readx; At the end of November 1940, the British Navy decided to extend the shutdown. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info According to the regulations of the Admiralty at the time, heavy ships that could not be completed by 43 years ago (except for the Avantgarde) would not be built in 41 years, but all the drawing and design work of the ships that had been delayed would have to be continued. In addition, it is planned to reconsider the construction plan of these heavy ships in September of this year in the light of the situation on the battlefield in the Atlantic and the relationship between the United States and the war.

Although the two Lion-class ships were discontinued (unfortunately, for some reason the British shipbuilding program was cancelled and ended up indefinitely, and finally did not escape the fate of being dismantled), the design improvements were still underway, and the wartime experience was constantly reflected in the design. The direction of improvement in 1940 revolved around the following:

1. In order to provide more effective underwater protection, it is necessary to appropriately increase the width of the hull, which has to make people complain a little about the arbitrariness of the cow. 2. The protection of the secondary gun is obviously insufficient, and it is necessary to increase anti-fragmentation armor, and it is a bit brainy to see a shortcoming. 3. Increasing the number of anti-aircraft guns and finding a location for them with a good firing range is actually increasing the number ... There's not so much space on the surface of a battleship for designers to squander.

4. Raising the bow freeboard height to improve seaworthiness is not right, it should be practicality as the main principle rather than patting the head and thinking of what is fine.

5. Increase the amount of crude oil carried to improve the endurance.

But things went back and forth, and by the end of 1941, work began on a new design for the Lion. The reason for this was that the designers would feed back into the design the problems reflected by the George V-class British warships in events such as the destruction of the Bismarck and the sinking of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. With the loss of the Prince of Wales and the Counter-Attack in December 1941, as well as a large number of overseas territories, the British felt that the number of capital ships was insufficient. Although the United States has entered the war, its main naval forces are concentrated in the Pacific side, and the unpredictability of the French Navy necessitates the restart of the construction of the Lion-class, so it feels like it has been rushed to the horse.

Throughout the new design, which lasted from September 1941 to January 1942, all the work of the designers revolved around overcoming the shortcomings of the original design. In particular, the Chief of Naval Operations noted: "The issue of the endurance of these warships should be seriously examined, and the problems of the K-G-V in this regard turned out to be unsatisfactory." Given that the Lion class would be used in the Pacific Ocean, he suggested that it be able to sail for 100 hours at 25 knots and maintain another 8 hours and 30 knots at full speed. Or 200 hours/16 knots and then 20 knots to have a 35% surplus.

So in January 1942, the original Lion prototype was designed with a lot of improvements by the designers and finally completed its final model, with the following performance:

New "Lion" performance data/1942 edition

The standard displacement of the modified warship: 42550 tons, the maximum full load displacement: 47650 tons, which is much smaller than the displacement of American and Japanese warships.

The new modification ship is still too small for the largest Yamato-class battleship, with a waterline length of 238 m (780 ft), a waterline width of 32.92 m (108 ft), and a draft of 9.20 m (30.17 ft).

Armament: 3 triple 406 mm (16 inch) 45 x diameter main guns, 8 twin 133 mm (5.25 inch) 50 x diameter secondary guns, 9 eight + 1 quadruple 40 mm 2-p-d-r "bang" gun, there is not much difference from before the modification, and the Iowa class battleships are too far behind, at least the Americans have worked ammunition under the same caliber.

Main armor belt thickness: 374 mm (14.71 in) / ammunition bay, 349 mm (13.73 in) / nacelle.

Horizontal armor thickness: 149 mm (5.88 in) / ammunition bay, 124 mm (4.90 in) / nacelle.

Shaft horsepower: 120000 / normal; /130000/overload.

Speed: 28.25 knots

Endurance: 16,500 nm/10 knots

Oil capacity: 4800 tons

The most noticeable difference from the performance figures of the 38-year design is the increased width and reduced broadside armor. The sinking of the Prince of Wales demonstrated the serious inadequacy of the George V class's defense under water, in particular, the excessively narrow hull, which resulted in a defect in the protection of the rear of the hull. Increasing the width to 108 feet alleviated this problem. But in order to avoid excessive changes in the weight as a whole, the designers were able to reduce the thickness of armor protection on the sides of the cabin. Another notable change is the increase in design range from 14,000 nautical miles to 16,500 nautical miles.

