Chapter 32 The Giant's Achilles' Heel

Over the years, when Zhang Hainuo's dream finally came true, his emotions were both excited and complex. However, he didn't come in like a bull in a china shop but instead opted for a more cautious approach. The original departmental military officer positions on the ship remained unchanged. Raymond von Schubert, the navigation officer from the "Deutschland" (formerly known as "Deutschland") ship, the gunnery commander Leopold Stein, and the staff officer Louis Ritter, who was transferred from the "Königsberg" ship, formed a staff team directly responsible to the captain himself. They were all classmates of Zhang Hainuo from his training class and had sailed together on the training ship "Gneisenau", now constituting a staff team to assist in the daily training work of various departments on the ship.

From then on, Zhang Hainuo had his first large warship to command, along with an excellent staff team.

When the "Gneisenau" set sail this time, in addition to more than 1,600 crew members, an additional professional engineering team was brought on board. They would be responsible for conducting comprehensive tests and evaluations of the various technical performances of this new type of warship. In Zhang Hainuo's impression, this class of warship had always been plagued by problems with its propulsion system, and the heavily damaged "Gneisenau" had been languishing in the dry dock for a long time. This was an absolute waste for a heavy warship constructed at great cost, and he did not want such a fate to befall his command.

On June 9th, with everything prepared, amid the long blast of the whistle, the huge ship with a displacement of 39,000 tons slowly left the Kiel naval port and headed smoothly towards the depths of the Baltic Sea.

Utilizing the brief preparation time before departure, Zhang Hainuo quickly familiarized himself with the responsible military officers in each department on board, and within a few short days, he toured all the major compartments on the ship to understand the situation of his new subordinates. With a crew of an average age of less than 21, the "Gneisenau" was full of vitality, and the morale of the sailors obviously was not affected by the "change of command" in the least.

During the trial voyage, accompanied by the chief engineer Theodor Andes, Zhang Hainuo inspected the main and auxiliary power systems on board with the technical officers one by one. It was well known that the Scharnhorst-class battleships were designed with a special emphasis on naval speed. Initially, naval engineers advocated the use of diesel engines for their fuel efficiency and long range, but diesel engines were difficult to achieve speeds above 30 knots and took up too much space on the ship. There were disagreements within the German Navy on which power plant to install, and it was only under the direct intervention of Admiral Raeder that high-pressure, high-temperature steam turbines were adopted. Now both Scharnhorst-class ships were equipped with 12 fuel boilers and 3 steam turbines, with a total design power of 136,000 horsepower, and both ships' engines could operate at overload. During the full-speed trial voyage, the "Gneisenau" reached a maximum power of 150,000 horsepower, achieving a top speed of 30.5 knots!

In addition, the ship was also equipped with 6 460-kilowatt steam turbine generators and 2 150-kilowatt diesel generator sets, with a total generating capacity of 4,520 kilowatts, including 900 kilowatts of standby power in case of combat damage. These facilities operated well during the trial voyage.

Having spent three years on the "Deutschland", Zhang Hainuo had a more intuitive understanding of the navigational performance of these two warships. The feeling of cruising the ocean at full speed on the "Gneisenau" was indeed different from the 26 knots achieved by the "Deutschland" relying on diesel engines, and there was no excessive vibration when the diesel engines operated at high power. However, the billowing black smoke emitted when the "Gneisenau" sailed at full speed was not just an environmental pollution problem. Because of the use of traditional heavy oil boilers, the "Gneisenau" had astonishing fuel consumption, although the capacity of the reserve tanks was more than three times that of the "Deutschland", the designed range at 15 knots was only 9,000 nautical miles, far below the 16,000 nautical miles of the Deutschland class.

On June 13th, the fourth day of sailing, the "Gneisenau" conducted its first main gun salvo at sea. After three salvos, the main gun equipment and the shooting command instruments on board worked normally, and the scene of the nine 283mm main guns roaring made the young sailors excited.

At the design stage, the German Naval Ministry favored installing 15-inch (380mm) main guns on this standard displacement 35,000-ton large battleship to counter the active main battleships of countries like Britain and France. However, Hitler feared that adopting 15-inch guns too early would provoke the British, so he requested that the ship be built with the same caliber 11-inch (283mm) guns as the Deutschland class, but with main gun turret ring sizes designed for twin 15-inch main guns. In this way, once war broke out, the navy could quickly switch to 15-inch guns.

