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RainerKalwitz — Battlecruiser Gneisenau
Published: 2014-01-19 15:21:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 2250; Favourites: 39; Downloads: 0
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Description
"Gneisenau" (2013), pencil on illustration board, 20 x 45 cmbased on several historic photos
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Comments: 11
Funny thing about GNEISENAU: She was actually the antithesis of a battlecruiser. A Battleship has heavy guns, heavy armor and moderately good speed, able to engage in a fire-fight with any other ship. The Battlecruiser, as usually designed, had high speed, heavy guns, but sacrificed heavy armor for the sake of speed. Gneisenau had the high speed, heavy armor, but relatively light guns. Both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had their keels laid as the fourth and fifth "pocket" battleships. But as Hitler came to power and began to give the navy money, they were redesigned to carry a third triple-11"-gun turret, which resulted in it's greater tonnage. Gneisenau suffered a most ignoble fate. After the Channel Dash, during which she suffered a mine hit, she was in drydock for what should have been a quick repair. But the British flew over for a visit, and she was so badly damaged by RAF bombers, that the shipyard workers declared her a total. ONE of her triple-gun turrents was installed on a high bluff, approaching Oslo Norway. It is still there! Her eight 5.9" guns, each in its own turrent, were installed on heavy-duty flat cars, and used on the Eastern Front, manned by her former crewmen. The hull was towed to Gdansk, Poland, to store stuff. As the Russians appraoched, the hull was scuttled in the harbor. I ASSUME she was broken up by the Poles.
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feel free to buy an art print or the original drawing from me
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So Good they look like photo postcards of the ships. Great work.
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thank you 
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Nice shot of the Gneisenau. But she was a Battlecruiser, not a Battleship.
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to me that is the same... I only know boats and ships...
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