Why wasnt the Tone main battery arranged like this?

Discussion

Proposed main battery arrangement

Original arrangement

Before anyone says anything, I noticed that these are triple turrets instead of the twins the Tone actually had, I just grabbed them off a Forum post and only noticed very late and since it doesnt affect the point Im making so Im sticking with them now.

Basically, what if number 3 and 4 turrets were both made facing forward by default with number 4 superfiring, essentially replicating the other pair of turrets?

There are several advantages this layout would have.

First is that all turrets have the same traverse angles and would go through the same motion if youre for some reason turning the turrets from port to starbord, and the rear pair of turrets would not have to rotate all the way around the rear to get on a target that would still be somewhere roughly out front...which takes a while given how slow these turrets are.

Second would be that the rear pair of turrets would get better firing angles forward due to especially number 3 turret being further back from number two turret, and getting more than the original +-155° traverse range. Not much, but it would help. For number 4 turret the difference would be slightly greater, though Im sure why it *also* has +-155° traverse range in the original arrangement, but either way, due to its placement relative to number 2 turret it could fire around said turret at a tighter angle still.

(Yes, I took the traverse range from War Thunder, but since plenty ships have different traverse ranges of just a few degrees modelled correctly, like the Shimakaze, I dont see a partiuclar reason to dig around. It still doesnt affect my point.)

And third, number 4 turret could actually fire forward right over number 2 turret as long as the range is such that it elevates right over, giving you a third turret against anything dead ahead.

And I dont see a single reason why this couldnt be done. Sure, the taller barbette would add slightly to displacement, but at 25mm armor thats probably tolerable, number 3 turret would be a little further aft including its barbette, ammo elevator and magazine, but nothing important gets in the way of that either, so all in all it could have been done.

Anyway, just naively posting this for discussion. Maybe Ill learn something.

Posted Jul 27, 2025, 4:02 PM UTC

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