Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 19, 2011

Design 1047 was a series of plans for a class of Dutch battlecruisers prior to the Second World War. The ships were intended to counter a perceived threat posed by Imperial Japanese aggression to the Dutch colonies in the East Indies. The 1047s were shaped by the need to be able to fight their way through a fleet composed of heavy and light cruisers, and smaller destroyers. It was hoped that this capability would allow the battlecruisers to act as a fleet in being. A preliminary plan was drawn up without foreign assistance, but as the Royal Netherlands Navy had not previously designed a modern capital ship, and the only information available on modern designs came from public literature and editions of Jane's Fighting Ships, it was missing many of the post-First World War advances in warship technology. With assistance from Germany, a new design was formulated by February 1940. A visit to Italy prompted a rethink of the internal subdivision, which led to a set of drawings dated 19 April 1940. This is the last known design produced prior to Germany's invasion and occupation of the Netherlands. The ships were never constructed. (more...)

Recently featured: Doolittle – Thomcord – Me and Juliet