Plan Z - Germany's Secret Sleeping WW2 Battleship Fleet
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Defeated and depleted of military technology after World War I, Germany adopted the highly controversial “Plan Z” in 1939. Launched shortly before the start of World War II, the project could have made Germany’s naval power equal to that of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, and it called for the construction of 10 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 4 carriers, 15 Panzerschiffe, 5 heavy and 13 light cruisers, 22 scouts, 68 destroyers, and 90 U-boats for a total of 230 vessels with over 200,000 sailors. Facing a formidable threat from such a surface fleet available may have caused Britain to think twice about their island nation’s vulnerability and may have put Germany on the front-foot for any Sea Lion-like amphibious invasion across the English Channel...
- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. -
A program that even largely unfulfilled was a big waste of limited resources (from steel to oil). It is interesting Germany made some of the same mistakes in Second World War as the First World War.
Unfortunately, the scotts were too busy being useless as always. Typical inbred bucktooth European family name, ey Finlay?
It's okay, the Germans found plenty of other ways to waste their limited resources.
Actually, Irish. Douglas is Scot. Though most of my bloodline is German--Mother's side. Sometimes the name doesn't fully reflect the person.
Very true.
@@Ian-jy9qd No call for your verbal abuse of Mr. Findley, unless you're trying for an asshole merit badge.
Dark Docs: “Here’s a bunch of potential ships Germany could’ve had.”
Azur Lane devs: “Write that down! WRITE THAT DOWN!”
Ah, a Shikikan of culture.
The 225677th Fragment of the Man-Emperor of Mankind indeed
another cultured skk
anything will be better than imaginary ship like roon
Great video as always.
"tripitz"
what
Some people are just too fast in pronouncing Tirpitz
Instead of Tirpitz, it's *giggle* Tripitz
Hitler: I assure you all that war will not start until 1948, at least!
Also Hitler: Begins war in 1939
Lol you are correct
If it would have been started in 1948 we would been talking in german today....😂😂😂
Григорий Распутин do you know your history?
Григорий Распутин doubt
That was only when Britain declared war. The Germans started invading countries in 1938
His pronunciation of Tirpitz is bugging me. Must has misread it as "Tripitz"
He's maybe Trippin.
It's bugging me too, someone as well versed in history as this guy must have heard about the Tirpitz before.
it bugs me too but its a small sacrifice for accurate info on youtube. :P
@@Dappdude Well versed in history? Or well versed in script reading? Lol
Sorry, but the way he talks through the whole video bothers me. It's like he is trying to rush each sentence out within a 1 second time limit.... and the way he has to like 'exclimate' the last word in every sentence is cringe as hell.
""TogetaroundthelimitationsoftheTREATY......TheGermanscreatedaprivatecompanytoserverasaFRONT......forsubmarinedevelopmentbasedintheNETHERLANDS."
Someone, please get through to him and tell to to relax and slow the hell down.
basically High Seas Fleet 2: electric shipaloo
Electric bootaloo
Drachinifel called it that upon reviewing it
Electric U-boataloo
You're the GOAT for pronouncing this 1:38 lol!
There are historians, passionnate historians, and then this guy. VERY well done. Thank you for sharing all of these stories
Tripitz?
I think you mean Tirpitz. Surely you've heard of it?
Hid in a Norwegian fjord for a lot of the war.
It got ravaged by the British thoughout its entire life span and did nothing, so I can't blame him.
@@hughes9754 still, the British feared the absolute hell out of it. Even more so than the Bismarck. Its presence was enough for the navy and RAF to keep looking over their shoulders 24/7.
Tirpitz scared the shit out the Anglos and the Yanks to the point where Royal Navy and USN decided to send their own ships to escort the lend lease convoys to USSR
@@yousefseed1874 I mean, regardless, it makes sense to have convoy escorts, it wasn't like it was the main cause for this, that would be the u-boats in the Atlantic. The Tirpitz was bombed mercilessly and never really left the dockyard and even if it did, it probably would've come to the same fate as the Bismark.
