Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Drydock - Episode 178" video.

Interesting that the US objection to a 12" caliber limit in the London Naval Treaty was the prospect of not being able to fit enough AA, rather than 12" guns simply not being sufficient to deal effectively with the most powerful existing battleships. Shows a surprising amount of awareness in 1930 that the threat of air attack was real. That said, it doesn't seem like there's any particular reason why a 12" armed BB couldn't be just as big a hull as a 14" armed one.
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@toddwebb7521 Britain also had the experimental 12"/50 Mk XIV, which was the basis for developing the KGVs' 14"/45 Mk VII and the 16"/45 Mk II and Mk IV guns planned for the various iterations of Lion.
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The bridges over the Kiel Canal all have a height of 42 meters, while the Bridge of the Americas is 58 meters.
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I can't see any reason why that wouldn't have been possible.
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There's also the possibility of reusing the turrets but replacing the old 13.5" with some of the KGV class's spare 14" barrels. IIRC, there was initial consideration of using Iron Duke as a test ship for the new guns, so they were designed to fit the old 13.5" turrets. Thought personally, I still think it would've been a good idea to keep Tiger in active service, scrap Iron Duke, and convert whichever of the Revenges was in the worst shape into a training ship. Probably Revenge herself, since she was scheduled for a refit in May 1931. The resulting additional 15"/42 turrets being available in 1940 might also result in Vanguard getting a sister ship.
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@ericamborsky3230 Even one of the Kongos would've eviscerated Spee's squadron. Look at how handily he was beaten by Sturdee's squadron at the Falklands. Kongo alone would've been superior to Sturdee's entire squadron, let alone Spee's. Kongo can steam at 27.5 knots, meaning none of Spee's ships can even run away from her. And her 14" guns give her a similar weight of broadside to Invincible and Inflexible combined. As for Jutland...if Japan had sent the Kongos to Britain for whatever reason, they'd presumably be assigned to Beatty to form a 4th Battlecruiser Squadron. This is the equivalent of adding 4 more of Tiger to the fleet (albeit with slightly thinner armor and slightly heavier guns). And instead of having 6 battlecruisers to go up against 1st Scouting Group's 5, Beatty would now have 10. A full 2 to 1 advantage like this means that even with Beatty's incompetent signaling causing 5th Battle Squadron to arrive late, Hipper is going to get mauled quite badly. Every British and Japanese battlecruiser would be able to double up on a German counterpart, and that's not ending well for the Germans.
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Regarding Jutland...how would things have turned out differently had Major Harvey succumbed to his wounds slightly faster and thus Lion was also lost in a catastrophic magazine explosion? On its face this would seem like very bad news for the British, since it's another powerful capital ship lost. On the other hand, it means Beatty and Seymour are dead. I'm not sure whether it was Rear Admiral Pakenham of 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron or Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas of 5th Battle Squadron that would have seniority in that case, but one of them would be left to assume command and I'm guessing either of them would've been more competent than Beatty.
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