[WIP] König Bismarck

[AntEater]

First of all, "König Bismarck" sounds really dumb.
Bismarck was a Chancellor, in british terms, a prime minister, not a king.
I know it is an analogy to the Königstiger tank, but Königstiger is the german word for Bengal tiger, so it is an animal. The "king" does not mean "king size".

Also, the H Class had only one change of being realized, that was in its original form.
A 16 inch armed diesel driven raider battleship with some innovative features and some no brainers like installing the aircraft hanger (with avgas tanks) near the rear turret barbette.
H-44 and the preceding designs were to be completed "after final victory", that means after Germany somehow managed to defeat not only Britain, but also the USSR and the US. Maybe they were meant for the final showdown with Japan!
So that makes a H-44 about as likely as the sea turning into chocolate.
I have my suspicion that designs like H 44 had more to do with the general war situation. A lot of engineers worked in the Navy surface ship design bureaus that were not involved in U-Boats essentially had nothing to do. According to the mobilization construction program, no new vessels above destroyer size were to be constructed. And even these destroyers and smaller vessels were evolutionary, not revolutionary designs gradually improved by the yards themselves, except for the almost completed diesel destroyer Z 51.
So all those engineers were pretty much waiting for their call to the east front if they did not keep themselves busy.
So they kept churning out plans not only for mega battleships but also for practically every type of warship until almost the last day.