The campaign finances its current wars partly through ship sales while new construction remains constrained. Surviving West Virginia-class vessels are then scrapped even though they are already in the operational area. Their military value is outweighed by the crews they can release for ships suffering personnel shortages. The freed capacity supports a wider redistribution in which Illinois-class battleships move across the Atlantic and other ships head toward Spanish possessions in Southeast Asia.
Notable Point · 2:58:15-3:00:33
Scrapping obsolete ships to release trained crews
Older hulls are sacrificed to free crews and money for more capable ships needed in distant theatres.