Comments by "Todd Webb" (@toddwebb7521) on "The Drydock - Episode 129" video.

@WaverleyWanderer I suspect if Britain built thier 2 16 inch ships in the 30s they would be closer to a less armoured lion than to the 1920s Nelsons since speed was much more of a premium in the 1930s.
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@gossythepadre US responds with Tillman 4-2
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@marcusfranconium3392 I'd say a lot of the answer depends on whether the HSF specifically has to build them as 22 knot slow battleships or whether they can say snag the guns and turrets off a couple of them to put out some Mackensens. Since HSF turned away upon seeing the full GF it's hard to see bigger guns being the game changer when they didn't fight it out. If there was some 14" armed Mackensens well the German battle cruisers got the better of that without the bigger guns or extra hulls. Lion, Tiger, and Princess Royal all took some hits that may well have been fatal if 14" instead of 11 or 12 inch. Not to mention the QEs took some bad hits. If Warspite, Malaya, or Barham took some 14" hits that was historically 11 or 12 they may have gone down or been much worse off if they didn't.
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@Hach-xo3ux well the British have an advantage in terms of hulls and how many ships have 15"+ guns, and how many ships have 13.5" + guns BUT the US has the advantage in modern post treaty ships (4 IAs, 4SDs,2 NCs, and 2AKs vs Britain's 5 KGVs and Vanguard) When you get into older WWIish era ships if you assume best spec like with WWII refits US is going to have an edge because everything but the 2 sunk(AZ and OK) get refits with radar and modern fire control whereas the Brits it's basically QE, Valiant, Warspite, Renown, and the Nelsons that get refits. If you assume the WWIish ships are in as built configuration the Brits have a massive numbers advantage once you factor in 13.5" ships but you need the Standards to not have WWII refits for the Brits to be ahead because the Rs, Hood, Repulse, Malaya, Barham, all the 13.5s, Courageous, Glorious, Furious, don't get serious modernization. The Brits also have an advantage in 12" ships but they are too far behind to be much beyond cannon fodder.
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Well if the High Seas fleet did pull off the unquestioned victory described that opens up a whole can of butterflies as without the same amount of badly damaged ships there's a possibility of some of the not historically finished ships being finished because the dock space isn't tied up so bad with repairs. Some Mackensens or more than the 2 Bayerns would definitely make any post Jutland small battles interesting. Also if Lutzow doesn't go down actually having 3 Derrflingers creates them by itself.
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