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Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "USS Iowa (BB-4) - Guide 273" video.
The US Navy did at least bring back the twin 8" secondary turrets sitting higher than the main armament in the Virginia, Connecticut, and Mississippi-classes. Though in the Virginias they also had another go at the Kearsarge-class's terrible idea of double-stacked turrets (8" twin secondary on top of the main gun turrets). And in all cases it was only the 8" guns that were placed high up and away from the water. The 6" or 7" guns were all casemated in the hull. Even with that design flaw, the Connecticuts were among the best of the 2nd to last generation pre-dreadnoughts (ie not counting outright semi-dreadnoughts like Satsuma, Lord Nelson, and Danton).
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Entirely too few battleships got preserved in general. Only one pre-dreadnought and only one dreadnought worldwide, and no battlecruisers. (Particularly a pity that West Germany declined to take "back" Goeben/Yavuz when Turkey offered her in 1973.) The WW2 era is better represented, but only in the US. Such a pity that neither Richelieu nor any of the British battleships are still around.
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@AdamMGTF Or it would've been so hideous they'd want to get further away.
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Most American pre-dreadnoughts used that system, but frustratingly only for the 8" guns (or in the Illinois- and Maine-classes that had only 6" secondary guns, a mere 4 of those were mounted high). I suppose that's because the 8" guns were thought of as part of the main battery, while the 6" (or later 7") weren't as important to keep protected from rough weather. After all, if the weather's too rough for the hull-mounted casemate guns to function it's also too rough for torpedo boats to do much of anything.
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The US Navy also adopted the 7" gun for the last generation of pre-dreadnoughts (which also had 8" twin turrets), because it was the largest possible RF gun with the technology available. They made some unique choices for their pre-dreadnoughts. Some of which were good ideas (8" secondaries in twin turrets), others that were...not (stacking 8" secondaries on top of the main gun turrets). The 7" secondary, I'm not sure which end of the spectrum it falls on. Since it was slower-firing than 6", it might not have been as good at driving away torpedo boats/destroyers. But on the other hand a single 7" shell would be enough to end even the largest destroyers of the era. Side note: I really hope there's some forgotten design out there for a 7"/45 armed scout cruiser that never saw the light of day because Congress wasn't giving any funding for cruisers, just so that Wargaming can add it to World of Warships.
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