- Yes.
- No.
- In a future Dutch/BeNeLux techtree.
- In the French BeNeLux sub-tree
- Other (Please explain in the comments).
- I said “No” in the first question.
Today I want to suggest an a unique ship for the Netherlands.
This is the “Pantserschip” HNLMS De Ruyter (1901)
What is a “Pantserschip” you ask?
It’s a Dutch term that litterally translates to “Armour Ship”.
Online sources refer to these ships as Coastal Defence Ships, but I highly disagree with that since Dutch Pantserschip’s are fully ocean going and would go from the Netherlands to the East Indies (Nowadays Indonesia) all the time. So saying they are a Coastal ship is just wrong.
So what are they then? Their speed, weaponry and armour make them more closely related to Armoured Cruisers, so the best term would be to use that, or even better a Small Armoured Cruiser.
HNLMS De Ruyter in 1914
Source: Foto's
History
Spoiler
HNLMS De Ruyter in Curaçao 1908
Source: Foto'sThe period around the 1900’s is a very interesting time in Naval history, where each nation was trying out different designs for increasingly larger vessels. The Dutch ofcourse didn’t want to be left behind and so they to starting designing larger more powerfull vessels.
Starting in 1893 the Dutch Navy started constructing of a new type of ship, a so called “Pantserschip”. This is a Dutch term for a small heavily armored cruiser. The Netherlands had a lot of colonies all around the world, so these new “Pantserschepen” had to be fully ocean going vessels and would travel the world to these various colonies.
The first “Pantserschepen” the Dutch made were of the Evertsen-class, and from 1893 till 1896 they would built three of these. Starting in 1898 a new class of ships was constructed, this was the Koningin Regentes-class.
Three Koningin Regentes-class ships would be constructed, HNLMS Koningin Regentes, HNLMS De Ruyter and HNLMS Hertog Hendrik.Compared to the previous Evertsen-class the Koningin Regentes-class was larger, and around 1.500 tons heavier. The 21cm guns of the Evertsen-class were not carried over, instead a new 24cm gun was used, the 15cm secondairy gun battery was doubled to four guns and the 7,5cm guns were increased from six to eight guns.
HNLMS De Ruyter was launched on the 28th of September 1901, and would be put into service on the 29th of October 1902.
The rest of her carreer was sadly quite uneventfull. The Netherlands stayed neutral during the First World War so there were no Naval battles between the Netherlands and Germany. Most of her carreer was taken up with patrol missions to Dutch colonies.She would be decommissioned in 1920 and scrapped soon after.
HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
Design
Spoiler
The bow of HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto'sThe Dutch “Pantserschip” classification is pretty much the same as an Armoured Cruiser, only maybe a little bit smaller then most Armoured Cruisers other nations were making.
HNLMS De Ruyter was 96.622 metres long, had a beam of 15.189 metres and a draft of 5.817 metres, and displaced 5,002 tons. She had a crew of 340 men and was able to reach a top speed of 16,5 knots.
The boiler of HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto'sThe main weaponry of the ship was two 24cm No. 1 guns. These were guns made by Krupp, and the ship had the two guns mounted in two single turrets. One fore and one aft.
The guns had a firerate of around 2 rounds per minute. And a higher muzzle velocity of 814 meters per second.
Ammunition for the 24cm guns consisted of AP, two kinds of SAP, two kinds of HE and a Common shot.The secondairy weapons seen on HNLMS De Ruyter was, for Dutch standards, very heavy at the time. That being four 15cm and eight 7,5cm guns.
The 15cm guns were mounted in No. 4 turrets. These turrets were open at the rear and had a thick armored gunshield at the front, sides and roof of the gun.As for the 7,5cm guns these were spread around the ship, making it so that at any angle at least one gun could fire. Two were placed on each side of the ship, two more were next to the bridge and the final two at the rear just behind the rear 24cm turret.
The final guns onboard the ship were four 37mm Hotchkiss guns. There was one on each side of the ship placed on the same deck as the 15cm and 7,5cm guns. And the last two were located near the bow of the ship, below the forward 24cm turret deck. The guns were placed behind two small doors which could be opened to fire the guns.
The final bit of weaponry onboard the ship was three 45cm torpedo tubes. One torpedo tube was mounted above the waterline in the bow of the ship. This tube would fire the torpedo straight forwards.
