Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "Anglo-German Dreadnought Arms Race - Anything you can build I can build better!" video.

The competition between the UK and Germany was not passing without the notice of the US. With both powers developing 15" guns, the US responded by developing the 16"/45, proof firing it in 1914. So how did the New Mexicos and Tennessees come to have 14" guns? The head of BuOrd decided that battleships would never engage at more than 12,000 yards. Below that range, the 14" would penetrate well enough, and, being smaller and lighter than the 16", more guns could be mounted. Of course, a year later, the British and German fleets engaged at over 15,000 yards, and the 16"/45 that had been discarded as excessive and redundant, suddenly became the gun to have. What award would you suggest for the head of BuOrd, Admiral Strauss?
1
@AndrewBaker-ym3mk I think Drac covered that some time ago. His theory is it was a totally different design, that was described as a QE to conceal it's true nature. The name is a known: Agincourt. The name was later applied to a battleship that had been built for the Ottoman Empire, but seized by the UK government at the start of the war.
1
@scottgiles7546 I checked up on Strauss. Seems he spent the bulk of his career at BuOrd, with a couple of commands along the way. Apparently is credited with several inventions while at BuOrd, but also another clunker: superimposed gun turrets as on the Kearsarge and Virginia classes. In December 1916, he had another command, the Nevada. Unfortunately, Nevada spent the war on convoy duty and never saw action, so he was not able to prove his assertion that battleships will never engage at more than 12,000 yards.
1