Reginald Henderson planned to give the D-class cruisers four twin 4.5-inch high-angle mountings, modern anti-aircraft control, and at least one quadruple Pom-Pom. The proposal might also have retained a reduced torpedo battery, producing something like a very large fleet destroyer. Work was expected to run from 1938 into 1942 or 1943, but Henderson's death and the outbreak of war disrupted the sequence. The programme shows how modernization depends on taking useful ships out of service before a crisis makes them indispensable. Its failure challenges peacetime rules that assume a capability will not be required for a fixed number of years.
Notable Point · 1:02:21-1:05:10
The D-class anti-aircraft conversion war interrupted
Plans to rebuild the D class as anti-aircraft cruisers show how a plausible modernization schedule can be overtaken by an enemy's timing.