HrMS Tijger, Tijger-class battlecruiser - Dutch Splendid Cats

[Captain_WeebSons]

Tijger (Eng: Tiger) was a class of three ships (originally planned as five ships) build for the Dutch Royal Navy (DRN). Designed in respond to The Japanese battlecruiser - Kongo.

 

The Tijger-class battlecruisers were the most active capital ships of the Dutch Royal Navy during both World War I and World War II, participating in most major engagements of the wars, In World War I after the Netherlands' capitulation Tijger and Leuw went to Britain and were seized by the British. During World War 1, both ships partook in the Battle of the Falkland Islands (Leuw), the Battle of Jutland (Tijger sinking SMS Seydlitz) and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. In World War 2, Tijger participated in the sinking of Bismarck, but could not arrive in time to be of major effect to the engagement. She later fought in the Battle of Calabria and the Battle of Cape Matapan before becoming the flagship of the Dutch-British fleet in the Battle of the Sulawesi. Only Panter would be sunk by enemy action in 1941, either by gunfire from Kongou or Mutsu two weeks before the Battle of the Wakatobi. After the war, Tijger and Leuw went into reserve until 1953, when plans were made to turn them into museum ships. Tijger is preserved in Amsterdam, while attempts were made to sell Leuw to Singapore, but due to economic concerns, the plan was aborted and Leuw would eventually be scrapped in 1958

 

HrMS Leuw (in the middle) and HrMS Panter (far right) in Rotterdamn, 1914 (Actually it's Hiei)

                                                                      Service/constructed

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Type - Battlecruiser.

Organization: Dutch Royal Navy (1913-1914, 1918-1953), British Royal Navy (1914-1918)

Builders: Portsmouth Dockyard and Rotterdam Dockyard.

Constructed: Tijger, laid down in January 20 1911, launched in 6 June 1912, commisioned In September 9 1913

Leuw, laid down in January 25 1911, launched in 13 June 1912, commisioned October 21 1913.

Panter, laid down in December 1 1911, launched in april 15 June 1913, commisioned July 14 1914.

Jagluipaard, never finished as battlecruiser, but reconstructed as aircraft carrier in 1926.

Luipaard, laid down in July 1913, scrapped in 1919.

                                                                 General characteristics

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Displacement: 

 29 600 tonns (standard), Full: 31 500 tonns (Tijger)

29 600 tonns, Full: 31 500 tonns (Leuw),

29 900 tonns, Full 31 200 tonns (Panter)

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After 1935 and 1938 refits

 32 800 tonns, Full: 36 000 tonns (Tijger)

32 200 tonns, Full: 35 400 tonns (Leuw)

32 200 tonns, Full: 35 400 tonns (Panter)

Length of Keel: 192 meters

Length from Bow to Aft: 223 meters

Beam 28.9 meters

Draft 9.5 meters

                                                                                                         Armaments

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x4*2 14'' (356 mm) Mk I gun firing range - 25-32 km 

x16 6'' (152 mm)

x6*2 4'' (105 mm boffors) multi porpuse guns (1934)

AA

8 3'' (76) salute guns (1912-1934)

many 1.5'' (40 mm) bofors. (1938).

                                                                              Armor

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10'' (254 mm (KSA*)) armor belt.

upper belt - 6'' (152 mm)

casimates - 6'' (152 mm).

aft and rear belts - 5'' (130 mm) 

underwater belt - 3'' (76 mm)

Total armor of deck - 2'' (51 mm) changed to 5'' in 1926 (130 mm)

armor of citadel - 2'' (51 mm) changed to 3'' (76 mm)

Turret face 10'' (254 mm), sides - 8'' (203), top 3'' (76).

barbettes - 10'' (254)

Athwartship - 8'' (203)

Anti-Torpedo protection

2 torpedo bulges thickness - 16 mm (1927)

 

 

*Note all armor is KSA - Krupp steel alloy

                                                                              Propulsion

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x36 Yarrow boilers (coal (changed to Brown Curtis 14 boilers (completely oil-fired) in 1934)

x4 Parson turbines

Power installed: 83 000 H.P (1912-1927), 148 000 (1934)

speed: 27 knots (1912-1925), 31 knots (1925)

range: 7000 miles

crew: 1124 (1914), 1347 (1936), 1525 (1944)

 

Tijger in 1917.

 

Tijger in 1935 refit.

Tijger in 1943

 

 

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                                                                                  History of Design

As Japan start to expand their territories, United Kingdom Of Netherlands and Belguim were fully aware of Japanese actions and started to build their new navy, Lunch of HMS Drednought escalated it even more. In 1908 Dutch Luanched their first Drednought - De Ruyter and 1 more was ordered in 1908.

