Why modernized battleships made awkward command hubs

Later accounts describe battleship command facilities as cramped because old hulls accumulated fire-control equipment, armor, radar, radios, and other additions through repeated modernization. Each alteration introduced new spatial compromises instead of producing a clean headquarters layout. Amphibious operations then demanded more staff and communications equipment for coordinating action ashore. Heavy-gun blast and vibration threatened delicate radios, so operators crowded them into the spaces least affected by firing. Those locations were safer, but they were not immune. The resulting disorder was a retrofit problem in heavily altered gunships, not a simple shortage of empty volume.