@@carlosbalazs2492 They were feared because they were more than capable ships, it was right of them to fear it because it meant they were hastily dealt with just like the Bismark, however, Hitler had no idea how utilise his surface fleet, so a lot of key ships were just sent out to die. At the end of the day, there was no way the kriegsmarine was gonna be be able to stand toe to toe with the royal navy and soon to be American navy, its just inconceivable.
Hey Dark Docs - Great interesting content!!!
He don’t care. Lol
This was totally impractical in terms of resources, and building these ships would have been almost impossible under bombardment by RAF.
ok arm chair historian
Their fleet would probably just end up at anchor just like the Japanese lol need that fuel.
@Das Reich 2nd SS Panzer Division Doesn't matter how he sounds because he's right.
@@steppedtuba50 Doesn't matter if he's a armchair historian. Germany NEVER could've hoped to build their fleet. Even if they could, Britain would've just started matching and exceeding them because they had the resources to do so.
The plans were mainly drawn up prewar and with the expectation that war wouldn’t kick off until 1945 or later
The first thing I thought when I saw “Plan Z” I thought of Plankton from spongebob djfnfkfngn
Son of Joy “IT’S LEMON SCENTED!!! PLAN Z CAN’T POSSIBLY FAIL!!!”
Maybe it was basic on it. Hitler went into the future and copy plankton's idea
4:49 - "...Germany's aggressive foreign policy." This may be a bit of an understatement. :D
This refers to the munich agreement, Anschluss, etc. Not the war, which broke out some years later. So it is a correct statement
Why do I have to watch 8 commercials in an 11-minute video
I have to say I stopped watching after the 3rd advert.
Why are you watching ads? Just install Adblocker Ultimate
@John Connor so everyone installs adblockers and the channel recieves no revenue and stops making vids. Great way forward. I don't mind 1 or 2 adverts per vid but it's getting ridiculous and adblockers are part of the problem. No revenue no great channels like dark docs. Grow up and smell the coffee
@John Connor neither.
You tube
Bismarck and tirpitz two of the most beautiful battleships ever
I agree. And I am sure, that following battleships of the H Class would have been beautiful to look at too :)
And a waste of resources and lives that did nothing during their service
@@Feffdc Shockingly - it is true
greekmarine Hindsight is always 20/20
@@GhazDakkaDaKrumpa To be fair yes.But you should expect that one or two battleships will do nothing against a nation with a large navy and especially when you need the metal and fuel for the main front which was the Soviet Union
Imagine if the German Navy focused on mass production of submarine and submarine technology.
More advanced anti-submarine warfare technology developed on the Allies' part.
Once they started fitting increasingly better anti submarine weapons onto ships, haha submarine go boom.
The allies would have nuked Berlin. Game over man
@@cgaccount3669 nuclear bombs were developed thanks to italian and German scientists which escaped nazism and fascism after seeing their atrocities. The allies had no idea that atoms could be split (and without the help of Italians and german scientists) wouldn't be able to create atomic bombs and at the very most even know that it would be possible to split atoms.
The Allies (especially the US) pumped out escort ships at a rate that couldn’t even be matched by a diarrhea afflicted man after stuffing himself with taco bells shitting in the toilet.
A weird comparison I know, but there were enough escorts by late 1943 that dedicated “hunter killer” groups were formed to hunt down U-boats.
By mid-late 1944, a U-boat crew could be considered as elite if they survived more than 5 patrols. The average U-boat crew by then never survived for more than 3 patrols.
If Hitler had built the 300 U Boats that Doernitz wanted to start the war (instead of the 79 he got) the results for Germany would have been much different. Hitler both started the war and lost it for Germany.
U-boats and trucks, for shipping supplies--if Germany had more of these, the changes could have been substantial.
+Speed Zero
Don't forget proper winter attire! XD
Thankfully the Germans made a lot of boo boos thanks to Heir Boob.
@@speedzero7478 Not without oil Germany produced about 250,000 to 340,000+ truck's in ww2 and many more in the 1930s.
They allso captured about 300,000 more most of that French.
Russia produced about 250,000 in ww2 and receive about 250,000 more from America they also had about 200,000 all read from the 1930s.
Germany also built over 1,100 U-boats.
Japan, USA, UK and Russia all built about 200+
And if the RN had an extra 300 destroyers for convoy escort the U-boats would have been made useless. So what?
