[Sasebo vol 15] The Stylish New Battleship, Nanodesu

Sasebo Naval District Anthology, Volume 15, Chapter 4
Title: The Stylish New Battleship, Nanodesu.
Author: Charlie Nishinaka (https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=385342)
Original Dump: https://boards.fireden.net/a/thread/167134402/#167136488
Author known as einsatz gruppe
I might've translated this while drunk

Page 32
※ All data was verified by the editors. Supervisor: Kodaka Masatoshi
Tenryuu: Ladies!
Today we'll be introducing
a new shipgirl coming to our fleet!
DDs: Yay!

Tenryuu: Battleship Richelieu,
from France!
Richelieu: Bonjour.
Pleasure to meet you.♡

Inazuma: A French battleship, nanodesu!
Ikazuchi: First time I've seen one!
You strong!?
Akatsuki?: Are you strong!?

---

Page 33-34
Battleship Richelieu (Specs)
Commissioned: April 10, 1940
Displacement: 35,000 tons
Length: 247.9 m
Max Speed: 32 knots
Main battery: 2 x 380 mm/45 caliber quadruple mount

Inazuma: Hawawa
Tenryuu: They called Richelieu-san the strongest battleship in Europe at the time!
Ikazuchi: Ehhhh!?
Akatsuki: Really!?

Richelieu: Oh my.
You're being too kind...
(I can only give you candy, okay?)
Ikazuchi: Huh?
Something's off.
Richielieu: Eh?

Ikazuchi: Richelieu-san only has two turrets, all at the front!?
Inazuma: Ah!? You're right!
Ikazuchi: Why!?
[Richelieu: Two main turrets]
[Nagato: Four main turrets]
[Yamato: Three main turrets]

Inazuma: Why!?
Akatsuki: Isn't that weird!?
Hibiki: Why two main turrets!?
DDs: (Tell us!)
SFX: (Noise)

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Page 35
Tenryuu: That's cause
the key to becoming Europe's strongest battleship
is a diet!
Richelieu: Wha-
(A diet...?)

Ikazuchi: A diet!?
Hibiki: Tell us!
Inazuma: Please tell us more!
SFX: (Noise)

Richelieu: Asking a lady about her diet...
Tenryuu: Then I'll tell you!
SFX: Trip
Richelieu: Ehh!?

Tenryuu: You know about the Washington Naval Treaty, right?
Under the conditions of the treaty, newly-built battleships could not exceed 35,000 tons.
Ikazuchi: (Mhm.)
Akatsuki: (I see.)

Tenryuu: Neighboring countries
also built battleships following the treaty.

---

Page 36
Tenryuu: That's how Richelieu's battleship rivals,
Scharnhorst,
Vittorio Veneto, and more were born!
[Scharnhorst: 31,500 tons]
[Vittorio Veneto: nominally 35,000 tons; actually 41,000 tons]

Tenryuu: They had to build a battleship that could take on these rivals!
Akatsuki: (Ohhh!)
Ikazuchi: (Reallly?)
Tenryuu: That's what they expected Richelieu to do!

Tenryuu: The first step was to produce a powerful battleship under 35,000 tons!
That's how she was conceived!
Ikazuchi: What, what!?
Inazuma: How'd they do it!?

Tenryuu: The weight and number of Richelieu's turrets was slimmed down,
and the resulting savings in weight distributed to armor.
Inazuma: Eh!?
Wouldn't that make her weaker...?
[Richelieu: Two main turrets]
[Scharnhorst, Vittorio Veneto: Three main turrets]
[The weight of a battleship's guns is already comparable to the displacement of an entire destroyer, so any savings there are huge.]

---

Page 37
Tenryuu: She had less turrets,
but that doesn't mean she didn't have enough guns!
[Richelieu: 2 x 380 mm/45 caliber quadruple mount
8 guns]
[Scharnhorst: 3 x 28 cm/52 caliber triple mount]
[Vittorio Veneto: 3 x 360 mm/50 caliber triple mount]
[9 guns]
Ikazuchi: So that's the quadruple gun mount!

Tenryuu: This way,
they could lower their weight yet still face their rivals!

