Shipbucket

Großdeutschland (1815-1947)

WIP

Originally, this AU was based off of the greater Monarchia AU that I and some SB members had going, but now I just keep picking away at my portion thus far. The basis of Großdeutschland is that Germany defeats Austro-Hungary and incorporates it into their empire. Some of you may have seen my drawings posted now and then in the challenge threads but I would like to try and place what I have in this thread. So, I'll try to update as I go



Reichsmarine (WIP)


Protected Cruisers
- Louise Class
- Prinzess Maria Class
- Kaiserin Viktoria Class
- Marz Class

Unprotected Cruisers
- Tiger Class
- Leopard Class
- Gepard Class
- Lowe Class

Armored Cruisers
- Ehrenberg Class
- Charlotte Class (1898) (!Victoria Louise)
- Kiesling Class
- Honigsberg Class
- Oesau Class

Light Cruisers (Kleine Kreuzer)
- Freyr Class
- Stuttgart Class
- Mainz Class
- Neuß Class (1908)
- Stettin Class (1909) (!Kolberg)
- Regensburg Class (1911) (!Magdeburg)
- Bayreuth Class (1913) (!Karlsruhe)
- Tannenberg Class (1914) (!Graudenz)
- Hirschberg Class
- Stralsund Class
- Meißen Class
- Rheine Class
- Greifswald Class
- Wittenberg Class

Fleet Cruiser (Flottenkreuzer)
- FK I
- FK Ia
- FK II
- FK IIa
- FK IIb
- FK IIc
- FK III
- FK IIIa
- FK IV
- FK IVa
- FK V
- FK Va
- FK VI
- FK VIa
- FK VIb
- FK VII

Light Cruiser (Lichte Kreuzer)
- TBD
- TBD
- Maufeld Class (1929) (!K-berg)
- TBD (!Koln)
- TBD (!Leipzig)
- TBD (!15cm Hipper)

Heavy Cruisers (Schwere Kreuzer)
- TBD
- Projekt Ia/Ib
- Roon Class
- TBD (!German Furutaka)
- TBD (!German Aoba)
- TBD (!Hipper)
- TBD (!Super Hipper)

Large Cruisers (Panzerschiffe)
- TBD (!Deutschland/Lutzow)
- TBD (!Admiral Scheer/Admiral Graf Spee)
- TBD (!D-Class)
- TBD (!P-Class)
- TBD (!Super P-Class)

Large Cruisers (Große Kreuzer)
- Von Der Reichenau Class (1910) (!Von der Tann)
- TBD (!Moltke/Goeben Class)
- TBD (!Seydlitz Class)
- Eichhorn Class (1915) (!Derfflinger)
- TBD (!Mackensen Class)
- TBD (!Yorck Class)
- TBD (!GK Design Studies)

Battlecruisers (Schlactkreuzer)
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD

Coastal Defense Ships* (Kustenpanzerschiffe)
- TBD (!Siegfried Class)
- TBD (!Odin Class)

Pre-dreadnoughts (Linienschiffe)
- TBD (!Brandenberg Class)
- TBD (!Kaiser Friedrich III Class)
- TBD (!Wittelsbach Class)
- TBD (!Braunschweig Class)
- Rheinland Class (!Deutschland Class)

Dreadnoughts (Großelinienschiffe)
- Wilhelm I Class (1907) (!Nassau)
- Sachsen Class
- TBD (!Kaiser (II) Class)
- TBD (!Konig Class)
- TBD (!Bayern Class)


Battleships (Schlachtschiffe)
- TBD

Auxiliary/Escort Carriers (Hilfsflugzeugträger)
- TBD

Light Carriers (Leichtflugzeugträger)
- TBD

Fleet Carriers (Flugzeugträger)
- TBD

Torpedo Boats (Torpedoboote)
- TBD*

Torpedo Boat Destroyer (Torpedoboot-Zerstörer)
- TBD*

Destroyer (Zerstörer)
- TBD*

(Miscellaneous smaller ships TBD)