Originally Dutch Design Deparment come out with those characteristics 19 000 tonne armoured cruiser (actually battlecruiser)

4*2 12'' one aft, one fore and 2 in ashelone but they had broadside of 3 turrets on each side.
speed 24 knots (54 000 hp)
armor belt 140 mm 
but commissioning of Invincible class  in 1907 brought the end of that design. In 1909 Vickers designed a battlecruiser for the Japanese Navy, it asked Vickers to design and build their battlecruiser, which became Kongou. Dutch knew about the Ishizuchi (later Kongo) design when she was still on blueprints since they had an exteremely good intelligence network In Japan and the Vickers company. On October 3 1910 the Dutch Admiralty and Dutch Warship committee made up demands:

8 or (preferably) 10 14'' (356-360 mm)
Armor belt thicker than 8 inchies
speed 27 knots
range 7000 miles
crew 1300 people

Vickers pick up the demand and John Lighstrong proposes to George Thurston (chief engineer of Kongo class and Tijger class battlecruisers) to just copy the existing ship, improve propulsion and add an additional inch of armor belt, but reduce the caliber of secendary guns to 5''. On October 14 1910 John Lighstrong and George Thurston showed designs to the Admiralty and they approved the designs, only problem was:

need higher caliber for secondary batteries - 6'' (152 mm)
Armor belt 9'' (229) not 8 (203) as it was currently.
In 3 days the ship was proposed again and the Admiralty accepted the design. It was decided to build 2 ships in the British Portsmouth Shipyard, and 3 other in the Netherlands.

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                                                                              Design discription

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Propulsion

 

The Tijger-class ships had two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam-turbines, each of which drove two propeller shafts. The high-pressure turbines drove the wing shafts while the low-pressure turbines drove the inner shafts. The turbines were arranged in two compartments, separated by a centerline longitudinal bulkheads; both compartments were situated between turrets No. 3 and 4. They were designed to produce a total of 76,000 shaft horsepower, using steam provided by 36 Yarrow, with working pressures ranging from 17.1 to 19.2 atm (1,733 to 1,945 Kpa; 251 to 282 psi). The boilers, arranged in eight compartments, were mixed-firing with feul firing sprayed onto the coal for extra power. The ships had a stowage capacity of 4,200 long tons (4,300 t) of coal and 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) of oil, giving them a range of 7,000 nautical miles (12964; 8055 mile) at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). The battlecruisers were designed to reach a speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) and all of them exceeded that speed on their sea trials. The Tijger and Leuw attained 27.54 knots (51.00 km/h; 31.69 mph) and 27.72 knots (51.34 km/h; 31.90 mph) with 79,172 shp  and 81,443.

Armament

The Tijger-class ships had two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam-turbines, each of which drove two propeller shafts. The high-pressure turbines drove the wing shafts while the low-pressure turbines drove the inner shafts. The turbines were arranged in two compartments, separated by a centerline longitudinal bulkheads; both compartments were situated between turrets No. 3 and 4. They were designed to produce a total of 76,000 shaft horsepower, using steam provided by 36 Yarrow boilers, with working pressures ranging from 17.1 to 19.2 atm (1,733 to 1,945 Kpa; 251 to 282 psi). The boilers, arranged in eight compartments, were mixed-firing with oil sprayed on the coal for extra power. The ships had a stowage capacity of 4,200 long tons (4,300 t) of coal and 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) of oil, giving them a range of 7,000 nautical miles (12964; 8055 mile) at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). The battlecruisers were designed to reach a speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) and all of them exceeded that speed during their sea trials. The Tijger and Leuw attained 27.54 knots (51.00 km/h; 31.69 mph) and 27.72 knots (51.34 km/h; 31.90 mph) with 79,172 shp  and 81,443 respectively.

Armament
The primary armament of the Tijger-class consisted of eight 45-caliber 14-inch guns, mounted in four superfiring twin-gun turrets (same guns as on Kongo, but with sligtly heavier shells - 675 kg). The turrets had an elevation capability of -5/+25 degrees except on Tijger whose turrets had a maximum elevation capability of +20 degrees. The shells could be loaded at any angle and the guns had a firing cycle of 25-30 seconds. These guns and their turrets underwent multiple modernizations throughout the ships' careers. During the first reconstruction of the class during the 1920s, the elevation of the main guns was increased to a maximum of 25 degrees, but in 1935 was changed to 45 degrees. The recoil mechanism of the guns was also changed from a hydraulic to a pneumatic system, which allowed for a faster firing cycle of the main guns.

