Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 1:10:13-1:10:40

County cruisers belonged to an early-1920s design generation

The original Counties should be compared with C-, D-, and E-class light cruisers and the Hawkins class, not with HMS London's later reconstruction.

C Class CruisersCounty Class CruisersDanae Class Light CruisersEmerald Class Light CruisersHawkins Class Heavy CruisersHMS London
Watch at this timeFull video guide
Question

Why did the County class not look like the modernized HMS London from the beginning?

Short answer

Because it was an early-1920s design whose real peers were the C-, D-, and E-class light cruisers and the Hawkins class, not London's much later refit.

Notes

A viewer asks why the County class did not look from the outset like the reconstructed HMS London. The ships were products of the early 1920s, before the later visual and structural vocabulary of the refit existed. Their meaningful design peers were the C-, D-, and E-class light cruisers and the Hawkins class. Judging the original hull against London's modernized appearance therefore reverses the chronology. The comparison places treaty-cruiser form within the generation of ships from which British designers were actually working.