FD Scale: (WIP...gotta sort through my posts )

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List of Aircraft with Acquired Data (Updated)
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Maufeld Class (1929)

So, this design was originally a request from our member Shigure to draw his Mandorf class light cruiser which can be seen in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=8265&start=260#p198274

I actually ended up quite liking the design, so I decided to try and challenge myself to draw a whole class throughout their service life in the AU, which ended up being the following Maufeld Class, which replaces the Konigsberg and Koln classes compared to IRL. In total, I ended up doing about 25 drawings that varied somewhat, but overall it was fun to do.
There are 4 ships in the class, Maufeld, Neunmarkt, Muhlbruck, and Feldkreis. In addition, there is one design study dated 1927.

Maufeld Class (Entwurf Projekt 1927)


SMS Maufeld (1929)

SMS Maufeld (1932)

SMS Maufeld (1935)

SMS Maufeld (1941)

SMS Maufeld (1942)

SMS Maufeld (1944)

SMS Neunmarkt (1930)

SMS Neunmarkt (1933)

SMS Neunmarkt (1937)

SMS Neunmarkt (1941)

SMS Neunmarkt (1943)

SMS Neunmarkt (1946)

SMS Muhlbruck (1930)

SMS Muhlbruck (1932)

SMS Muhlbruck (1934)

SMS Muhlbruck (1938)

SMS Muhlbruck (1940)

SMS Muhlbruck (1945)

SMS Feldkreis (1931)

SMS Feldkreis (1935)

SMS Feldkreis (1939)

SMS Feldkreis (1942)

SMS Feldkreis (1944)

SMS Feldkreis (1947)


Pst, hey you, if you made it this far...thanks for looking

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List of Aircraft with Acquired Data (Updated)
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Von der Reichenau Class (1910)

The first battlecruiser for Großdeutschland, this design was based upon a real Von der Tann preliminary design: Große Kreuzer F Scheme 2a (dated September 1906). This was actually a near-complete redraw of another battlecruiser I did for a WOWS RFP for a Chinese capital ship (seen below). Armed with eight 28cm SK L/50 (two turrets amidships), eight 15cm SK L/45, and sixteen 8.8cm SK L/45 guns, she also had a speed of 24 knots, which was still slightly slower than the British battlecruisers that were then in service. She survived numerous engagements with the British Grand Fleet, and was present at their surrender at Scapa Flow in 1919. She would eventually be sold off to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, where she served under the name Yu Gong Zhu (Jade Princess) - as per the lore of the original RFP.

SMS Von der Reichenau (1910)

SMS Von der Reichenau (1914)

SMS Von der Reichenau (1915)

SMS Von der Reichenau (1916)

SMS Von der Reichenau (1918)

SMS Von der Reichenau (1920)


Original Roon Class (1911) RFP Design:

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List of Aircraft with Acquired Data (Updated)
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Wilhelm I Class (1907)

The first all-gun dreadnought for Großdeutschland, the Wilhelm I class replaces the Nassau class in OTL. It is based upon Ersatz-Bayern Scheme G7b (dated February 1906) - albeit slightly longer - and he is armed with twelve 28cm SK L/40 in a hexagonal arrangement, twelve 15cm SK L/45 on the broadsides, and twenty 8.8cm SK L/45 guns for the tertiary battery. In addition, there were five 45cm torpedo tubes (2 on each broadside, and one at the bow). The maximum design speed attainable was given as 19.8 knots maximum, although most ships of the class pushed just above 20 knots on trial runs.

The four ships were laid down as a response to the British Dreadnought-class ships being built at the time. They were named: Wilhelm I, Friederich Wilhelm III, Heinrich VI, and Friedrich Barbarossa. They were commissioned in 1909-1910, being built at Kaiserliche Werft, AG Weser, AG Vulcan, and Germaniawerft respectively. The ships were nearly 1,000 tons heavier than their adversaries, and well armored. Main belt armor was 24cm thick, tapering to 10cm at the extremities, 3cm deck, 25cm thick turrets (and ~20cm to ~23cm for the barbettes), and a 25cm armor protection for the conning tower.