Sea Lion was never going to happen. People never quite appreciate what a game changer D-Day represented. In WW2 there were a number of true massive changes to warfare. Germany introduced and perfected Mobile Warfare with their vaunted armored Blitzkrieg. Japan turned aircraft carriers from support systems into massed concentrated striking power with the Kido Butai. The American and British innovation was the Amphibious Landing. At that time in history no other nations had the capability, knowledge and experience to perform such a level of opposed amphibious landing. Even with Plan Z fully realized Germany still would have lacked the needed capability to cross the channel. Just as while Russia easily swept the Japanese out of Manchuria in 1945, they had no capability to make that jump to the Japanese home islands. The US and Brits had perfected the doctrine needed to land a massive force on fully opposed beach heads from Pacific Island hopping beginning with Guadalcanal in 1942. Tarawa was where they got all the lessons finally dialed in, such that they could stage the two equally massive and war changing operations, Normandy and Saipan, on opposite sides of the world, within a 10 day span. It was the thing that most terrified and un-nerved the Japanese high command. That they could never turn back an American amphibious landing. That they could never even slow one down. The German’s were at least 10 years away from developing the needed doctrines and capabilities to project force over open water in that manner.
Completely wrong. US and UK did not invent anything, they just copied the landing ships Japan had since the mid 30s lol Of all the stupid but entrenched beliefs people have about WW II the one about sea lion is the stupidest. All they needed to do was capture one air base and it was game over, just like on crete which was much better defended than england was at the time of dunkirk. Unfortunately for them they dithered and tried to avoid a landing and by mid 1941 they had long since decided to invade russia instead.
@@LTPottenger You truly are an idiot. I’m assuming your masters are paying you the stock 50 cents/post? Because the shear volumes of historical, economic and military ignorance you put on display as you spout your insane and unfounded rubbishy are actually quite remarkable. No the Japanese did not invent Higgen’s boats you ignorant moron. Nor did they ever use them. They had much cruder landing barges. In fact the Battle of Midway had to occur on the day that it did, because Yamamoto’s landing barges had to approach the island at the high water Mark of a lunar tide, otherwise they would be unable to get over the Coral Reef, and the invasion troops would be forced to swim ashore. Yamamoto’s invasion plan had a roughly 4 hour window in which it could occur in a 6 month period due to his crude landing craft. (Further highlighting just how stupid the entire plan was.) The Japanese Navy had no specialized Naval Landing Ships at all. Relying on a combination of standard cargo transports, and simply transporting troops on destroyers and cruisers once all the transports got sunk. The Japanese Navy really never had a great deal of success at performing a directly opposed amphibious landing against a prepared and well defended enemy.
"Plan Z. I LOVE Plan Z!" -Plankton
I have been subscribed to your channel for YEARS and I just wanted to thank you for consistently creating quality content, the amount of thought and care you put into these "mini-documentaries" is incredible! You are *clearly* dedicated to making sure of the accuracy of your statements, and you are objective in the way you portray complex historical events without having some sort of clear bias, and you have been clear about it when you are. It shows integrity and we need more of that good sir. You've got the delivery down too, you are a strong and gifted orator my dude! Anyways, While your contribution may seem of little importance, just know that you are doing a great job at not allowing the past to be forgotten? Thank you!
Royal Navy's Status of the waves: *RULED*
Yeah good job. It turned out well for the British Empire.
Bretton Ferguson name an empire in history that lasted indefinitely? .........
The posh brits were saved by the u.s. Know your history
Piss Trooper was that in WW1 or WW2 when the British were fighting alone?
@Piss Trooper. "Saved by the US". lol. US came just in time for the victory lap & tried to take all the credit! Mind you though, they did manage to stay till the end so credit where credit is is due I suppose.
Along with failing to meet the allied naval build-up, Plan Z would have added even more pressure to the fuel shortages the Germans were already suffering from. Most of the big ships probably would've suffered the same fate as Yamato- hiding in harbor without fuel unless absolutely needed
The Tirpitz spent most of it`s time hidden away while the Yamato was very active.
That would of been really interesting if the war had been delayed. How different it would of been.
