Coulsdon Eagle
Monthly Donor
Motion thirded.
Would an extra Hood be useful. Two at Denmark Strait, or one with Force Z?
While probably useful and I am sure RN would appreciate her
A) maybe they'd prefer a KGV (or a Vanguard but Vanguard might not count) if they are getting another BB/BC
B) Even then they'd probably prefer an additional carrier to an additional BB/BC.
Last edited:
A second HMS Indomitable. Also built in 1937.
Impact?
There is no more armour available. At all. May as well make her and her sister with half the remaining armour each and have less guns to build them as 16ft upper hanger height. No vertical belt armour. Just upper hanger deck armour (2.5 inch) and flight deck armour (1 inch). add more deck armour and blister out extra torpedo protection layers, for stability, if permitted by treaty escalation clause, by 1938.
Even without alterations Indomitable was the best of a bad lot. Some 16ft hanger. Larger aircraft capacity.
@naraic If this accompanies HMS Glorious you get patrols that notice the capital ships headed their way.
Last edited:
I feel they would prefer a battleship early war but a carrier would do more work. Late war they would be thanking their lucky asb that their magic extra capital ship was a carrier.
Although if you happen to put a new magically appearing battleship escorting Glorious you get an extra carrier too.
I like that logic. I was going to suggest an extra Ark Royal myself, large aircraft capacity, spacious, good range, purpose built for Pacific Operations. If she survives the Med then as a centerpiece for the RN commitments to the Pacific late war I could see her being very useful.
But I do like your point. Maybe the RN gets a third Renown class battlecruiser? HMS Resistance? I would go for a sistership for Hood, but for me I prefer the lines of the Rs (my favorite battleships/battlecruisers go Tiger, Renown, Hood) and if rebuilt similar to HMS Queen Elizabeth then she could be a very capable little combat unit. Fresh out of refit in time to escort Glorious Resistance engaged the S&G in an inconclusive action, covering the retreat of Glorious and then being rescued by an airstrike by aircraft from Glorious that managed to damage Scharnhorst late in the day.
I'd give Britain a Colossus Class Light Fleet Carrier in September 1939. Why? Because it can be copied and have mass produced sisters rolling out of the civilian shipyards by the beginning of 1942. They could also possibly sell the US a licence on the design.
Ship for ship I prefer Ark Royal, but I like and concur with your thinking.
However if a Colossus class carrier appears out of the blue in 1939 will the British Government of the day and the Admiralty understand it significance and clone it tout suite?
Also does it come complete with it's 1944 air group?
Consider that in the first month of the war the RN lost Courageous and nearly lost Ark Royal and Argus and within a year had also lost Glorious. They know an emergency class of carrier has merit. Even if they don't lose any more carriers they still have the obsolete Eagle, Hermes and Argus that need replacing.
The Royal Navy had a number of incidents where a little extra force could have made a massive difference.
1. Escort Glorious (now +2 capital ships)
2. Replace Eagle in the Eastern Mediterranean (allowing Eagle to be freed up for other duties and Taranto be doubled up on) (now multiple extra Italian hits)
3. Hit a number of extra italian convoys for North Africa, more freedom for British Malta convoys (protect illustrious during operation excess
4. Have an extra search group looking for S&G during operation Berlin. Limit the damage done.
5. Place extra capital ships in the Denmark Strait and the UK Iceland gap. Save Hood (+3 capital ships).
6. An extra two carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean can cut the 19 ships lost and 22 damaged in Crete. In patricular Formidable which was hit by Germans planes as she retired to Alexandria with an exhausted airgroup. Even if the result of the battle doesn't change the losses to the Royal navy can be slashed. It might change the over all result too.
So the Royal Navy comes out of Crete with an extra three carriers in service (Glorious saved, Illustrious and Formidable kept out of repair yards) and 2 extra battleships or battlecruisers (magic additional battlecruiser/battleship and Hood).
Who knows what happens from here. Perhaps force z is saved or perhaps a larger force z is thrown away. The above is just an indication what an extra ship could do.
With those carriers spare you may see one escort force Z and as a result save two British capital ships.
Or not, given the aircraft they would have, and the likely reaction by Japan to news that Force Z has a Carrier Attached.
May be wishful thinking, but what would Japan have available to send out to to attack fZ that they didnt OTL?
They wouldn't have attacked force z when they did.
They either would have let force z steam on (further into Japanese air cover) till they could have covered with fighters or not attacked. That said I feel that a force Z with air cover wouldn't have gone so far north. If the Japanese deployment was the same as historical force z might have chewed up cruiser division 7 and retreated.
We also might see things happen so that the lighter carriers that were in the Philippines go to Malaya instead.
Or the Japanese could have waited for the Kido Butai to hit Pearl Harbour and then turn around and wipe out the British.
The other Japanese option would have been a 4 carrier pearl harbour sending 2 carriers to support Malaya and hunt force z.
Force Z was on its return leg when it was attacked. It was delayed by a false report of a landing further south than previously reported, but it was on its way back to Singapore.
Your correct.
I guess the airfleet in French indochina wouldn't have attacked at all.
Extra Bismarck class , Hindenburg ready by feb 1941
All 3 sisters ready by June 1941 and kept as “ fleet in being” typing up significant British and US battleships in north sea
If the RN has two Hoods, it can afford to send one in for modernization.