(WIP) K-Type Airship

[xxSWxxNinja]

My first project for SH I figured I would make something that I thought was missing from the atlantic arsenal. The K class airships used by the Americans as escorts for atlantic convoys. Shouldnt take me too long to model here's some renders so far a few minutes work..





And some history behind the K class use---

While Germany determined the airships were obsolete for military purposes in the coming war and concentrated on the development of airplanes, the United States pursued a program of military airship construction even though it had not developed a clear military doctrine for airship use. At the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that brought the United States into World War II, it had 10 non-rigid airships:

* 4 K-class : K-2, K-3, K-4 and K-5 designed as a patrol ships built from 1938.
* 3 L-class : L-1, L-2 and L-3 as small training ships, produced from 1938.
* 1 G-class built in 1936 for training.
* 2 TC-class that were older patrol ships designed for land forces, build in 1933. The US Navy acquired them from Army in 1938.

Only K and TC class airships could be used for combat purposes and they were quickly pressed into service against Japanese and German submarines which at that time were sinking US shipping in visual range of US coast. US Navy command, remembering the airship anti-submarine success from WWI, immediately requested that new modern anti-submarine airship and on 2 January 1942 formed the ZP-12 patrol unit based in Lakehurst from the 4 K airship. The ZP-32 patrol unit was formed from 2 TC and 2 L airship a month later, based at US Navy (Moffet Field) in Sunnyvale in California. An airship training base was created there as well.

In the years 1942-1944, approximately 1400 airship pilots and 3000 support crew members were trained in the military airship crew training program and the airship military personnel grew from 430 to 12400. The US airships were produced by the Goodyear factory in Akron, Ohio. From 1942 till 1945, 154 airships were built for the US Navy (133 K-class, 10 L-class, 7 G-class, 4 M-class) and 5 L-class for civilian customers (serial number L-4 to L-8).

The primary airship tasks were patrol and escort of ships near the coastline. They also served as an organisation center for the convoys to direct ship movements and course, and were used during naval search and rescue operations. Rarer duties of the airships included aerophoto reconnaissance, naval minelaying and minesweeping, parachute unit transport and deployment, cargo and personnel transportation. They were deemed quite successful in their duties with the highest combat readiness factor in the entire US air force (87%). They were extremely successful in their primary goal of anti-submarine warfare as the below numbers illustrate:

* 1942: 454 ships sunk near the US coast, 4-13 airships in service
* 1943: 65 ships sunk near the US coast, 17-53 airships in service
* 1944: 8 ships sunk near the US coast, 56-68 airships in service
* 1945: 3 ships sunk near the US coast, 53-48 airships in service

Not a single ship from a convoy escorted by airships was sunk. Airships engaged the submarines with depth charges, or rarely from other onboard weapons. They were very successful since they could match the slow speed of the submarine and bomb it until its destruction. Additionally, submerged submarines had no means of detecting an airship approaching.

Only one airship was ever destroyed by U-boat: on the night of 18/19 July 1943 a K-class airship (K-74) from ZP-21 division was patrolling the coastline near Florida. Using radar, the airship located a surfaced German submarine. Due to the failure of the depth charge release mechanism, the airship was unable to release the bombs during the bombing run and the German returned fire. The (K-74) received serious damage and was forced to make a water landing. The crew was rescued by patrol boats in the morning, but one crewman died from a shark attack. The U-Boat responsible was sunk a few hours later.