Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "USS California - Guide 005 (Human Voice)" video.

  1. Always enjoy your ship videos. How much did the Tennessees, and Colorados, benefit from analysis of Jutland? The oldest copy of Jane's at the local library is the 1958 edition, which lists the deck armor of both classes, presumably after their WWII updates, as 3 1/2" on the upper deck and 2 1/2" on the lower deck, with the more extensively reconstructed West Virginia having 9" of deck armor. Other than West Virginia, this amount of deck armor is far short of the later classes that were built in the 30s, and short of the British N3s, which were designed after the analysis of Jutland. It's interesting that, while the RN pressed on with construction of Hood, the other three ships of that class were suspended, and ultimately cancelled as it was reportedly deemed not feasible to update them. Yet the USN pressed on with laying the Maryland down a year after Jutland, and her three sisters, three years after Jutland, while the RN was going back to the drawing board. For that matter, the final design of the Lexingtons appears comparable to the Hood, but they were laid down after the RN knew it didn't want any more ships as thin skinned as the Hood. Seems that the USN would have been well advised to finish up the Tennessees as they were already building, but cancel the Colorados and Lexingtons before they were laid down, and go straight to the 1920 South Dakotas. What are your thoughts?
    5
  2. Found your video on the SoDaks. Very interesting, especially the chart comparing armor with the preceding classes. Found a new book I will need to read "The Battleship Holiday"
    5
  3. Thank you for your reply. It appears that I can request my local library to transfer in a 1919 edition of Jane's, so I can look into this further. A 1920 or 21 edition would be preferable, but none are available in my area. I don't think Congress would have objected to going straight from the Tennessees to the SoDaks. Congress approved the SoDaks as designed, and the Colorados were not that much of an advance over the Tennessees. The Colorados had the advantage of being within the 35KT limit of the 1922 treaty, so the US was able to swap the Delawares for Colorado and West Virginia, as the Brits swapped 4 older BBs the treaty allowed them to keep for the clean sheet design Nelsons. Yes, the SoDaks exceeded the treaty limit by some 7-8KT. As carriers, the Lexingtons exceeded the treaty limit of 27KT, but the US got a clause added to the treaty allowing 2 conversions at 30KT, and apparently they were allowed another 3KT for their torpedo protection. How could the SoDak's displacement be reduced? The first thing that comes to mind would be deleting the #1 and #4 16" turrets with their associated barbettes, magazines, and extensions of the armor belt, then shortening the barbettes of #2 and #3 turrets to lower them to deck height. Somewhere between the flexibility in displacement cap, the allowance for torpedo protection and putting the SoDaks on a displacement reduction program, two SoDaks probably could have been completed, maybe three. If the entire Colorado class had been cancelled, the USN would be some 90KT short of the RN's battleship tonnage. Add the 40KT of the two Delawares to the existing 90KT deficit and there would be tonnage available for three SoDaks. Have you done a piece on the SoDaks? I haven't seen one.
    2