Originally laid down in 1936, the Type 1936 class destroyer served the Kriegsmarine faithfully in the early stages of WW2 and with other nations after the war had ended. Now, the time has come for this battle-hardened German veteran to prove its worth once more in one of the upcoming naval testing sessions in War Thunder, Kriegsmarine fans rejoice!
The Type 1936 class destroyers began as an interwar modification of the destroyer class that preceded it – the Type 1934 and 1934A. Although not apparent at first, the new modification suffered from a series of design flaws that passed unnoticed during the development stage. However, thanks to extensive changes and improvements made to the powerplant and structure, the now new Type 1936 destroyers were attributed with increased reliability and an overall seafaring ability.
Initially, six Type 1936 destroyers, designations Z17 – Z22, were laid down between 1936 – 1938. All but one of the ships were commissioned into service in the months before the outbreak of WW2, with the last one joining the ranks of the Kriegsmarine in late September of 1939. However, as fate would have it, most of the ships of this class didn’t see a long service as all but one of the ships were lost in 1940. The lone survivor of this class, Z20 Karl Galster, saw the end of the war and was handed over to the Soviet Navy in 1946, where it was redesignated to Prochny. The Z20 remained in service with the Soviet Navy until 1956, when it was ultimately scrapped.
The Type 1936 destroyers would be succeeded by the newer class Type 1936A destroyers, or as they were called by the Allies, the Narvik class destroyers. An interesting thing about the newer German destroyer classes, compared to the initial Type 1936 class, is that they abandoned the tradition of naming destroyers after distinguished German sailors. Thus, the Type 1936 class marks the final class of German destroyers to follow this WW1 tradition.
In the War Thunder, the Type 1936 class destroyer will hopefully see a much longer service time in the hands of our able captains, compared to its real life counterparts. Powered by two steam turbines, generating an impressive 70,000 horsepower, allow the ship to quickly reach its top speed of 38 knots (70 km/h). Ships of the Type 1936 class, besides being fast and agile, also pack a sizable punch. Apart from the five single 127mm primary cannons, the ship’s armament also consists of a number of double semi-automatic 37mm and a single fully-automatic 20mm AA cannons, supported by two quad-barrel 533mm torpedo launchers. The main guns also have base fuse HE ammo (besides AP and HE) that can penetrate enemy destroyer skin at an angle of 90 degrees and detonate inside the hull as an HE round. If this wasn’t enough, four depth charge launchers are also at your disposal, located on the aft of the ship. Of course, all of this serious weaponry needs crew to man it and officers to command it, thus the crew of the Type 1936 destroyer consisted of 323 men. With such a large crew, the ship is guaranteed to have a longer battle endurance when put up against some of its counterparts, meaning it will still be able to fight back even after having sustained noticeable damage and crew losses.
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The Type 1936 destroyer shares many design features with already existing destroyers in the game, as she was laid down around the same time as her counterparts. Thanks to this, familiarity gathered from playing existing destroyers can easily be transferred and applied to the German newcomer, saving players the time and effort to get a proper feel for the new ship. The Type 1936 has set course for the the naval testing in War Thunder and is expected to appear on the battlefield shortly. Stay tuned to the news to find out more about upcoming naval forces content and testing sessions. Until next time!