The last two torpedo tubes were mounted under water near the bow of the ship. The tubes were placed in the bottom deck of the ship and were put at an angle of roughly 45 degrees. So the torpedoes would not fire straight forwards, but would instead go at an angle.The torpedoes used were Whitehead Type XIIa and Type XIIb. The XIIa was used for the above water torpedo tube, and the XIIb was used for the underwater torpedo tubes. Both torpedoes had a 60 kg warhead, and a range of 1.000 meters at 31 knots.
A top down view of lowest deck of the ship, note the two torpedo tubes near the bow of the ship
Source: | Nationaal ArchiefThe armour of the ship was 150 mm armored belt, which would lower to 100mm at the ship ends. The upper deck was 12,5 mm thick, with the main armored lower deck being 50 mm thick.
The citadel of the ship was protected by a 105 mm armored plate that was at an 45 degree angle. This plate connected up to the 50 mm armored deck, which was also part of the citadel.
Finally the turrets and barbettes were protected by 250 mm of armour.
A blueprint of the inside of the HNLMS De Ruyter (1901), showing the internal armour layout
Source: | Nationaal Archief
Ingame
Spoiler
We currently don’t have any armoured cruisers, or similar older style vessels ingame. But I do strongly believe that ships like these can work really well ingame.
When we look at the future of Naval in War Thunder, not all nations have a large number of battleships/battlecruisers that can be added. And going from a cruiser to a battleship is a huge step. That’s why I think ships like these can work nicely to fill that gap. They might not have the most amount weapons, or the best AA weapons, but their armour alone will allow them to take a lot of punches!
BR wise I this ship would work best at around 5.0. Maybe if Naval get’s more un-compressed these BR’s can change.
My first choice would be to have this ship be added into a independent BeNeLux techtree. But ofcourse the BeNeLux has been added to France, so this is now the only option where Dutch vehicles will go to. But it must be said that the Netherlands and France have nothing in common, and do not make sense to combine together ingame.
In the French Naval tree this ship would feel right at home. France certainly liked to make some weird Armored Cruiser type ships around the 1900’s, so gameplay wise HNLMS De Ruyter would fit right in! Also if the BeNeLux ships were to get a dedicated line in the French tree then this ship would serve nicely as one of the top ships you can get for the Dutch (Since neither the Netherlands nor Belgium had any battleships, so after these Armored Cruisers there wouldn’t be anything bigger)
As a funny joke Gaijin should announce the BeNeLux bluewater line for the French tree and only have ships in it named De Ruyter. I’m not kidding when I say that would fill an entire line. There is a Destroyer, three Light Cruisers and this Armored Cruiser, all named De Ruyter.
Specifications
Spoiler
A side view cutaway of the ship
Source: | Nationaal ArchiefDisplacement: 5,002 tons
Length: 96,622 m
Beam: 15,189 m
Draft: 5,817 m
Installed powerplant: 2 x vertical tripple expansion steamturbines, 6 x Yarrow boilers (6,400 hp)
Propulsion: 2 x shafts
Maximum speed: 16,5 knots
Crew: 340 menArmor:
Belt: 100 - 150 mm
Upper Deck: 12,5 mm
Lower Deck: 50 mm
Citadel sides: 105 mm at 45°
Barbettes: 250 mm
Turrets: 250 mmArmament:
2 x 1 24cm No. 1 guns
4 x 1 15cm No. 4 guns
8 x 1 7,5cm No. 3 guns
4 x 1 3,7cm Hotchkiss guns
1 x above water 45cm bow torpedo tube firing Whitehead Type XIIa torpedoes
2 x underwater 45cm bow torpedo tubes firing Whitehead Type XIIb torpedoes
A top-down view of the ship
Source: | Nationaal Archief
A nice side view of the HNLMS De Ruyter
Source: Foto's
And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading about this amazing machine.
See you on the battlefield!
Sources
Spoiler
Main sources:
- Koningin Regentes class Coast Defence Ships (1900)
- Nederlandse pantser- en pantserdekschepen - TracesOfWar.nl
- Koningin Regentes-class coastal defense ship - Wikipedia
- HNLMS De Ruyter (1901) - Wikipedia
Extra sources:
- “Marine-torpedodienst 1875-2000” book, by J.M. Mohrmann
Photos:
Blueprints: