Admiral Class Battlecruisers: Could more than one have been completed?

In OTL the four Admiral class battlecruisers were all laid down in 1916 but all work was suspended on three of them less than six months later to concentrate resources on escorts and merchantmen which had a higher priority during wartime. Work on HMS Hood was continued as insurance against Germany managing to complete any of it's Mackensen class battlecruisers and Admiral Beatty pressed for work on the other three to be restarted, however the war cabinet refused on the grounds that resources weren't available.

Is there any way that one or more the the other three could have been completed or was the cabinet correct in their assessment?
 
In OTL the four Admiral class battlecruisers were all laid down in 1916 but all work was suspended on three of them less than six months later to concentrate resources on escorts and merchantmen which had a higher priority during wartime. Work on HMS Hood was continued as insurance against Germany managing to complete any of it's Mackensen class battlecruisers and Admiral Beatty pressed for work on the other three to be restarted, however the war cabinet refused on the grounds that resources weren't available.

Is there any way that one or more the the other three could have been completed or was the cabinet correct in their assessment?

Hello Landshark. You like Battlecruisers too.

I think the problem with the 'Admiral' class was that they were already seen as obsolete when under construction. This was mainly because of advances in naval shells that made them vulnerable to plunging fire.

The decision to abandon them was pretty much a consensus decision. If they were considered any good then I think the money would have been found and they would have just scrapped the Renown and Repulse.

OTOH they could have spent a few more pennies to redesign them but the money wasn't there and the economy collapsed in the UK similar to today.
 

sharlin

Banned
Maybe if they got the materials from the three and made either one to an improved design or more boldly turned it into an aircraft carrier, but as lovely looking at the Admirals were, they were as correctly pointed out, obsolete.
 
Guys

I think initial plans were for the other three to be built to a later design with improved protection although how much so I'm not sure. The Head of Naval Design however even suggested scrapping the Hood as it was so outdated by the later [i.e. G3 and N3] designs but given it was the only capital ship [other than Repulse and Renown] laid down since 1914 whereas both Japan and even more so the US had laid down large numbers.

If you wanted them completed then you need to change the dynamics in 1916-17 onwards. If for some reason the U boats are not such a threat [say convoys introduced earlier] but there is still a potential German threat and a US programme in the background, then they might be produced roughly on schedule. However if you butterfly Jutland, or at least the lessons Britain learnt there, you might end up with fairly large, fast and formidable ships but dangerously fragile.

The best bet was a TL I've played around with, involving a different WWI. Britain learns the lessons earlier, in an enlarged Dogger Bank, then further lessons in defeating the HSF at Jutland. Coupled with other changes which means that the war end earlier and Britain in a better position economically, four such ships are completed as a stepping stone to fully post-war designs, with 8x15", ~28kts and decent armour. In this way they may well torpedo any WNT.

Steve
 
Ideally Britain would have converted Hood into a carrier and argued for 3 Nelsons at Washington.
 
Maybe if they got the materials from the three and made either one to an improved design or more boldly turned it into an aircraft carrier, but as lovely looking at the Admirals were, they were as correctly pointed out, obsolete.

Ideally Britain would have converted Hood into a carrier and argued for 3 Nelsons at Washington.

That's something ive often thought about, turn either Hood or one of her sisters into a CV, preferably while they were still on the building dock. The RN would have been far better off in WW2 with at least one CV of 40,000 tonnes plus rather than a glass jawed battlecruiser.
 
That's something ive often thought about, turn either Hood or one of her sisters into a CV, preferably while they were still on the building dock. The RN would have been far better off in WW2 with at least one CV of 40,000 tonnes plus rather than a glass jawed battlecruiser.

If you take a look at some of my other recent threads you can see that I'm looking to have Hood and Rodney completed as battlecruisers as insurance against planned German ships during WW1. Anson and Howe will be completed as aircraft carriers during the 20's.
 
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