Personnel availability is time-sensitive: the Royal Navy could crew four additional ships in 1939-40 from a large reserve base more easily than after wartime expansion strained manpower. Their destroyer-caliber battery and steadier cruiser hull would make them especially threatening to S-boats and other torpedo craft attacking coastal convoys. They could also deploy with Tribal-class and other destroyers as heavier gun support. Early assignments might expose them to the same submarine and air threats that sank historical ships, so their cumulative benefit is possible rather than guaranteed. Even if crew demands made the conversions less attractive later, their early service could free modern cruisers for higher-priority work.
Notable Point · 1:04:02-1:06:14
Reserve crews and coastal-convoy firepower
The ships are most practical at the start of the war, when reserve manpower is available and their rapid-fire battery can protect coastal convoys from fast attack craft.