KM Hindenburg (BB-1943)

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First and last of the "H" class ships (the other 5 were scrapped), the Hindenburg was the pinnacle of German battleship construction. While no one thing was that much better than its contemporaries, overall the ship ticked all the boxes. Large enough to absorb tremendous damage, and armed well enough to dish out as much as it could take.

To be armed with 8x16" the armament was changed to 12x15" during the final planning stages. It is simple, you fire twelve guns instead of 8, you have a 50% better chance of hitting your target. The reloading time of the 16" to the 15" is 1/2 a shell per minute. More shells in the air faster than your opponent equals gurgle gurgle for your opponent. When wargaming this ship against all others, only the American Montanas with their 12x16" defeat this type. And even that is a close match.

Other changes to the original specs is the fitting of a 5.1" dual purpose gun. 24 were fitted in 12 twin turrets. The 37/20mm weapons were replaced with the radar controlled triple 30mm AA cannon.

The amount of steel used in this ship was enough to outfit a full Panzer Division. That gives some idea of how much value is placed on each battleship fielded by all the different navies. The loss of an Armoured division in one battle could swing an entire battlefront. So it is with a battleship. While Tirpitz existed above water in Norwegian waters, tremendous forces had to be kept at hand to ensure that if the chance presented itself that the Tirpitz could be defeated.

An interesting composite photo depicting the real Tirpitz in a Norwegian Fijord with maybe the 16" Hindenburg at same scale. It might be that the pic is to represent one of the bigger H44 type battleships as it would appear to be a bit more than a 110 feet bigger than Tirpitz.

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