By World War II, the guns used Mk VII armor-piercing capped shells. Each of these shells weighed 685 kilograms and had a muzzle velocity of 890 meters per second. They had a maximum range of 25,000 meters (27,000 yd) at +20 degrees of elevation and 35,450 meters (38,770 yd) at +40 degrees after modernisation. Also available was a 625-kilogram high-explosive shell that had a muzzle velocity of 815 meters per second. 

As built, the Tijger class was fitted with a secondary armament of sixteen 50-caliber six-inch guns mounted in single casemates along the sides of the hull on the upper deck. Eight guns were mounted per side, each having an arc of fire of 130 degrees and a maximum elevation of +15 degrees. Each gun could fire a 45.36 kilogram (100 lb) high explosive projectile to a maximum distance of 22,970 yards (21,000 m) at a rate of between four and six shots per minute. During their reconstruction in the 1930s, the maximum elevation of the guns was increased to +30 degrees, which increased their maximum range by approximately 900 metres (980 yd).

The ships also mounted four 40-caliber 76 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The 76-millimetre (3 in) high-angle guns were in single mounts. Each of these guns had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees and could fire a 6 kg (13 lb) projectile with a muzzle velocity of 680 m/s (2,200 ft/s) to a maximum height of 7,500 metres (24,600 ft). None of the ships were equiped with torpedoes since the Dutch Admiralty thought that torpedoes were useless on a capital ship.

The Tijger class's secondary armament changed significantly over time. During the modernizations of the 1930s, all of the 76 mm guns were replaced with twelve 50-caliber 105 mm (4.1''). These guns were fitted in twin mounts, 2 on each side of the fore and aft superstructures and 2 on the funnel platform . When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of 14,700 metres (16,100 yd); they had a maximum ceiling of 9,440 metres (30,970 ft) at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 18 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was around 12 rounds per minute.

The light AA armament of the Tijger class changed dramatically from 1933 to 1944. During the second reconstruction, the ships were fitted with four to eight twin 25 mm machine-guns, later replaced by 40-millimeter Bofors. The 40 mm guns were mounted on the Tijger class in double, triple and quad mounts. 
Leuw utimately carried 82 guns - 16 twin 40mm, 10 quad 40mm and 10 twin 20mm Oerlikons.
 

 

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                                                                                                             Construction and History

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First Tijger was laid down in January 20 1911 and a week later Leuw. On June 6 1912 9000 people observed Tijger's launch, including queen Wilhelmina, King Goerge V, Theo De Meester (prime minister of the United Kingdom of Netherlands and Belguim), H. H. Asquish (UK PM) and First Sea Lord of Netherlands - Albert Ghalen 

launch of HrMS Tijger (actualy Kongo)

 

She made 28,3 kts during her sea trials with 81,443 horpsepower

Shortly after her commissioning she went to Dutch-British exercises. Her commisioning set off a lot of confusion in the Japanese Admiralty since the ship was literally an improved Kongou with additional armor.

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World War I 

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In 22 June 1914 HrMS Panter was on her way to East Indies, Leuw in South Africa (ducth colony, alternative history) and Tijger was anchored in Amstedam with HrMS Tjerk and De Ruyter in 1st Battleship squdron (actually 2nd, but she was in a battlecruiser squadron with the armored cruisers Holland, Zeeland and Java) 

After the assasination of archduke Franz Ferdinand ships were loaded to wartime standard and 2nd Battlecruiser squadron moved to patrol the North sea on July 30th. On August the 3rd Germany diclared war on the United Kingdom of Netherlands and Belguim. On the same day at 6 o'clock Tijger and her squadron engaged SMS Yorck and Augsburg, the latter being sunk by Zeeland at 9:05 and Tijger sinking Yorck at 10:32 (Yorck detonated). On August 5th Tijger and Tjerk were bombarding german ground forces, which were 4km North of Amsterdam, After German Imperial Army captured Amsterdam and Dutch army continue the fight in Holland and Belguim, Dutch Vice Admiral Louis Astvir was issued an order from Dutch and British goverment to sail to Scapa Flow and his ships to be seized by Britain, 3 days after Dutch Home Fleet consisiting of 1 battlecruiser, 4 Battleships, 6 pre-drednought battleships, 8 protected cruisers, 5 armoured cruisers and 83 Destroyers and Torpedo boats arrived at Scapa Flow. At October 8th 1914 Dutch warships raised British Royal Navy flags, but the Dutch crew remained; Tijger was renamed to HMS Splendid and Leuw to HMS Holland. HMS Splendid was assigned to 5th Battlecruiser squadron and during gunnery practice she prooved to be the most accurate ship in squadron. HMS Splendid was ordered to patrol the North Sea. 