They can build all of the ship but they cant send lot of ship to battle because they would dry up all the fuel
And if they had been allowed to implement Plan Z, the Royal Navy would have just increased shipbuilding, creating another naval arms race which the British would make sure they’d win
If the war was delayed to their expected date (1948) or even delayed to 1945, the allies would have a hard time getting the USA to join into an European war. Remember what brought the USA into WWII was the Japanese occupation of China and USA cutting off their oil (which resulted in Pearl Harbor). Therefore, Germany delaying the war until 1945 or later would mean that the USA's total military focus would be on Japan and Asia.
All of this would have allow Germany to build their Navy as planned, produce their advance technological weapons (rockets, jets, tanks, tactics, etc.), and be more prepared for war than in 1939. Oil could have been purchased from Romania oil fields, even the Soviet Union, and stockpiled. Heck, even possibly from the USA until the UK declared war on Germany. Again, the USA wanted nothing to do with an European war. So sanctions against Germany might occur in the USA, but war no.
The two largest failures of the 3rd Reich were (1) honoring the Tri-Partie Pact (when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor) by declaring war on the USA and (2) opening a second front (invasion (Barbarossa) of the Soviet Union). Even with the 3rd Reich's proposed naval build-up, one has to remember that French, UK, Canadian, and Australian naval production wouldn't have ceased.
@David Parry Germany had artificial fuel made from weed wood and shit
The German economy would have collapsed from the strain of the military build up and Nazi economic policy.
My wife has an irrational rage at this guy's narration voice, so my new favorite thing to do is play these at max volume so it's the first thing she hears when she comes in the door from work. Great, informative, and intense content. Please keep making these!
????
Me as well. The problem is that he speaks so freaking fast and the way he like 'shouts' the last word if every sentence, or stops abruptly in mid sentence is gring as hell.
"TogetaroundthelimitationsoftheTREATY......TheGermanscreatedaprivatecompanytoserverasaFRONT......forsubmarinedevelopmentbasedinTHENETHERLANDS."
Hitler: "Lets build awesome fleet!"
Dambusters: "I'm sorry old chap, were you working there?"
5:50 what 4 Scharnhorst ships already completed??? There were only 2
The Royal Navy was the largest navy in the world until 1943.
but 'Murca....
Hitler, "And I hand over the emergency powers when this conflict is over."
Later.
Hitler, "Execute.....Plan Z."
Some random officer, "So.....why are you wearing a dark robe?"
"DO IT!"
"Yeah.....I think I'll just walk over here.....across the channel....."
if Germany had even come close to building all the ships, the UK would've built the 6 Lion class battleships... along with the more advanced RADAR and AA suites.
raverdeath100
Except that both Germany and Britain would actually end up hurting themselves even more than they did historically, since battleships were already obsolete by WWII.
@@bkjeong4302 the point is that any German build up would be countered. for Germany to even hope to complete their rearmament, WW2 would've had to be postponed and presumably battleships would have their usefulness extended.
raverdeath100
It wouldn’t have been extended. It would just mean everyone would waste even more money on battleships than they already did, due to not understanding that naval aviation had reached the point it rendered battleships redundant.
Once the war begins you’d probably end up with an unmitigated mass slaughter of battleships by carriers (on both sides), especially since this scenario also means naval aviation (which already rendered battleships redundant by the late 1930s) becomes even more dangerous.
@@bkjeong4302 i disagree. on what basis are you claiming that battleships were obsolete by the late 30's? i ask because the BB's sunk by air action in WW2 all have particular circumstances - Taranto and Pearl Harbor were surprise attacks, HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse were supposed to sail with the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable but it ran aground and returned to port. The Bismarck was sunk by obsolete Swordfish that it's AA guns couldn't track because the planes were too slow, plus it may have been scuttled. Finally the Yamato - it never stood a chance. depleted crew experience combined with facing a huge carrier fleet meant it was only going to be a turkey shoot. the same for the Musashi.
as an aside, British radar equipped BB's that served in the Pacific in the latter stages had no problem "sniping" Japanese planes at distance.
raverdeath100
Battleships became obsolete not because they became too vulnerable, but because carriers extended combat ranges to far beyond what main guns were capable of. It doesn’t matter how good a battleship is at surviving an air attack, because that battleship’s still unable to attack the carrier that launched said air attack. It’s still going to be a one-sided contest when the battleship can’t shoot at the carrier. And if you bring a carrier along to be able to attack the enemy carrier, then you don’t need the battleship’s main guns (and the battleship itself by extension).
