The Hasdrubal class were Greenland's answer to the 9.2" armed Invincible class. Like the rest of the world they had been taken in by the Royal Navy's subterfuge and the Hasdrubal did not look so good against the reality of the 12" Invincible. Not that the Hasdrubal was a bad ship it just never quite measured up to the bigger battlecruisers in other Navies and these three ships remained classed as Armoured Cruisers. The ships had been designed as the scouting force that would go ahead of the main fleet and scout out the enemy forces. Only four years later they were replaced by the faster Mago class cruisers in the scouting role. This started the ships down the slippery slope of lesser deployments for the class.
By 1920 only the Hasdrubal was still in its original 10" and 6" armament condition. Hercules had been used in the aircraft carrier trials, and Hydra had its single 6" replaced with twin 5.5". The Washington Treaty did not allow for these ships to be kept as cruisers, they would have to be included in the Capital Ship allowance. Greenland did not have enough allowance to do this, so all three ships needed to be reduced to miscellaneous vessels with reduced armaments and/or speed. The Hercules was fine and converted to a full aircraft carrier, going on to fame and fortune. The other two went to Training Ships for a few years, and when it was time to make some decisions on these ships futures, it was decided that wile they would have been very good to have joined the Hercules as small aircraft carriers, but they were now too old. Those two ships would follow the Royal Navy examples of converting old capital ships and cruisers into area defence vessels.
While only 7 years old, the Hercules was already obsolete. The technology of the time just skyrocketed. From 10" to 18" guns in less than ten years, the Hasdrubal class got left behind very quickly. The Hercules spent the last part of 1916 being stripped of all armaments and then having the funnels cut down, then laid down so that they hung over the sides, being welded back together so that the exhaust gases went out over the side of the ship. There was no two ways about it, the Hercules conversion was 'quick and dirty'. The gas axe and welding units were the most common tools as sheets of steel and tubing of all sizes were slapped together to prove the concept " wheeled aircraft can be operated at sea". Mid-1917 and the Hercules was at sea with land aircraft flying on and off, concept proved. In one stunt a Vimy twin engined bomber was landed on and took off, but that was with a very experienced pilot flying the bomber. The four Shacar and Hadad class ships would be converted before the Hercules received a full conversion, joining the fleet in 1929 as the fleets training carrier. See Hercules CVL.
Hasdrubal and Hydra started their upgrade refits in 1920 when the old bridge superstructure was removed and replaced with two new bridges from the cancelled Quadeshtu class ships. This gave a much better command and control area complete with a better gun director for the 10". The Hasdrubal joined the Hydra in 1923 with the single 6" being replaced with twin 5.5", these turrets also came from cancelled Quadeshtu class ships.
The last two Hasdrubal class were converted to Area Defence Vessels during the early 1930's when the ships were 20 years old. With Japan now against the Allied powers, the removal of the Japanese ships from the Allied order of battle meant that those ships needed to be replaced. A lot of ships that would normally have been scrapped were kept in service to fill minor roles and enable the full fleet ships to be free to concentrate on their Fleet duties. The conversion to ADV's started in 1932, this required the removal of all the armament in the aft part of the ship, 10", 5.5" torpedoes, all gone. The forward 5.5" were replaced with twin 5" dual purpose guns, 40mm and a few 15mm machine guns made up the rest of the new armament.
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The final version to be in service were the refits through to 1942. This was the final work done to the ships and it was decided they now had all they required to see out the war. This was mainly added electronics, another two 40mm mountings and the 15mm machine guns replaced with 20mm cannons. The aircraft carried varied as well. The Albatross floatplanes were the mainstay while a pair of floatplane fighters were included in the aircraft complement.
