British hybrid battleships: projects and proposals

00-PureEvil-00

00-PureEvil-00

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What do I have on this topic currently:
1) George Thurston's designs published in 1923 and 1926 Brassey's Naval Annual (source: https://stefsap.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/royal-navys-hybrid-bbcv-designs-by-thurston/ )
2) A few proposals to build such warships dated 1940-1942 (found here: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...were-designs-and-proposals.35123/#post-412423 . Yes, I too was surprised to find it in a French-centered thread). Alas, not much info here.
3) Lion-class conversion (probably a misinterpretation of one of the proposals above). Again, not much info about this (aside from (probably somewhat speculative) characteristics from Tzoli's mega-table).
4) This bit of weirdness from Popular Mechanics: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/1943-british-battleship-aircraft-carrier-concept.33470/

Now, I'm looking for some more information about proposals mentioned in French carrier thread (point 2 in my list), and Lion-class conversion (if it was, indeed, a separate project). I will be very grateful if someone would help me with these. And of course, if you know about projects or proposals not present in my list, feel free to post them here.
 
'Neither Fish nor Fowl'...

Snag is that can carry neither sufficient air-wing to attack a 'Grand Fleet' ship without deploying nukes, nor have enough armour to go in 'Harms Way'. Plus, even with the RN carrier preference for armoured flight deck, the 'air-wing' part is horribly, horribly vulnerable to conventional or nuke-blast damage.

Bit like 'turret fighters', excellent for the tactics of eg 'Spanish Civil War', obsolete scant few years later...

As against that, if one or two built during the late 30s, would have made a fair escort for Atlantic convoys. Just enough air-wing to maintain a CAP, be Condor-bane, spot and strafe surfaced U-Boots. Just enough big-gun power to deter commerce raiders...
 
Nik said:
'Neither Fish nor Fowl'...

Snag is that can carry neither sufficient air-wing to attack a 'Grand Fleet' ship without deploying nukes, nor have enough armour to go in 'Harms Way'. Plus, even with the RN carrier preference for armoured flight deck, the 'air-wing' part is horribly, horribly vulnerable to conventional or nuke-blast damage.

Bit like 'turret fighters', excellent for the tactics of eg 'Spanish Civil War', obsolete scant few years later...

As against that, if one or two built during the late 30s, would have made a fair escort for Atlantic convoys. Just enough air-wing to maintain a CAP, be Condor-bane, spot and strafe surfaced U-Boots. Just enough big-gun power to deter commerce raiders...
Click to expand...
That makes sense, although cruiser or battleship guns may be overkill. But then, I imagine the excort would want the surface raiders to keep their distance. Getting in a gunfight with several thousand gallons of aviation fuel on board is unappealing.
 
Nik said:
As against that, if one or two built during the late 30s, would have made a fair escort for Atlantic convoys. Just enough air-wing to maintain a CAP, be Condor-bane, spot and strafe surfaced U-Boots. Just enough big-gun power to deter commerce raiders...
Click to expand...
I think that's the ideal use-case, as convoy escorts.

Plus they could take a few Torpedo bombers and/or dive bombers with them to ruin any lone raider's day.
 
Not much, Friedman mentions in passing sentences that such conversion was considered when they were under construction but the expected air-group was considered too small for such large sized carriers compared to the ones under construction (Illustrious/Indomitable and Implacable). More info was likely in the respective ship covers or RN emergency war-plan discussion papers.
 

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