Translation:
Too often summed up in an improbable shipbuilding program decreed by Hitler, Plan Z nevertheless has origins prior to III. Reich and will know many strategic and technical evolutions before the Nazi dictator is really interested. The fact remains that Plan Z will structure the Kriegsmarine during the 1930s, giving it the strengths and weaknesses that will be its own on the eve of the Second World War. Why has Germany embarked on such an ambitious and expensive program? How, with what human, industrial and technical resources? And for what purpose, for the benefit of what naval strategy? What was the Plan Z fleet supposed to look like and what was finally achieved?
In this fascinating work, Pascal Colombier answers all these questions, finally offering in French a comprehensive history accessible to all. The first part looks at the context and the different factors that pushed the Germans to develop this program. The second studies the evolution of the many technical and strategic choices that such a plan imposed. Finally, a last part details all the classes of buildings envisaged: Type H battleship, Type O, M and P cruisers, aircraft carriers, U-Boote , etc.
The whole is richly illustrated with period photographs and numerous plans and 3D views of the most emblematic planned ships of the impractical Plan Z.