HMS Holland was ordered to Europe on October 29 1914, but the defeat at the Battle of Coronel delayed this and she was to stay at Cape untill she could join the british battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible. After meeting up with them Doveton made Holland his flagship due to the fact that she was much more powerful than the Invincible class. During the Battle of Falklands HMS Holland sunk the armoured cruiser Scharnhorst and took 6 210 mm hits and 8 105 mm, 4 people died and 15 were injured.

After the battle Leuw (HMS Holland) went to Britain for minor repairs and was placed in Horace Hood's squadron in the Grand Fleet. 

On 14 December HMS Splendid, along with the entire british battlecruiser squadron, tried to intercept and destroy Hipper's scouting squadron after a raid on Scarbrough, but failed.

At the Battle of Dogger Bank Splendid took 4 hits: first hit on the bow, which threw her port anchor into the sea, second hit was a ricochet from B turret (apparently hit from SMS Seydlitz), third hit was to the belt, causing minor damage, and the final hit was to the main rangefinder (which was above the bridge), killing 6 people and injuring everybody on the bridge, including Commander Jacob Van Kleij (captain of Splendid/Tijger from 1916-1919, Vice Admiral from 1930-1936 and finally Admiral from 1937-1943, commanding the Dutch-British Fleet in the Java Sea); Meanwhile Splendid hit Seydlitz 9 times and later she concentrated her fire on Blucher, hitting her 14 times. Eventually Blucher sank and Splendid took the survivors. Afterwards Splendind went in for repairs until February.

Battle Of Jutland

On May 26 HMS Princess Royal struck a mine so Splendid replaced her in the line of battle. At 16:50, during a run to the south Splendid hit SMS Seydlitz, causing heavy damage and as a result sinking her, even though the British were not aware of this. During night actions she blew up SMS Hannover. During the course of the battle Splendid received 14 heavy shell hits (5 30.5 cm from Derflinger, 7 28.0 cm hits from Seydlitz and 1 28.0 from Hannover); 103 people had died.

One of the hits landed right next to her starboard gun in Q turret, taking it out of action, and thus she had 7 guns during the battle.

Spoiler

"One of my officers - Sem Meijer who was responsible for rangefinding in main rangefinder was running into conning tower as I was standing on a bridge high up then apparently 12" shell fly right to the conning tower and ricochet from it and wentright to the Sem, Second later We witnessed cloud of red substance all over the place, it was poor lad's blood, it was everywhere, I pressume he haven't felt anything and his death was not painful, thats truly something that you dont want to see" 
-Captain Jacob Van Kleij, HrMS Tijger, 2nd June 1916

 

 

 

Meanwhile her sister didn't suffer any damage whatsoever, but she hit SMS Moltke and Konig (Konig 3 times, Moltke 5 times).

After the battle Splendid was under repairs until August

 

In Sepetember 1916 Leuw was assigned to the Mediterranean and while on her way there she escorted HMHS Britannic - an Olympic-class liner which was rebuilt as a floating hospital.

At 08:12 on 21 November 1916, Britannic struck a mine, HMS Holland and two destroyers that happened to be near started atnti-torpedo manoeuvers, thinking that german U-boats were nearby (also due to the fact that SS Burdigala ex- SS Kaiser Friedrich, which was sunk week earlier in same area by a german U-boat). After 15 minutes of manoeuvering HMS Holland's captain realised that there was no sign of enemy U-boats and he began to evacuate people from Britannic onboard, which took aproximately 20 minutes. Following this attempts were made to save the liner and HMS Holland began to tow her to the Island of Kea, (luckily the port holes had been sealed and Britannic was sinking relatively slowly). 

Britannic made to Kea where she ran aground and was later salvaged in 1919 and brought back to the White Star Line, where she continued her service, along with her sister ship - Olympic. In 1951 they were to be scrapped, but Britannic was saved by 20th Century Fox and she was filmed in the movies "Titanic", "A Night to Remember" and "Britannic" (1963; fictional movie just for fun becouse why not :D) and was later preserved as a museum ship in Halifax. 

 

Anyway this is story of Tijger/Splendid class isn't it?

After the saving of Britannic, HMS Holland was boambarding the Dardanelles and in January 1917 she engaged Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex-Goeben 2nd ship of Moltke class). The engagement lasted 52 minutes and both ships took heavy damage, Holland took a slightly heavier damage, but was still capable of fighting.

Holland (Leuw): 11 hits (only 280 mm hits), 162 men killed, 111 injured. Aftermath: penetrated belt , damaged turbine and 8 boilers, Y turret knocked out, one hit to the aft and a few fires. As a result of the damage the ship was in repairs for 5 months.

