London, August 10, 1943
The draftsman smiled. The sketch for the large fleet cruiser variant had been approved by his section chief. She would be 19,000 tons and heavily armed with ten eight inch automatic guns. The main battery would be in twin turrets that were almost as large as the American triples to accommodate the proposed machinery needed to fire heavy shells eight to ten times a minute out to the horizon for at least thirty minutes straight. Her secondary battery was the increasingly common 4.5 inch twin deck mount. The 5.25 was attractive for additional stopping power against torpedo attacks, but the simplicity, lighter weight, increased reliability and higher rates of fire as an anti-aircraft mount made the 4.5 the better choice. There were no seaplane facilities. This design was intended to escort fast carrier groups, aircraft would fly from the dedicated ships. The deck space and weight margin were taken up by twenty eight 40 millimeter barrels instead.
An hour later, the draftsman was back at his table. Two more variants of a large fleet cruiser were needed for the Admiralty to winnow down as planning for the 1945 and 1946 estimates was proceeding. Now he would be drawing up a sketch of a cruiser armed with 9.2 inch guns. He would assume that these guns would be available and would work. The only constraints were affordability and fit into a fairly broad array of drydocks scattered around the world.