FREE GERMAN BATTLECRUISERS OF WORLD WAR ONE: THEIR DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATIONS PDF Gary Staff | 320 pages | 30 Jul 2014 | Pen & Sword Books Ltd | 9781848322134 | English | Barnsley, United Kingdom SMS Hindenburg - Wikipedia The Ersatz Yorck class was a group of three battlecruisers ordered but not completed for the German Kaiserliche Marine Imperial Navy in The three ships had originally been ordered as additions to the Mackensen classbut developments abroad, particularly the British Renown -class battlecruisersled to the navy re-designing the ships. Work on the first ship had already begun by the German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design the navy decided to re-design the ships, so the design staff was constrained by the need to use the material already assembled. The name derived from the fact that the lead ship was intended as a replacement German: ersatz for the armored cruiser Yorcklost to mines inand it had Construction and Operations ordered under the provisional Ersatz Yorck. The other two ships, Ersatz Gneisenauand Ersatz Scharnhorstwere considered to be replacements for the armored cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorstboth of which had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islandsalso in As with the Mackensen s, the three ships of the Ersatz Yorck class were never completed. This was primarily due to shifting wartime construction priorities; U-boats were deemed more important to Germany's war effort later in the war, and so work German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design other types of ships was slowed or halted outright. The lead ship, Ersatz Yorckwas the only vessel of the three to have begun construction, though she was over two years from completion by the time work was abandoned. The ship was broken up on the slipway and machinery that had been assembled for Ersatz Gneisenau was installed in the first four Type U Construction and Operations. Nevertheless, the work that had gone into the Ersatz Yorck design was not a wasted effort; when the design staff began work on the Scharnhorst -class battleships in the s, they used the plans for Ersatz Yorck as a starting point. The Reichsmarineamt RMA — Imperial Naval Office decided that to meet the requirements set in the law, the Navy should construct one battleship and one battlecruiser every year between andwith Construction and Operations additional unit of both types in and The RMA initially believed the war would be over quickly, but by earlyit had become clear that it would not be the case. As a result, it made the decision to use the prescribed construction program to replace the five armored cruisers that had been sunk in the first six months of the war with new battlecruisers, rather than lay down new battleships. The last three of these new battlecruisers were ordered to replace Yorck and the two Scharnhorst -class cruisersthe former having been sunk by German mines in November and the latter pair being sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands the following month. The three vessels of German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design Ersatz Yorck class were to have been members of the Mackensen classand initial funding for the ships was allocated on 21 February Vizeadmiral Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheerthe commander of the High Seas Fleetexpressed his preference for GK2, the largest and fastest of the versions with a top speed of Some consideration was given to the idea that the new battlecruiser design should represent a merging of the battleship and battlecruiser types—what was later termed a " fast battleship "—a concept Wilhelm II had been pushing for years. The so-called " grosskampfschiff " large combat ship would simplify construction and design work, but Konteradmiral Rear Admiral Georg Hebbinghausthe head of the General Navy Department, pointed out that under the German Naval Laws, such a change would not be permitted and that the laws would need to be rewritten to allow the new type. Hebbinghaus nevertheless allowed that the design staff had some leeway in warship development that could be used to get around the legal restrictions. In a meeting on 12 August, Hebbinghaus stated that he wanted to build ships that were similar to traditional battleship designs, preferring survivability to offensive power; he argued that the Mackensen s should be cancelled in favor of this new type, since they had been designed before the navy had any war experience on which to base them. Capelle stated that the last three Mackensen s— Ersatz YorckErsatz Scharnhorstand Ersatz Gneisenau —and Ersatz Friedrich Carl if work had not proceeded too far along, should be reordered as a completely new design, GK6, which he submitted. Scheer objected to the decrease in speed, and for the time being, Hebbinghaus's and Capelle's proposals came to nothing. Another meeting on 24 August concluded that all seven ships of the Mackensen class would be built as designed, German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design General Navy Department noting that they would "still undoubtedly represent a very valuable addition to the fleet in By this time, much of the construction resources of the German Navy had been redirected to the U-boat fleet, so the new ships could not be completed before ; as a result, the Mackensen s would be inferior to the latest American and British designs. By that time, Ersatz Construction and Operations Carl had been laid down the previous November, Construction and Operations was too far along to be converted, leaving the last German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design Mackensen s as the only members available to be rearmed. Indeed, Ersatz Yorck had already been laid down in July. During the re-design process, Scheer requested that the new ships have increased armament, armor, and speed compared to the first four Mackensen s, but owing to the constraints imposed, only the armament could be increased, and the deck armor and speed had to be reduced slightly to keep displacement in check. The length and draft were also increased to keep the ships' speed from falling too much. Since the ships' propulsion systems had already been ordered, they were kept essentially identical to the original Mackensen design, although internal rearrangements allowed the boilers to be trunked into one large funnel rather than the two of the Mackensen s, which conferred several advantages. These included a significant reduction in smoke interference with German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design spotting tops and additional room to move the Construction and Operations mast further aft, which reduced the risk of the mast falling on the conning tower in the event of battle damage and increased the field of view from the spotting top. The Ersatz Yorck -class ships were an enlargement of the previous Mackensen -class ships. They were Ersatz Yorck had the same beam as the earlier vessels, at The Ersatz Yorck -class ships' hulls were to have been constructed with longitudinal steel frames with the outer plating riveted on. The German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design were divided into eighteen watertight compartments. As with all German battlecruisers that had been built, the Ersatz Yorck -class ships would have been equipped with four sets of Parsons steam turbines[7] each of which drove a 3-bladed screw that was 4. The turbines were supplied with steam by 24 coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft single-ended boilers and 8 oil-fired Schulz-Thornycroft double-ended boilers. The ships were to have electrical power provided by diesel generators. The Ersatz Yorck s were intended to mount a pair of rudders side by side for steering. However, the areas of the hull between the torpedo bulkhead and the outer wall of the ship were also used for fuel storage. In both designs the turrets were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and the other aft. The guns had to be returned to 2. Each turret was fitted with a stereo rangefinder. The shell allotment was divided between armor piercing and high explosive versions, with 60 of the former and 30 of the latter. These guns were intended for defense against torpedo boatsand were supplied with a total of 2, shells. The guns had a sustained rate of fire of 5 to 7 rounds per minute. The shells were Construction and Operations The ships were also to be equipped with eight 8. Four were arranged around the rear superfiring main battery turret and the other four around the forward conning tower. As was standard for warships of the period, the Ersatz Yorck s were German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design be equipped with submerged torpedo tubes. The Ersatz Yorck -class ships were protected with Krupp cemented steel armoras was the standard for German warships of the period. The German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design layout was identical to the preceding Mackensen class, which was itself very similar to the armor scheme on the preceding Derfflinger -class ships. This included the ammunition magazines and the machinery spaces. The contracts for the ships had originally been allocated while still members of the Mackensen class. Work on Ersatz Yorck began with her keel laying in July under yard number 63, and the midship section of the hull had been assembled by the time the ships were redesigned. The ships were never completed, primarily because bythe shipbuilding industry had largely been diverted to support the U-boat Campaignwhich had become the priority of the Navy. Afterwork on Ersatz Yorck only took place in order to occupy dockyard workers who could not be employed on U-boat construction. As a result, the hull frames that had been assembled were subsequently scrapped on the slipway.