Knesebeck: Tier VIII German Heavy Cruiser 1939

Heavy cruiser, representing a hypothetical version of the P-class design with a 305 mm main battery. Guns of this caliber were considered by the German Navy command in the 1930s as promising armament for new ships. Ultimately, both the P-class cruisers and the new 305 mm guns remained on paper, as from 1939 onward, priority shifted to designing larger ships with more powerful artillery.

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Secondaries Instruction

Along with the release of this branch, WG Devs are introducing an often-requested mechanic - manual control of your Secondary Battery. This feature will launch with the new German cruisers—starting from  VIII Knesebeck,  IX Manteuffel and  IX Manteuffel —but that does not mean it will be solely a feature of this line, as other ships in the future may also benefit from this new ability.

Important elements to note when controlling secondary batteries:

• You will be able to swap between main and secondary battery controls, like you do with other types of armament, for example, between main battery guns and torpedoes.
• When they are not being manually controlled, they act the same as other secondary batteries.
• Your main guns will track the crosshair while you are operating the secondary battery.
• When switching to manual control of your secondaries, their characteristics may change compared to automatic mode.
• For these cruisers, this results in a small buff to the range of secondary guns.
• While manual control is active, the secondary mounts that don't have an angle of fire on the crosshair will not automatically target or fire upon enemy ships.

All signals and skills that impact secondaries will continue to function as they currently do.

Ship Info

Ship name:   VIII Knesebeck

Level:  8

WG introduction:  June 5th, 2025

Estimated release: 14.8

Status during testing and Early Access:  Knesebeck

Nation:  Germany

Current development status: Work in Progress

Armor

Hit Points: 49,400 hp

Fires Duration: 60 s

Overall Armour: 16-360 mm

Hull Plating (fore/mid/aft): 27/27-120/27 mm

Deck Plating (fore/mid/aft): 27/30/27 mm

Turret Plating: 130-360 mm

Superstructure: 16 mm

Fore Athwartships: 27-110 mm

Aft Athwartships: 27-110 mm

Citadel Fore Athwartships: 30-110 mm

Citadel Aft Athwartships: 30 mm

Armor Belt: 30-120 mm

Citadel Torpedo Bulkhead: 30 mm

Citadel Deck: 60 mm

Armored Deck Slopes: 60 mm

Citadel Bottom: 40 mm

Tonnage: 26,177 tn

Torpedo Protection, Damage Reduction: 13%

Main Battery Armament

2x3 305 mm/56 SK C/39 in a turret:

Range: 16.8 km

Reload: 23.0 s

180° Turn Time: 30.0 s

Dispersion at Max Range: 189 m

Sigma: 2.10σ

Shell Types

HE Shells

6x 305 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.9:

Alpha Damage: 3,600

Alpha Piercing HE: 76.0 mm

Ammo Type: High Explosive

Shell Air Drag: 0.2798

Shell Always Ricochet At: 60.0°

Normalization: 68.0°

Shell Detonator: 0.001

Shell Detonator Threshold: 2.0

Shell Diameter: 305 mm

Shell Krupp: 1.0

Shell Mass: 415.0 kg

Shell Ricochet At: 91.0°

Shell Speed: 865.0 m/s

Burn Probability: 27%

AP Shells

6x 305 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/3.8:

Alpha Damage: 9,400

Ammo Type: Armor Piercing

Shell Air Drag: 0.2798

Shell Always Ricochet At: 60.0°

Normalization: 6.0°

Shell Detonator: 0.033

Shell Detonator Threshold: 51.0

Shell Diameter: 305 mm

Shell Krupp: 2450.0

Shell Mass: 415.0 kg

Shell Ricochet At: 45.0°

Shell Speed: 865.0 m/s

Secondaries Combat Instruction

Secondary Battery High-Explosive (HE) Shells - Press in battle

Effective against lightly armored targets. These shells can cause fires and have high chances of incapacitating modules.

Secondary battery operates in two modes: automatic and manual. Manual mode provides better performance.

Maximum Range in Manual Mode: 8.2 km

Maximum Range in Automatic Mode: 7.6 km

Secondaries

2x2 150 mm/55 SK C/28 on a Dop. L. C/34 mount:

Max HE Shell Damage: 1700

Range: 7.6 km

Reload: 4.6 s

Alpha Piercing HE: 38.0 mm

Ammo Type: High Explosive

Shell Speed: 875.0 m/s

Burn Probability: 8%

8x2 128 mm/61 KM40 in a turret:

Max HE Shell Damage: 1500

Range: 7.6 km

Reload: 4.1 s

Alpha Piercing HE: 32.0 mm

Ammo Type: High Explosive

Shell Speed: 900.0 m/s

Burn Probability: 5%

Depth Charge Airstrike

Plane: Fw.200 Condor

Plane HP: 2000 hp

Range: 7.0 km

Reload: 30.0 s

Number of Bombs in Payload: 2x SC-150

Maximum bomb damage: 4200

Available flights: 2

Number of Aircraft in Attacking Flight: 1

Chance of causing fire: 24.0%

Torpedoes

2×4 533 mm Vierling/G7a T2:

Range: 9.5 km

Reload: 110.0 s

Max Damage: 14,400

Speed: 65 kts

180 degree turn time: 7.2 s

Torpedo detectability: 1.3 km

AA Defence

Long Range:

8x2 128 mm/61 KM40 in a turret:

Firing range:  6.0 km

Hit Probability:  90%

Damage Within an Explosion:  1470

Damage by long-range AA guns:  137

Number of Explosions Per Salvo:  6

Continuous Damage: soon

Action Zone:  3.5 - 6.0 km

Mid Range:

6x2 37 mm/69 Flak M42 on an LM/42 mount:

Firing range:  3.5 km

Damage by mid-range AA guns:  112

Hit Probability:  90%

Short Range:

16x4 20 mm/65 C/38 on a Flak 35 Vierling L/38 mount:

Firing range:  2.0 km

Damage by mid-range AA guns:  207

Hit Probability:  85%

Mobility

Maximum speed: 32.5 knots

Turning circle radius: 760 m

Rudder shift time: 12.4 s

Propulsion: 140,000 hp

Detection

Surface Detectability: 13.9 km

Air Detectability: 7.9 km

Detectability by enemy subs: 0-7.9 km

Detectability whilst firing in smoke: 11.0 km

Available Consumables

Slot 1: Fast Damage Control Team:

Charges: 4

Work Time: 10 s

Reload Time: 40 s

Slot 2: Repair Party:

Charges: 3

Action time: 28 s

Reload time: 80 s

HP per Second: 247.0 p/s

Slot 3: Hydroacoustic Search:

Charges: 3

Action time: 120 s

Reload Time: 120 s

Sub spotting range at max depth: 2.0 km

Detection Range Torpedoes: 4.0 km

Detection Range Ships: 6.0 km

Slot 3: Defensive AA:

Charges: 3

Action time: 40 s

Reload Time: 80 s

Average AA Damage: +50%

Damage from medium- and long range Shell Explosions: +300%

All stats are listed without crew and upgrade modifiers but with best available modules. The stats are subject to change at any time.

Please be aware that all information in this post is 'Work in Progress', the announced adjustments and features may undergo multiple changes during testing, all changes will be added to this post immediately after they become available, the final details will be officially published and labelled in the ship info as 'Released' on this post.