ORIGINAL: Terminus
If I were to build a German navy pre-WWII, I'd base it on these assumptions:
- Germany can NEVER outbuild Britain in warships. Full stop, the end, never going to happen.
wrong [;)] Britain may have more shipyards ( I don't know but I guess so), but that isn't all!
a) There must be the political will to continue or participate in an arms race! After WW2, Britain wasn't the biggest navy any more - and they didn't even try to come back into this position!
b) There must be the money and the material to built the fleet. While the need for material won't be that problem in times of peace while 1/5 (or something like that) of the world is a colony of Britain, Money isn't endless. After WW2, Britain was nearly bankrupped and now assume a leftwing government that isn't willed to spend that much for arms...
c) Britain must see itself in danger! Just look at the end of WW1, where Britain itself proposed the USN to be as big as the RN in Washington! Where has the "Bigger than the next two navies" doctrin been there?
For HKD, we mustn't forget the following things:
1. The allies will conclude of the RN, the USN, Japan and the French navy! The Alliance between Japan, Britain and France is intact, so Britain can rely on them!
2. Japan will start its full expansion program like IRL in 1936 - with the big difference, that it doesn't suffer ressource shortages like IRL, so all 4 Yamatos may be built, no ship gets delayed because of shortages...
3. With the existing alliances, Russia will keep every significant ship of its fleet in the West, as it has no chanve against France, Britain and Japan (and later USA) there. So there'll be only SS and maybe a handful of Cruisers to disrupt enemy supply lines. So let's say it takes Japan 6 month, but after that, it needs only enough ships to hunt down possible TEA subs, auxiliary cruisers or other minor ships that try to sneak in and to disrupt shipping.
4. There's no Pearl Harbour and both the RN and the USN don't need significant fleets in the Pacific. Yes, both will keep a handful as well as Japan for maintenance, to project power... but I guess we can assume 90% of the big ships to be sent into the Atlantic.
5. There has been no Versailles! Germany didn't have to pay reparations while the Allies didn't recieve any. Yes, while the reparations were felt to be inhuman in Germany at that time, modern science (at least in Germany) says there weren't that cruel, but anyway, that means a stronger German economy and a weaker allied economy.
6. Germany hasn't lost any territory except some ground in Lorraine. All of Silesia is still German - and the minor polish parts may be part of Poland now, but Germany can still use its ressources...
7. Germany was able to built more ships between 1900 and 1914. If you take the known shipyards, you will find out that several of them were disengaged between other orders. Or they kept on working on ships but didn't have new ships on their slipways, yet. Moreover, even under the Kaiser, there was an approval of the Reichstag needed, where the SPD (socialist leftist) dominated. Without a law, without the money from the Reichstag, there can't be any new ships...
- The Final Battle/Grossschlacht/whatever will end in defeat for Germany, and should not be sought out.
Not necessarily! Look at the battle of Jutland, which can be assumed as German tactical victory (while a British strategic victory). Fewer ships can win a battle when they are better armed or better armoured or have a better trained crew or are grouped more efficient or manage to have local superiority or ... - simply have luck!
I would never say a German victory has to be expected, but it can't be precluded!
So, what does Germany need? Raiders. We can roughly split the German navy into three parts:
- Long range surface commerce raiders.
- All other surface ships.
- Submarines.
The commerce raiders, combined with the submarines, are not going to "strangle" Britain economically, but they can do a fair bit to slow her down, as well as diverting her naval assets to hunt for them.
To "strangle" Britain down is possible, but for that, there'll have to be decisive battles. Anyway, a British economy at 50% or lower will already be quite good...
The remainder of the surface fleet have the tasks of making sure the commerce raiders break out through a Royal Navy blockade, and contesting British sea control of the North Sea. That's it.
As for the raiders, I would propose adopting a variation of the historical USN Hunter-Killer Group. Take a long-range gun ship (something along the lines of an up-gunned Scharnhorst-type ship) and pair it with a high-endurance aircraft carrier. The gun ship can protect the carrier from enemy surface vessels, and the carrier can provide recce, ASW and CAP.
There won't be enough carriers to pair up with all the gun ships, but there'll be some.
With the existing and rearmed ships, there shall be already enough to contest the British control of the North Sea, no? The Feldmarschall class has an endurance of 10.000 which is already good, but may be better.
Subs have prooved to be to ineffective against convois and as there is a significant surface fleet, there's no need to focus on them. They will be existant, but the focus will be elsewhere.
Does it make sense to build more Panzerschiffe? They take as long ti be built as a "small" BB like the Feldmarschall class while they are much weaker. So if possible, one should prefer Feldmarschall class BBs with Diesels, no?
CAs? They proved to be bad designs as they weren't faster than fast BBs while they were armoured much to weak. But in 1936 to 1940, this might be not considered, yet. CAs with enough endurance are good against single ships or unprotected convois, but in that case one should prefer Panzerschiffe.
Feldmarschall with Diesel or H-39? The H-39 isn't that big that it's unrealistic while the Feldmarschall could be better armoured. Perhaps a mixture of both (propably the H-39 after the Feldmarschall, as their bigger Diesels will take some more time).
Without any doubt: I am the spawn of evil - and the Bavarian Beer Monster (BBM)!
There's only one bad word and that's taxes. If any other word is good enough for sailors; it's good enough for you. - Ron Swanson
