If not interesting in strategic-level WW2 era naval data, look away now 
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In preparation for putting together a bit of a naval mod once HoI4's out, I've been gathering some data together in the world's fighting ships, primarily from Conways' incredibly handy "All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-46", as I'll need it to get an idea of the capabilities of the ships I'll be modding in. Just thought I'd share some of the stuff that's come out of it, plus let modders (and anyone else who cares, but I can't imagine there'll be too many) know it's out there, in case it's helpful.
Anyways, having the data in a spreadsheet means it's only a pivot table away from some estimates of various fleet sizes (and some very rough estimates of production) during the war (it counts all ship class whose first vessel was launched/commissioned in 1938 or later, except for Italy's Soldati class, which really should be there, but the first one was launched in 1937). Apologies in advance for using tons and tonnes interchangeably - it should be tons. Assuming (perhaps optimistically) I haven't messed up the data entry or analysis in way that messes with what follows, here are some random snippets:
- I've posted a couple of times about the US' ship-building capability with vague "I'm looking at it but haven't had a chance to crunch the numbers", but taking into account all ship types, the US produced 60.6 per cent of all the warship tonnage (12.8 million tons in all), something that's even more impressive when they I've heard they produced an even greater share of new merchant shipping over the period. The UK came in next largest with 3.5 million tons.
- Of the US' 12.8 million tonnes of ships produced, the largest single group was in 'attack transports' (ships usually with 5" DPs and AA armament for defence, carrying landing craft and around 1000-1500 men), of which they built around 2.8 million tonnes worth. This is more than the US production of BBs, CAs, CLs, CVs and CVLs combined (which comes to 2.3 million tonnes). The next largest group was landing ships, at 2.3 million tonnes, and the next after that CVEs at 1.4 million tonnes.
- The USSR only built a little less tonnage than Italy, at around 320,000 and 305,000. Canada built more than either, with around 394,000 built.
- Keep in mind not all tonnage is created equal - some ships are harder to build than others.
- The most prolific (in terms of tonnage) ship-building Axis nation in the period was actually Germany (I'd expected it to have been Japan), with 1.68 million tonnes produced, with just over a million tons of that in either medium (by-and-large Type VII) or 'fleet' (Type XIV and XXI) submarines. Japan built 1.58 million tons of warships, the largest class being unsurprisingly the CV.
- In tonnage terms, my beloved DEs, Sloops and Corvettes accounted for 8.2 per cent of the warships built in the period, more than battleships (5.3 per cent) and heavy cruisers (2.4 per cent) combined, although in a straight up fight with all the BBs and CAs on one side and all the DEs, Sloops and Corvettes on the other, I'd still back the big ships.
What's in the spreadsheet:
Edit: Just to make it clear, I'm a hack with a book and a keenness to mod DEs/Frigates/Sloops/CVs/CVLs into HoI4 when it comes out, I don't actually know what I'm talking about - any advice always very welcome.
.In preparation for putting together a bit of a naval mod once HoI4's out, I've been gathering some data together in the world's fighting ships, primarily from Conways' incredibly handy "All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-46", as I'll need it to get an idea of the capabilities of the ships I'll be modding in. Just thought I'd share some of the stuff that's come out of it, plus let modders (and anyone else who cares, but I can't imagine there'll be too many) know it's out there, in case it's helpful.
Anyways, having the data in a spreadsheet means it's only a pivot table away from some estimates of various fleet sizes (and some very rough estimates of production) during the war (it counts all ship class whose first vessel was launched/commissioned in 1938 or later, except for Italy's Soldati class, which really should be there, but the first one was launched in 1937). Apologies in advance for using tons and tonnes interchangeably - it should be tons. Assuming (perhaps optimistically) I haven't messed up the data entry or analysis in way that messes with what follows, here are some random snippets:
- I've posted a couple of times about the US' ship-building capability with vague "I'm looking at it but haven't had a chance to crunch the numbers", but taking into account all ship types, the US produced 60.6 per cent of all the warship tonnage (12.8 million tons in all), something that's even more impressive when they I've heard they produced an even greater share of new merchant shipping over the period. The UK came in next largest with 3.5 million tons.
- Of the US' 12.8 million tonnes of ships produced, the largest single group was in 'attack transports' (ships usually with 5" DPs and AA armament for defence, carrying landing craft and around 1000-1500 men), of which they built around 2.8 million tonnes worth. This is more than the US production of BBs, CAs, CLs, CVs and CVLs combined (which comes to 2.3 million tonnes). The next largest group was landing ships, at 2.3 million tonnes, and the next after that CVEs at 1.4 million tonnes.
- The USSR only built a little less tonnage than Italy, at around 320,000 and 305,000. Canada built more than either, with around 394,000 built.
- Keep in mind not all tonnage is created equal - some ships are harder to build than others.
- The most prolific (in terms of tonnage) ship-building Axis nation in the period was actually Germany (I'd expected it to have been Japan), with 1.68 million tonnes produced, with just over a million tons of that in either medium (by-and-large Type VII) or 'fleet' (Type XIV and XXI) submarines. Japan built 1.58 million tons of warships, the largest class being unsurprisingly the CV.
