The two Dutch CLs De Zeven Provinciën
and Kijkduin
(later named Eendracht
) were captured by the German army in May 1940. Although the ships were still in an early stage of construction it was first decided to continue the ships with a modified design and use them as training cruisers. It was planed to complete the ships by mid 1942 or early 1943. For both ships it was planed to use German 15 cm guns which were already under construction for the M-Class
cruisers and H-Class
battleships.
The Kijkduin
was renamed to KH2
(Project Ersatz Königsberg) and like the KH1
, work almost came to a halt after August 1941. The ships was not launched during wartime and like its sistership, completed by the Dutch between 1950 and 1953. Renamed to De Zeven Provinciën
it served in the Dutch navy until 1976 when it also was sold to Peru and renamed to Almirante Aguirre
. The ship was decommissioned in 1999.
Almirante Aguirre 1981
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