The Antarctican Senate had cancelled the 2nd Captain Scott class battleships and re-ordered it as the Major Amundsen (CV). This left the Antarctican Navy with four twin 18" mountings. The problem to solve was 'what to do with them'. Scrap them? - but the cost and amount of time to produce them had been huge, scrapping them would be a waste. Warehouse them till they could be used on a new ship? That could easily be 20-30 years in the future - who knows what advances would have been made by then to make the guns obsolete. Put them aboard vessels that would stay within the current regulations. This would either be in four monitors with one turret each or as Coast Defence Battleships (that also could be used as monitors) with two turrets each. Sort of Super Pre-Dreadnoughts. So the drawbacks. The barbette is big and needs a wide ship to be able to brace it in place. The other dimension is depth, the barbette protrudes a long way into the hull. As can be seen from the Furious (two single 18") below, even the barbettes for the single turrets extend a long way above deck. The Furious was supposed to make 32 knots so the hull is as long and slender as it could be to make that speed. The Middendorf was only to make 18 knots with diesel engines. Short and fat like a steam iron.



The two ships were discounted by the world super powers as the armour was light and the speed low. Against any modern battleship they would get creamed. The ships had been designed with shore bombardment in mind. The range of the guns and the destructive power of the shells they fired made them superb for bunker busting and beating down any defensive lines. Given a spotter aircraft to aid in the bombardment process the guns became even more lethal. (I wrote this last night and reading it back next morning, my thought was "Wouldn't it carry its own spotter aircraft?) Below was my first try for drawing the Middendorf Version 1.



My next drawing effort includes my thought that the two ships would have their own aircraft handling facilities. Middendorf Version 2.



The Middendorf class were listed as Coast Defence Battleships. That was their prime duty in peace time, cruising the coasts of Antarctica, looking out for smugglers and even attempts to breakaway from Antarctica. Civil War, as one area of the Senate decides it could do better on its own. The other part of its peace time duties was as training ships. A third of the hangar would be broken up into dormitories for the trainees, retaining two of the three aircraft for observation duties around the ship.



As aircraft became more and more capable, the armament to fight them off also became more numerous. The quad 2 pounder mounting abaft the funnel was replaced with an octuple mounting, the slow firing single 2 pounder were replaced with many more 20mm cannons. None of the AA weapons had any director control until the remaining ship went through a 1942 40mm refit.

The Major Middendorf was lost to sheer incompetence. The theatre commander ordered the Middendorf to cover the withdrawal of the remaining troops out of Greece across to Crete. That duty should have been tasked to a couple of fast destroyers. The slow and very valuable Middendorf was well within range of German aircraft the next day and paid the price for its slow speed. Stukas hit the ship time and again until the ship could take no more, capsized and sunk. A complete waste. Middendorf should have withdrawn days before back to Egypt where it was invaluable supporting the army along the coastal roads - and up to 25 miles inland. Nasty surprises for Axis troops when 18" shells arrived among them. This controversy led to the replacement of the Theatre commander as Antarctica threatened to withdraw its forces from the Mediterannean if the idiot was not replaced. Along came Monty.

 

Displacement	22,750 tons standard, 25,300 tons full load
Length	600 ft	614 ft	614 ft
Breadth	102 ft
Draught	26 ft
Machinery	2 shaft, diesel engines, 30,000ihp
Speed	18 knots
Range	12,000 miles at 12 knots
Armour	8" side, 5" deck, 16" turrets
Armament	As completed Version 1. 4 x 18" (2x2) 8 x 6" (4x2) 8 x 4" AA (8x1) 16 x 2pd (3x4, 4x1)	As completed Version 2 4 x 18" (2x2) 10 x 6" (10x1) 6 x 4" AA (6x1) 16 x 2pd (3x4, 4x1)	Version 2 refits 4 x 18" (2x2) 10 x 6" (10x1) 6 x 4" AA (6x1) 16 x 2pd (1x8, 2x4) 16 x 20mm (16x1)
Aircraft	nil	3	3
Complement	835	845	880
Notes	Major Middendorf General Dylan

Wreck of the Italian cruiser San Giorgio, in Tobruk Harbour, after the Middendorf and Dylan bombarded the port. (the photos are of the original ship not my new version)