Q&A ยท 1:33:38-1:35:16

Italian and German answers to the Alaska class

The available gun calibers and engineering habits that would shape Axis large cruisers.

Question

What would Italian and German equivalents of the Alaska class look like?

Short answer

Italy could use 12.6-inch guns, while Germany would likely build a nine-gun 11-inch super-Deutschland with complex machinery.

Notes

Italy might use its 12.6-inch weapons, while Germany's likely route was a nine-gun 11-inch design resembling a super-Deutschland. A sleek German exterior would probably conceal machinery whose complexity made maintenance difficult at sea. A later follow-up notes that Germany could manufacture 11-inch guns more readily than the proposed 15-inch alternative, reinforcing the supply constraint behind the choice. Both answers begin with guns already available rather than inventing an entirely new ordnance industry for a hypothetical cruiser. Engineering elegance has limited value when crews cannot readily maintain the machinery on deployment.