Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "HMS Warrior (1860) - First Armoured Battleship of the Royal Navy" video.

Such a pity that HMS Vanguard was scrapped. Imagine if she'd been permanently moored at Portsmouth as well, so that the first and the last of Britain's armored warships would be side by side.
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@unluckyirish2763 Warspite would've been one of the hardest to save, because at the time she was scrapped Britain's economy was a disaster. And she was seriously beat up, so who knows how expensive a restoration would've been. Vanguard was the best opportunity because she lasted the longest, into the period when Britain was once again a wealthy nation. Though the best chance of a British age of steel capital ship being saved would've been if everything had gone just right for Hood. The time of the battle is a little different so that Hood and Prince of Wales can link up with Norfolk and Suffolk, so the former can double-team Bismarck and the latter deal with Prinz Eugen. Hood doesn't blow up, and gets most of the credit in the press for sinking Bismarck. Or maybe it's just the same scenario as IRL but the luck is reversed and a shot from Hood at long range lands just right to plunge through Bismarck's deck and detonate the magazine (that being the only way a 15" shell could plausibly reach Bismarck's magazines). Her repair and refit gets finished in time for her rather than Duke of York to sink Scharnhorst in the Battle of the North Cape. She gets assigned as new flagship of the Pacific Fleet and does some shore bombardment, then leads the Royal Navy contingent into Tokyo Bay for the surrender. Now Hood is even more legendary than she was going into WW2 (sinking two much more modern battleships), and she and Vanguard make for a pretty good post-war squadron since they have the same main armament and similar speed. Meaning she might last to 1960 when Britain isn't desperately strapped for cash anymore. (With the KGVs being scrapped a little bit earlier than IRL.) At that point, maybe she'd have a chance of being preserved.
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@red.5475 The Falklands War never would've happened if Vanguard was still in service. The reason they thought it was worth having a go at the Falklands was that the Royal Navy had been depleted enough that they thought they would win quickly and there'd be nothing Britain could do about it. Had the war happened just 1 year later, they actually would've been right given the planned further downsizing, including selling the brand-new HMS Invincible (that as we know was absolutely crucial to the war effort) to Australia. If the Royal Navy still had a battleship (which would be basically impervious to Exocets), sailing it down to the South Atlantic would've surely been enough to deter the junta.
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