Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "County class - Guide 115" video.

  1. The shot of HMS London at around 5:30 in the video is after her rebuild to something resembling an eight-inch gunned member of the Town class light cruisers (note twin rather than triple stacks) "From March 1939 she was under reconstruction at the Chatham Dockyard, and was much altered in appearance. Replacement of her machinery was considered, but later abandoned. She was given a new superstructure above the main deck and in many ways resembled a Fiji-class light cruiser. Her single 4-inch gun mounts were changed to twin mounts, and several 20mm AA guns and radar were added. In addition, she was fitted with a 3½-inch cemented armoured belt, 8 feet deep down from the main armoured deck which covered the machinery spaces. The reconstruction work was finally completed in March 1941. The refit was planned to be implemented to other ships of the County class, but due to wartime pressures no other ships were reconstructed." This might really be because the refit was not successful as it overstressed the hull "London's refit became a disaster. she emerged at 11,015 tons, the extra weight workers slapped on to her created unmanageable stress. When the hull began to crack, the upper portion was reinforced; leaks then opened in the lower portion. Water got into fuel oil, fuel oil got into the magazines, forming pools deep enough to require bucket brigades. The problems went unchecked until 1943" My personal opinion is that this is evidence that the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors was undermanned and overworked as these stress problems should have come out in a thorough analysis of the design before it was approved. A similar near disaster had occurred when the stability of the Hunt class escort destroyers was miscalculated. This was discovered in the inclining experiment of the first to be completed, when she tried to capsize. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/inclining-experiment "The demanding specifications in an overworked Admiralty design department resulted in a major design miscalculation. When the detailed calculations were done the centre of gravity was lower than expected and the beam was increased. As the first ships were being completed it was found that the design was as much as 70 tons overweight, top-heavy, leaving them dangerously deficient in stability. The first twenty ships were so far advanced in construction that it was necessary to remove the 'X' 4-inch gun mount and add 50 tons of permanent ballast. These ships became the Type I group and had the multiple 2-pounder guns relocated from behind the funnel to the more advantageous 'X' position. The design deficiency of the Type I was rectified by splitting the hulls lengthwise and adding a 2½ foot section, increasing the beam to 31 ft 6 in and the margin of stability sufficiently for the designed armament to be shipped. These ships became the Type II group, and also had a revised design of bridge with the compass platform extending forwards to the wheelhouse face" There just weren't enough naval architects (even with temporary wartime appointments from civilian life) to do the normal process of checking one another's work as required by the King's Regulations
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  2.  @glenchen5723  Because their remaining light cruisers and destroyers had their hands full in the Baltic.
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  3.  @iroscoe  IIRC, one reason the R & S classes were kept in commission in the Twenties and Thirties was to "keep the milage low" on the V & W's. So contrary to legend, only 6 V & W's were scrapped prior to WW2 - one after going aground. The scrappings that did occur were all prior to 1936 and based on the condition of their hulls and machinery. Corvettes were an "emergency" design to replace the Kingfisher class, which took way too long to build in war time. But as the minimum ship that could carry a gun, an ASDIC and some depth charges, they were hard to justify against all the other urgent needs during rearmament,. Sloops were excellent ships, but too "luxurious" being built to full warship standards. That's the reason the River class frigates were built during war time, they were to commercial standards so commercial builders instead of specialist warship builders could construct them and they were austere, meaning they could be built quickly
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