K1-class gunboat

However, the contracts for the four ships were canceled on 19 September 1939, two weeks after the start of World War II.

The number and type of boilers that would have provided steam to the engines is unknown, but they would have been vented through a pair of funnels.

The engines were rated to provide 4,600 metric horsepower (4,500 ihp), which would have given the ships a top speed of 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph).

[2] The K1-class ships primary armament consisted of four 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 quick-firing guns[a] in two twin-turrets, one fore and one aft of the superstructure.

[2] However, the outbreak of World War II in early September 1939 exacerbated the already fraught state of the German economy.

The country had embarked on a massive rearmament program in the years after the Nazis rose to power, which included the Heer (Army) and Luftwaffe (Air Force), all of which competed for scarce resources, especially high-grade steel.