Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 078" video.

  1. So, you are assuming a scenario at the Washington conference where the USN starts sniveling "the Brits have 4 battle cruisers, the Japanese have 4 battle cruisers, but we don't have any, that's unfair!", resulting in the USN swapping both Floridas, both Wyomings, both New Yorks and Oklahoma to clear the tonnage to build 4 Lexingtons, with the last two hulls converted to carriers. The potential for new tactics being developed around a very fast task force combining aircraft and big guns is intriguing. However, as the USN did not modernize it's capital ships during the 30s, the BCs would have gone into WWII, with, probably 8-5/25s replacing the original 3" AA guns, plus a couple of 1.1" Hardly adequate by WWII standards. Additional AA guns would be added from time to time, but the chances of them ever seeing the all singing, all dancing dual 5/38s would be pretty slim as installing them would require so much time in the yard. The best thing about the BCs might be, had they been based at Pearl, they probably would have been out with the carriers on Dec 7th.
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  2.  @carlcarlton764  Yes, the oldest BBs were modernized, up through the New Mexicos, which received new, more powerful, turbines, new boilers, removal of the cage masts, an extra 2" of STS deck armor, torpedo bulges, a second torpedo bulkhead, and improved AA armament in the early 30s. All the Tennessees and Colorados received in the 30s was the 5/25 and 1.1" AA battery, The Lexingtons would have followed the pattern of the Colorados. The New Yorks and Oklahoma had 14" guns, but triple expansion engines, instead of turbines. Yes, Sara was in Bremerton repairing torpedo damage in the spring of 42. Doing the updates at the same time as repairing the torp damage may have extended the stay in the yard. Consider if Sara had not needed the updates, and had the torp damage repaired at Pearl. That makes 3 carriers available at Coral Sea, which might have prevented enough damage to Lex to make her salvageable. Even if Lex was laid up at Pearl for repair of fire damage, having the Sara would make 4 carriers available at Midway, which might provide enough air cover to prevent fatal damage to Yorktown. Yorktown surviving Midway would make 3 carriers available at Santa Cruze, which might prevent fatal damage to Hornet. But, Sara was laid up, thousands of miles away, receiving updates it should have received before the war started, so we were always operating on a shoestring, unable to bring overwhelming force to bear.
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