Shipbucket

Changes made as per suggestions

JSB - this is not the OTL.

The Admiral class was a big enough success that a follow-up class was planned. No longer having the luxury of having old triple 15" turrets to put on the new battleships, the new class would mount 16" rifles, also in triple turrets, albeit only three turrets, instead of four. Apart from the changes resulting from that, the class was a virtual copy of the Admirals, and they very nearly got Admiral names too.

Instead the names Vanguard, Vigilant and Valiant were chosen. Vanguard sailed in late 1944, her sisters still being build when the war ended. With the empire in tatters, and Britain exhausted from the war, all work on Vigilant and Valiant was halted, and neither was completed. Ultimately Vanguard would be the last battleship build in the world.

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Would you please not eat my gun...

Nice.... But Valiant? Since there already existed a battleship named Valiant in 1944... How about "Vengeance"?

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Nice work.
I wonder if lowering the forward superstructure block by 1 deck might improve the looks?

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Brits and there awesome BB names, Vanguard, Valiant, Warspite...

Looks like this. Is starting to get an English Iowa vibe:



In general, the KGV superstructure is kinda small if you're not putting four turrets on a ship. I could elongate it, move the turrets a bit further out and the forward ones closer together, but I like the seperation between the turrets.

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Would you please not eat my gun...

The separation of turrets is supposed to stop two turrets being taken out by one hit. I like the way it looks now.

Captain Class Destroyer Escorts.

With the signing of the Lend/Lease documents, Britain went shopping for its most needed ships. Convoy escorts. The US yards had several designs that would satisfy the RN's needs, but they were armed with US pattern weapons that would have been incompatible with current RN munitions stocks. So the favourite design was altered to include RN weaponry. The original 1940 design as ordered had two single 4" DP mountings forward, one twin 4" DP mounting aft, one quad 2pd pom pom, and six single 20mm AA guns. A set of twin 21" torpedo tubes gave the ships some teeth against larger enemies. The armament was a blend of the Hunt class and River class escorts. The speed was kept to 24 knots as being fast enough to catch up with U-boats and also fast enough to allow the ships to be able to hunt a submerged U-boat and then be able to rejoin the convoy it was escorting.




The armament was altered in 1942 as the first ships were due for completion. The advent of the Hedgehog spigot mortar was a step forward in anti-submarine warfare weapons and one was mounted forward replacing the 'A' 4" mounting. While this reduced the 4" to 3 guns, it was felt that the single gun forward would be enough to handle any surfaced U-Boat.

Mihoshik said "Looks like this. Is starting to get an English Iowa vibe"

Be careful what you wish for!!

And for something completely different.

Lion/Vanguard hull with 9x16", 20x4.7", 36x40mm STAAG. Iowa superstructure, aircraft handling facilities aft with hangar below deck.



Backstory for Dimitri97:

With the outbreak of war the future of the Lion class battleships was put on hold. In 1940 the Vanguard project utilising the 15" turrets from those held in storage was started. A second hull was also started due to the signing of the Lend Lease documents. This opened the US navies doors for the RN to purchase goods and services. Part of the subjects shown to the RN was the details of the new 45,000 ton battleships of the Iowa class. The US would not supply a whole battleship but would sell off parts of the design for the British to incorporate in a new battleship. The RN liked the secondary layout of the US superstructure and placement for lots of AA weaponry. The other thing that the US was willing to supply was the propulsion system design of the Iowa's which was superior to that of the Lion design. More horsepower was generated by the US system in a similar sized propulsion installation. This system would produce 200k compared to the 160k of the RN equivalent. The speed would increase from 30 to 32 knots. Using the 4.7" dual purpose turret in place of the US 5" and the new twin 40mm STAAG mountings would provide a superior AA armament compared to any current RN battleship. Keeping the RN armour size and layout gave them a better armour scheme than the Iowas. The only way to keep aircraft handling facilities was to copy the US practice of having the aircraft catapults and cranes at the stern with the aircraft hangar placed underneath. With the loss of 5 battleships early in the war, the priority for the Vanguard and Duke of York was kept high. The loss of two more battleships to the Japanese increased their priority even more. Both Vanguard and Duke of York completed in 1944, just in time to take part in the "Tirpitz Resolution" where like the Scharnhorst, the bait of a closely passing Russian bound convoy was too much to pass up and the Tirpitz was caught at sea. Damaged and slowed by aircraft from the Apollo and Illustrious, the two new battleships caught and sunk the Tirpitz with gunfire. The hulk being finished off with torpedoes from the cruiser Sirius. Transferred to the Pacific fleet the Duke of York saw out the war as the Pacific Fleets Flagship and was present in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.

Surely it looks pretty unique.
If you allow me one quibble, Krakatoa, it is possible that if completed in 1944 this ship would have got the enclosed pilothouse around the conning tower like the USS Missouri.

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