Bismarck with Triple Turrets...

[Gerard Heimann]

Tommy, was there much navigation room in the Kiel Canal to accommodate more beam?

Silverton

[José M. Rico]

Tommy, was there much navigation room in the Kiel Canal to accommodate more beam?

Silverton

I think the problem had more to do with the depth of the Canal and not with its width.
The locks at Brunsbüttel and Kiel-Holtenau were 45 meters wide.

[Gerard Heimann]

Jose, thanks but I think that Tommy's point was that a wider beam would allow greater weight without adding more draft. I wondered whether the canal could accommodate the extra width. 45 meters wide would seem to be plenty.

Regards,
Gerard

[tommy303]

The H-class were to have a beam of 37m, so there was adequate clearance in the locks which have a usable width of 42m. Presumably, as the bottom of the canal narrows to about 44m in places from its nominal 90m, traffic would have had to be controlled so as to give a big ship like the H-class or Bismarck a wide safety margin--ie when a ship of those sizes was in transit, traffic was probably one way.