Spanish Civil War vessels

[reytuerto]

Good evening, guys.
Here is the cruiser Mendez Nuñez under republican colors, before the conversion to an AA cruiser during WWII.

Armed with 6 x 6 inch guns and a heavy battery of 4 triple 21 inch torpedo tubes, it was an equivalent of the british D class wartime cruisers (but with a worse distribution of the main guns).
Credits: Thank to Colombamike and his invaluable aid in improving my drawings.

[Hood]

Excellent work in this thread.

[reytuerto]

Good morning, guys. Thanks, Hood! Your feedback is very important!

As the nationalist/francoist Navy had very few ships, they armed every suitable vessel as auxiliary cruisers. The pair Mar Cantabrico and Mar Negro were the most modern ships of Compañía Maritima del Nervion and initially both were used by the republicans. After being captured, Mar Cantabrico was converted in a rather powerful auxiliary cruiser, armed with 4 x 6 inch guns all in the centerline, 4 x 88 mm AA guns of German origin and 4 x 20 mm AA also from Germany; with this artillery and with a speed of over 15 knots, Mar Cantabrico was stronger and faster than any possible merchant in hands of the republicans. The new cruiser was comissioned in the late 1937. In the closing months of the SCW, Mar Cantabrico was the flagship of the francoist blocking force of the mediterranean republican harbors.

Credits: The hull, from the keel up to the railings is Novice´s drawing of the vessel as a civilian ship. He kindly allowed me to convert his drawing to a warship, with the aid of his own blueprints and the ones from Colombamike. Thanks to both of them!

Cheers.

PS: Mar Negro was very similar, but having 4 x 3 inch Vickers AA guns, instead 88 mm guns.

[Novice]

Well done, and thank you for posting this.

[emperor_andreas]

Very nice work!

[Hood]

Very nice work, an interesting conversion that I was unaware of.

[reytuerto]

Good morning, gentlemen.
A trio of spanish destroyers, the Alsedo class. Derived of the british Lightfoot class, these vessels were built during the first half of 1920s. Armed with 3 x 102 mm, 2 Vickers 47 mm AA and two double set of torpedo tubes, with good speed and seakeaping capabilities despite the vintange appearence given by the 4 funnels, the Alsedo class were capable destroyers:


At the beginning of the war, Velasco was in the rebel side, and Alsedo and Lazaga were with the republicans. Velasco had an intense career (for many months was the only francoist destroyer) both in the Mediterranean and in the Bay of Biscay. The ship had the AA armament improved with the addition of 2 x 20 mm guns (one German and one Italian), and later landing the 47 mm guns, augmented to 4 x 20 mm.


In late 1938 Velasco was docked and all the machinery was repaired, the shields of the main guns were enlarged, the aft mast removed, the forward mast converted to a tripod, a rack of depth charges instaled at stern and a radiolocalization device instaled at a cabin in the main deck.

After the end of the war, the former republican ships were converted in the same way. The complete class was stricken of the Navy list after the arrival of the american aid in the late 1950s.

Credits: I want to thank to Colombamike for his kindly given magnificent blueprints and his aid. Cheers.

[waritem]

Do you plan to post any republican ship?

[reytuerto]

Good morning Waritem.

Sincerelly, my first intention was to depict the Alsedo as in 1931 (it was even drawn with the tricolor republican flag), but unfortunately the only large photograph available was from 1926, so I changed the flag to the red and yellow royal flag. I am drawing the torpedo boat T1-22 class, one with 3 shafts as a republican boat, and the other with only 2 shafts as a nationalist one. The other republican surface vessel that I Have in my list is an hydrographic ship that served as an hospital ship (but until now I was unable to find a pic with a red cross, so probably I will left it in White paint). Finally, all the submarines are republican, but I am not very convinced to depict the with flying colors.

I am tempted to redrawn Alvama's nice set of the Churruca class (it is with the old style big portholes) all of them under the Republic, but first I want to do a pair of ex-italian francoist destroyers, the submarines, the torpedo Boats, one oiler, a trawler (francoist), a pair of gunboats (also francoist), the hydrographic vessel (republican) and a mixed cargo passenger little transport (francoist, but with republican flag, early in the war). The civil war vessels were an old proyect that is coming into reallity thanks to the forced isolation! Cheers.

P.S. Very interesting your cretan aircraft! A brave movement to field as the main aircraft a unconventional design. Well done!

[waritem]

Most of the cruisers were republican too.
The drawings of Canarias class heavy cruisers and Espana class battleships are quite old and would deserve an update.