Z32

Z32

Z12 Erich Giese

Z46

Z32

Z12 Erich Giese

Z46

Germany

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.7	4.7	4.7

Class:

Destroyer

Research:14 000

Purchase:32 000

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Description

The Type 1936A (Mob)-class, Z32, 1942 is a rank II German destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.87 "Locked On".

General info

Survivability and armour

The Type 1936A offers very little additional protection except the basic hull with 16mm of steel armor and the superstructure with 8mm of steel armor. The gunshields on the single 15cm mounts are 12.7mm thick and the gunshields on the 20mm Flakvierlings measure 8mm of armor., therefore only offering protection from small caliber machinegun fire.

The only sigificantly armored part of the ship is the twin 15cm turret on the front, with around 30mm of armor frontally and 20mm on the sides, offering enough protection to resist some

early destroyer rounds, thus making it last longer in bow-in engangments.

Having no additional armor means most cannon, autocannon and even machinegun equipped ships can punch through its hull, making this destroyer not more survivable than its predecessors in terms of armor.

A small difference however, is the slightly larger crew compertment with 343 men, even surpassing the compartment of the Type 1936 with 323 crew, and making this the 3rd highest destroyer crew count after the Sumner (DD-692) and the Leningrad (leader).

Mobility

A larger gun caliber whilst retaining the same number of guns as on the regular Type 1936 results in a displacement of 3597 tons and a speed of around 68 km/h, making the ship slightly slower than its predecessors, although hardly noticeable.

Armament

Primary armament

The main armament of the Type 1936A (mob) comes in the form of 5 powerful 15cm/48 KC/36 cannons, in 3 single aft and one twin mount on the front. The large cailber of these cruiser guns result in a rather slow reload of 7.5 seconds and therefore 8 rounds per minute. This however is compensated by the large amount of filler and shrapnel the guns release on impact, as well as the noticeably better muzzle velocity retention, giving much an easier time to aim at longer ranges.

The turrets traverse of a mere 10°/sec for the single mounts,and 7°/sec for the twin mount supports a more careful approach at targets at longer range, for a quick turn with the guns at close range is simply not given.

The HE shell has a TNT equivalent of around 3,91 kg and a muzzle velocity of around 835 m/s, making it a great choice for medium ranges against destroyers of any kind.

The second shell type, a semi-armor piering capped shell has good penetration, a TNT equivalent of 3.32 kg and a muzzle velocity of around 960m/s, making this one of the fastest destroyer shells in the game. Furthermore, this is the only destroyer shell able to reliably threaten a large portion of cruisers at ranges of around 5000 merters. An accurate player will be able to ammorack most early interwar cruisers of at least cripple them severly.

The last shell, an HE with time fuse, can be used against aircraft if aimed carefully.

Secondary armament

The secondary armament is provided with 2 twin 3.7 cm SK C/30 mounts, each of them in the middle on the ship, one port and one starport. These have a fire rate of 30 round per minute and provide antishipping capabilities against smaller patrol vessels with HE and AP, as well as minor anti-air support with time fused HE shells.

Anti-aircraft armament

The main anti-air defense consists of six emplacements in total. Four in single mounts distributed in the front, aft and in the middle of the ship, and another two are 2cm quadmounts located front of the bridge and between the second and third main gun. This gives the Type 1936A decend anti-air capabilities for close range encounters, for longer ranges however, this caliber is insufficient.

Torpedo armament

The Type 1936A features 2 quadtruple torpedoe mounts in the middle of the ship, attachted in the center for a full traverse to both sides, enabling a full broadside of 8 torpedoes.

The torpedoes are the standard 533mm G7a torpedoes of the german navy, with a maximum speed of 81km/h, a maximum travel distance of 14km and an explosive warhead 358.4kg of TNT. Not particulaly ourstanding in any kind or form, but still useuful for the screening of capture points or chokepoints and close range panic launching.

Usage in battles

The Type 1936A(Mob) is an excellent ship boasting massive firepower. Due to its non existent armor, good muzzle velocity, slow firing and slow traversing guns, the Type 1936A is best used on medium or long ranges, where evasive manouvers can be made and enemies have a harder time to hit you. Following this, the Type 1936A should not in the first line of attack, it should be played more like a support, standing further away, and making use of its longer range weaponry. When engaging on close range, the lack of firerate becomes apparent and multiple enemies from different direction can eaisily overwhelm the slow reacting destroyer, in these situations a precise shot in the ammorack can do the trick and is much ore reliable than with smaller calibres. Furthermore the large calibre is capable to overcome even the anti-fragmentation armor of american destroyers without losing most of your exploding power, and therefore countering those american vessels.

Having the semi-armo piercing (SAP) shell equipped gives the Type 1936A another, more unique role, namely the role of a cruiser killer, being one of the few destroyers to be able to do so. Since your destroyer is the definition of a glass house, even more when facing cruisers, it is important to stay concealed by island of simply by not shooting to a range of around 4-6km. A few salvos into the sides of the cruiser where the ammo is located,is enough for most early interwar cruiser designs like the USS Trenton (CL-11), the Krasny Kavkaz or the Köln.

Pros and cons.

Pros:

• Excellent long range firepower
• Powerful SAP round against cruisers
• High explosive mass.
• Large crew compartment.
• Effective close range anti-air

Cons:

• No hull armor.
• Slow turret traverse.
• Lackcluster anti-air for longer ranges
• Slow firing cannons, every salvo counts!

History

Even before the outbreak of WW2, the Naval High Command of the Kriegsmarine was concerned about the firepower of its most modern destroyer vessels. Fearing they may be outgunned by comparable vessels of other nations, a study was initiated in 1936 about the possible upgunning of the Type 1934 and 1936 class destroyers with 15cm main guns.

The study quickly revealed that, although this upgrade was theoretically feasible, in practice it resulted in severe stability issues on the affected vessels and actually hampered their abilities more than increasing them.

However, whilst the Type 1934 and 1936 class destroyers kept their original 12.8cm main guns as a result of the conducted study, the Naval High Command didn’t wish to abandon the idea completely and ordered for modifications to be made to the existing Type 1936 design in order to accomodate for the desired firepower upgrade.

This resulted in the creation of Type 1936A which was ordered into production in 1938 and consisted of a total of 8 ships. Although this class was designed to allow for the realization of the desired firepower upgrade, it still suffered from the same problems highlighted by the initial study and was known to have reliability issues with its steam turbines.

In 1940, the first of a total of 7 Type 1936 (Mob) destroyers were laid down. These were designed in an effort to address some of the known issues of the upgunned Type 1936 destroyers as well as to simplify their design in order to allow for shorter construction times.

Only a handful of the upgraded Type 1936A and 1936A (Mob) destroyers were lost in combat during WW2. In fact, more than half of the ships of these two classes survived the war and were used by several allied nations post-war, including the US, UK, USSR and France. The last remaining ships of this class were decommissioned from active service in the late 1950s.

- From Devblog

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Type 1936A (Mob): Punching Above Its Weight