The invasion requires more than completed hulls. Repaired ships move toward the operation, but the new battleships are still commissioning and have no assigned crews. Older battleships become candidates for scrapping, although scarce units in Southeast Asia remain because that theater still needs coverage. The crew pool must grow enough to man the approaching capital ships. Shipbuilding output becomes usable combat power only when hulls, personnel, repair status, and theater commitments align.
Notable Point · 28:37-33:08
Commissioning new capital ships through a crew bottleneck
Moving ships toward the French invasion exposes a personnel constraint: newly commissioned battleships cannot join the operation until crews are generated or released from older hulls.