Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Drydock - Episode 087" video.

  1. If the High Seas Fleet were completely wiped out, even if they badly mauled the Grand Fleet in the process, that would've resulted in the war ending sooner because it would've meant that there was little to stop the rest of the Royal Navy from sailing all the way to the German coast. The only German dreadnought that didn't make it to Jutland was König Albert. Combine that with Bayern being completed a 45 days later, that gives Germany only 2 dreadnoughts. Baden wouldn't be completed until March 1917 and Hindenburg until May 1917. No matter how badly the Grand Fleet had been mauled, you have Royal Sovereign that was fitting out at time of Jutland, with Queen Elizabeth, Emperor of India (Iron Duke-class), Dreadnought, and HMAS Australia under maintenance. And Renown and Repulse would both be ready before October 1916. Even if Jutland had been the mutual annihilation of both fleets, Germany would be doomed. Just the handful of capital ships that Britain had under maintenance or near completion would've been enough to steamroll the few major German warships that weren't at Jutland, let alone if Britain decided to ask France and/or Japan if they could spare a few ships. Once the Grand Fleet was reassembled, there'd be basically nothing between them and Wilhelmshaven.
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  2. I was disappointed that in your answer about dual-purpose 6" guns, you left out the 152mm Bofors on the Swedish Tre Kronor-class and Dutch De Zeven Provinciën-class cruisers.
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  3. And with regards to SMS Blücher, her size wouldn't have been an issue in the Treaty era had she survive the war. Existing ships that exceeded size limits were grandfathered in. For example, the US Navy was able to keep the Tennessee-class armored cruisers, which were 1000 tons lighter than Blücher but still almost 50% above the Treaty limit. And they also had 10" guns, far larger than new cruisers were allowed to have. For precisely those reasons, the US Navy gave serious consideration in the mid-1920s to modernizing the three surviving ships of the class, though they decided against it on the basis of cost, difficullty improving on their slow speed, and the fact that modernizing them would give Congress an excuse to stop authorizing new cruisers. Likewise, France and Italy kept a few of their larger armored cruisers around in the Treaty era. All of this presumes an alternate history where Germany is a signatory of the Washington Naval Treaty, of course. I'm not sure whether Germany would've been allowed to keep her under the Treaty of Versailles. Blücher was after all bigger than the Braunschweig- and Deutschland-class pre-dreadnoughts that Germany was allowed to keep. On the other hand she had smaller guns and thinner armor and she was thoroughly obsolete by that point, so it's possible this would've been allowed in exchange for postwar Germany only getting 4-5 pre-dreadnoughts instead of 6. If that were the case, Versailles certainly would've placed a limit on how soon she could be replaced by a new-construction ship, which could've given Germany an impetus for a significant rebuild. Depending on when such a rebuild happened, they'd have to worry about whether the Inter-Allied Commission would approve the plans. Naturally Germany could (and almost certainly would) make efforts to cheat their way around Versailles restrictions, but having to make sure it wasn't obvious would mean they probably couldn't go to the extent of rearranging the turrets to a more efficient superfiring layout. The post-refit Blücher would need to look like she'd had only minor changes made. The other potential scenario for a Treaty-era refitted Blücher would be if she was handed over to France or Italy as war reparations. Neither nation had that many cruisers operational at the end of WW1, both kept some of their armored cruisers in service for quite some time (Italy even still had San Giorgio in active service in WW2) and Blücher was a superior design to those cruisers. As such she might've been seen as more worthwhile to rebuild to modern standards than the likes of San Giorgio or Waldeck-Rousseau.
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  4.  @Drachinifel  If kept in German hands, yes. But like I said, I can also see France or Italy picking her as part of their war reparations if she were in the available pool. Both nations actually operated smaller ex-German cruisers to make up for their own shortages, France into the 1930s and Italy all the way into the 1940s. It would've been interesting to see if Italy would've put Blücher through a refit similar to that of their dreadnought battleships.
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