Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 35:32-35:54

Why the Royal Navy preferred three triple turrets

Three triple turrets divide the battery into smaller damage units than two quadruples, so one disabled mount costs a third rather than half of the guns.

N3 Class BattleshipsNaval SurvivabilityRoyal NavyShip Design
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Question

Why not use two quadruple turrets, as France later did with Dunkerque and Richelieu?

Short answer

The Royal Navy preferred triples, and three mounts limited the firepower lost with one disabled turret to a third instead of half.

Notes

The Royal Navy preferred triple turrets to quadruples at this stage. Three mounts divide the battery into smaller fractions, so losing one removes a third of the main armament. With two quadruples, a single disabled mount removes half. That difference favoured three separate mounts even when the total barrel counts were similar.