroyer is now practically imperceptible.
7. Submarines.
The fact that Germany was able to build more than two thousand submarines is in itself impressive. Both in quantity and quality, because with rare exceptions, the Germans built very decent boats.
It is very difficult to say what would have happened if Germany's shipyards had not been building absolutely useless super battleships, super heavy cruisers and all that stuff. As Rössler's quote above said, the largest submarine fleet was not capable of blockading trade routes and bringing Britain to its knees before starvation.
The submarine of that time was more of a diving one, because it could not spend a long time underwater. Both the air supply and the power of the batteries did not allow it. Therefore, on the surface, these boats were more than vulnerable, first of all, to aviation. British Sunderlands and Beaufighters terrorized a large number of German submarines, quite normally competing with the anti-submarine ships of convoys going to British ports from former and not so former colonies.
But the Kriegsmarine didn't have enough escort ships, although in principle a "torpedo boat" could have handled the task. And then the gloomy Teutonic genius in 1942 came up with something called the U-flak or "Anti-aircraft traps".
Submarines were re-equipped, usually instead of an 88-mm or 105-mm gun, a 37-mm machine gun or two 20-mm automatic guns were installed, and two quadruple 20-mm mounts were placed behind the conning tower on the platform.
A total of four boats were converted into U-flaks: U-441, U-256, U-621 and U-953. Of these, only U-441 could boast of relatively decent results – one sunken ship and three downed aircraft. In the last battle, three Beaufighters riddled the boat so much that it had to be sent for major repairs and converted back there.
"Cash Cows" Series XIV.
This is also a unique solution to supply problems in the world. Transport boats without torpedo armament, not fast, but capable of delivering to their boats more than 600 tons of fuel oil for diesel engines, 13 tons of oils, 4 torpedoes in external containers, up to 2 tons of water and about a ton of food in refrigerators.
The idea is very interesting, and the "cash cows" were used very actively in the Atlantic, but at the same time they gained the love and respect of the Allies, who sent entire squads to search for and destroy these submarines. And in the end, they destroyed every single one.
What was all this started for?
Indeed, for what purpose? If with transport and anti-aircraft submarines everything was more or less clear, these were “crutches” that were able to somehow solve the problem of moving submarines in the same Bay of Biscay, then the rest of the ships look like a kind of samurai’s path, which has no goal.
In fact, the Germans had a goal: they were well aware that the Kriegsmarine would not be able to stand up to the Royal Navy under any circumstances. These old turtles from the First World War would sooner or later find themselves in a situation where they could pick apart the German "wonder ships". Which is what actually happened with the Bismarck and Scharnhorst. For the rest, aviation was more than enough.
There was only one thing left – raider attacks on convoys with food for Britain. And here the main mistake of the creators of the Kriegsmarine came into play. Yes, propaganda is a great thing, and of course, the beautiful battleships and cruisers, proudly cutting through the waves – it is impressive.
But let's look at the results of these ships' activities.
"Bismarck" - 1 ship sunk, battlecruiser "Hood". Sunk by ships.
"Tirpitz" - 0. Destroyed by aircraft.
"Scharnhorst" - 1 aircraft carrier and 2 destroyers (together with "Gneisenau"), 1 auxiliary cruiser, 8 transport ships. Sunk by ships.
"Gneisenau" - 1 aircraft carrier and 2 destroyers (together with "Scharnhorst"), 13 transport ships. Destroyed by aircraft in port.
"Deutschland" - 2 merchant ships. Destroyed by aircraft in port.
"Admiral Scheer" - 1 auxiliary cruiser, 25 merchant ships, 1 icebreaker. Destroyed by aircraft in port.
"Admiral Graf Spee" - 9 transport ships. Sunk by crew.
"Admiral Hipper" - 2 destroyers, 1 minesweeper, 16 transport ships. Destroyed by aircraft in port.
"Blyukher" - 0. Sunk by coastal artillery on the first sortie.
"Prince Eugen" - 0. Lived until the end of the war.
In total, 10 of the largest German ships, of which only one saw the end of the war, were sunk:
- 1 aircraft carrier;
- 1 battlecruiser;
- 4 destroyers;
- 2 auxiliary cruisers;
- 1 minesweeper;
- 1 icebreaker;
- 71 transport ships.
For two battleships, two half-battleships and six heavy cruisers, it looks frankly pathetic against the backdrop of the achievements of the German auxiliary cruisers, converted from commercial ships and crewed by volunteers.
For example - "Cormoran"
9 raider-auxiliary cruisers sank a total of 139 ships and vessels, including 1 light cruiser, 1 auxiliary cruiser and 137 transports.
And here there is no need to comment on anything, because it becomes clear that gigantomania and propaganda in the Third Reich prevailed over practicality and reason. Of course, no one is talking about the need to massively build submarines and raiders from dry cargo ships, but statistics show that the German surface navy was clearly inferior in efficiency to the pirate fleet of raiders.
Let me emphasize that we are talking about a blockade of Britain.
But if we are talking about something else, alas, other than the operation in Norway, which cost the Kriegsmarine a brand new heavy cruiser and a bunch of destroyers (again, brand new), there is nothing more to talk about.
Let us emphasize in bold – ALL The combat activities of the Kriegsmarine were limited to disrupting supplies to Britain and the Soviet Union. They did a little shooting at the advancing Soviet troops in the Baltics. And indeed, the surface part of the Kriegsmarine calmly sank under English and American bombs.
The Kriegsmarine's submarine forces were clearly more effective. In total, German submarines sank 2 merchant ships and 759 Allied ships, including:
- 2 battleships;
- 3 aircraft carriers;
- 3 escort aircraft carriers.
The price paid for this was the loss of 630 Kriegsmarine submarines, but still – no comparison.
The dark Teutonic genius that drove the Third Reich leadership to build completely useless but impressive ships practically destroyed all chances of the Kriegsmarine for not only victory, but even for some semblance of confrontation.
Battleship raiders and cruiser raiders, distracting the air force, staged epic breakthroughs into the Atlantic and tried to make something of themselves there, while commercial steamships transported much-needed strategic raw materials to Germany and valiantly sank the same enemy transport ships.
And Hitler tried to stop the stupidity in shipbuilding, canceling the super battleships of the "N" project and a bunch of other ships that Germany, having flown into the war, could no longer build. But it was too late, because the war was already underway, the ships that could not help in this war were already built. And absolutely ineffectively, so to speak, they sailed towards their death, and the damage caused to the enemy in comparison with the cost of these ships can be considered minimal.
It is very surprising to read how yesterday and today some extol the creations of this very Teutonic. They say, wow, what terrible ships the Bismarck and Tirpitz were, how the British were afraid of them...
Of course they were afraid. In Valentin Pikul's novels. It's just worth recalling the balance of power on 1.09.1939 between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine:
Britain: 15 battleships and battlecruisers (5 more under construction), Germany – 4.
Britain: 7 aircraft carriers (5 under construction), Germany – 0.
Britain: 66 cruisers (23 under construction), Germany – 12.
Britain: 184 destroyers (52 under construction), Germany – 41.
And only in submarines did Germany have a huge advantage.
If the Germans had not been busy building ships that were purely propaganda (I am talking about the Bismarck and the Tirpitz), if the Germans had really started creating a raider fleet to starve Britain to death, they would not have needed to build super battleships and super cruisers. More useful ships could and should have been built, but alas – the metal had already been cut and welded, and the gloomy Teutonic genius could only greet the German sailors from the battleships and cruisers at the entrance to Valhalla.
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