Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 3:24:43-3:25:46

If Town-class cruisers carried sixteen 6-inch guns

Quadruple turrets would raise total barrel count but reduce individual-gun rate and could push later British cruisers toward different automation choices.

6-inch GunsCrown Colony Class CruisersNaval GunneryRoyal NavyTown Class Light Cruisers (1936)Turret DesignWorld War II
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Question

How would Town-class cruisers differ if built with sixteen 6-inch guns?

Short answer

Their roles would change little, but quadruple turrets would trade individual-gun rate for more barrels and might accelerate British work on automated gun handling.

Notes

Sixteen-gun Town-class cruisers would probably have performed much the same roles as their historical counterparts. Quadruple mountings would add barrels, though each gun would fire more slowly than in the chosen triple arrangement. The historical judgement was that the additional barrels did not compensate sufficiently for that reduction. A successful quadruple mounting could also give the three-turret Crown Colony cruisers twelve guns. Adopting it might influence later work on gun automation.