Carriers effectively outranged battleships from the late 1930s onwards, so that is when they became obsolete.
At 3:56 it is stated that " ...In June of 1935 the U.K. reached an agreement with Germany..." What did the U.K. get out of this? Why would they allow it?
This is one of my favourite channels. Keep it up! I’d watch hours of these documentaries. Outstanding work.
The German research and development on large vessels was well behind the times. Actual battleships are too costly to test to destruction - but with the sundered grand fleet post WWI, the allies had the chance to do just that. In turn, they could design more efficient armor schemes and damage control.
The Anglo-German naval agreement thus opened the door to the Germans building more sub-par surface vessels, rather than focusing on either a raider or u-boat strategy in the 1930s.
The armor scheme they had works well for their area where close range low visibility fighting is common. If anything gor proven in WW II it's that armor protection is a fantasy, one lucky hit is all it took to take down the arizona and it had thicker deck armor than the bismarck and followed the "all or nothing" scheme. But yeah it was a giant waste to make a battleship when they could have made 100 subs from the same resources. But then subs were much more threatening and would be perceived as aggressive.
that was very smart by the Allies then, yet another chess move to hurt the Germans
I love watching these videos
Can you do a video on operation Highjump?
The RN would've just built more ships to counter the threat and the outcome would've been the same.
That depends on the difficulty settings.
So the UK armed force's army and air force wouldn't have bean equipped till 1946??
Or was Russia not getting any support?
The UK recived from America 2x what Russia did and it wasn't even half the size of the Russian armed force's.
@@brianlong2334 You're a bit dim aren't you? Were you the kid at school that sat in the corner, eating crayons?
@@Nihtglom Nar mate I saved that for when I was in the army but hey you can crush on who ever you like mate we voted so you could!
Hell the plan Z would have struggled against a pre war RN. in the time it took to make plan Z you're looking at all of the lion class battleships and their replacement, and all the carriers up until the Malta class... which is several times plan Z.
Just to point out the British at that point were already in the process of building 12 new battleships, so Germany building a total of ten would not cause any sort of overwhelming power.
A largely landlocked country wanting a large deep water navy, while potential threats came from adjacent land based countries was stretching resources. Germany did not have the economy and industrial capacity to have a huge army and air force backed up by a large navy. The navy was way down the list of priorities.
In WW2 the RN surrounded Europe from Turkey to the Arctic. In May 1941, before the invasion of the USSR and the USA was in the war, the Italian navy could not put to sea because they had no oil. The RN blockade was so effective.
Because most country tried to build up their navy tied to a British treaty.
It was 1945 when they lost their so called Naval supremacy
@@gabrielsistonamoca6963
The time period is pre WW2, not 1945.
Germany did not have a central bank so it did not have to go into trillion dollar debt to make a battleship. They could have made a hundred of them given a couple decades. It does beg the question WHY and if they were planning a serious major war this would just be stupid, but the truth is simple it was national prestige just as it had been in the kaiser's day and they did not plan to get stuck in a major war. Though it was ridiculously naive of them to think they would avoid one after three warnings.
I've walked on the Tirpitz. It's metal was reused as covers for road works in Oslo. Still used today.
Some German pronunciations for you:
Leipzig: Lie-pzig
Kriegsmarine: Kriegsmarin-eh
He also pronounced "Tripitz: instead of Tirpitz. 3 times.
Love your channels style thank you for excellent content. Thumbs up stay awesome military history buffs/nerds
“Secret sleeping” non-existent cancelled fleet.
Also, it wouldn’t quite have matched the RN’s fleet, it would be about 6 battleships and 5 or so carriers short
Don't get me wrong one of the best channels on RUclips hands down, this is the first time I have any sort of negative comment, but this one has a little too many dates and numbers to keep up with. I'm drawn to this channel daily, but this one is just a little overwhelming dialogue wise
You make great videos but i wish you would talk a little slower!... Your commentary is too hurried (almost frantic sounding), which makes it difficult to follow sometimes. - Thank you for your efforts. Best wishes.
