Question for Achim...

Rami

Rami

Administrator
Staff member
Achim,

Given your experience on the subject, I was wondering if you could help me here.

I'm looking for two specific classes of Kreigsmarine ships, and was wondering what you might use to fit the bill.

These are the ship types...

M-class minesweepers, and Sperrbrecher-class ships.

As far as what's available, there is a German small boats package (consisting of a barge, two Z-class destroyers and a torpedo boat)

There is a Type 34 and Narvik-class destroyer set...

Do you know of anything that can fit the bill, or should a use other ships and place them under a German nationality?

There is another torpedo boat available at Mas' site.
 
M-Class

Andrew,

the M-classes (M 35, M 40 and M 43 - the number stands for the year they were designed) were coastle mine sweepers with a certain deep water capability.
M 35 was a rather sophisticated design, needed a highly skilled crew and was costly to built. 69 were build and half of them got lost.
M 40 was bigger (some 859 tns), rugged, had a coal fired power plant, was more heavily armed and more versetail. Well, it could lay and sweep mines but it was a submarine hunter and a training ship as well. Some even had 2 torpedo tubes fitted. 131 boats were built and 39 were lost in action.
M 43 was and even improved succesor of the M 40. 160 units were ordered but only 17 were finished until the end of the war.

All in all one could call them corvettes (limitted to coastle operations due to their restricted range) and they were the workhorses of the Kriegmarine for all kind of operations.

The only substitute I can think of in terms of capabilities and size would be the Flower class corvette.

Cheers

Achim


PS: The M 40`s served in other navies well into the 1960`s and the US Navy gave some back to Germany to enable the new German Navy to start all over again.
 
Sperrbrecher

Andrew,

there was never a class of sperrbrecher. The mission of a sperrbrecher (mine barrier breaker would be a direct translation) was to escort ships and boats through mine infested waters. From big trawlers to medium sized merchant ships were used. Their holds were stuffed with empty but sealed oil drumms so that they could take two or three mine hits and kept floating (and mostly operational as well).

Protection for the crew was primitive but very effective. Everybody had to stand or sit on a layer of sturdy cardboard boxes (or soft wooden ones). When a mine explodes beneath a vessel it is lifted some inches in milliseconds. That usually does severe damage to legs, hip joints and/ or spines when the impact is not buffered. With a cardboard box under your feet you will break through that box when hit by a mine and almost no damage is done to your body. And that box can be swapped cheaply and easily.

So every ship available for cfs 2 in the range of a coaster to a medium merchant man con serve as a sperrbrecher. May be someone could write a new dp-file to make it almost unsinkable.

Cheers

Achim
 
MAS' s torpedoboat

Andrew,

somehow I managed to drop the link to the MAS side. So I cannot comment on the torpedoboat. Could you provide, please.

Cheers

Achim
 
MAS torpedo boat

Andrew,

the MAS`s torpedo boat actually is a Schnellboot (USIO has one in his torpedo boat section as well) or motor torpedo boat (fast patrol boat in modern terms). These boat were some 150 tns in size and 40 plus knots fast but very limited in range. Hit and run were their business.

So the Flower class remains the only appropriate substitute.

The Sperrbrecher on the side you have provided is just one example. There were many others in different sizes and shapes.

BTW what the M – classes looked like you can check on this side as well.

Cheers

Achim
 
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