Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "HMS Tiger (1913) - Not Exploding on the Job" video.

Regarding Tiger vs Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the reason for Admiral Lütjens refusing to engage Convoy HX 106 because it was escorted by Ramilles wasn't that he doubted his ships' ability to take Ramilles. It was that he was under very strict orders from Hitler not to engage capital ships at all. The same would've applied to Tiger. Had Lütjens defied those orders and tried to fight Ramilles, even given the inferior guns on his ships I suspect that he would've won that engagement. He did after all outnumber Ramilles 2 to 1, and his ships were 11 knots faster and also better armored. Thus, I disagree with the assessment that Tiger would've had less utility than an R-class early in the war. Even if she had a very limited refit, her speed would've allowed her to be used in duties other than just convoy escort. And Revenge herself did little of any importance during WW2, so discarding her to keep Tiger (or keeping her as the training ship instead of Iron Duke) would've been no big loss. And in terms of the logistics of keeping the BL 13.5-inch Mk V gun in service for a single ship? That would be somewhat of an issue, but remember that those guns were still in use as land-based artillery in railway mounts as well. Three of them were brought to Dover as part of the battery of cross-channel guns. So it's not as if Britain discarded their stores of shells and charges for guns of that caliber. And if Tiger's refit came in the late 1930s, it's possible that she could've had her 13.5-inch guns replaced with the same BL 14-inch Mk VII used on King George V. IIRC, those guns were designed so that they could work with the turrets, cradles, and shell hoists of the 13.5-inch Mk V, because initially there was consideration of using Iron Duke's remaining turrets to test-fire the new gun design.
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@murderouskitten2577 It was relatively small (by capital ship standards) shells that were hitting Tiger, since the German battlecruisers had either 11-inch or 12-inch guns. Still impressive that she shrugged off so many hits, though.
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Sean m Apparently Captain Hoffmann of Scharnhorst suggested to Lütjens the idea of using his ship as a decoy to draw Ramilles out of position (a fairly low-risk strategy, given Scharnhorst's superior armor and extreme speed advantage) so that Gneisenau could get within range to attack the convoy while remaining outside Ramilles' gun range. Given that Ramilles failed to identify Scharnhorst, it's possible that they didn't realize Gneisenau was also present, in which case such a tactic would've had some chance of success. There also would've been the option of simply trying to bombard the convoy from long range. The 28cm SK C/34 had a maximum range of 40km, though the odds of actually hitting a moving target at that range would be near zero. The BL 15"/42 Mk I in an older non-refitted mount like on Ramilles was limited to 20 degrees elevation and a maximum range of 26km with super charges (which I don't think had been issued yet in 1941) or 21km without them. So if they stayed at least 22km away, they could've fired on the convoy without Ramilles being able to respond. The accuracy at such ranges would've been low (though Scharnhorst had a year earlier scored a hit on Glorious from around 24km away), but it also would've been low-risk (at least so long as they didn't stick around long enough for reinforcements to arrive).
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Physically that would be entirely possible. Those guns are only slightly longer and heavier than the BL 13.5-inch Mk V used on Tiger, and IIRC they were actually designed with the intention of being able to mount in Iron Duke's remaining turrets for test-firing, though that ended up not actually happening. The expense of building an extra 8 such guns would still be a relevant consideration (and possibly delaying the completion of one of the KGV class, in exchange for getting some of those guns into active service faster since Tiger would already be complete). But it would still be entirely feasible to do.
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The alternate possibility would've been retaining both Tiger and Revenge, but relegating Revenge to the training ship role. Though it would've been interesting if Tiger had retained instead of Iron Duke, and then both she and Hiei both got restored to full combat capacity after Japan pulled out of the treaties.
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Kongo and Tiger were being designed at the same time. They were both direct improvements over the Lion design (Lion's sister ship Princess Royal was contracted to Vickers, giving them access to the complete blueprints while they designed Kongo). After Kongo's design became known, Tiger's construction was delayed to see if there was anything worth copying, because Kongo recognized as a very good battlecruiser. But the major stuff like hull form and turret layout had already been set by this point. It's simply their common ancestry to Lion that made them so similar.
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