Q&A · 4:50:22-4:57:30

How 1939 navies might exploit one Tier X battleship

One Tier X battleship in 1939 creates uneven pressures: Britain must counter two opponents, while Germany and Italy face docking and replication limits.

Question

What would happen if the major navies received one of their World of Warships Tier X battleships at the start of 1939?

Short answer

Britain would probably accelerate capital-ship construction, while Germany and Italy would struggle to reproduce their arrivals and every navy would face its own operational constraints.

Notes

The scenario gives the major navies one of the named World of Warships Tier X battleships in 1939. Britain faces the immediate problem of countering both the German and Italian arrivals with one Thunderer. A proposed response is to accelerate Lion and Temeraire and the first three King George V ships, potentially curtailing Anson and Howe. Another possibility is to reverse engineer Thunderer's 18-inch guns for a six-gun ship based on the King George V hull. Germany and Italy would want to employ their new ships but are judged unable to reproduce them, with docking and especially dry-docking capacity raising additional problems. Japan gains an extra Yamato but must find a crew, while Ohio gives the United States another powerful ship whose later location at the time of Pearl Harbor remains an open part of the scenario.