*The buildup from the beginning to **0:43** is outstanding!*
The lack of Kriegsmarine assets doomed any attempted to invade England, even if the RAF had been defeated. They could not hope to compete with the Royal Navy.
While the "what ifs" of plan Z looked formidable, however most overlooked are the lack of home ports to service such a fleet, and even more lacking, the logistical support vessels and the #1 commodity, fuel, which had been in short supply for all branches of the German war effort from the start of the blitzkrieg. The unsung hero of WWII was the logistical might of the USA, largely immune to any attack, that ensured the Allied victory. All 3 of the Axis powers greatly underestimated what was required to sustain their vast ambitions. Of course this is an easy call 80 years hence.
“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” J. Pershing
Let us all bow our heads in a moment of silence for the Bismarck and Tripitz
PRIDE OF NATION!
can you imagine if Germany had managed to play the allies off until 1948? they would have started the war with a giant battle-ready army and technological edge
in such a scenario i think Germany might well have won the war
Do you think that the Allies, and even the Soviets, were likely to have simply smiled benignly and done nothing? British rearmament had already begun in earnest in 1936.
I’ve always felt that had The Nazi’s not built surface ships & had built only U Boats then I believe the already amazing Naval Battles of WW2 even bigger they were
A very good video, very informative and profoundly researched. A hint, though, the battleship's name is TIRPITZ, not TRIPITZ. it was named after Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz...
He did pronounce Gneisenau correctly, however.
A little history lesson from micro machine man. I appreciate your content..
Military planners in the German Navy and Japanese Army interestingly both figured that by the late 1940s/early 1950s they would have the technology, shipping capacity, and assets to win any war. Fortunately for the Allies both countries started the wars much too early.
1:32 So random that DD has added photography of the famous Norwegian author Knut Hamsun visiting german uboats. I recognized his face and double checked my allegation. Unfortunately, he was trialed after the war for his Nazi sympathies although his literary production was never tainted by his political stance. I can strongly recommend his novels as they show a great love for people and warm portraits of the common man - quite the contrast to Nazi ideology!
Bismarck and Moltke carefully and brilliantly built the German Empire.
Tirpitz, Ludedorff and Wilhelm II stupidly destroyed it.
If nothing else it would have simply inspired the u.s. to build even bigger ships such as Montana or simply hunt germany to the end of the earth with a fleet of Essex class
I think you hardly underestimate the tech difference between Germany and the USA back then. Basicly everything invented after the war was stolen German military tech
Peter Zingler bullshit The US had the best tech in the world dont kid yourself. This bullshit that germany has the best tech has already been debunked
@@spectarviana220 Ummm sorry mate it didn't it stuff was basically all British technology built by American industry with some American upgrades.... So no but the allies did have some better technology but over all Germany had the lead in most not all but most or it would seam a lot of Germans tech was down to better tatics by the Germans in most cases.
To build no submarines was only one of Hitlers sabotage actions. He prevented closing Gibraltar, producing the Sturmgewehr 44, he declared the ME262 as a bomber (my favourite :D), he did not let Wehrmacht take defending positions in Russia, declared war to USA with no sense at all and many other things. Germans tried 50 times to kill their Boss because they actually wanted to WIN the war, not to end it!
Imagine if they’d waited, what would’ve taken place in the pacific if Japan had acted unilaterally? And the US had been mid conflict when Germany decided to finally act in Europe?
Japan then would have had to fight again the US and the UK , and nethrelands the latter two having no enemies in europe, assuming Italy waited too.
Gerasimos Seriatos theres no way that with an antagonistic, growing Germany the UK would’ve sent enough resources to the Pacific to make a significant difference in the European outcome (independent of German military buildup).
Gerasimos Seriatos they wouldn’t have done it, the writing was on the wall even if war wasn’t declared
@@romanlegion5837That's hypothetical and depends who would be the PM in the UK. Hitler never wanted war with the UK. The japanese had issues with the US becausw the US had imposed sanctions on Japan. Maybe Baywatera scenario would have played out regardless but the Uk had to react is some way to protect Australia. Japan didnt want Hawaii but the oil rich European controlled indochina.
