Anyway, assuming you have a German WW2 warship that you would want to make useable in the immediate post-war period, would it be more sensible to mate German directors to US/British radar, or would replacing the German directors with US/British ones have been the better option?
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the strange question.
For the ease of maintenance, I would say replace the whole lot. But good treatment of the technical details of the capabilities of German vs British and American surface directors is lacking. Friedman settles for conjectures.
Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.
Capability would not be that much of an issue - the idea is to have the cruiser handed down to a Latin American country (say, Mexico or Brazil) as some sort of goodie after WW2 for participating in the allied war effort. So it would have to be employable, but not necessarily state of the art.
Latin American country is unlikely to be able to handle PE's demanding and unreliable high pressure steam plant, which operates in a pressure range unmatched by any British and American ships.
Also, why would one hand ex-German ships to nations with suspected axis sympathies during the war? Why would those nations settle for a unmaintainable ship from a defeated power when loads of surplus ships will soon be available from the victorious powers with much larger stocks of spare parts?
Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.
chuck wrote:Latin American country is unlikely to be able to handle PE's demanding and unreliable high pressure steam plant, which operates in a pressure range unmatched by any British and American ships.
Of course that's the main tumbling block - which is why this is something the voices inside my head ask... Perhaps the deal includes visas for German engineers?
Also, why would one hand ex-German ships to nations with suspected axis sympathies during the war? Why would those nations settle for a unmaintainable ship from a defeated power when loads of surplus ships will soon be available from the victorious powers with much larger stocks of spare parts?
Brazil arguably had no such sympathies, and neither had Mexico. Why would they want one? Perhaps because it was immediately available (important for Brazil after the Bahia desaster).
Tiornu wrote:I have the impression that German directors were exceptionally heavy. In Bismarck, the rotating structure was enough to grind down the bearings.
I think you are thinking of the 40 ton spherical tri-axially stabilized AA directors. If I recall, German surface directors are very compact objects several of which fits inside the armored conning tower and whose optics protrude periscope style through the roof of the conning tower. German directors and range finders are not integrated in one single rotating structure in the style of director control towers, but are located in separate places like many earlier US and Japanese systems.
Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.
chuck wrote: German directors and range finders are not integrated in one single rotating structure in the style of director control towers, but are located in separate places like many earlier US and Japanese systems.
Ah, that also answers my question to some degree - simply replacing the rangefinder with a DCT is not a good idea, as the systems are not compatible.
So she has to sail into the 21st century with very traditional fire control...
