Q&A · 3:54:53-3:56:37

How superfiring turrets could reshape British dreadnoughts

Replacing wing turrets with superfiring pairs could improve broadside weight and hull efficiency, but does not automatically upgrade every other feature.

Question

If British dreadnoughts through the Queen Elizabeth class used superfiring turrets, what other improvements might follow?

Short answer

They could gain a stronger broadside, cleaner internal layout, and slightly higher speed, but only if designers exploited the freed hull space deliberately.

Notes

Fore-and-aft superfiring arrangements could produce longer, narrower ships with a more efficient length-to-beam ratio. The suggested gain is roughly one knot for the same machinery, potentially turning a 21-knot fleet into a 22-knot fleet. A ten-gun British broadside would also challenge German hexagonal turret layouts that brought eight guns to bear. Removing wing turrets could improve the arrangement of boilers and fuel spaces, but those benefits would still require deliberate work on the rest of the design.