The superstructure created a natural break between machinery spaces and the magazines feeding the displaced turret. Turbine and gearing rooms were placed forward so that their heat remained as far from powder and shells as the layout allowed. Warming ammunition was undesirable for both safety and performance. The separation also formed part of the designers' contemporary fire-control solution. Rapid postwar improvements in fire-control technology help explain why later designs moved the turret again rather than treating this arrangement as final.
Notable Point · 6:34-8:22
Machinery heat, magazines, and evolving fire control
The unusual internal arrangement separates hot turbine and gearing rooms from ammunition while reflecting fire-control judgments that were still changing after the war.