If the two ships had originally been ordered by Spain (pre civil war and payment deposited Britain in advance thank you very much) how about the names Drake and Cavendish?
Have the Spanish buy a cruiser as well and name it Gibraltar when taking it over.
Thinking about modified Renown class ships Britain could conceivably have built one fairly quickly by reusing the armour and turrets available on the target ship Centurion and training ship Iron Duke. True the turrets would need modifications to increase elevation and the guns are a non standard calibre but such a ship would have been a useful raider killer and heavy escort.
McPherson
Banned
% of hit probability is far too low. Need a guided weapon to act as a torpedo killer. It did happen. Japanese planes saved Japanese aircraft carriers on occasion by diving onto an American torpedo. This procedure is not recommended. The Americans employed a different Presidential Unit Citation lunacy. They drove destroyers into torpedoes to save their flattops.
Again, John Jellicoe was probably the best fleet leader the UK could've had.
Beatty on the other hadn
Beatty on the other hadn
In its own timeframe Jellicoe in the Great War was a safe choice, as he was loyal to the institute of the Admirality in the first place and not so much the politicians, including the First Sea Lord who technically was an officer, but behaved more in the political field than the Navy itself. Jellicoe was a cautious, calculating type of officer, great administrator and tactician, much more than his counterpart Beatty, who was a sort of hot rod impuls driven career officer, who often made mistakes in the heat of a fight, as he had no general overview of the bigger picture more than once.
In the Great War there was not much choice to choose from in who was to lead the Grand Fleet as Beatty already was disputed before the outbreak of war by his juvenile age compared to more senior officers, as well as his close ties with politicians like Churchill, which did not help to increase his popularity in the Navy either.
Jellico was also Fisher's choice, he'd helped forward the man's career and Jellico had been part of the 'Fish Pond'. Jellico was an exceptionally clever man and he knew the capabilities of his ships and crews. His decision to form the line at Jutland, if he'd gone the other way could have been a disaster, but he chose correctly even though he was only getting patchy information from Goodenough and Beatty.
That was exactly why Jellicoe was in overall command as he was trusted to keep the Grand Fleet intact and not risk it in adventures with an uncertain outcome. A hot rod like Beatty was too much of a wild card to play and his style in command, combined with his attitude were seen as highly risky. This is why senior officers had tried to prevent him to get a senior position himself in the first place before the war, contradicted to Beatty's high status friends in the Aristocracy, like Churchill and the Royal House.
Jellicoe was actually kind of everyone's choice AIUI. His name comes up favorably every time the First Sea Lord position was open between Fisher's retirement in 1910 and his own appointment. He was just generally considered too junior. Most admirals seemed to assume that he would become First Sea Lord at some point since about 1904, it was just a question of when.
The sad part was he wasn't listened to enough, he knew about the shell issues but the armaments' bureau didn't rectify until too late robbing him of the victory and in the 1920s he wanted the main base in the East moved to Sydney while using Singapore to hold light units. Had he been listened to
To be fair about the shell issue the western front was sucking most of the production capacity which meant making changes was rather hard to do.
This was pre-war, like 5 or so years before the world erupted into war
So based on my above challenge I was thinking about making a game. You are the defense minister of a small non-aligned country in the mid 30s tasked with modernizing the nations military. Army, navy, and airforce. The nation has the funding and international good standing the purchase more or less anything they wish from any nation. You can pick from any ship, plane, tank, truck, rifle, machine gun, etcetera, already in service or in development with a nation. As a bonus round then you imagine you are a secret traitor aiming to ensure your nation gets the worst possible equipment that looks good on paper but will be very badly in real combat.
I am not sure how this game would exactly be organized, or what the specific categories would be. But if there is any interest let me know.
I am not sure how this game would exactly be organized, or what the specific categories would be. But if there is any interest let me know.
Thinking about it, I'm not sure without narrowing things a bit you can really firm that up, I mean is the small country an island or part of a larger land mass, so which might get priority Army or Navy? What it's basic relationship with it's neighbours and the major powers?
I would have to nail that all down. But at the same time I would be very ambiguous about details like that so you could kinda decide for yourself.
I'm tempted to just suggest some of the proposals made from the 20's and 30's for the Irish Free State/Ireland, and then for the traitor angle just suggest what they did in OTL, (might be a bit harsh on finance/defence/cabinet but it's pretty much the worst you could do without Treason...
I guess we're looking at these guys.
For the navy they buy the old Iron Duke from the UK, along with HMS Vindictive which they have converted to an aircraft carrier.
Ah the good old Elbonia jokes. I still remember watching that Q&A on forgetton weapons when this first came up. Now everyone who does weapons it seems has answered.