Service in Der Ester Weltkrieg

Together, Wilhelm I, Friederich Wilhelm III, Heinrich VI, and Friedrich Barbarossa made up the 1st Battle Squadron (the later Sachsen class would comprise of the 2nd Battle Squadron), After the outbreak of the war in 1914, the first major operation which the ships participated in was the November 2-3 raid on Scarborough. However, no contact was made between fleets, and another operation was launched at the beginning of December. In this operation, twelve dreadnoughts, and twelve pre-dreadnoughts of the Hochseefleet participated - in addition to the accompanying screen of cruisers and destroyers. The British were informed of the attack, but were not sure of the precise location, but yet set out in search of them with the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, and 8 battleships of the 2nd Battleship Squadron, along with a screen of cruisers and destroyers as well. Their mission was to engage and destroy the German 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, but Task Force Beatty ended up running into nearly the entire Hochseefleet battleline in the early hours of the morning.

In the intense 2-hour melee that followed, the British screening force duked it out with the German curtain of cruisers destroyers, at times what was - literally - point-blank range. The British destroyers moved in for a torpedo attack, and one of them, HMS Acasta (the lead ship of her class), fired several torpedoes at Friedrich Wilhelm III (which she somehow mistook for a light cruiser!) and even fired her main guns as she closed the range. However, as she pressed the attack, Friedrich Wilhelm III maneuvered to ram the smaller vessel. Acasta was able to make a hard to starboard maneuver at the last moment, with the left side of the bows of each ship colliding with one another. As the destroyer passed under the larger ship, SMS Friedrich Wilhelm III fired her main 28cm cannons, blowing off the front torpedo tubes with the gasses of its heavy weapons. This caused the captain of the ship to crouch down, and as he did, the shell literally grazed over his head, how he managed to survive that must have been due to an extraordinary amount of luck! After the collision, Acasta managed to stagger away from the main German battle line, and the damage to the pre-dreadnought was surprisingly minimal, although there was a huge gash across the length of her forecastle.

Both ships survived the engagement, though not unscathed of course. At sunrise, Beatty's forces disengaged, leaving behind a pair of armored cruisers, a light cruiser, and a trio of destroyers that were burning or sinking. On the German side, there was a loss of 4 torpedo-boats, and 3 damaged cruisers (some heavily). Tactically, it was a German victory, but neither side achieved their objective of crippling or sinking the other side's capital ships. The Wilhelm I class would have a fairly distinguished career, being at the forefront of many sorties and engagements at the beginning of the war. However as the war carried on, they were regulated to more coastal defense ships, as bigger and better capital ships were commissioned into the Reichsmarine. Below is the evolution of the ships through their service careers (the first and last pairs being similar to one another). At war's end, they were converted into Mutterschiffe fur F-Boote, with Heinrich VI and Friedrich Barbarossa differing slightly in their get-up.


SMS Wilhelm I (1909) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Wilhelm I (1911) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Wilhelm I (1915) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Wilhelm I (1916) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Wilhelm I (1918) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Wilhelm I (1919) (Friedrich Wilhelm III similar)

SMS Heinrich VI (1919) (Friedrich Barbarossa similar)

(Last pair are WIP)

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Great stuff

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Very nice drawings, being based on real preliminary studies lends them an air of realism.

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Awesome work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Hi all,

I went in and stealthily updated my recent posts with more drawings depicting the ships through various years in service. I still need to go back and update the backstory more in-depth for them, as well as maybe an alternate "Mutterschiffe als F-boote" loadout for Heinrich VI/Friedrich Barbarossa but schoolwork has been busy

Any critiques/pointers are always appreciated

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Me-262 Series
Fw-190/Ta-152 Series
Germany AU Thread
Luft '46 Thread

List of Aircraft with Acquired Data (Updated)
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 80#p123956

Now we just have to search for those updates. but that is all "elementary Holmes"

Those are some fine looking cruisers, nicely done.

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Any help and source material is always welcome.