Comments by "Doug JB" (@dougjb7848) on "HMS Tiger (1913) - Not Exploding on the Job" video.

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  7. Doing that would have been technically complicated because, even though 14" is only .5" larger than 13.5", multiplied out by ammo supply for all the guns, would result either in such a reduction in rounds/gun as to put the ship at a disadvantage in an extended fight, or require significant enlargement of powder magazine and shell rooms. This would have then necessitated complete replacement of all main battery range fingers, directors and fire control / calculating gear. This much work would have been pointless unless pretty much the entire ship were rebuilt, including structural changes to handle the greater weight of 14" guns and ammunition (possibly even increase in length and / or beam), improved armor protection, torpedo bulge/ absorption system, and replacement of all boilers and engines to maintain speed. At this point, you've pretty much built an entirely new capital ship that would still be at a disadvantage against their most-likely opponents, namely the Scharnhorst and Bismarck classes. (Imagine pitting USS Pennsylvania or Idaho in their 1943 configuration against a Bismarck or Nagato or, horrifyingly, a Yamato). As Drach summarized, that much just was not feasible, cost-benefit-wise. The RN saw Germany aiming toward a significant surface-action fleet, especially focused on convoy raiding. To combat that, they didn't need high-speed ships of recent design / construction. Instead, they only needed ships that could keep up with a convoy (even fast convoys were about 16kts), would be just-effective-enough to scare off convoy raiders (even one 15" hit could force a Bismarck class to need to return home ... and there were several instances when German raiders did leave a convoy alone rather than tangle with an R-class), and could be kept going (more or less) with an almost shamefully small amount of maintenance, leaving more resources for older ships deemed more useful (the 15" gun WW1 veterans) and new ones abuilding.
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  13. A) He did mention the "caliber mix" issue, at 13:00. A mix of 13.5, 14, 15 and 16 inch guns is 33% more "logistical crap" to deal with than just 14, 15 and 16. B) It's not just "do we have enough shells," it's logistics: "how can we get them to where the ship that uses them will be." To carry a sufficient amount of 4 different size shells from A to B, requires 4 completely different routines for everything involved in "getting shells from A to B." Again, it introduces 33% more complication than just 3 different sizes. It's why NATO has, over almost all its history, tried desperately to standardize anything it can within the member nations: every additional type of "X" that any nation uses makes it that-much-harder to keep every nation supplied with enough "X" for its needs. C) The US did not "make a new 15" gun for Richelieu." Per Wiki: Since the gun cradles were undamaged, the guns were simply replaced by barrels taken from Jean Bart, which had been recovered at Casablanca during Operation Torch. D) Had the RN put that much work into refurbishing Tiger, there is no way they would have lent her to the Soviets--would you spend half-the-purchase-price of a car to refurbish it, and then hand the keys to somebody whose prior experience operating a motor vehicle was in demolition derbies? (when the Soviets returned the Royal Sovereign to the RN, much of her equipment was unserviceable. It appeared to the inspectors that the main battery turrets had not been rotated while the ship was in Soviet service, and were jammed on the centreline. As a result of her poor condition, she was sold for scrap.)
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