- In tonnage terms, my beloved DEs, Sloops and Corvettes accounted for 8.2 per cent of the warships built in the period, more than battleships (5.3 per cent) and heavy cruisers (2.4 per cent) combined, although in a straight up fight with all the BBs and CAs on one side and all the DEs, Sloops and Corvettes on the other, I'd still back the big ships
.What's in the spreadsheet:
The spreadsheet contains each warship I've been able to find, from BBs down to human torpedoes, that was in service from 1936-48, or was laid down and made decent progress to completion before 1948, but was built more slowly because the war was over and there wasn't as much of a hurry. It also contains the 'planned' ships that didn't get built that made it into Conways, as well as the ships that got laid down but weren't completed (usually because someone invaded the building nation before they'd had time to finish it - how rude!)
The data items are:
- class name
- the nation using the class
- the nation that built the class, how many were built (or mostly built - so Italy and Germany get a CV each - one of the key reasons for this is so I can get an estimate of the naval production capacity of nations, as well as their build priorities, and it's a far better estimate to say they got built, rather than they didn't build any, regardless of the estimated quality of the final product)
- standard displacement
- deep loaded displacement
- an estimated standard (it wasn't available for all ships, so I used either a percentage of the deep loaded displacement if available, based on the ratio of standard:deep load in the rest of the class, or an average of the standard of the rest of the class)
- Speed (both surfaced and underwater for subs)
- dimensions (length/beam/draft - length oa where possible, whatever I could get where not)
- horsepower
- range
- main armament
- DP armament
- AA armament
- TT armament
- rocket armament
- Armour (note that armour effectiveness is as much an art as a science, and while there are armour figures for most ships with armour, a 3inch belt on one ship is by no means the same protection as a 3inch belt on another - interpet the armour figures with a high degree of caution).
- capacity for troops/tanks
- minelaying capacity.
- minesweeping capability (done for all minesweepers, but patchy for ships with other primary roles that could also minesweep - I doubt minesweeping will get in the mod at this stage, so not too worried about it, but will clean up the data if it does)
- netlaying capability (like minesweeping, very patchy for ships like trawlers or corvettes that could be fitted to do it, but aren't listed as having it as a capability in the sheets at the moment, but as I don't expect netlaying to be a thing in the mod, I'm not really that worried about it).
The ships in the spreadsheets have four' types' - a detailed type, broad type and HoI4 type, as well as the initial type that by and large is straight from Conways (with some exceptions for gunboats and torpedo boats). It includes auxiliary ships if expected to be armed (but in most cases is just an estimated displacement a number, very little detail was avalable in Conways, and I don't plan to mod in at this stage, not least because the data on them is pretty patchy) and some other random odds and sods (like the 6000 kamikaze speedboats Japan built to defend itself against invasion).
It's got a lot of gaps in the data (which I'm hoping to fill gradually over time, but there's enough there to give me the vast majority of what I need for the mod, although if I can be bothered I might keep working on refining the data in it, for completeness' sake).
If anyone wants a copy, shoot me a PM and I'll PM you back a Google Drive link. I don't want to put a shareable link someplace any robot and his robotic dog can get to it, hence why it's not in this post
The data items are:
- class name
- the nation using the class
- the nation that built the class, how many were built (or mostly built - so Italy and Germany get a CV each - one of the key reasons for this is so I can get an estimate of the naval production capacity of nations, as well as their build priorities, and it's a far better estimate to say they got built, rather than they didn't build any, regardless of the estimated quality of the final product)
- standard displacement
- deep loaded displacement
- an estimated standard (it wasn't available for all ships, so I used either a percentage of the deep loaded displacement if available, based on the ratio of standard:deep load in the rest of the class, or an average of the standard of the rest of the class)
- Speed (both surfaced and underwater for subs)
- dimensions (length/beam/draft - length oa where possible, whatever I could get where not)
- horsepower
- range
- main armament
- DP armament
- AA armament
- TT armament
- rocket armament
- Armour (note that armour effectiveness is as much an art as a science, and while there are armour figures for most ships with armour, a 3inch belt on one ship is by no means the same protection as a 3inch belt on another - interpet the armour figures with a high degree of caution).
- capacity for troops/tanks
- minelaying capacity.
- minesweeping capability (done for all minesweepers, but patchy for ships with other primary roles that could also minesweep - I doubt minesweeping will get in the mod at this stage, so not too worried about it, but will clean up the data if it does)
- netlaying capability (like minesweeping, very patchy for ships like trawlers or corvettes that could be fitted to do it, but aren't listed as having it as a capability in the sheets at the moment, but as I don't expect netlaying to be a thing in the mod, I'm not really that worried about it).
The ships in the spreadsheets have four' types' - a detailed type, broad type and HoI4 type, as well as the initial type that by and large is straight from Conways (with some exceptions for gunboats and torpedo boats). It includes auxiliary ships if expected to be armed (but in most cases is just an estimated displacement a number, very little detail was avalable in Conways, and I don't plan to mod in at this stage, not least because the data on them is pretty patchy) and some other random odds and sods (like the 6000 kamikaze speedboats Japan built to defend itself against invasion).
It's got a lot of gaps in the data (which I'm hoping to fill gradually over time, but there's enough there to give me the vast majority of what I need for the mod, although if I can be bothered I might keep working on refining the data in it, for completeness' sake).
If anyone wants a copy, shoot me a PM and I'll PM you back a Google Drive link. I don't want to put a shareable link someplace any robot and his robotic dog can get to it, hence why it's not in this post
Edit: Just to make it clear, I'm a hack with a book and a keenness to mod DEs/Frigates/Sloops/CVs/CVLs into HoI4 when it comes out, I don't actually know what I'm talking about - any advice always very welcome
.- 15
