RZS Isengard (BB-1939)

 

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To fulfill their obligations to the Commonwealth of Nations, Zealandia needed to build and complete two modern capital ships between the period 1935 to 1940. Details of the King George V battleships and other designs were sent from the Royal Navy design groups to the Zealandia Navy yards who were tasked with designing and building the new ships. The Zealandian designers had to take into consideration, not only the ships that might be faced, but also where Zealandia was in the world and how long it might take the ships to get to the scene of the action.

In the Pacific this would mean battling with Japanese Kongos and 8" cruisers. In the Atlantic would be hunting German raiders with their 11"-12" guns. It was felt the new ships needed to be well armed enough to be able to sink those vessels and well armoured enough to survive the engagement.

To this end the designers chose to fit the quad 14" of the same type as the King George V, but where the King George V was designed to have three, the new Zealandian ships would only have two fitted, both forward. The speed was set at 30 knots as this would not require too large a hull to achieve higher speeds. But would be fast enough to stay with and/or catch their quarry. The final design came in at 31,500 tons standard displacement, with a full load of 38,750 tons full load.

No sooner were the two ships completed than they were docked again for fitting of the first 20mm AA guns, Radar for gunnery direction, air search, etc. More and more 20mm were fitted through to the end of 1942 when all of the 2 pounder mounts and 20mm started being replace with 40mm mounts in quads, twins and singles.


RZS Hornburg with Vice Admirals flag flying for the Fleet Commander for the Zealandian Navy.

I actually like the second version of the Isengard class better than the original drawing I did. It looks cleaner and less bulky than the original.
 

Displacement 31,500 tons std 38,750 tons full load
Length 706 ft
Breadth 100 ft
Draught 28 ft
Machinery 4 shaft steam turbines, 120,000shp
Speed 30 knots
Range 10000 miles at 14 knots
Armour 12" side, 6" deck, 13"/11"/9" turrets
Armament Version 1.
8 x 14" (4x2)
20 x 4.5" (10x2)
48 x 2pd (6x8)
 
Version 2
8 x 14" (2x4)
20 x 4.5" (10x2)
72 x 2pd (8x8 2x4)
24 x 20mm (24x1)
Aircraft 2
Torpedoes nil
Complement 1490 (1540 as Flagship)
Notes RZS Isengard (01/1939)

RZS Hornburg (02/1939)

14" quadruple turret under construction for RZS Isengard.

 

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