G3 Battlecruiser, HMS Indefatigale 1925-47
I am continually looking for ships that I can do an 'Alternate' set of drawings of. Depending on the ship this set of drawings can contain 3 or 4 different drawings charting the ships progress over its service career. The Indefatigable Class is such a set of 5 drawings.
The G3 Class design featured an all forward mounted armament. The ships were cancelled by the Washington Treaty in 1922. In the real world the material for the G3's was transferred into two new battleships, the Nelson and Rodney which were reduced 35,000 ton ships, compared to the G3's 48,000 ton design. Taking the G3 design I have rearranged the armament and layout to a traditional fore and aft design. Two triple 16" forward and one aft. For my scenario only two of the class are carried forward to complete as fast battleships, while the two uncompleted ships are finished as aircraft carriers. To balance these ships with the rest of the world, the Japanese are allowed to complete two Amagi class with guns and two as carriers. The US is allowed the same with the Lexington class, two as battlecruisers, two as carriers.
The following drawings are arranged in chronological order.
HMS Indefatigable as completed in 1925.
HMS Illustrious as completed 1928.
HMS Indomitable as refitted through to 1935.
HMS Inflexible as rebuilt 1938-1941.
HMS Indomitable as refitted through to 1941-42.
See Battle of Denmark Strait for an Alternative slant on that battle.