Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 290" video.

  1. wrt the question about a lend lease Iowa, When I was reading "Fifty Ships That Saved The World" a while back, the thought crossed my mind, what if the US offered New York, Texas, and Arkansas, in addition to the destroyers? Those three battleships were operating together in the Atlantic in early 40. The book I read mentioned that one of the groups of destroyers was en route to the UK when they picked up radio traffic from Jervis Bay, when it was being attacked by Scheer. The destroyers, which the USN had handed over with full magazines and torpedo tubes, rushed to Jervis Bay's location, but arrived too late. What if the US had handed over those three obsolete battleships, and one had been traveling with Jervis Bay? Scheer's recon plane had reported the convoy was unescorted. If the plane had reported a battleship escorting the convoy, regardless how old, Scheer may not have attacked at all.
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  2. How about this one: instead of trying to do a piecemeal update on Tiger, which, iirc, had never been converted to oil fuel, nor had torpedo bulges installed, so add that to the work order. let's take a Sawzall to the Revenges, about midships, and add an 80 foot, or so, plug in the hull to house more propulsion machinery, and improve the length to beam ratio. An 80 foot plug amidships would give almost exactly the same length to beam ratio of the Lion class battlecruisers, that could make 27.5kts. without the modern propulsion machinery the Revenges would be retrofitted with.
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  3.  @richardcutts196 the treaties would have prevented the proposed changes in Tiger too. You could not increase the main guns or side armor. You could only improve torpedo and anti-aircraft protection. When the US started modifying the mounts in it's older battleships to increase elevation, there was an argument about whether the modification was a change in the mount that the treaty prohibited. Once the treaty tonnage was increased to 45,000, in mid 38, I doubt the increase in displacement from the plug would be an issue, especially if the lengthened Revenges were deemed their own replacement as most of them would age out in 42 anyway. The long lead items, that British industry was capacity restricted on, were big guns and armor. By reusing the guns and armor of the Revenges, it might expedite the work. Modernizing the QEs also relieved the gun and armor capacity issue. What I don't know, is if lengthening the Revenges as proposed would be any faster, or cheaper, than building new from scratch. The QE rebulds were less ambitious, and took three years.
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