Z47

Description

The Type 1936C, Z47, project is a premium rank German destroyer with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Apex Predators".

General info

Survivability and armour

Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.

Mobility

Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.

Modifications and economy

Armament

Primary armament

The Z47 has 6 x 12.8 cm SK C/41 guns mounted on twin turrets, one fore and two aft of the superstructure. Four of the six guns are located aft, so to bring all guns to bear the Z47 has to present a broadside.

Derived from the land based 12.8 cm FlaK 40, the SK C/41 has identical performance to the 12.7 cm SK C/34 guns present on most German destroyers. Any player familiar with the ballistics of the SK C/34 will feel at home with the Z47's main armament.

The Z47 has one of the fastest firing rates of destroyer guns in the game, with a whopping 20 rounds per minute with first stage ammunition, and 18 rounds per minute after the first stage ammunition has been depleted. The first-stage ammunition holds about 20 rounds per gun. Z47's main battery can tear apart destroyers and even overwhelm cruisers with the volume of fire it can put out.

The turrets have a traverse and elevation speed of 8.5 degrees per second, which is very sluggish. Both forward and rear turrets have a 150 degree traverse radius, with a relatively high elevation at +50 degrees and -10 degrees of gun depression. The Z47's dual-purpose turrets, unique among German destroyers can be utilized more effectively as anti-aircraft batteries, though its sluggish traverse may prove to be frustrating.

You can carry up to 720 shells. Z47 doesn't have a lot of ammunition choices, with the only available shells being normal HE and time fused HE. The HE shell is your go to for every match. It has decent explosive filler and muzzle velocity of 830 m/s. The time fuse shell is identical in every way except that it has a time fuse, which makes it somewhat useful against aircraft; while it may lack the accuracy of the proximity fuse shells of American and British destroyers, it is made up for by the gun's reload time and high elevation.

Secondary armament

The secondary armament consists of 7 twin-mounted 3.7 cm Flak autocannons. This is one of the heaviest secondary armaments of any destroyer in the game.

The 3.7 cm Flak has excellent muzzle velocity, giving it a large effective range. With similar range and velocity as the 12.8 cm guns, they can be used to great effect against surface targets such as PT boats and frigates. It can also considerably damage destroyers, peppering the superstructure and disabling enemy turrets due to its high rate of fire.

They are also excellent AA guns, with a large explosive mass. Any shell that hits a plane will turn it to flying wreck.

The Universal belt is the best belt for the 3.7 cm Flak, with a balance between HE and AP shells, perfect for surface and air targets.

• Universal: AP-T · HEF-I
• 37 mm HE clips: HEF-I · HEF-I · HEF-I · HEF-I · AP-T
• 37 mm APT clips: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEF-I

Anti-aircraft armament

An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.

Additional armament

Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.

Usage in battles

Specific enemies worth noting

• Z46 - Tech tree equivalent. Has exactly the same main armament, but much weaker secondary and anti-air guns, along with an addition of the naval mines.
• US Navy destroyers - More heavily armed vessels, with their primary weapon being an excellent 5 inch/38 Mk.12 featuring a wide choice of munition that the Z47 lacks - most notably the SAP and HE-VT shells. They all can be destroyed by simply hitting the ammunition store beyond the aft turret, but for Z47 it's extra-difficult due to having access to only the high-explosive shells.
• Le Malin - Rarely seen destroyer, but vastly superior in armament and speed, while also having an aft ammo rack somewhat more difficult to destroy than on the US destroyers once the ready-use ammo racks are depleted. Generally best avoided at all cost.
• Low BR cruisers (such as IJN Isuzu, IJN Kako, RN Etna) - these vessels are a very difficult compromise, typically lacking survivability, armament and/or speed. They are best harassed with the main gun fire (preferably destroying main gun turrets) and destroyed with your excellent torpedoes from a close range. Alternatively, they are best left for the friendly destroyers equipped with SAP shells.
• SKR-7 - short-range encounters should be avoided at all costs, as the RBU-6000 can easily sink any destroyer. The safest way to destroy SKR is to first disable its main gun and then hitting mid and aft section of the ship. SKR has a widely spread-out crew, thus distributing fire on the target is mandatory.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Very fast rate of fire with the main guns
• 50 degrees of gun elevation allows the main guns to fire against enemy aircraft
• Extremely heavy AA armament for a ship of its size
• Comes with armour covering most of the ship and the ammo elevators
• Relatively large crew of 320 allows it to survive longer in a firefight
• Carries 12 torpedoes, more than any German destroyer
• Large secondary armament effective against surface and air targets

Cons:

• Sluggish turret traverse for the main battery
• Two of the three turrets are located aft, needs to reveal broadside to fire all guns
• Vulnerable to cruisers
• Thin armour provides little protection against SAP and AP shells
• No proximity fuse for the 12.8 cm HE shells limiting effectiveness against aircraft
• Lack of any armour piercing ammunition makes it hard to kill heavily armoured ships
• Slower than contemporary destroyers

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Z47 from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Related development

• Z46

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.