Yavuz took 9 hits 356 mm and 24 152 mm hits, 1 turret was jammed for a while, ruddder jammed, full conning tower penetration, small secondary gun magazine explosion and a short term fire, which nearly caused main gun magazine detonation.

HMS Weymouth, which was escorting Holland (Leuw), sank from a detonation, caused by Yavuz.

 

Aft hit to Leuw after engagement with Yavuz (actually this photo of HMS Warspite after Jutland)

HMS Splendid (Tijger in British service)

 

Panter with the rest of the Dutch fleet were in the Dutch East Indies until 1916 when in June they were called to the Mediterenian Sea.

For the rest of the war all three ships were patrolling the seas where they were stationed. During this time Splendid shined again and participated in the 2nd Battle of Heligoland Bight, sinking cruiser SMS Koln and receiving 2 105 mm hits.

On 11 of November the Armistice was signed, marking the end of the war. Later on HMS Splendid, HMS Holland and rest of Dutch fleet, which had been seized in 1914, were returned and given their original names back. 
 

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Interwar Period

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In 1919 Tijger and Leuw took part in escorting th German Fleet to Scapa Flow, directly behind the US Squadron.
On the 21 of June 1919 Germans started scuttling their ships, (in this timeline) only Badaen, Hindenburg and Derflinger were saved; Hindenburg in particular was saved by the actions of HMS Warspite and Tijger. After the accident german crews were sent back to Germany and the surviving ships were crewed by the British. On June 28 1919 according to the Treaty of Versiles UKNB got all german territory west of Rhine fell under Dutch authority for 16 years, also after they got Papua New Guinea. years and Germany had to pay 42 billion gold marks as reparations as well as give up SMS Hindenburg and the cruisers Graudenz and Regensburg, also Dutch demanded to Germans to finish 3 battleships that they ordered in 1914, which were nealy finsihed but stayed on slipways: Zwijger, Oranje-Nassau and Prinz, In 1920 all 3 ships were commisioned in DRN

 

Zwijger-class in 1919

 

 

Spoiler

31.000 tonns (standard)

4*2 15'' Mk I guns 

16 casamete mounts 140 mm

armor belt - 14'' (356 mm)

ends 4''

decks 3'' (modernised to 5.5'')

speed: 25 knots.

crew: 1300

Basically improoved QE class 

 

Netherlands's economical situation was in a really bad state after The Great War, losing 1.73 million people and double of that were injured. 38% of factories were destroyed by the Germans during the war and/or by Dutch Partisans, which was a heavy hit to the dutch economy. This all meant that the Netherlands couldn't sustain both a relatively large navy and an army (at least what was left of it). In 1920 6 out of 18 Light/Protected cruisers were scrapped (keep in mind that 2 of those cruisers were seized from Germany), 45 out of 95 destroyers/torpedo boats and 2 out of 10 ARC were also sent to be scrapped. Next year it was decided to sell a few cruisers and Hindenburg to Brazil or any other nation, which might be interested. 

 

UKNB In 1919

 

In July 1921 Brazil bought Hindenburg, 4 cruisers, 2 ARC, 25 destroyers. All ships arrived in Brazil, except Hindenburg.

At 9:15 October 3 1921 Hindenburg set sail for Brazil.
At 20:00 (Rotterdam time) October 7 Rotterdam radio tower recieved the last massage from Hindenburg "All alrigt, Heading to Rio De Janeiro". At 23:00 when another radio message should have been sent there was silence, but it was thought that everything was alright and the crew had simply forgotten to send a message. 

The next moarning no massage was recieved, and it was thought that ship might be out of radio range. The ship should have been in range of Brazilian radio towers, but no signs of the ship were present on the 9th and 10th of October. The Brazilian, Dutch and British fleets immediately started search operetions, dozens of cruisers, 4 battlecruisers .(Tijger, Leuw, HMS Tiger and HMS Hood) and 1 battleship (HMS Warpite), along with several rescue ships and liners like RMS Mauritania and RMS Britannic were sent. There were no SOS signals sent by Hindenburg. HMS Hood was closest to pintpointing the place of the accident. In fact she had radio conversation on the 5th of October near the West coast of Spain. After 2 weeks of searching Hindenburg was claimed to be lost along with her whole 1208 people on board.

There are many theories regarding the loss of Hindenburg

1. German sabotage: 1.1 The ship had bombs planted in the magazines either in 1918 or during the Scapa Flow accident, which is the most unlikely scenario. After attempts to scuttle ship were checked for everywhere, but no signs of bombs were spotted.