Ikazuchi: But, but,
if a good shot finds its mark,
wouldn't she lose 4 guns at once?

Tenryuu: She had countermeasures for such a worst-case situation!
Richelieu's turrets were divided right down the middle.
[The center is divided by armor!]
[Even if one side is hit, the other side can continue on]
SFX: Smoky
Tenryuu: Even if two of the guns were damaged, she'd still have the remaining half of the turret!
Ikazuchi: Really?
Inazuma: (That's reassuring nanodesu)

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Page 38
Tenryuu: She didn't just go on a diet.
In order to improve her speed, her hull had a fine design!
(Really slim!)
Richelieu: Oh my♡
Inazuma: (Thin, nanodesu.)
[Rivals were a little chubby
Scharnhorst, Vittorio Veneto]
[Richelieu was a little slim
Richelieu]

Tenryuu: As a result, her speed was comparable to the higher-power Scharnhorst's!
[Scharnhorst, 160,000 shp, 33 knots]
[Richelieu, 150,000 shp, 32 knots]
Tenryuu: Her cruising range is more than double Vittorio Veneto's too!
[Richelieu: 8500 nmi, 15,740 km]
[Vittorio Veneto: 3920 nmi, 6300 km]
Hibiki: (About the same distance as our battleships)

Tenryuu: For a 35,000 ton-class, Richelieu-san
had very high performance!
Richielieu: Oh my, you flatter me...
(I do, but♡)
Akatsuki: Woooow!

Ikazuchi: Who in our fleet has similar performance?
(Hey, hey)

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Page 39
Tenryuu: If I had to say...
it'd be the Nagato-class!
DDs: Ehhh!?

[Nagato:
Displacement: 39,000 tons
Length: 255 m
Beam: 35 m
Main battery: 4 x 41cm twin
Speed: 25 knots
Range: 8,650 nmi]
[Richelieu:
Displacement: 35,000 tons
Length: 247 m
Beam: 33 m
Main battery: 2 x 380 mm quadruple
Speed: 32 knots
Range: 8,500 nmi]
Richelieu: How is it? Incredible, right?
DD1: It's true....
DD2: So she's about the same as Nagato...

Tenryuu: You might say that
Nagato-san's a little on the heavy side?
(Although Nagato-san has the advantage in terms of defense)
Ikazuchi: That so...
Nagato: Hey!

Tenryuu: By the way, Richilieu-san did her best... but
she did have weaknesses!
Ikazuchi: Ehhh!? What were they?

---

Page 40
Richelieu: Eh!?
Tenryuu: For safety, guns of this period
hoisted up one load of shell and charge at a time.
[Nagato, Yamato, etc.
Raised one at a time]
Tenryuu: But to decrease weight,
Richlieu hoisted them like a mechanical pencil.
[Richelieu
In a pencil, lead refills from the rear
Cartridge eject
The turret is fully loaded internally]
* This appears to be called a pusher hoist

Ikazuchi: Eh!?
Isn't that dangerous?

Tenryuu: It is.
A shell could trigger sympathetic detonations within the turret...
Ikazuchi: Kyaaaa!
Tenryuu: Things would probably get pretty bad.

Tenryuu: Also, because of her thin design,
there wasn't much room for her engine compartments.
[Fuel Oil]
They tried to fill her in with fuel oil as a defensive material,
but liquids propagate shocks,
so that could result in damage spreading to other compartments.
(Dieting has problems of its own.)
RichelieU: (Stop it...!)

---

Page 41
Tenryuu: By the way,
building battleships without diets results...
Richelieu: (Huh!?)

Tenryuu: In this.

Tenryuu: The world's largest battleships!
Yamato-san and Musashi-san!
They weren't affected by any treaty,
so diets were useless
and ignored!
[Yamato/Length 263 m/Displacement 64,000 tons]
[Richelieu/Length 247 m/Displacement 35,000 tons]
[Her beam was quite wide]

Richelieu: Oh jeez, you guys!
Do you have no respect for the work others put into dieting!?
(You jerks!)
Yamato: (I apologize.)
Musashi: (Even if you put it like that...)
END