Kreuzer P Class

Panzerschiff Kreuzer P Class was a German Navy cruiser first designed as a successor to the original "Deutschland" class in 1938. The new Panzerschiff was called Kreuzer P, its specifications showed a bigger, faster and better protected version of the original design. In many respects it was a modification of the design of the battlecruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau".

Since those ships should be used for commerce war, they were designed to be superior to a heavy cruiser with its artillery and faster than existing battleships. In favor for better armed ships it was chosen to build a huge number of this ships, according to the Plan Z twelve of them should have been built.

It was planned to lay down four of this ships per year, starting in 1939 so that the complete Plan Z battle fleet would be operational by 1947. The first three of those ships should get the 28 cm (11") turrets removed from the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisneau" during their conversion to 38 cm (15") guns. As it became apparent in 1939 that this conversion would not be able in 1941/42 when it was originally scheduled for, three of the planned Kreuzer P should be modified to get 38 cm turrets which were already in production. This led to the battlecruiser O Class .

Although the ships were already assigned to shipyards, none of the Kreuzer P class ships were ever ordered because of the start of World War II.

ee also

Plan Z