During the encirclement of Bismarck, the Rodney and George V nearly let the Bismarck escape due to lack of fuel. In view of the increasing threat from the air, the number of "Bang Bang" guns in the new design has also been increased from 48 to 76. To make way for space and weight, the carrier facilities were removed.

Witnessing the performance of the George V class in 1941-1942, the British abandoned the idea that the "A" turret needed to shoot forward at an angle of 0. The Lion's bow freeboard height has also been increased from 28.25 feet to 37.0 feet.

New additions to the design include radar equipment and shrapnel protection, but the biggest improvement is in the power generation system. Better contact systems are also available in the power generation sector. All of this is to prevent a recurrence of the Prince of Wales-style tragedy.

A total of 3 models of the main gun were developed for the Lion class of Great Britain. Compared to the M-A-R-K-I, which was armed with the M-A-R-K-I, the 16-inch gun developed for the Lion class was equipped with heavier shells compared to the M-A-R-K-I, which was armed with the Nelson-class battleships.

The first two were type M-A-R-K-II and M-A-R-K-III. The two 16-inch 45-diameter guns were essentially the same, except for structural differences in the breech. The navy ordered a total of 28 guns of two types. In the end, 5 doors (3-door M-A-R-K-II and 2-door M-A-R-K-III type) were produced. These guns were mainly used for muzzle velocity testing. Ballistic firing tests were not carried out. The projectile it was equipped with weighed 2375 pounds, and due to the limitations of the gun mount, the overall length of the shell was less than 73 inches. The design of the turret was developed from the 14-inch turret of the K-G-V.

In the course of the redesign of the Lion class before the end of the war, a new M-A-R-K-IV 16-inch/45-diameter gun was designed. The gun is capable of using smokeless gunpowder and has a minimum discharge velocity of 2450 ft/s. The design of the new turret is capable of firing shells up to 78 inches long. The new shell was estimated to weigh 2,540 pounds. However, all of the above is only in the design stage, and production has never started.

The Lion's eight-seater, two-packed, 5.25 ft./50 x diameter dual-purpose secondary guns are structurally identical to those of the George V class.

Short-range anti-aircraft artillery was armed with only 6 "Bang Bang" guns in the 38 program. In the design of 42 years, the aircraft and related equipment were canceled. So 4 additional "Bang Bang" guns were added (3 M-A-R-K-IV and 1 M-A-R-K-VII quadruple). The 0.5-inch machine gun, which appeared in earlier design schemes, was also canceled. In addition, the UP rocket artillery did not perform well in real combat with Bismarck. From then on removed from the scheme of the British active warships and designs. Of course, judging by the situation of the battleship Avantgarde, the Lion class, if completed, will eventually be armed with Bofors anti-aircraft guns.

In the early design phase, the Lion class will be equipped with two 21-inch quadruple torpedo tubes on deck. The military believed that torpedoes were very effective in close-range night battles---- and this idea did make sense before the gunsighting radar was put into real combat. After the sinking of the Hood, the British realized that the torpedoes exposed to the deck were a danger to the explosion, unless protection was applied with additional armor. This was unacceptable in the case of the later Lion-class design due to weight control problems, so it was only natural that the torpedo tubes that were later cancelled were also taken for granted.

From the very beginning of the design, there was also controversy over the issue of equipping the aircraft with reconnaissance aircraft, with some arguing that the battleship's aerial reconnaissance tasks should be carried out by coordinated battleships, and that considerable weight savings could be achieved by removing aviation facilities. In the 38-year program, the Lion class was equipped with only 2 seaplanes. As the air defense situation becomes more and more severe, the removal of aviation facilities in the center can provide a better position for anti-aircraft artillery. After the tragedy of the Prince of Wales, the British decided that the battleship would not go alone from the aircraft carrier. So in the design of 42 years, the aircraft facilities were removed.

The design performance of the protection system must meet the following three requirements: it can withstand the attack of 16-inch shells; Withstands an underwater explosion of 1,000 pounds of TNT; Withstands the onslaught of 1,000-pound armor-piercing shells dropped from 15,000 feet.

The broadside main armor of the Lion class continued the vertical arrangement of the K-G-V. It was 14.71 inches thick outside the ammunition compartment and 13.73 inches outside the cabin. The entire main armor belt is 433 feet long and runs from the front of the "A" turret base to the back of the "Y" turret base. The broadside main armor was 15 feet wide, which extended 6 feet below the waterline. The thickness also gradually decreases to 5.18 inches.