Shipbucket

I thought it would be interesting to finish of the quartet, by showing HMS Battleaxe as she would have appeared if the proposed 1953 modernisation had gone ahead. As this was deemed a failure they were then released for conversion to radar pickets; but limited in weight-carrying capacity they were a stopgap until the Battles were converted into a much more capable design. I will also show soon the proposed full conversions for the Battles, but this was deemed too ambitious, and instead we got the one now covered.

Nice drawing. Not a particularly ambitious modernisation.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

I think the plan was to get these into service while the Type 15's were still being converted; so in that sense they weren't overly ambitious, and offered reasonable gun direction for the time; but then, it must have been decided that the conversion was not worth the cost.

One note is that the MRS.3 director was not available in 1953, in fact it apeared only in 1958-1959 in the fleet having being tested on HMS Cumberland in 1956-1957.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Excellent!!!

Friedman's Postwar Naval Revolution (P154) shows the foredeck extended almost to the stern and a limbo in a well at the back of the foredeck. The torpedoes were fired through a door either side of their position.


Mike

Interesting. I am looking at the very same pages (154/5) , which I used as my source; and I beleive you've misinterpreted the drawing (extending the forecastle aft and having the torpedo tubes enclosed in the hull). The drawing I've done, does, I beleive, reflect the projected modernisation as Freidmans book actually shows; but if you have any further information I'd be interested to see it.

Portsmouth Bill,

My apologies on two front. Firstly my post was a bit blunt. It wasn't meant to be. I was only trying to be helpful. Secondly, you are probably correct. I don't have the book and am only going on memory.


Mike

No worries Mike, I took it as a genuine query; and it made me look at my version again, and I've adjusted the stern slightly to show the Limbo closer to the end of the superstructure. Incidently, the 'deluxe' version of the Battle radar picket was designed with an extended forecastle (among other changes). I'm doing that version at present and it should make an intereseting contrast to the one actually converted.