A wartime study judged reduced aft coverage an acceptable risk, but that study does not fully explain the layout. Designers still debated fitting a single 4-inch gun behind the funnel, and accommodating it helped drive the wider-beam and raised-bridge changes. The heavy between-deck 4.5-inch mounts were expensive, complex, and unlike weapons normally installed in destroyers. Concentrating them forward was therefore a wartime compromise shaped by production reality as well as tactical preference.
Notable Point · 16:17-17:55
Why the main armament faced forward
The familiar explanation for the Battle class's forward-heavy armament was only part of the story; production and mount complexity mattered too.