The Greenlandian Navy ended World War Two with over twenty small to large cruisers that would populate its post-war fleet, the Qos, Tallai and Pidray classes. The Greenlandian Navy would not need to look at new cruiser construction for another ten years. Keeping the ships they had in commission was taking a lot of resources. The thought was that some may need to be mothballed to allow others to stay in commission.
With the end of World War Two, all of the major powers made grabs for as many of the 'rocket' scientists they could get from Germany. While Greenland may have missed out on getting some, they were assured by the other victorious Allied powers, USA, UK, and France, that the results of the information garnered would be shared with them. With that assurance they would have to be satisfied.
Greenlandian scientists had been at Peenemunde when the Allies took the German research facility. They might not have been able to take away any product of German research but they had been given access to the information to copy what they could, and take photos, a lot of photos, of everything. Armed with that information a fledgling rocket facility was built to start producing rocketry and jet propulsion units of all kinds for the Army and Navy. The first units to come out of the facility were copies of British jet engines for aircraft. These would have immediate effect as both the Navy and Army produced aircraft to trial the new technology. While the Navy concentrated on single engined aircraft the Army went single, twin, and four engined aircraft. Rocketry was not forgotten and trials with various rocket types from ones where you lit the fuse, stood back and watched it go, to much more serious liquid fuelled rockets in the V2 mould were trialled.
The Navy was interested in obtaining several different types of rocket powered armaments. Short, medium and long ranged anti-aircraft missiles. Short, medium and long ranged surface to surface missiles to arm everything from battleship sized vessels to a new breed of fast attack craft. Most of all the Navy wanted anti-submarine warfare equipment. Greenland was dependent on seaborne trade which made it vulnerable to submarine interdiction. With the modern submarines being able to stay submerged for long periods of time, and difficult to detect, it only got worse when nuclear powered submarines entered the picture and the 'Cold' War started to heat up.
Through the 1950's all types of information arrived from the UK and USA on the trials those countries were carrying out with all of the jet and rocket powered weaponry. Greenlandian scientists were a part of the teams in both countries and learnt much that could be passed back to Greenland. BUT, they were well aware that they were not being shown everything. The ongoing research into things nuclear was placed beyond Greenland at this stage.
The 1950's finally showed some results for Greenland to the point where the cruiser Tallai could be taken out of the mothball fleet and converted to the fleets anti-aircraft missile trials ship.
All armament except the three twin 40mm mounted around the bridge was removed. Forward was mounted a twin launcher for medium ranged missiles. In the centre of the ship was a box launcher for short range missiles. Aft was a single launch arm for long range missiles. The actual launchers were as much on trial as the missiles themselves. The sensor and radar array was updated several times as the way to control the missiles from ship to target was refined.
The long range missile (Cutlass) aft was tied to the search array and would be launched when the target was acquired to then be guided by the target director mounted behind it. What was discovered that the director could only focus on one missile at a time. Two missiles launched required two directors.
The medium range missile (Scimitar) required the same workings as the long range missile with one major difference. The radar for acquisition and guidance could be the same because of the shorter range. Like the long range missile the medium missiles could use either single or twin launching arms.
The short range missiles (Rapier) could use infra-red, proximity detectors, and radar assistance to acquire and guide itself to the target. The mounting for these missiles were twin, quad, and octuple box launchers
Only the two latest completed Tallai class from 1941-42 were still in service and were earmarked for having one twin medium range missile launcher mounted and two boxes of short ranged missiles. They would keep the forward 5.5" and twin 40mm. The missiles were for aircraft, the guns were still needed for surface problems.
I took inspiration for some of the Tallai class conversions from the Italian conversion of the Garibaldi class cruiser which was even older being completed in 1936. The forward end of the Zabib is pretty standard WW2 stuff with updated radars and directors for the 'gun' armament. Two four pack Rapier missile launchers are set amidships with their local radar controller mounted forward of the box mounting. It is the medium range Scimitar system that is the main AA armament. With its dedicated search and controller radar systems giving the missiles a good knockdown capability. This was put to the test at the 1982 Battles around the Falkland Islands. These ships were by then forty years old and would have been scrapped that year if the Argentinian War had not started. They were a part of Greenland's contribution to the Royal Navy's request for assistance.
The surviving Qos class ships were listed as anti-aircraft cruisers but had the problem that the US had converted some of the Atlanta class hulls with 3"/L70 twin turrets and weapon A depth charge mortars and re-classed them as Destroyer Leaders. The Greenlandian Navy was looking to convert their Qos class to a new designation for them 'Flotilla Cruiser'. It was the size of the ships rather than the weaponry that counted.
The Qos class had eight ships remaining after WW2, two had been lost to enemy action. Of the eight remaining the Greenlandian Navy started converting the last two completed and while these conversions were underway it was decided only two would be done as it would be more cost effective to build brand new units, purpose built. The two Qos class converted were trials ships for various weaponry for Anti-Submarine Warfare. Better asdic and sonar units (UK and US designations) were trialled along with three different types of ASW weapons. The US Weapon 'A' was mounted forward of the bridge. The RATS (Rocket Assisted) anti-submarine homing torpedoes were mounted amidships and a Squid mounting was set into the deck aft. The four twin 3"/L60 automatic mountings could put out a prodigious amount of metal in the air as AA weapons, while four single 40mm/L60 Bofors cannons were mounted around the fore and aft superstructure with predictor units.
The six Pidray class heavy cruisers were the last of the pure gun armed cruisers completed for Greenland. The twin 8" was a very good weapon system and the twelve turrets removed for these ships conversions were kept and reused for a new cruiser class built in the later 1960's. The same with the twenty-four turrets of 3"/L60 automatic guns. The first eight went to arm the rebuilt Qos class cruisers.
Some thought had been given to converting two of the ships to double ended missile ships, with the Cutlass aft and a Scimitar mounting forward. The Scimitar mounting would replace 'B' turret with 'A' turret being retained for surface action and shore bombardment. The biggest problem with that was the extra space required for all of the electronics, radar, and target designators. A quad box of Rapier missiles was mounted on each beam with their controller aft of the box. All six ships had a long and successful service life ranging from 35 to 45 years. Two of the ships fought at the Falkland Islands conflict while two at at time were rotated in and out of the Asian wars being fought in the 1960's and 70's.
The two latest Azizos class battleships were earmarked for conversion to BBG's. They would have anti-aircraft, surface to surface, and inter continental missiles fitted. While still retaining 'gun' weaponry for bombardment purposes (either surface or shore targets). The two remaining ships would have some missiles added to their armaments, normally replacing twin 5" mountings, with Rapier anti aircraft missiles. The 16" armament being retained. The four ships served well into the 1990's before being removed from service. One of the gun armed ships was retained as a floating monument, the other three were scrapped.
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Where the Pidray conversions had two missiles on the rails and ten in the rotary magazine, the much bigger 16" barbette could fit a twenty round rotary magazine. With two Cutlass mountings, this would give more missiles in the air. The much larger battleship had much more scope for a missile armament for all purposes. In saying that, it was the anti aircraft threat that was taken most seriously and what the ships were armed against.