Alternative History Chronicle: The Long Service of Z45 Lindemann

When the Second World War ended in May 1945, the shipyards of Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen, and Stettin were littered with the incomplete hulks of Germany’s last destroyer projects. Some were mere shells; others, like the Z45 of the Zerstörer 1936B class, stood tantalizingly close to completion—damaged by air raids, but structurally intact.

The Type 1936B ships were evolutionary developments of the earlier Z1936 destroyers, most notably reverting to the smaller but more reliable 12.7 cm guns instead of the heavier 15 cm mounts. Of the five ships ordered, three made it into Kriegsmarine service; two, including Z45, sat unfinished when the war came to its catastrophic end.

Initially, all remaining hulls were slated for scrapping under Allied occupation directives. But the emerging Cold War changed priorities. As relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union deteriorated sharply after 1945, naval rearmament plans in the Western occupation zones were quietly reconsidered. With the formation of the West German Bundesmarine in 1948, several surviving Kriegsmarine vessels were returned to German control.

Among the incomplete hulls, Z45 was judged to be the most structurally sound. Completing her would restore shipbuilding competence and support the struggling postwar yards. Thus, in mid-1946, work resumed—slowly at first, then at full speed from early 1947 onward. Fitted with modern radar and strengthened anti-aircraft armament, she was commissioned in October 1947 as D166 Lindemann, one of the first frontline combatants of the new German Navy.

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Early Bundesmarine Career

From the outset, Lindemann operated as the primary escort and support destroyer for the rebuilt German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin.which The pair became a familiar sight in Baltic and North Sea waters throughout the 1950s.

Upgrades during this period were modest. A machinery overhaul between 1959 and 1960 modernized the boilers and turbines, improving reliability for another decade of service.

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The 1965–67 Modernization

By the mid-1960s, Lindemann required a complete rearmament to remain useful in the missile age. Decommissioned in 1965, she underwent a radical conversion:

New Weapons

• 2 × 5"/54 Mk 42 guns

• Mk 16 ASROC launcher

• Mk 13 missile launcher for Standard/Sea Sparrow

• 6 × 324 mm torpedo tubes

New Sensors

• 2 × SPG-51 missile directors

• SQS-26 bow sonar

New lattice masts were installed to handle the heavier electronics. After 18 months, she rejoined the fleet in 1967—transformed from a WWII-era gun destroyer into a Cold War guided-missile escort.

Once again she deployed alongside Graf Zeppelin, guarding carrier operations in NATO exercises from Norway to the Mediterranean.

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1979 Refit: Missile-Age Maturity

A final deep modernization in 1979 added:

Weapons

• Phalanx CIWS

• 2 × 20 mm guns

• Mk 141 Harpoon anti-ship missiles

Sensors

• SPS-55 surface radar

• SPS-48 and SPS-49 air-search radars

• SPQ-9 fire-control radar

• OE-82C satellite communications

This refit brought Lindemann to a technological level comparable with contemporary Western destroyers.

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Retirement and Museum Legacy

After Graf Zeppelin was retired in 1980, Lindemann’s role diminished. New frigate classes—Köln, Bremen, and Lütjens—entered service, making the aging destroyer increasingly redundant.

On 12 September 1985, D166 Lindemann was formally decommissioned after nearly four decades of service—an extraordinary lifespan for a ship whose keel had been laid during the Third Reich.

Instead of being scrapped, she was preserved thanks to public and veteran interest. In 1986 she was transferred to the Deutsches Marinemuseum in Wilhelmshaven, where her old partner Graf Zeppelin joined her in 1990.

Today, both ships remain on display—tangible reminders of an improbable naval lineage that spanned from the ruins of 1945 into the last years of the Cold War.

 

The model shows the D166 Lindemann in May 1981