GROßE KRUEZER
What Might Have Been - SMS Ersatz Yorck, Ersatz Gneisenau, and Ersatz Scharnhorst
Based on the Mackensen but designed to use the same 380mm/45 (15") turrets as the Bayern class, these ships would have been formitable opponents. Fast and heavily armed/armoured, the Yorck's were faster than the British Queen Elizabeth class. But construction began late in the war and proceeded slowly - none of the ships got much beyond the keel-laying stage before being broken up on the stocks after the war.
PHOTOS
Line Drawing - Side View (Gröner)
Line Drawing - Top and Side Views (Gröner)
SPECIFICATIONS
Project Name: Ersatz Yorck | Ersatz Gneisenau | Ersatz Scharnhorst
Builder: Vulcan, Hamburg | Germania, Kiel | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid Down: November 3, 1915 | Unknown | Unknown
Launched: None were launched
Commissioned: None were commissioned
Sunk: None were completed
Scrapped: All broken up on the building ways in 1919
Displacement: 33,500 tonnes (designed) / 38,000 tonnes (maximum)
Dimensions (meters): 227.8 (overall) x 30.4 x 9.3
Dimensions (feet): 751.74 (overall) x 100.32 x 30.69
# of Shafts: 4
# of Blades: 3, 4.2m diameter
# of Rudders: 2 (side by side)
Max Speed/Range: 27.3 kts / 5,500 nm at 14 kts
Main Battery: Eight 380mm (15")/45 caliber - 4 dual turrets
Secondary Battery: Twelve 150mm (5.9")/45 caliber - 12 casement mounts
AA Battery: Eight 88mm (3.5")/45 caliber - single mounts
Torpedo Tubes: Three 60cm tubes (all underwater - one bow, one mounted on each side just forward of "Anton" turret)
Complement: 47 officers and 1180 enlisted (as designed)
LINKS TO OTHER WEB-SITES
Naval Weapons of the World German Naval Guns
Naval Weapons of the World Pre-World War II German Torpedoes
German Kriegsmarine Encyclopedia
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