The ''K1'' class was a type of

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with th ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The class was to have comprised four ships, which had been ordered under the provisional names ''K1'', ''K2'', ''K3'', and ''K4''. The four ships were ordered in November 1938, and were scheduled to have been completed by early 1942. However, the contracts for the four ships were canceled on 19 September 1939, two weeks after the start of World War II.

Design

General characteristics and machinery

The ''K1''-class gunboats were long at the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...

, and

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

. The ships had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

of , a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...

of , and a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of 1,600

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

designed, 1,390 tons standard, and 1,890 tons at maximum displacement. The ships were of steel construction, and had 11 watertight compartments. The ships were to have used a pair of 4-cylinder triple expansion

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s that provided , which would have driven two

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s. The ships were to have had a top speed of , and a range of at . The ships were designed to carry 176 tons of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bu ...

.Gröner, p. 146

Armament

The K1-class ships primary armament consisted of four L/65 quick-firing guns"L/65" denotes the length of the gun, in terms of the diameter of the barrel. This gun was 65

calibers In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matc ...

, meaning the gun was 65 times as long as it is in diameter; in this case, it was 6.825 meters in length in two twin-

turrets Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * M ...

, one fore and one aft of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. The 10.5 cm guns fired two types of projectiles: a

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An e ...

shell and a incendiary round. Both types of ammunition used a single propellant charge: the RPC/32 charge. The guns could elevate to 80 degrees, and could hit targets flying at . When the guns were used to engage surface targets, they could hit targets away, at an elevation of 45 degrees. The ships were also armed with two L/83 Flak guns, and four heavy machine guns. The 3.7 cm guns fired high-explosive shells at a

rate of fire Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...

of about 30 rounds per minute, and a

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/ shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximatel ...

of . The guns could elevate to 85 degrees and hit targets flying at , although the

tracers Tracer may refer to: Science * Flow tracer, any fluid property used to track fluid motion * Fluorescent tracer, a substance such as 2-NBDG containing a fluorophore that is used for tracking purposes * Histochemical tracer, a substance used for t ...

were limited to .

Construction and cancellation

The four ships were ordered on 11 November 1938, at the cost of 6 million ''Reichsmarks'' apiece. ''K1'' was planned to have been completed on 20 May 1941, ''K2'' was to have followed on 15 September, ''K3'' was to be completed by 15 January 1942, and ''K4'', the final ship of the class, was to be completed a month later on 14 February. However, the outbreak of

in early September 1939 meant that construction priorities was shifted away from less critical projects. As a result, the ''K1'' class was canceled on 19 September 1939.

Footnotes

References

* {{cite book , last = Gröner , first = Erich , author-link=Erich Gröner , year = 1990 , title = German Warships: 1815–1945 , volume = I: Major Surface Vessels , publisher = Naval Institute Press , location = Annapolis , isbn = 978-0-87021-790-6 , ref ={{sfnRef, Gröner Gunboats of Germany