Project Witches' World - SMS Moltke

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

SMS Moltke

Class: Moltke class battleship
Affiliation: Karlsland
Laid down: September 1935
Comissioned: March 1940

Air group complement: x1 Arado Ar 196, x4 Flak Wulf FW 190T striker units (4 reserve units)
Aviation facilities: 1 catapult

Armament (as completed):
4 x 3 28cm L/52 SK C/34
6 x 2 128mm L61 SK C/42
2 x 4 20mm Flakvierling 38
8 x 2 37mm Flakzwiling SK C/30
8 20mm Flak 30
2 x 3 G7a T1 torpedoes

History

Laid down in December 1938, SMS Moltke was the lead ship in the Moltke class battleship of the Imperial Karlsland Navy. The Moltke class was based on the preceeding Scharnhorst class albeit the former has a 4th turret. Initially designed to carry the 4 x 2 38 cm (15") SK C/34 guns. The design was revised owing to the shortage of 15" guns and weight problems. As such, the Moltke ships were armed with 4 x 3 28cm L/52 SK C/34 that are found on the Scharnhorsts.

Operation Small Bifrost (May 1940)

SMS Moltke was originally listed to participate in Operation Small Bifrost but the deteriorating situation in Ostmark and the Neuroi incursion into Soumous and Baltland forced the High Command to reassign Motlke to defence of the Baltic.

Operation Great Bifrost (January 1941)

With the growing threat of a Neuroi invasion, Operation Great Bifrost was planned out and put into action in January 1941. Together with SMS Lutzow and few other accompanying ships, Moltke was tasked to cover the evacuation from East Promerania and Courland. Despite severe civilian and military losses during the evacuation, the survivors managed to evacuate. Upon completion of Operation Great Bifrost, Moltke went over to Orkney Islands for rest and refitting together with the other surviving Karlslandian ships.

Operation Dynamo

Due to the rapid advance of the Neuroi through Western Europe, armies from Karlsland, Belgica and Netherlands were pushed back into Gallia. Seeing that the situation was precarious, the armies were ordered to evacuate from Dunkirk. The Karlslandian ships stationed at Orkney Islands, including SMS Moltke were tasked to provide covering fire for the evacuating troops. Upon successful completion of the operation, SMS Moltke, along with several other capital and supporting light ships continued to station at Karlsland thus forming the nucleus of what is to become a joint multinational task force.

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Thanks for reading this far. Hope I don't bore you with the lengthy world building and exposition. I'm not sure how many of you are anime fans but Project Witches' World is a series of model builds based upon Shimada's Humikane's Project World Witches or better known as the Strike Witches Universe. Just like the Star Wars Universe, the expanded universe for Strike Witches is very vast. From series of books to manga to fan works, there are even original witches. You guys can check out the Strike Witches 1991 by ogitsune. It's an entire fan universe created by him based on the mechanics and story line of Shimada Humikane's Strike Witches although it's set in 1991.

For those of you interested in knowing more about the Strike Witches universe and what the Neuroi are, click on the links below -
http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Historical_Timeline
http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Neuroi

Quick introduction of the model series. I'm actually a huge fan of Strike Witches. Moltke is actually the 2nd installment of the Project Witches' World that I'm doing. It actually started off when I toyed with the idea of making a 4 turreted Scharnhorst after completing a 15' Gneisenau. Why and how the model series came to me? It's all thanks to Brave Witches. Originally, this was meant to be part of "Project 1943" but it was imported into "Project Witches' World" instead since the possibility of Strike WItches Expanded Universe is endless.

[NARSES2]

It's only when you look at the bottle of glue in the background that you realise the size of this. Terrific