AHTL: The Battle of the Atlantic is dead

noted - although surely the value of a story ( and that's what all of these postings are) is how it retains interest. It is enjoyable to this point.

 

I agree, an early and enjoyable story.. imo it does show how little changes can have an effect.

 

Sorry not an update but RL has caused havoc so this is going to be my last post on this TL for the moment

 

Sorry to hear! Hope things clear up, I'm enjoying this TL

 

Take care, man. Best of luck.

 

RL always has priority
... though sometimes AH can be an escape from the toils of RL

Hope to see you again soon

 

Good luck with RL.. take care, hope to see you soon!

 

I'm back but I have hit a brick wall

 

Have the RN developed their ships as they have OTL, or was there an earlier POD causing them to do things differently?

 

What you need?

 

Up til this time every ship the RN has designed Is as otl.

 

What is status of Fleet Air Arm and Costal command? RN keep air and flying boats of Coastal Command?

 

Sounds good!

Is anything scheduled for a major refit?

What about the various admirals (Ramsay, Fraser, Holland, Tom Thumb, etc)?

 

Hood is due for a major refit and Holland is currently shore side.

 

Nice! Is Hood scheduled to get a major Renown style reconstruction, or a more modest Repulse style refit?

Are any other ships scheduled for a refit?

 

Deep refits for all of the QEs PLEASE....

 

My re

My vote is for hood getting it's own style of refit where they fix all the weak points and smooth over or refit the torpedo tudes. I think she needs the armor under the teaque wood deck and to be rebalanced as well. With the rebalancing it should solve some if the problems that were reported in high or stormy seas. Mainly that the aft turrets and fantail had excessive but non-threatening flooding issues.

 

Given that both Japan and the Italians rebuilt all of their BBs and BCs (to fast arguably fast BB standard in the case of the Kongos) I think it would be an interesting exercise to see the 5 QEs, RnR and 'Ood' to all get a deep refit modernisation during the 30s

I appreciate that the OTL budget did not allow for such things but say that the threat of modernised Japanese ships focused minds in the early 30s then I could see more interest in modernising those ships

This might also keep HMS Lion and the 4 Iron Duke's in service longer to cover the refits as well as keep those industries required for large turret/gun construction and renovation open as well as those industries directly involved in armour plate construction.

1931-33 HMS Warspite and HMS Renown go into deep refit
1933-35 HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant go into deep refit
1934 - 36 HMS Hood goes into deep refit
1935 - 37 HMS Barham and HMS Malaya go into deep refit
1936 - 38 HMS Repulse goes into deep refit -

However I can already see a clash with the need for the British shipbuilding industries to support new BBs and CVs from 1936 onwards

Italys desire to rebuild its Pre Jutland BBs delayed its other desire to build 4 modern BBs and as a result the first 2 were massively delayed and this had a knock on effect on the 3rd unit with a 4th never realised

I appreciate that the UK had a greater capacity and supporting industries and this exercise might actually prevent much of the decline in said industries from taking place during the 30s but also might place to great a burden on competing resources leading to delays?

 

I like the idea of keeping the Iron Dukes and Lion in. Especially if they modernize and upgrade the ships during refit. Iron Dukes would definitely need bigger guns. I think they were either 14s or 13.5s...not quite good enough it think to go toe to toe with Bismarck or Tirpitz.

 

There purpose would only be to keep up the numbers - once all of the refits were complete they would be decommed and no longer expected to be in front line service beyond 1937/38 - and very likely totally worn out by this time.

And there the 13.5s were pretty good guns - even Bismarck would know that she had been slapped if hit by one!

So only superficial refits would be required by the older ships