1.2 Bombs were planted same day she set sail from Rotterdam by a German spy onboard the ship.

1.3 spontaneous cordite explosion (official one)

1.4 spontaneous fire in her magazines

1.5 Since after she Scapa Flow Accident Hindenburg had issiues with electrocity, so fires happened due electrocity problems in magazines and ships magazine detonated.

Now other theories

2 Ship might have been stolen by aliens

3 Ship might have been sunk by Kraken etc, etc 

of course last two theories were made by conspiracy theorists so they most likely didn't happened (you guys can make your own theory :D)
Last Photo of HrMS Hindenburg before she wanished

After the accident Invisitigations were held, meanwhile people were blaiming Germans for loss of Hindeburg, but its politics so lets skip those political isues. After Invistigation official explanation on loss of Hindenburg was a "spontaneous cordite explosion" So charges on all ships were replaced by another much more stable sort of cordite In 1922 UKNB joins Washington Naval Treaty where UKNB Navy is allowed to have 248,000 tonns of capital ship displacement, so battleships, Van Spejk and Hedrick were send to scrap yards, later is it was clear that Japan are allowed to keep Mutsu another 35,000 tonns was added to Dutch navy for building, but due economical issues Netherlands couldn't buid anything untill 1938, so it was saved for another day. 1 hull of unfinished Tijger-class ship - Leopard was allowed to be finished as Aircraft carrier Dutch Royal Navy is left with, limitation for future refits of Tijger's was no more than 33,000 tonns of standard displacement. 1 unfinished capital ship hull, later CV 3 BC's: Tijger, Leuw, Panter. 5 BB's: Tjerk, Kartenear, Zwijger, Prinz, Oranje-Nassau 12 CA (but at the time they left with 6 CA's) 14 CLs (8 at the time) and 120 DDs (50 at the time) and 14 submarines.   After Washington Naval Treaty Tijger travalled to Italy and France for "Showing the Flag" Exercises comming up victorious in gunnery and damage control exercises, In 1924 she travaled to US and Japan again for showing the flag exercises only loosing to Americans in gunnery. At that it was clear that Tijger is now outdated, aspecially after commissioning of Hood and Rebuilds of Kongo.   So refit was needed for the ships, It was decided to replace her machinery with fully oiled fired boilers and increase in speed, Brown Curtis boilers were choosen and to put 14 of them with grand total of 146 000 h.p so she can reach top (sustainable) speed of 31 knots (meanwhile Kongo had 12 of those boilers with 130,000 hp in 1930), Her guns needed to be changed since her old guns was very close to end of their lifespan, also new shells were issued - Mk V  Kg shells APC. New mast for new Fire Control facilities, torpedo bulges and Dual Purpose 105 mm bofors guns.   Tijger and Leuw were send to refits in June 1933 and were out fro refit in 1935, Panter meanwhile was sent to refit in 1934 and was out from refit in 1936.     After refits Tijger remained in Europe with HrMS Tjerk and Zwijger, meanwhile Leuw was end to Africa and Panter to East Indies. In 1936 Japan left thel treaties and escalator clause was in. (oh and by the way in 1937 Dutch consisted or 1 CV (two more in construction - HrMS Amsterdam and Rotterdam), 3 BC, 5 BB, 9 CA, (and 1 in commision, and 2 more under construction), 10 CL (4 more under construction) and 86 destroyers (+ 19 under construction). In 1938 Ships were again refited. the were equiped with early radars and all 25 mm AA were replaced by 40 mm bofors. At this appearence all went to The Second Great War.

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World War II

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At 30 of August Tijger and her squadron consisting of heavy cruisers: Endhoven, Frielsand and, Light cruisers: Old cruiser Java, Boer, Linburg, and 8 N-class destroyers were set to patrol. In September 2 UKNB joined World War II along with Britain and France after Germany Invaded Poland (UKNB Joined allies in 1937 after annexetion of Czechoslovakia)

same day her squadron encountered submarines U-12, U-18 and U-6, Tijger took One torpedo hit, and Destroyer Naalt was sunk, from september 3 to september 24 Tijger was in repairs and stayed at Amsterdam untill January 1940.

 

In February Endhoven with support Tijger sunk cruiser Konigsberg and few merchant ships she was escorting west of Kopenhagen. 

In May Netherlands capitulated, but goverment and gold reserves were evacuated, later on Tijger, Leuw and Zwijger joined force H althought they still raised dutch flags.

In July 9 Tijger and Leuw took action in battle of Calabria, during the battle Tijger and Leuw heavily damaged Gulio Ceasare, sunked light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni (Tijger) and Bolzano (Leuw), while Tijger took 14 hits and Leuw 9: Tijger: 3 328 mm, 6 203mm and 5 152 mm hits; Leuw: 1 328 mm, 8 203 mm hits.

