Exercise aviators usually pursued carriers, cruisers, and capital ships because mock victories over prestigious targets brought the greatest recognition. That behavior encouraged planners to assume destroyers could accept lighter 4.7-inch mounts that elevated only to about 60 degrees rather than true high-angle dual-purpose weapons. Admiral Reginald Henderson pushed for more realistic testing, and the Royal Navy recognized the targeting problem by late 1938. By then, however, there was too little time to redesign and refit a fleet already juggling several attempts to adopt a universal gun. The case shows how a correctly run exercise can still produce misleading evidence when peacetime incentives differ from combat survival.
Chapter · 1:20:39-1:26:14
Exercise bias shaped the Tribal class's anti-aircraft tradeoffs
Interwar pilots chased prestigious ships in exercises, helping make the Tribals' limited-elevation 4.7-inch mounts look safer than they proved under wartime attack.