The cruiser Köln during the Kieler Woche, published in the Dutch magazine Gelderland in Woord en Beeld dated 28 June 1935
According to a tiding from Kiel was that morning the 26,000 tons battleship Gneisenau (1) launched while general Von Fritsch remembered in his speech her predecessor the battle cruiser Gneisenau (2) of the old navy destroyed during the Great War in the battle of the Falkland Islands [Isla Malvinas]. The British newspaper Manchester Guardian supplied more details dealing with the just approved German naval shipbuilding program adding 160,000 tons to the ships which were all ready on stocks of which building was approved. As a result would the German navy have in 1942 a tonnage of 420, 000 tons which was allowed by the agreement with the United Kingdom dating from June 1935. When the program was executed in 1942 would the navy consist of 5 battle ships of maximum 35,000 tons, 3 battle cruisers of which 3 the well known 10,000 tons pocket battleships Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee and one of 26,000 tons, 2 mother plane ships of 19,500 tons (the Graf von Zeppelin?), 13 cruisers of 6,000-10,000 tons, 40 destroyers and torpedo boats of different types and a submarine fleet with a tonnage of 45% of the British submarine fleet. The German naval yards were working under high pressure and it was expected that at the end of 1937 all ready 86 units with a total tonnage of 260,000 tons would be completed. In 1937 were a 35,000 tons battle ship (3), a 19,500 tons mother plane ship, a 10,000 tons cruiser, 6 destroyers of 1,800 tons and 4 submarines to be completed. At the end of 1937 were 3 large battleships be available. The 26,000 tons Scharnhorst was all ready launched and to be commissioned in next January. A second ship with the same dimensions was to be launched at the end of December 1936 and the 35,000 tons ship in the end of 1937.
The Admiral Scheer during the Kieler Woche, published in the Dutch magazine Gelderland in Woord en Beeld dated 28 June 1935
Notes
1. The battleship or also called battle cruiser Gneisenau was laid down at the yard of the Deutsche Werke at Kiel on 6 May 1935 as a replacement of the Hessen, launched on 8 December 1936, commissioned on 21 May 1938, decommissioned on 1 July 1942 while heavily damaged as a result of a British air attack, sunk as a block ship on 23 March 1945 and broken up in 1951. She was named after the Prussian field marshal August Neidhardt von Gneisenau.
2. The SMS armoured cruiser Gneisenau was part of the German Imperial navy and laid down at the yard of AG Weser at Bremen in 1904, launched on 14 June 1906, commissioned on 6 March 1908 and destroyed on 8 December 1914. Just like the Gneisenau of 1935 she had just one sister ship called Scharnhorst.
3. Probably the battleship Bismarck, which was laid down at the yard of Blohm&Voss at Hamburg on 1 July 1936, launched on 14 February 1939, commissioned on 24 August 1940 and sunk on 27 May 1941 after she had destroyed the British battle cruiser HMS Hood. The displacement of the Bismarck was however 41,700 tons standard and 50,900 tons full load. Her sister ship was the Tirpitz.
