Britain was approaching an autoloading 4.5-inch mount before the war

Could the Royal Navy have fielded an autoloader for its 4.5-inch guns before the Second World War?

It could have approached one with the developing 4.5-inch UD mount, though not a modern fully automatic system.

The technology was not yet equivalent to a modern fully automatic gun mount. British development was nevertheless moving toward mechanized ammunition handling and a high sustained rate of fire. The dual-purpose 4.5-inch UD mount later associated with the Daring class was already under development before the Second World War. Relaxing weight and space limits could therefore bring an autoloader-like installation forward, even if its machinery remained partly human-operated by modern standards.