Sea Skimmer wrote:Stuart Mackey wrote:
As you say below, hindsight. They would have had to have the entire vessel virtually stripped of machinery and refitted to give reliable service and thats not counting wear on the hull itself. This was simply not possible by 1929.
It would have been within a few years, the Italian rebuilds added more speed to ships not designed for it They had to take up a turret to do it, but the splendid cats need maybe one more knot of speed, not the 5-6 of a Duilio or Cavour. If the money was available, massive if without trading away a couple other things, it could be done.
I am not saying it could not be actually done, but the money was not there for it.
Oh? didnt know that, learn something new every day. I assumed they would have disposed of that stuff when the last of the 13.5 gun ships went out of service..bar some for Iron Duke.
NZ, for example will dispose of all its 4.5 ammunition and 4.5 gun barrels when HMNZS Canturbury leaves serive in 05.
Nations can and do get rid of stuff if its no longer needed, its just a question of when and red tape. NZ is getting rid of its 4.5 stuff as we will no longer have Leander class frigates to warrent retaining the stuff. The same applys to our old Scorpion light tanks. there is no point in tying up space and possibly money is such stuff.Nope, in fact Turkey bought four of the surplus 13.5-inch guns and a bunch of ammunition just before WW2 broke out but they never got delivered. When it comes to artillery and ammunition nations generally throw nothing away. New Zealand is the exception not the rule.
I look at such matters from the point of what is economicaly possible with a given vehicle or ship and its capability to do a job. For those old BC's they would have needed to be gutted in the early 30's and their machinery replaced to make them suitable for war service. Why do that on the off chance they may be able to plant some cruisers or protect a carrier? Better to build new fast BB's that will last for 30 years and can do the job a hell of a lot better than great war relics.
In 1920 the cats were viable ships to a degree by 1930 a fast{er} ship wasBut the Royal Navy couldn't build anymore battleships and ones with high speed weren't possibul on 35,000 tons before the 1930's. As for them being great war relics, so where the R class and the QE's.
possible and led to the KGV type. And they were relics. but the R and QE's were considered to be better protected, as you well know. The cats did not fit with what the Brits wanted when operating under the treaty limitations.
Well its all about money, I dont think the British had the money due to the fagility of there economy, despite Chamberlain's stabizing of the economy.Anyway they would indeed need major expensive rebuilds to maintain their speed and finding the money would be difficult though British spending could have been higher. The Lexington concept would probably work better, though despite flinging around one shot destroyer killers in the form of 16 inch HE shells I expect the lone example would end up with a pair of Long Lances in her hull somewhere along the slot and be under repair until 1943 when there are no more surface actions for her to fight other then mabey the Truk raid.
Then, as now, there is very little point in in doing total rebuilds of ships that are essentially worn out when a new build is a much better investment.