Shipbucket

In 1935, with the De Ruyter under construction, a pair of cruisers were designed and sanctioned for building. These were to be armed with 8" guns to be capable of engaging what was perceived as the East Indies enemy, the Japanese. A speed of 30 knots was specified, for as one Dutch Admiral put it, "we will not have to go looking for the Japanese ships, they will be hunting us". The lower speed and smaller propulsion system allowed for a heavier belt and deck armour. A 5.5" belt and 2.7" deck would give the ships a better chance of survival. Four twin 8" turrets were to be the main armament with a set of four twin 3.9" for the heavy AA battery. Light AA was to be the new twin 40mm mounting.

With the Germans sweeping across the Netherlands, the still incomplete Nijmegen was got to sea under tow from a merchant ship that had spent the last three days loading all the parts and material on hand for the Nijmegen. The two ships proceeded across the North Sea to England, passing through the English channel and up to the building yards around Glasgow, where the Nijmegen would be completed. Unfortunately the sistership Eendracht was not so fortunate, being caught by Stuka divebombers and sunk between the Netherlands and England.

The Nijmegen spent the next six months in the builders hands, while its crew were trained by the British. The crew consisting of those seaman and officers that came over with the ship and those that had been evacuated in the last minute scramble from the Dutch ports. The Nijmegen was earmarked to be the Fleet Flagship for the Dutch East Indies (DEI) Squadron so training was to be top notch.

Commissioned into the Netherlands Navy in February 1941, the ship sailed for the DEI, stopping at various South African ports and then being co-opted to help search for the Admiral Scheer which was loose in the Indian Ocean. With the sighting of Scheer by HMS Glasgow, the Nijmegen was ordered to join the Glasgow. Unbeknown to both ships, Nijmegen and Scheer passed each other at night about 70 miles apart. But that was as close as anybody came to the Scheer. A few days later there were reports the Scheer had escaped back into the Atlantic and the Nijmegen proceeded on its way to the Indies. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cru ... ral_Scheer )

Having arrived in the DEI the new Flagship spent the next few months working up with other units of the squadron. December brought Pearl Harbour and the Japanese advances through Malaya, the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse. Disaster followed disaster. Reports of invasion units advancing toward The DEI prompted the formation of the ABDACOM unit under command of Admiral Doorman. With 3 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers it was thought that this force would be able to stop the forces advancing on Java and Sumatra.

The Nijmegen finally got to fulfil its role of fighting Japanese heavy cruisers at the Battle of the Java Sea. Leading the Squadron the ship opened fire on the Japanese cruisers at a range of 27,000 yards. The firing was accurate with several hits and near misses being observed on the Japanese ships. The shout of "torpedoes" brought all eyes toward where the arm was pointing. Admiral Doorman's thought was "How", nobody had experienced the arrival of the 'Long Lance' torpedoes at 30,000 yards. Two torpedoes hit the forward part of the ship igniting the 8" magazine which blew the ship in half. The fore end sinking immediately the aft end more slowly and allowed some survivors to be taken aboard one of the Dutch destroyers with the squadron.

So ended the short career of the cruiser Nijmegen.

A nice looking cruiser and a nice backstory too.
I suspect a CA would have been pretty handy for the Dutch, who were reluctant to spend money on defence, but a decent CA might have had more effect than the glorified destroyer leader Tromp.

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Hood's Worklist
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Interwar RN Capital Ships
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Realy nice Cruiser and backstory. Only the Dutch had ot your vision and orderd 150mm guns for the Eendracht Class . This would be a much better ship to have in the DEI

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Best Regards,
Aart.

Projects:

The Kingdom of Rochfort in FD

I think there is an very good reason why the dutch never had an CA. no idea what it is though so if anybody has an idea, I am interested haha.

I do not think the name Nijmegen has been used as a warship name in recent years. these ships would most likely have taken the place of the 1047 class battlecruisers or the eendracht class light cruisers, so I think the Tromp would still be there, Hood, as the tromp was never meant to be more then a destroyer leader in the first place

the design looks solid, although I am worried about a much larger arnament and quite a bit of armour on a not that much bigger ships then the eendracht cruiser drawing you modified

@pegasus206: uhm......... the dutch did have 150mm bofors guns on all cruisers at least since the Java class until the eendracht class

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Thanks for the comments guys,

I agree Ace - it is a bit short - looks a bit unbalanced. In the original drawing I already added 2.5 feet of freeboard to the hull. I have now added 18 feet to the length, 12 forward, 6 aft, looks a lot better now.

If you wondered why I added a Swordfish, its because there were none of the Fokkers, that should go with the ship, available. Once the ship got to the DEI then a Fokker or two could have been made available to the ship.

Very nice work indeed.