After the battle both ships were in repairs in Alexandria. Before Calabria Vice Admiral Jacob Van Kleij asked Piet De Jong who was naval minister and Admiral of the Fleet at the time to send 2 Battleships and 1 battlecruiser along with 1 aircraft carrier to the Miditerranean sea but it was rejected but still Jacob managed to convincied Piet to send Aircraft carrier Rotterdam. Later in November Tijger along with HMS Warspite were escorting Aircraft carriers Formidable, Ark Royal and Rotterdam to fomous atack on Toronto.

 

After Toronto both ships were escorting Convoys from US to Britain and to Egypt. 

 

In may 23rd 1941 Tijger was escorting convoy while KMS Sharnhost engaged her although engagement wasnt desicive both ships took light damage, Tijger took just one hit on her stern while Sharnhost took 3 hits on her hull and superstracture, after 12 minutes of this combat both ships disengaged. at 25 of may Tijger recieved "Sink, The Bismarck, Sink the Bismarck!" Telegram same day she was 150 km weast of south-west coast of Ireland at the time. At 26 of July she came in but was very late Bismarck was already sinking Tijger didn't shoot a shot and started saving oparation, but hour after saving operations german submarines came in and she was forced to run away along woth Rodney and King George V, she managed to save 182 crew from Bismarck.

 

From June 4th to August both ships were in planned repairs and from in October 26th it was decided to send Tijger, Leuw, Renown, Repulse, Rotterdam, Ark Royal Formidable and Warspite to East Indies along with Cruisers 4 heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers and 25 destroyers to East Indies since Japan started unusual activities on Eeast. In November 2nd whole squadron set sail to East Indies, In December 4th Japan declared war to UKNB and their allies. Same day Old dutch cruiser Sumatra run a ground at Island of Ulu and Japanese quickly captured it with codes, dutch crew havent burned them in time.

 

In December 5th HrMS Panter with heavy cruiser Flander were engaged by IJN Kongo and IJN Mutsu (with Heavy cruisers Maya and Myoko): Engagement took place from 23:45 to 2:13, at 23:45, weather was awful and it happened near Palau Sanghihe. 

Kongo opened fire from 11 kilometers, Panter's crew spoted her minute after Kongo's shots, at 23:53 Panter recieved first 3 Hits at middle of a ship, 1 f the shells penetrated her belt and she started taking on water and her speed dropped from 31 kts to 29,7 kts. In 1:14 Mutsu Joined the fight, and 2 of Mutsu's Shells penetreted her belt at 3rd boiler room and disabeled 2 her boilers; and speed was decreased to 23 knots, Panter meanwhile hit Kongo didn't do any sagnificent damage (since it was at Night and Dutch gunnery was poor at night while Japanese had exelent gunnery during the night), at 1:48 Shells from Kongo or Mutsu penetreted Panter's bow magazines and Panter suffured catastrophic explosion, as seemed from wreck she split in 2 parts.

 

Battle of the Sulawesi

Although Panter was lost same day at December 5th Dutch broke Japanese codes and from now on knew that Japanese also broken their codes (but Japanese didn't knew it, so dutch used it as a advantage for desicive or semi-desicive battle, (also worth mentioning that at december 6th Dutch send to British Japanese plans on attcking Pearl Harbor so they can send it to Americans from there so Japanese couldn't find out that their codes were also Broken, But it'was too late and Washington recieved it 20 minutes before the attack, while Pearl Harbor recieved massage from Washington just 5 minutes before the attack. (yes it's complicated deal with it :D)), Japanese didn't knew that Dutch and British ships are going to NEI though [this battle need it's own article]. At December 4th Dutch-British Squadron arrived to Sarubaja and in December 11th, four days after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Tijger became flagship of Spejk's 1sr Battlecruiser squadron (Tijger, Leuw, HMS Renown, HMS Repulse) during the battle Tijger sunk IJN Hiei (Hiei detonated after 35 minutes since start of the battle) and sunk heavy cruiser Haguro and Destroyer Kagero and Wakaba, while taking 16 hits, 5 to 356 mm to her superstracture, 7 356 and 2 203 mm hits on her hull, 5 of the shells bounced or not fully penetreted her (due of that fact that ship was at angle relitevely to incomming shells), 2 356 mm belts penetreated her belt between casamete and main belt and another penetreated main belt but didn't coused damage inside the citadel, and 3 last (one 356 mm and 2 203 mm) shells hit deck cousing fire. While meanwhile Leuw damaged Kongo (which was second in Japanese line, after Hiei (Hiei was flagshipof Japanese Fast Battleship squadron)) sunk light cruiser Kuma,  and destroyers Nenohi, Mutsukaze and damaged IJN Fuso, Ise. Leuw took heaviest of the punch, 24 hits and 16 from Kongo, 2 from Fuso at her final and dramatic fight (again battle of Wakatobi deserves its own article so everything will be covered there). and rest from heavy cruisers.

