Type 1934A destroyer

The Type 1934A destroyers, also called the Z5 class, were twelve destroyers ordered for the German Kriegsmarine in the mid-1930s as a repeat of the Type 1934 design with a reshaped bow meant to improve seakeeping. A short wedge-shaped keel, the staukeil, was added under the stern to tighten the turning circle, but it pushed the bow deeper and sent spray over the bridge, and the hull plating had to be strengthened against cracking. Each ship was driven by two geared steam turbine sets fed by six high-pressure boilers and was armed with five 12.7 centimetre guns and eight torpedo tubes. The first four, Z5 to Z8, were built by AG Weser at Bremen, the lead yard of the Deschimag combine, and the remainder by Germaniawerft and Blohm and Voss. Five of the twelve survived the war.