Zhang Hainuo was not clear about the specific reasons why the two Scharnhorst-class ships were ultimately unable to replace their 15-inch main guns during World War II. Judging from the firepower configuration of the current "Gneisenau", the spectacle of nine 54.5-caliber 283mm guns firing in unison was impressive, but to experts, it was disproportionate to the huge size of the battleship. Before replacing the larger-caliber main guns, the Naval Command hoped to compensate for the caliber deficiency by increasing the rate of fire and accuracy. Zhang Hainuo felt that for the time being, he could only compromise in this way. If stubbornness led to a new Anglo-German naval race, the appeasement policy of Britain during the German annexation of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia might change, which would be extremely detrimental to Germany's strategy!

The fire control system of the "Gneisenau" still relied mainly on world-class Zeiss optical directors: three 10.5-meter optical rangefinders were used to command the three large main gun turrets, and the secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns also had rangefinders suitable for their respective sizes. The latest FUMO radar rangefinder developed by the Navy Technical Department was installed on a large warship for the first time, but because the technology still needed improvement, they currently served as auxiliary instruments to the optical directors, correcting deviations and providing data support for main gun firing in poor light conditions such as rain and night.

During the first week of entering the Baltic Sea, the situation on the sea was good, and the "Gneisenau" operated its equipment well, especially in terms of speed and fire control. However, as the weather became stormy, the defect of the ship's low freeboard became apparent: when sailing against the waves, the wave conditions on its deck were even more severe than those of the Deutschland class. In particular, during high winds and waves, it could not maintain the stability required for firing the main guns. This result was obtained in exchange for the significantly larger size and threefold displacement of the Deutschland class. The root cause lies in historical and political influences: when this class of warship was still in the design stage, the German Navy believed that meeting the requirements of "equipping with 9 x 283mm main guns and armor protection capable of resisting French 330mm guns at close range" would be sufficient with a displacement of 26,000 tons. However, by the time the ships were under construction in 1936, the displacement far exceeded the initial estimates. The significant increase in displacement in turn affected the stability, seakeeping, and protection of the ships. The completed ships had armor decks below the design waterline rather than above it, and the loss of freeboard meant a corresponding reduction in stability range.

Faced with this situation, the ship's engineers were also quite concerned, knowing that such design issues could not be easily resolved with simple adjustments. Typically, changing the deck sheer line and flare would be a way to alter wave conditions on the deck, but for the low-waterline Scharnhorst class, this would only address the symptoms rather than the root cause. An assistant to Chief Engineer Theodor privately revealed to Zhang Hainuo that even with a major refit in dry dock, the seagoing performance of the Gneisenau would still be difficult to fundamentally improve, making it not a truly capable ocean-going warship. However, regardless, the Navy's requirement for speed was met, indicating that the Gneisenau was at least a "qualified product" according to the Navy's specifications.

Zhang Hainuo was already aware of this point, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Moreover, the Navy officials were not fools, especially considering that this class of warship was designed and built under the personal supervision of Raeder. Prioritizing speed and armor was also closely related to the current strategic posture of the German Navy. In situations where tonnage and numbers were significantly less than those of adversaries, mainline ships had to have good survivability. Without it, even a one-for-one exchange would be too costly for the German Navy, let alone a one-for-two or one-for-three exchange.

The navigation of the Gneisenau continued into the scorching July. After returning from the Baltic Sea, the ship transited the Kiel Canal to Wilhelmshaven. In late July, it participated in a joint exercise with other ships of the German main fleet in the Heligoland Bight, demonstrating that, under favorable sea conditions, this large warship could meet various tactical requirements and significantly enhance the tactical options of the German Navy. After the exercise, the Gneisenau returned to Kiel for its first routine docking maintenance, and the crew enjoyed a rare half-month leave. After the leave ended, the ship would undergo a new round of sea trials in the North Sea. The Naval Staff also needed data from the ship's navigation in various sea areas of the North Sea to provide technical references for possible future military actions.