IJN Hiei (forward) and IJN Kongo firing at at HrMS Tijger and HrMS Leuw.

 

After the battle both ships were in repairs in Surubaja, Tijger was in repairs for 2,5 moth while Leuw for 4 full moths.

In 1942

Tijger was escorting convoys from India to Java, and in June 5th supported dutch landings on Borneo (Borneo was captured by Japanese in January 1942).

From 1942 to 1944 both ships were escorting both Dutch and USN Carriers, Tijger was mostly escorting USS Enterprise along with raiding Japanese shipping. At start of 1943 Tijger along with Zwijger supported US Landings to Philippines

 

In August 13rd 1943 near Philippines Tijger was attacked by 5 Japanese Kamikaze planes, she shotdown 4 of them, but 1 plane got her, plane crashed to turret B, B turret suffered little damage but parts of plane and splinters from explosion fly all over the place and heavily damaged her Bridge, 32 people were dead, Including Vice Admiral Jacob Van Kleij, He died from splinters hour and a half later, Damaged Tijger arrived to Sarabaja she went into repairs and Kleij was buried.

[story about Kleij will be later on seperate article as well].

(yes war in Pacific here excelerate's much faster than in out timeline). Tijger was In Pearl Harbor when Operation Ten-Go happened (heavily damaged USS North Corolina, off Okinawa and Yamato run aground on Okinawa but then was gunned down entirety of US Navy and later on was captured by American Marine Corps resulting Battle of "Fort Yamato". 

Tijger after 1943 refit

 

In June 6th 1944 Leuw and Tijger was boambarding Normandy (there was also wome Dutch divisons in Normandy) and in September was supporting American-British-Dutch Army in operation Market garden.

In December 7th (Ironically) 1944 Japan surrenders. So Germany Became main target for US Nuclear bombing Munchin and Hamburg was choosen for boambarding. In March 13th First city to bombed was Hamburg at 17th Munchin, overall 1,8 million people died, war ended in April 5 1945.

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                                                                                                                            Post War Sevice

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After the war Ships were send into reserves, In 1947 Dutch Fleet suffered to much budget cuts though off post war economy and In 1952 Tijgers were planned to sent to be scrpped but due of public and International public attention - Tijger and Leuw, It was hard to make sure dutch could preserve Tijger to begin with, some people who were interested donated to preserve her and her sister but Leuw was eventually sent to Scrapyard in 1953...

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Museum

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Tijger is located at Veemcate street Ijhaven channel she can be visited any day from 6:00 to 22:00. 

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*(note after 1830 Belguim attempt of revolution, it was decided to give Belguim rights of autonamy, in 1832 Constitution was made where Netherlands and Belguim became United Kingdom Of Netherlans Belguim, with freedom of religon)

Captains

Tijger: 

1913-1916 - Micheil Spejk

1916-1919 - Jacob Van Kleij

1919-1926 - Mark Dekker

1926-1929/1931-1933 - Albert De Haan

1933-1939 - Dirk Jaager

1939-1943 -  Andries Van Leeuwen (died in 1943 with Jacob Van Kleij)

1943-1945 - Hiddie Coevorden

1945-1949 - Sven Heuvel

Leuw:

1913-1915 - Mark Hens

1915-1920 - Albert Hein

1920-1924 - Hans Galen

1924-1926 - N/A

1926-1929 - N/A

1929-1936/1939-1944

1936-1937 -Ian Dekker

1944-1947 - N/A

1947-1953 - N/A

Panter:

1914-1917 - Sam Coevorden

1917-1926 -N/A

1926-1932 - N/A

1932-1937 - N/A

1937-1941 - N/A

Huge Thank you to TheBudgieAdmiral, Cerys,  Dubsy102, LifeBeyondLiving, Dunk Master Flex and rest of Drydock and Denarmo's discord for help and support.

Credits:

Weebson - Author, writer.

Cerys - writer.

TheBudgieAdmiral - Writer.

Dubsy102 - Historical consultant, Designer consultant.

LifeBeyondLiving - Historical consultant, Designer consultant.

Dunk Master Flex - Designer consultant.

 

 

 

 

 

[Miragetank90]

I almost forgot these were fictional, and started to think, why is this all so new to me? 

[Captain_WeebSons]

I mean it happens, My self even thought that Soviet Battleships existed