"matedow" wrote in the previous page:
«Hancock-class CVL Conversion
The armored cruiser Tolland was moored in Pearl Harbor on 7 December where she took two torpedoes and sunk to the bottom with her main deck exposed. She was raised and towed to the Puget Sound NSY for permanent repairs. Upon arrival it was decided to convert her to a light carrier with the mission of supporting amphibious operations. (...)»
Looking at one of the comments to his drawings, I went to see the Independent class carriers and made a project of my own, thanking in advance "matedow" for using for a start his concept and his idea. Many, many changes have however been done by me, mainly the final destination of the ship: The US government decided 1942 to make a "lend and lease" agreement with Germany, to add this new CVL to the Pacific fleet of the DKM, then operating in Pacific waters north of the equator as an US ally. Why, it will be said later on. Now, let's present the ship the way as I saw it.
Main changes: The bow. When it was decided to convert the sunken cruiser into a CVL and to lend-lease it to Germany, this country sent to the US shipyards a couple of dozens of technicians to assist the US design bureau to make the blueprints according to the wishes of the German KM. Having the experience in submarines and also in very rough seas like they occur in the Northern Atlantic, the Germans had years before developed the "Atlantic bow" for their ships for trying to reduce the spray or even incoming water from the waves. Looking at the bow of the initial cruiser, with a vertical sharp edged "water slicing bow", the Germans had the idea of suggesting their US counterparts to add on both sides of the underwater part of the bow a slightly bulbuous and convex shaped part, more or less with the form of a dolphin... Not more than some 70 to 80cm on each side so as to give some buoyancy but little resistance. The forward part should remain exactly as it was originally, somehow ressembling the forward part of a submarine of that era only straight shaped as it was and not inclined. Another change the Germans asked for was to make an enclosed bow with the upper deck closing laterally with the ship's hull, a big change since it implied to match a rectangular shaped front part of the runway with a streamlined shaped bow of the original cruiser. Nothing the American naval engineers didn't know, but an arduous piece of work nonetheless. The success the Germans had so far had on the operational side of the Northern Pacific (it will be described later in the AU thread I started in the AU thread) led the US government to allow these changes. They would greatly improve the ship's airborne launching capability, improve internal hangar spaces and it would allow the ship to fulfill its role with more efficiency.
The only item the Germans asked for, on the technical side, was the ship to be equipped with AA gunnery of German production for reasons of metrics but also for compatibility with the ships of the rest of the fleet deployed in the Pacific. The airplanes (two enlarged squadrons with a total of 28 Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers - plus three disassembled units for reserve - and another two Staffel with 26 Focke-Wulf 190 A4-T fighters to escort the Stukas - plus another three disassembled as reserve) would also be supplied by Germany. Both aiplane types were of the newest variant (1943), having mainly more powerful engines and better comm and nav radio equipment. They obviously were "navalized" to be launched by catapult and to land using arresting hooks, as usual.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/HpLtV4u.png)
The general characteristics are very similar to the ship matedow put up here:
Length 642 ft (195,12m), width of the hull 79 ft (24,08m), max. width with overhangs 92 feet (28m), max draught 27,57ft (8,4m)
Displacement combat ready: 22,235 tons
Machinery: 4 (new) G&E steam turbines driving four shafts, producing a total of 100.000 shp, eight (new) B&W boilers, two diesel power generators for electricity and hydraulics. Max. speed 28,87 knots.
Two steam driven aircraft launching catapults.
Complement: 1.185 total, including the air wing and maintenance personnel
Sensors: US made radar units for general aerial survey, one unit for surface scanning (and/or navigation) and one unit serving as approach guidance for the incoming airplanes with altitude indication. One omni-directional beam to guide the airplanes home (range 42km), ship-to-ship voice radio, ship-to-aiplane comm, sonar in the bow.
The drawing here depicts the ship still with US flag being tested by the German crews. After signing the respective land & lease contract, the ship was christened "DKM "Nashville" at Pear Harbor and served in Germany's Pacific fleet until 1956, assisting actively the USA also in the Korean war, then with completely different planes
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/GhU5oHV.png)
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/WuDbzXP.png)