RomanLegion not Much would change the US ability to fight 2 wars at the same time is still present
Plan Z was a pipe dream that was impossible to complete in twice the time considered. Germany simply lacked the shipyards, experience, and resources to build and maintain such a Navy.
“Plan Z, the letter after Y”
They could have built 50-75 U-boats with the resources poured into the Bismarck and Tirpitz. Donitz always said he needed 300 total U-boats with 100 out on patrol at all times to cripple the supply line from the US. Plan Z would have been even more disastrous for the Kriegsmarine.
The name is"Tir-pitz" not "Trip-itz."
5:57
Excuse me, 4 Scharnhorst class battleships? The Scharnhorst-class only consisted of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. There was no plan to build any more Scharnhorst-class battleships
I do believe it’s pronounced Tirpitz, not Tripitz. Otherwise great video though.
You're correct!
Could have built a fleet to rival the Royal Navy, assuming Britain with 10 times the shipyard capacity decides not to build a single ship in response.......
I thought “Plan Z” is about hitler try to awake all the zombie around the world
LOL
The biggest hindrance to plan Z and the limitation of the Uboat fleet is the Germans did not plan on their move into Poland triggering war. They were not ready.
Slow down mate
I know you're going to said Tirpitz
I tried many times to get him to slow down. For the life of me, I can't understand why he needs to talk so fast.
"TogetaroundthelimitationsoftheTREATY......TheGermanscreatedaprivatecompanytoserverasaFRONT......forsubmarinedevelopmentbasedinTHENETHERLANDS.
Please get through to him.
@@captainobvious9233 So he basicaly allready like this from the start ?
I'm mean i understand what he's saying. But this one It's quite not neccessary too be honest.
As always, great content and production value. This one, however, was hard to hear the VO as it was building up before the open. Just something you may have missed. I do enjoy what you're doing very much.
In his 12 volume text The World at War, author Winston Churchill said UK and France caused WW2, not Germany and Adolf.
Yeah, I agree.
After all, Hitler would have gone to war in some time in the future, but not in 1939. He would have build up the German Military far more, before going to war.
But in 1939, the situation had developed in a way, that war was inevitable. And Churchill finally got his war to destroy Germany
I can see this Channel win a Major award for best factual Doc, Outstanding the Quality/Topics
FIRST :)
darkjake80 damn you!
@@reakwon693 Sorry not sorry :P
What so many people ignore is the fact the the UK would NOT let Germany build up this massive force and do nothing in responce.
This is exactly the same strategy proposed by Admiral Tirpitz before WW1, the infamous Risk theory as we all know just how well that worked.
And the British reply to the ships Germany did build were far, far superior warships despite being over 6,000 tons smaller.
Fiarst
Secoand
This plan z can't possibly fail!
The problem was that the German lack of naval construction insurance showed. The Hipper class heavy cruisers had the same capabilities as British and French cruisers 2/3 the size. The panzerschiffe Admiral Graf Spee was beaten soundly by a single heavy and two escorting light cruisers. The Scharnhort cruiser killers could beat cruisers easily, but lacked the capability to take on even old WWI British battleships. The 45,000 ton Bismarks had slightly superior firepower (8-15" guns vs. 10-14" gungs), slightly less armor, and similar speed to the British 35,000 ton King George IV class... and had serious weaknesses in the protection of the fire control systems which proved crucial in the sinking of the Bismark.
no the bismarck class was just teamed or had to go against the whole fleet of lancasters or had to go against a quarter of the whole navy
@@jamescarroll8972 When you forget to armor your communication conduits between the upper deck and the first armored deck so they can easily be broken by blast damage, you done messed up son.
The fact that the planned H-44 was supposed to be 80 Meters longer and two times heavier than the Yamato amazes me. Supplying that thing would've depleted the dwindling Reich supplies
Admiral DONETZ: JUST GIVE ME FUCKING U-boats!
If German resources had been directed away from land forces before the war then France may not have fallen in 1940. France had the second biggest navy in Europe in 1939, with more being constructed. As for the British fleet it was the biggest in the world in 1939. 15 battleships/battlecruisers, over 5 aircraft carriers, 60-70 cruisers, 180 destroyers, with more being constructed.
