JCRAY wrote:
Obviously, they would have decked the rear gun houses at the same time , unless you can think of some reason for them not to?
Thanks, John
Hi again, John!
When the ship left the yards after its winter 1938/39 refit and modifications, its planned duty to serve as royal yacht to Their Majesties had already been called off. As a result, several Several alterations (I believe these are described in the Raven & Roberts
British Battleships of World War Two book) that were to have been done --in plainly visible areas-- were not undertaken. One of these included wood planking to be laid down over the steel deck in an area of the upper aft superstructure. Another was to temporarily land one of
Repulse's triple 4-inch mountings.
Daylight aerial photographs of the ship were taken as she left the yards upon completion of the long refit and dry-docking, probably to undergo post-refit "contractors trials". In at least two of those aerial photographs, the ship is seen with a lashed-down boat stowed rather awkwardly abaft her starboard hangar, and a Swordfish floatplane parked a bit further to port in that area. Her decks appear to be somewhat cluttered, and there seems fewer visible crew out on deck than usual.
In addition, there appear to be no Red or White Ensigns visible at their respective staffs and yet, the triple 4-inch mounting that was to have been landed to permit a "sun deck" for the Royals is plainly in place, where it had been for more than 20 years. This mounting may never have been landed. All these clues suggest that
Repulse was not yet fully "RN" at the time she was photographed, firmly establishing the images as dating to a after her refit.
Most telling however, can be very clearly seen wood-covered decks most everywhere they should be, EXCEPT on both the aforementioned upper-aft superstructure and the new starboard deckhouse/gun deck. These areas stand in contrast (much darker) to the "brighter" wooden decking, especially in the immediate vicinity surrounding the new deck house on three sides.
Wherever horizontal surfaces should appear dark grey, aft of the ship's catapult break, they do--and where known to be planked in natural wood decking, those areas are consistently brighter. I do not have anything more definite, unfortunately, but what I have seen in these images does not support the presence of wood covering the starboard gun deck/royal apartments roof.
I am more than happy to be proven wrong, of course!
--Dan
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Danny DON'T "waterline"...!