Y Plan

[RF]

Von der Porten, in his book on the WW2 German Navy (written in the 1970s) makes reference to a Y Plan in German planning that was proposed but then abandoned in preference to the Z Plan that was adopted in 1939.

I haven't come across the Y Plan in any other authors work on the Kriegsmarine and neither does there appear to be any reference to it on this website and website forum.

Was there actually a Y Plan that was formally proposed? Von der Porten identifies it as arising from the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1934 that was negotiated by Ribbentrop in London.

Does anybody know anything about this?

[aurora]

Raeder meanwhile believed that Britain could be more easily defeated through the surface raider strategy he favoured. The initial version of his plan was based on the assumption that the fleet should be centered on panzerschiffe, long-range cruisers, and U-boats to attack British commerce. These forces would tie down British naval power and allow a smaller number of battleships to operate in the North Sea.

This first draft was called Plan X; a pared-down revision was renamed Plan Y, and the final version presented to Hitler was Plan Z.Hitler rejected Raeder's proposed construction plan, which led to a more balanced fleet that incorporated the battleships Hitler sought and was accepted on 1 March 1939. Raeder planned to use the battleships and aircraft carriers in task forces to support the panzerschiffe and light cruisers attacking British merchant traffic.