Naval History Forums

Currently Im in the process of writing a tabletop naval wargame using small lead models and tape measures etc for WW2 naval battles. However Ive run into a problem regarding ship data. I have data on all the relevant weapons and penetration at ranges (based in inches) but I cant find a reliable source of data on ships armour rating in inches, the statistics I need are belt armour, belt ends, deck armour and deck ends thicknesses in inches. I also need a reasonable deck plan showing firing arcs. This is for every destroyer, cruiser and capital ship class of all the major navies of WW2 so I can design a ship data sheet for every class.
Does anybody know of where I can obtain this information on the net without having to pay for it and in the same format (so it doesnt need converting) and can be used in an Office document?

You need to buy Jane´s Warships of WWII. It is a reprint of the contemporary Janes´, it contains some mistakes due to the secrecy of the belligerants, but it has sketches with the armour and firing arcs of most warships of the period.

Regards

I already have a reprint of Janes WW2. Many ships entries armour thicknesses are noted as ...'reported to be equivalent of contemporary vessels of other navies...'

Yes, some info may need to be obtained from other sources. I can not think of any single source that has all you want. Moreover, the armouring scheme is also important, a plate thickness figure will not do in some cases.

Yes, I was thinking of applying a simple multiplication factor to the armour thickness depending on the quality of the armour with respect to a standard, in this case Krupp Cemented Plate.

One of the problems is not so much thickness or even quality of the armour, but how it is arranged; for instance, Bismarck and Scharnhorst classes used an armoured scarp behind the main armour belt which was intended to break up a shell which might otherwise have penetrated the belt armour intact. Simply adding the thickness of the scarp to that of the main belt is insufficient and will probably not duplicate the degree of effectiveness.