Nazi Germany's Terrifying Plan Z: Build the Ultimate Battleship Fleet

Thank you for sharing Germany's Plan Z. Great history share.

Germany, like Japan, lived in a historical fantasy world of what-if's and should haves. Yes, world war one's epic Jutland battle was a tactical German victory. But not a strategic one. And sadly, wars aren't won based on tactical success. Britain started the battle as the winner. Prior to the first shot! In fact, Britain was the winner prior to even putting to sea! Britain could afford the losses. Germany could not. Germany was given the suggestion of a balanced military but instead chose to build what was cheap (airplanes) in large numbers. Germany's argument that quality beats quantity was proven in spades when 10 million French soldiers were soundly defeated *ON THE BATTLEFIELD* by less than 3 million Germans. But *NOT* on the water... Had France not surrendered, or most accurately, HAD FRANCE BEEN MORE CAPABLY LEAD, the Kriegsmarine would have been in for a nasty shock. This gave the Germans false hope and they wasted precious resources building ships that served little purpose. Basically, they hired $20 per hour men to do $3 per hour jobs. And while impressive, there were flaws.

Germany's only successful uses of sea power were attrition battles where the 600 ship Royal Navy (the largest in the world at the time) allowed the Germans to engage and then withdraw so as to hunt them down later and ruin them as a coherent force (which they in fact, did...). German success was looked at as a result of superior gunnery. "Why, just more guns will make things better..." No. It doesn't. One ship with 80 guns doesn't beat 80 ships with 10 guns. Germany's lone success would be her submarine campaign. At that point, the emphasis should have been on bum-rushing as many subs as possible into production. Hitler disagreed. In a weird kind of way, Germany's pre-war air training and Spanish Civil War experience produced some of the best pilots in the world, right up until the end of the war. So strangely, a fleet consisting *SOLELY* of aircraft carriers would actually have stood Germany in good stead. No. GREAT STEAD. But sadly, they didn't see that either.

WW2's opening naval activity told everyone everything they needed to know. One British heavy cruiser and two light cruisers, tracked and outfought a pocket battleship; the Graf Spee. On the other hand, a lone U-boat, U-47, snuck into Britain's major fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak. Subs 1. Major surface combatants 0. Yet, the plan was still to stick with battleships. Like Japan, Germany longed for a major, all consuming sea battle that would involve lines of battleships circling the ocean waiting their turn to engage. So Bismarck and Tirpitz continued. Italy actually had quite a large/powerful/impressive Navy and with them on Hitler's side, Britain would surely not get everything their own way, right? Plus the French Navy's biggest guns had surrendered to Germany and were under German control. Hitler was beside himself with joy. It wouldn't last long.

On a dark night, the British bombed the Italian Navy's major base at Taranto, knocking several battleships out of action for a while, sinking some ships and most importantly, destroying the docks, blocking the channel and basically scaring the shit out of Italy. Additionally, the British cornered the surrendered French at their base of Mers Al Kebir and gave them an opportunity to join the allied cause. They chose not to and in a quick demonstration of world-class gunnery, the British fired over sea walls and landed shells on most of the French ships, sinking several, damaging all and trashing the port. At that point, Germany should have concentrated solely on aircraft carriers and subs. They didn't. Bismarck was launched amidst much fanfare and on her maiden mission, overhauled and sank a merchant ship. But again, a $20 per hour ship had killed a $3 per hour ship. Hardly war winning. They then met the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood. Bismarck's escort Prince Eugen landed the killing blow that took Hood out of the war but Bismarck would be damaged the next time by torpedos and would be vengefully hunted down and sunk with orders to take no survivors.

Her sister Tirpitz escaped to Norway where she would spend the rest of the war. Bottled in by Royal Navy planes and ships she is given credit for being a "fleet in being." But again, the truth is that the British could afford to have a whole fleet guarding her. The Germans would send another battleship, the Scharnhorst, to try and break things up, but she would also get caught by superior fire power and succombed within feet of her objective. Yet, for all that, the German submarine fleet remained the guaranteed killer. Production would increase but the Americans were in the war now and were building ships faster than the German subs could sink them. Attrition won again.