KM Z-61 (DD-1944)

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Technology advances came together on Germanic States destroyers with the completion of Z60 in mid-1944. The whole of the armament was power operated automatic weapons. Twin 105mm/L70 (4.1") automatic turrets were mounted one forward and aft. While the rest of the automatic weapons were the triple 30mm belt fed anti-aircraft cannons, All of these weapons were tied to Radar for targeting and spotting.

One set of torpedoes was sacrificed to add to the anti-aircraft weaponry, the other set was replaced with another new weapon system, a set of rocket assisted homing torpedoes. These torpedoes were supposed to be able to hunt both surface and sub-surface targets. The rocket assistance was to get the torpedo as close to the target as possible before it would enter the water, shed its rocket motor and got to torpedo mode with acoustic homing. The 30mm canons required a 'shell' room directly underneath the mounting for that is where the bins of the continuous belts of canon shells were found. The water cooling system for the 30mm contained a pump to move the water through pipes, in a helix shape, in the outer barrel. Anything that came within range of the 30mm cannons met a 'hail of lead' that virtually shredded the targets.

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