I don't see Plan Z as being a possibility without detracting from other strengths, even if the start of the war had somehow been delayed .
How do they know the weight of ships? Do they weigh it somehow or is it estimated? I'm really curious
WCTA Chicago underground sound think it’s how much water the ship displaces so it’s probably calculated by how much the water rises in the dry dock. Someone correct if wrong.
Estimated during design. When the ship is completed, they could probably get a pretty accurate number by measured displacement.
@@Zaprozhan This I want to see! Imagine men in very proper suits and hats looking at the painted stripes on a wall. On is leaning forward with a monocle ...
For Germany to achieve its goal of parity with the British royal navy, the British would of had to make a strategic decision to not build any more ships while letting the Germans catch up
The "Lightweight" construction piqued my interest. That's was a Big Brainer for Germany XD
Excellent programme and very accurate in detail. Thanks
New subscriber to this channel been subscribed to dark skies for a while but found all the other dark channels content is really educational as schools don't teach about these topics thank you for your content
The "Tripitz" you say???
Do you mean "Tirpitz" by any chance?
Honestly, every warring Powers previously and even during the war wanted to build the greatest most menacing battleships and battlecruisers, despite the rapid advance in submarine and naval aviation technology.
Raeder preferred a raider strategy? Didn't see that coming.
Good stuff! The Allies are fortunate that those resources weren't put into building subs from the beginning!
The writers of the Treaty of Versailles were so preoccupied with whether or not they could punish Germany, that they didn't stop to think if they should.
Tripitz or Tirpitz? I think the latter.
There was a video interrupting my endless ads! :(
Unfortunately, Germany didn't have the capacity or resources to make all of the ships in their plan.
They literally went to war as a means to gain resources for their war machine which was beginning to falter in 1939.
Only 2 countries understand naval warfare. The British and the Americans.
The British had many but older ships.
The Germans had fewer but most technologically advanced ships. They were supported by the best airforce and submarine fleet.
If you swapped the ships, the British would have still won. The reason, the British use their ships aggressively while other countries use their ships as trophy ships.
This is the same logic with the Japanese and American navies.
Since time immemorial, the art of naval war fare is the mentality of the nation’s sailors.
Thanks! Enjoyable and informative.
After 1898 there were two obsessions: 1) Germany's to build and have a navy as big and as good as the Royal Navy. 2) Britain's to keep her naval hegemony and not to allow this to happen, or to fight and destroy said new navy at any cost if it did. 1914, 1919, 1939, 1945... In 2020 the Royal Navy is about the fifth or sixth in the world, behind the U.S Navy, Russia, China, Japan (!!!) and maybe France, and the German navy is about the ninth, behind countries like India (!!!) and maybe South Korea (!!!). Well, Britain still wins, after all. Sic transit gloria mundi...
Plan Z was a pipe dream and could have literally never have become a reality. One of the saving graces for the Allies was that the Germans never properly coordinated their armaments plans. Each of the service branches had production plans which were unworkable on their own- and at one point, the Germans contemplated carrying out two of them.
They violated the "Six Ps"- "Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance".
-5:07,5:55,7:34:TRIPITZ
-5:56:As well as Four Scharnhorst Battleships (idk is that FOR or FOUR)
-9:00:"Germans lost a destroyer" and shows WW1 Battleship sinking
LOL😂
And please correct me if I wrong
Edit:But in overall This is a good video,explaining Plan Z visually in less than 15min.🙂
Great vid as always :)
Even if the Plan Z was to be completed, the Kriegsmarine would still unable to match the US Navy. By war's end in 1945, the United States Navy had added thousands of new ships, including 18 aircraft carriers and 8 battleships, and had over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater. At its peak, the U.S. Navy was operating 6,768 ships on V-J Day in August 1945, including 28 aircraft carriers, 23 battleships, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, over 232 submarines, 377 destroyers, and thousands of amphibious, supply and auxiliary ships.
If Plan Z was completed Germany would have been maybe barely a match for the prewar Royal Navy
Thanks for this👍
Great doc, but the pronunciation on the tirpitz is annoying, I have a piece of the teak deck planks and a piece of the cordite from one of the grand slam bombs dropped on her