1934-Type Destroyer (Z1-Class)

Briefing
written by
James Davies

Key Information

Overview

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles restricted Germany to 12 commissioned destroyers (plus an unspecified number of reserve ships), and stipulated that any future destroyers must displace less than 800 tons . In the 1920s, all the major naval powers were building destroyers that were significantly larger than this, and in 1930 they agreed to limit destroyers to a maximum of 1,850 long tons (1,880 metric tonnes), with the majority not exceeding 1,500 long tons (1,524 metric tonnes). Germany, however, was still expected to comply with the Versailles treaty limitations.

In November 1932 (before Hitler came to power) the German navy began planning a force to respond to the large destroyers being built by Poland and France. These plans called for a reserve force of large destroyers considerably in excess of the Versailles treaty limitations (around 1,500 long tons), and approval was given to begin design work on these ships in March 1933 (over two years before Hitler was to officially renounce the Versailles treaty). It was recognised that in any future war Germany would be numerically outnumbered by her potential enemies, however the intention was to offset this by building destroyers that were individually superior to those of other nations and to this end the design size of these ships was soon pushed up to 1,850 long tons.

The ships were fitted with five 127 mm (5 in) guns, in five single mounts, giving them a one-gun advantage over the British and French destroyers currently in service. Interestingly, they were only allocated 120 rounds per gun (giving them a maximum of seven minutes continuous firing under ideal 'practice' conditions), compared to 200 rounds per gun in contemporary British designs (and increased to 250 rounds per gun in later British designs).

Eight 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes were fitted, with a nominal eight torpedo reloads (although only four were provided in practice). This matched contemporary British designs, and exceeded the French provision of six tubes, neither of which was fitted with torpedo reloads.
Two sets of twin 37 mm (1.5 in) guns were provided for air defence. These were gyro-stabilised, although this failed on occasion during sharp turns at high speed. They theoretically fired up to 160 rounds per minute, however in action only 80 rounds per minute was achieved. The defences were rounded off with six 20 mm (0.8 in) guns.

Surprisingly, given the German experience with submarines, only limited anti-submarine facilities were provided. The ships were initially fitted with hydrophones (passive listening devices), fixed to the sides of the ship. An active device was developed, however it was only introduced slowly (two of the Type 34 / 34A had been upgraded by the end of 1939, and it wasn't until the end of 1940 that all ships had been equipped). Four launchers and two rails were provided for depth charges, but only 18 depth charges were fitted (four on the launchers and six on each rail).

High speed was an important requirement, to enable the ships to escape from a numerically superior enemy and to allow operations (particularly minelaying) to be undertaken at night, with the vessels returning to protected waters before daybreak. Unfortunately, the new design of boiler proved to be less than reliable, hampering the availability of the ships for operations.

These ships were sound in principle, however they suffered from a number of problems primarily caused by Germany's lack of design and operational experience after the First World War. These problems manifested themselves in a number of areas, such as hull cracks (due to lack of structural strength, the design of the stern causing sagging, and weakness of the bow design), seakeeping and stability problems (due to high topweight and narrow beam), large turning circle (due to the stern design), low reliability (due to the new boiler design), spray forward (due to the bow design) and being significantly overweight on completion. In addition, the low ammunition supply was important on at least one occasion (with several ships running out of ammunition in the Second Battle of Narvik), and the torpedo reloads were difficult to undertake at sea. Teething problems are to be expected in any new warship design, however Germany did not have the time to iron out the problems before the Second World War began. Nevertheless, these were the most numerous type of destroyer produced by Germany, and provided much needed information for subsequent designs.

Units

Specifications

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