H-class battleship proposals

The H class was a series of <a href="/facts/Battleship/PjjTspo5">battleship</a> designs for <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a>'s <a href="/facts/Kriegsmarine/uaRl8jgc">Kriegsmarine</a>, which were intended to fulfill the requirements of <a href="/facts/Plan_Z/QNevmQVt">Plan Z</a> in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The first variation, "H-39", called for six ships to be built, essentially as enlarged <a href="/facts/Bismarck-class_battleship/56nWYgG4">Bismarck-class battleships</a> with 40.6 cm (16 in) guns and diesel propulsion. The "H-41" design improved the "H-39" ship with still larger main guns, eight 42 cm (16.5 in) weapons, and reinforced deck armor. The Construction Office of the <a href="/facts/Oberkommando_der_Marine/wKBenyP4">Oberkommando der Marine</a> (OKM) concluded their work with the "H-41" design, and were not involved in subsequent plans. Two of them, "H-42" and "H-43", increased the main battery yet again, with 48 cm (18.9 in) pieces, and the enormous "H-44" design ultimately resulted with 50.8 cm (20 in) guns. The ships ranged in size from the "H-39", which was 277.8 m (911 ft 5 in) long on a displacement of 56,444 t (55,553 long tons), to the "H-44", at 345 m (1,131 ft 11 in) on a displacement of 131,000 t (129,000 long tons). Most of the designs had a proposed top speed in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h).
Due to the outbreak of <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> in September 1939, none of the ships were ever completed; only the first two of the "H-39" ships were laid down. What work that had been accomplished was halted; the assembled steel remained on the slipway until November 1941, when the OKM ordered it be sent for scrap and used for other purposes. Contracts for the other four "H-39" type ships had been awarded, but no work was begun on any of them before they were canceled. None of the subsequent designs progressed further than planning stages.

H-class battleship proposals open-in-new

H-class battleship proposals