battle fleet commander 2 classic naval combat

He confided these concerns to his wife before he left on the fateful voyage that was to take his life. He felt that the lower portion of the side armor belt should have been terminated further below the design waterline than was done in the final design. Heinrich Schlüter, was quite unhappy with the protective scheme adopted for these ships. One of the designers of the Bismarck, Mr.

Too much stability results in an unduly 'stiff' ship with somewhat unpleasant rolling characteristics which tend to degrade weapon's systems effectiveness. The Bismarck had excessive stability in many respects in that her GM exceeded the 'good design practice' standard for GM (at last 5%, but no more than 10%) of the beam. The Bismarck was a lively gun platform and the ship's general behavior at sea was probably rather unpleasant, particularly in following seas, where rolling and yawing motions are coupled. A disadvantage of this stability was the short rolling period resulting from the large GM. They recognized the need to provide great initial stability, with commensurate resistance to large lists after side compartments were damaged. The Germans devoted great attention to the displacement and stability of the Bismarck and Tirpitz. The spectacular stem failures of the armored cruiser Lützow and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were examples of this. Because of the lighter structure and smaller buoyancy than that found in a quadruple stem form these ships were more prone to damage from the whipping phenomena which occurs when the extremities of a ship are subjected to explosion-induced forces. These characteristics led to problems in German cruisers and battleships when they were torpedoed in the stem. Buoyancy aft was limited by the smaller immersed volumes that resulted from the cutaway.

The need to provide clearance for the centerline propeller also resulted in a longer than usual overhang in which the weights of the rudders, steering gear and the protective armor for the steering gear was located. It would appear that the triple-screw arrangement chosen by the German naval constructors resulted in an approximate one-third loss of turning power when compared to a quadruple-screw ship of the same power.

Locating the rudders midway between the centerline and wing propellers meant that the center to center distance of the rudders was considerably smaller than it would have been in a quadruple-propeller arrangement with the rudders positioned between the propellers on either side. This resulted in a loss of underwater lateral area at the stem and a shift of the lateral center of effort forward, which created problems with directional stability. The stem at the centerline had to be configured to give sufficient tip clearance to the large centerline propeller so as to avoid troublesome vibration. This large metacentric height, as compared to that of contemporary battleships (Table 2), was a function of the ample stability and low silhouette desired by the Germans.įitting a centerline shaft and the requisite sized propellers for the metric horsepower of 150,000 required a much different stem form than was used in World War I German battleship designs. The propulsion arrangement resulted in a large beam and a relatively substantial GM of 13.41 feet. This is why many consider the Bismarck and Tirpitz to be copies of these ships. These ships featured a three-shaft propulsion plant which was subdivided into separate engine and fire room complexes by an arrangement of longitudinal and transverse bulkheads similar to that of the Baden and Bayern of World War I. The Bismarck, the subject of this study, had the characteristics listed in Table I. The 380mm guns were of a new and more powerful model, designed for use in close range actions in the North Sea with French or British opponents. By all standards, theirs was a very conservative design based on the arrangement of the Baden and Bayern of World War I, with the exception that the modern ships were more heavily protected, with improved grades of armor steel and had more speed. The German battleship Bismarck and her sister-ship Tirpitz were the largest warships of their type to be constructed in Europe. Table I: Characteristics of Bismarck Displacement

Battle fleet commander 2 classic naval combat