> > Despite being a couple of the despised battlecruisers, they turned
out
> > to be very useful ships in WW2 as before the KGVs came along, they
and
> > the Hood were the only British capital ships which could keep up
with
> > the aircraft carriers.  They were certainly much better value in WW2
> > than the slow R-class battleships, built at the same time, which
were
> > never considered worth modernising.

> IIRC the Rs had such a low metacentric height thatthere was little
room for
> improvemenmts unless they could remove a lot of weight.  And they
needed
> more speed to be useful by 1940.

> > > Despite being a couple of the despised battlecruisers, they turned
> out
> > > to be very useful ships in WW2 as before the KGVs came along, they
> and
> > > the Hood were the only British capital ships which could keep up
> with
> > > the aircraft carriers.  They were certainly much better value in WW2
> > > than the slow R-class battleships, built at the same time, which
> were
> > > never considered worth modernising.

> > IIRC the Rs had such a low metacentric height thatthere was little
> room for
> > improvemenmts unless they could remove a lot of weight.  And they
> needed
> > more speed to be useful by 1940.

> They could no longer achieve their design speed of over 30 knots but
> could still manage 29 knots, IIRC, which was pretty good by capital
> ship standards.

>>I've seen the two R-class battlecruisers referred to in various places as
>>"Refit" and "Repair," but I've never actually seen any information about what,
>>exactly, was wrong with them? Aside from the inadequate armor protection when
>>built, what was wrong with Jackie Fisher's babies?

>Aside from the lack of armor, which required them to be in shipyards being
>re-armored much of time, they featured an obsolete and overly complex
>machinery plant, and clumsy and poorly located secondary batteries.  

> >Renown was ordered by the Admiralty, during the Bismark chase, to
> >engage the Bismarck only if King George V and Rodney were themselves
> >heavily engaged.

> What exactly does "heavily engaged" mean in this context? Since the
> Germans had a known force in the area (just the B himself) is the only
> possible meaning for this "If KGV and Rodney are losing then you get
> involved?"

> >Renown was ordered by the Admiralty, during the Bismark chase, to
> >engage the Bismarck only if King George V and Rodney were themselves
> >heavily engaged.

> What exactly does "heavily engaged" mean in this context? Since the
> Germans had a known force in the area (just the B himself) is the only
> possible meaning for this "If KGV and Rodney are losing then you get
> involved?"

>> When the HMCS Bonaventure came into Halifax for the last time ( as
>> a carrier anyway, she did sail the floowing year for a short cruise,
>> but only as a logistics ship. No aircraft along ), she steamed into
>> Bedford basin, which is a rather restricted area of water, and put
>> on full speed, and launched several S-2 Trackers from her one cat,
>> to commemorate her last time being able to do that.

> I believe the cat failed, which was why they circled the basin at full
> speed.  (The story goes that they washed several small craft ashore
> during that operation.)

> --
> Neill McKay, BScE, EIT, ASCSCE
> Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada