Kriegsmarine Ship X

between Panzeschiffe and Elektroboote what other design or parts of design could have had same effect?

an effective class of ships for KM based on something they at the very least put on paper? (so it may be unlikely but not ASB)

(they can be hybrid groaners like their mooted carrier-cruisers with large naval guns or simply equipping exisiting ships with different engines or caliber of guns)

my idea would be Minenleger Projekt http://german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/minelayer/minelayer/index.html a projected class of 8 minelayers

each one carried 400 mines, more than six times what their destroyers could carry.

they were large enough to use hybrid turbine/diesel arrangement of light cruisers.
 
The problem for the Germans, even with raiders, is that they could only be effective against ships sailing alone. if the Germans have more raiders, that means the convoy system is put in to place sooner and enforced more strictly. The Kriegsmarine did not have enough warships to embark on "cruiser warfare", sure the Bismarck or Graf Spee can be a nuisance for a while, but they will be caught like they were OTL sooner or not so sooner - most definitely not later. Another problem with surface ships was that even as far back as before WWI German ships were not designed for long range operations, not just fuel but foods storage and other things needed to keep a crew effective. Doing the sorts of design things the USN, RN, and IJN did to enable long range operations was not appropriate for the Germans who had neither long supply lines to protect nor overseas bases as depots.
 
The problem for the Germans, even with raiders, is that they could only be effective against ships sailing alone. if the Germans have more raiders, that means the convoy system is put in to place sooner and enforced more strictly. The Kriegsmarine did not have enough warships to embark on "cruiser warfare", sure the Bismarck or Graf Spee can be a nuisance for a while, but they will be caught like they were OTL sooner or not so sooner - most definitely not later. Another problem with surface ships was that even as far back as before WWI German ships were not designed for long range operations, not just fuel but foods storage and other things needed to keep a crew effective. Doing the sorts of design things the USN, RN, and IJN did to enable long range operations was not appropriate for the Germans who had neither long supply lines to protect nor overseas bases as depots.

what were they forced into doing? u-boats, converted merchant ships, converted airliners, and small fast attack boats. the proper warships used most effectively as minelayers while naval guns installed to protect ports.

my point is that no matter the effort they were going to be forced into that same exact strategy, and they had hindsight of WWI where a lot more resources were wasted before adopting it.

so if you are using auxiliary cruisers make them more effective with radar, greater numbers, etc.

my Ship X is minelayer class with close to destroyer speed, radar, and ability to carry what (IOTL) it took six destroyers to carry.
 
between Panzeschiffe and Elektroboote what other design or parts of design could have had same effect?

an effective class of ships for KM based on something they at the very least put on paper? (so it may be unlikely but not ASB)

(they can be hybrid groaners like their mooted carrier-cruisers with large naval guns or simply equipping exisiting ships with different engines or caliber of guns)

my idea would be Minenleger Projekt http://german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/minelayer/minelayer/index.html a projected class of 8 minelayers

each one carried 400 mines, more than six times what their destroyers could carry.

they were large enough to use hybrid turbine/diesel arrangement of light cruisers.

Without going into ASB or a development path not seen in OTL, I think your idea is sensible. It could have a major impact. Using mine layers and U-boats to lay mines rather than air craft could also mean the magnetic mines are not discovered so soon.
Now, the most simple and effective would be to have the AMC's ready and more numerous than OTL from 1939. With the Deutschland class on the high seas to cloud who is doing the hunting, the situation for Britain and France would be very grim. It would most likely improve, but then you are talking sustained high merchant kill or capture rates from 1939 until it blends into the OTL first "happy time".
Its not quite the new ships you wanted but lots of armed AMC's in 1939 is new then.
For a new thing, there has been a debate on other forums of the German diesel development. Basically, they were undergoing fantastic development until they were de-prioritized in favor of high-pressure boiler/turbines. Had they not been de-prioritized you could have seen diesel powered German ships in all classes. Think of Norway were the destroyers might only go 32-3 knots and not 36-7 (they did manage 36 knots diesel destroyers in 1943'ish, so this is a pre-war guess), but they can sail back, or the Bismarck may have lost an inch of side armor, but wont need to turn back because of a little fuel loss after the Denmark strait battle.
 
For a new thing, there has been a debate on other forums of the German diesel development. Basically, they were undergoing fantastic development until they were de-prioritized in favor of high-pressure boiler/turbines. Had they not been de-prioritized you could have seen diesel powered German ships in all classes. Think of Norway were the destroyers might only go 32-3 knots and not 36-7 (they did manage 36 knots diesel destroyers in 1943'ish, so this is a pre-war guess), but they can sail back, or the Bismarck may have lost an inch of side armor, but wont need to turn back because of a little fuel loss after the Denmark strait battle.

(my) Ship X is minelayer class of approx. size to light cruiser hence the hybrid turbine-diesel arrangement the KM used at the time. they probably COULD have developed diesel powerplants and been better off, but the French ships of era were so fast? seems reasonable gamble for high pressure steam engines? (one of problems was running all ship's systems from steam powerplant, on the destroyers at least they added diesel generators later and that helped range)

of course my "scratch fleet" of auxiliary cruisers, tankers, and Sperrbrechers are (and were IOTL) diesel powered, the KM could have funded enhanced engines in commercial ships as they did some other modifications to allow wartime use?
 
Without going into ASB or a development path not seen in OTL, I think your idea is sensible. It could have a major impact. Using mine layers and U-boats to lay mines rather than air craft could also mean the magnetic mines are not discovered so soon.
Now, the most simple and effective would be to have the AMC's ready and more numerous than OTL from 1939. With the Deutschland class on the high seas to cloud who is doing the hunting, the situation for Britain and France would be very grim. It would most likely improve, but then you are talking sustained high merchant kill or capture rates from 1939 until it blends into the OTL first "happy time".
Its not quite the new ships you wanted but lots of armed AMC's in 1939 is new then.

in the undecided column on capital ship construction, other than a rebuilding program for Deutschland-class and light cruisers, for which faults were known and could have been corrected. also would rebuild the four WWI-era ships as coastal battleships with turbine engines and greatly improved armor. beyond that??

in the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, Germany could have gotten SOMETHING if they agreed to end Panzerschiffe construction? my understanding THAT was class of ship the British really wanted to end?

the POD to develop AMCs instead, which frankly are going to cost much less and last about as long against RN.
 
what Ship X could the KM use to launch and updated WWII version of FL-Boats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FL-boat (using WWI-era technology they had a putative range of 50 miles? and wire guided so no jamming, though undoubtedly other problems)

the WWII explosive motor boats employed pilot and radio control, not exactly suicide weapon as he was expected to dive off at last possible moment, radio control taking over. but this idea was only pursued near end of war.

something like ocean liner SS Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Columbus_(1924) that carried couple dozen small boats?
 
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