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RN N3 Battleship design was for four ships each 48,500 tons 820 feet long 106 foot beam 9 x 18 inch 16 x 6 inch 6 x 4.7 inch dp. Speed 23.5 knots. Armour 15 inch belt, 8 inch deck 15 inch turrets. Would have launched 1925

G3 Battle Cruisers (in fact Fast Battleships in armour) four ships each 48,000 tons 856 feet long 106 feet beam 9 x 16 inch 16 x 6 inch 6 x 4.7 inch dp. Speed 32 knots. Armour 14 inch belt, 8 inch deck 14 inch turrets. Would have launched 1924

Formidable ships
Ted

Formidable ships indeed, sunk by the Washington Naval Treaties.

Had they been launched and were around in WW2 then presumably Hitler would have had his Z Plan battleships...... In reality these vessels would have been expensive white elephants in the face of air power. That would have been their nemesis.

Sorry, another double posting caused by broadband operating up to ten times slower than narrow band. Such is the supremacy of the new technology....

If Britain had her N3 ships and Hitler had his Z plan, what changes would Japan make to the already colossal Yamato?

And of course what would the Americans do?

Well you know that already , Lexington and Saratoga battlecruisers and the planned battleship classes for the 1920s , and Kaga and Akagi battleship and battlecruiser types, and both those nation's other paper designs for yet more super-super-super-dreadnoughts , 80,000 tonners with 20 inch guns , and other similar flights of fancy .

no wonder the worlds Finance ministries said " NO WAY CHUM ! " to their Admirals .

When I was in college, we had a naval wargaming group on campus. One of their continuing scenarios was The Great Banana War of 1928. It presumed that WW1 never occurred, so those alliances didn't take shape, and that the naval conferences of the 20s also didn't happen. The US ended up allied with Germany and one of the South American naval powers (Brazil?). In one of the battles of that "war", I was in command of battlecruisers Lexington and Constellation. Hood, Warspite, Repulse, and a cruiser were my very unfortunate opponents. We had a rule regarding turret hits on Brit capital ships because of the historic results of Jutland. Hood, Repulse, and Warspite were judged to have less than 200 combined survivors, and that cruiser made a very wrong turn and got herself obliterated.

I would have thought in such a war the German fleet would be in close collaboration with the Americans? How did that war end up?

Dont be suprised if Warspite takes on the whole German/American fleet by herself and survives
When the shooting stops and the dust settles, dont be suprised if its only her and Seydlitz left

Its the sort of thing she would do

But being serious, May I assume that France and Japan sides with Britain?

Gary, Japan siding with Britain and Germany yes, but surely not the French? I would have thought they would line up with the Americans?

US was aligned with Germany, Spain, Brazil, and at least one Scandanavian nation, as I recall (college for me was in the mid-80s, and I spent much of that time under multiple influences). France and England had Italy and at least one other South American nation (Argentina?).

When I left the school, the guy running the wargaming group said that the fleets were all pretty much battered, but the American and German fleets were in MUCH better shape than their opponents. The turret hit rule had really taken a toll among the Brits.

Politically its an odd alignment, I assume this was done as purely a wargaming excercise without reference as to how such a line up could occur in the first place.

That 'turret hit rule' for the RN ships is a huge generalisation, assuming you're refering to the BC disasters at Jutland (Queen Mary, Indefatigable and Invincible).
Historically the designs were sound for BCs, but the crew purposely removed the safety systems in order to increase rate of fire. Beatty ordered this on all his squadron. The rest of the British Fleet had all their safety systems intact.
I should point out that Warspite (and the others of the QE class, 5th Battle squadron) all went through exactly the same gauntlet as Beattys BCs and out the other side with only minor..ish damage and having given more than they got.
So, really that 'turret rule' you had should have been specific only to ships commanded by Beatty not the whole RN.
How would your 1928 Great Banana War have turned out then?

RF is right about the political alignment, it is wierd. Did you just roll a dice or something?

Warspite's crew would probably argue that her damage wasn't particularly "minorish".

Bgile wrote:Warspite's crew would probably argue that her damage wasn't particularly "minorish".

If I was there I wouldn't describe it as minor..ish either.
But she wasn't knocked out and she steamed home under her own steam, in other words she was functional.