Q&A ยท 57:21-57:58

How cramped was the Crown Colony X-turret arrangement?

Edinburgh-pattern turrets gave crews room inside the mounting by crowding the smaller hull around it.

Question

How awkward was the X-turret arrangement on Crown Colony-class cruisers?

Short answer

The turret itself was roomy, but fitting the large Edinburgh-pattern mounting into the smaller hull badly crowded the surrounding spaces.

Notes

The Fiji and Ceylon groups were smaller than the Southampton subgroup yet received the larger Edinburgh-pattern triple six-inch mountings. Crews had useful room inside the turrets. Fitting those large mountings into the smaller hull crowded the surrounding spaces. The X-turret arrangement was tight because of that mismatch between turret size and the hull available.