Narvik class destroyer

The Zerstörer 1936A class destroyers, or "Narvik class destroyers" as they were known to the Allies, were a class of German destroyers of the Second World War.

In terms of armament they were closer to light cruisers than the typical destroyer. The use of 5.9 inch (150 mm) guns was atypical of destroyers which tended to have guns around 4.7 to 5 inch (120 - 127 mm) in calibre. They were intended to carry their forward guns in a twin turret, but as the twin turrets were not ready in time they initially carried single mounted guns.

Despite being powerful the ships were not without their flaws. There were problems with the reliability of the high pressure steam engines and seakeeping in rough seas due to the newly designed bow and heavy forward artillery.

The eight ships of the "Zerstörer 1936A" class (Z23 to Z30) were all laid down between 1938 and 1940. The seven destroyers numbered from Z31 to Z39 were classed as Zerstörer 1936A (Mob); they were laid down in 1940 and 1941 and were slightly larger and had some internal modifications (including engines that caused less trouble than with their predecessors) from the original design to shorten construction times.

Zerstörer 1936A Specifications

*Displacement
**Standard: 2,600 tons
**Maximum: 3,605 tons
*Length: 127 m
*Beam: 12 m
*Draught: 4.65 m
*Machinery: 2 shafts, geared turbines 6 boilers, Convert|70000|hp|kW|-2|abbr=on
*Speed: convert|37.5|kn|km/h|0
*Range: convert|2150|nmi|km|-1 at convert|19|kn|km/h|0
*Armament:
**Five 150 mm guns.
**Four 37 mm guns. (later 10)
**Eight 20 mm guns. (later 20)
**Eight 533 mm torpedo tubes.
**60 mines.
**Four depth charge launchers.

Zerstörer 1936A (Mob) Specifications

*Displacement: 3,700 tons
*Length: 127 m
*Beam: 12 m
*Draught: 4.65 m
*Machinery: 2 shafts, geared turbines 6 boilers, Convert|70000|hp|kW|-2|abbr=on
*Speed: convert|37.5|kn|km/h|0
*Range: convert|2240|nmi|km|-1 at convert|19|kn|km/h|0
*Armament:
**Five 150 mm guns.
**Four 37 mm guns. (later 14)
**Twelve 20 mm guns. (later 18)
**Eight 533 mm torpedo tubes.
**60 mines.
**Four depth charge launchers.

hips

The class, including the 36A (Mob), consisted of 15 ships. All were built by Deschimag (Bremen) apart from Z37, Z38 and Z39 which were built by Germania (Kiel).

References

M.H Whitley, Destroyers of World War 2, 1988 Cassell Publishing ISBN 1-85409-521-8

ee also

German World War II destroyers