Shipbucket

The Bayreuth was one of the last ships to receive a refit before the invasion started. Her torpedotubes were replaced by stores with quickloaders for the 12 installed Foehn-launchers.
Due to shortage no new radars and no new aa-guns were installed. The last available cans of blue camo were painted on the hull then she left Kiel to meet the invasion fleet.
In the following battles the Bayreuth earned the nickname 'Beisser' (biter) for shooting down 51 aircraft through the campaign. Later she escorted the carrier Rheinland at its mediterran raid on Gibraltar and Malta.
The Foehn was an unguided aa-missile which proved as useless as the british UP (more than 5000 missiles fired, 1 hit). In my AU the Foehn has a longer career because of some misleading successes and is in use until the upcomming of jets at other air forces.

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Nice ships! But what is the launcher installed mid-ship on Bayreuth?

I believe them to be early SAMs (unguided rockets if they're what I think they are - Hs297s)

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These are Henschel Hs-297 'Foehn'-Launchers.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_297 (sorry, german only).

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Oops! Didn't see the turrets next to the funnel! Yes, she's indeed got enough guns!

-Matt

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

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In 1951 the Bayreuth class CLAAs (excluding 'Kiel') got a final refit with 'Tornado'- and 'Taifun'-SAMs including the needed radars and directors. Two 5,5cm full auto turrets were installed, the 12,8cm DP-wing-turrets were kept. At the former position of the torpedolaunchers the Foehn-launchers and stores were removed and two 'Geier'-ASROC-launchers and magazines installed. The 'Geier' was the sole anti-ship-weapon (beside the 5"-DPs). The Bayreuth DDGs kept their anti-air-role and were in use until the 70s. Only the 'Eisenach' was sold to Turkey in 1965. 'Kiel' was scrapped in 1947 due to her heavy damage taken by RAF-bombers. 'Gera' was decommissioned in 1972 and became a museum in 1977 after replacing all militairy stuff with fake devices. She was placed at Wilhelmshaven Marine Museum. If you want to visit her you'll find her beside the famous carrier 'Graf Zeppelin'.

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LOVE the DDG conversion! Please tell me Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau - or at least ONE of these - also end up as museums in this AU!

-Matt

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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The revolutionary Z-51 class of 1946. The first batch was built with a mixed main artillery. The delivery of 12,8cm twin-DP-turrets was deleyed, so two 15cm twin turrets and two 3" aa turrets were installed. This first batch was later brought to the batch-2-standard. The second batch was fitted with four 12,8cm DP twin turrets. The first afterwar refit 1948 replaced the aft turrets with a 'Taifun'-twin-SAM-launcher. 1951 6 ships were fitted with A17m SSMs on the foreship. Most ships of the Z-51 were given to other navies, beginning 1961 with Z-51 to Z-53 going to Argentine.
1st batch

2nd batch

1948 refit

1951 refit

original Hamburg

The Z-51 class is derived or better devolved from the original Hamburg-class DD. We once had a discussion about top weight of the Z-51. Again, I reduced the Z-51 one deck compared to Hamburg! And again, the Hamburgs were seaworthy ships (so far Bootsmann Gerhard Klingenberg a.D., a neighbor of mine). So it's not useful to discuss that again. Other comments are welcome as always.

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A very interesting design, but there seems to be a bit of rigging missing, at least for the flag. Also nice to now the backstories of at least some of the ships. A part of me always wants to now the exact number of ships and names of each class. Which has me wondering: If there was a Bayreuth-class Kiel, what happened to the LST Kiel? (This is just a minor nitpick, because I don't like to have two ships of the same name at the same time, especially when there are alternatives available.)

Anyways, keep up the good work and I'll be planning my next trip to Wilhelmshaven

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Any help and source material is always welcome.

LOVE the DDs!

-Matt

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB