1930's designed RN Gunboat

[tigercat]

If you were to design a Gunboat in the 1930's to replace the Insect class what would it look like?
Would you have a light and heavy gunboat ie: 6 inch versus 8 inch main weaponry .

With the 8 inch I suppose being the more modern  equivalent of a coastal battleship

[pyro-manic]

I'd probably stick with 6", as the higher rate of fire would be more useful than a heavier shell for the kind of duties a gunboat is used for. An 8" gun and mounting would also be rather heavy and affect stability and draught - the Insects were IIRC very shallow-running so that they could get a long way up-river. A pair of 6" (one each fore and aft), and lighter weapons for shorter ranged work - maybe some 3" guns as used on submarines and Pom-pom/Oerlikons for anti-aircraft? Maybe a pair of Molins 6-pdr mountings could be refitted during the war.

[Hardrada55]

Something like this.....?



Or maybe like this?  Paraguay 1931 Italian built gunboat.

[Joe C-P]

What is that first one? Real, almost-real, or whiff?

6" is big enough for a coastal/riverine vessel. A couple of those with some smaller guns - 3-4", 2-3 pounders, MGs, and how about some mortars? High angle fire might prove useful when passing near cliffs that are higher than the main guns can angle up.

Hmm. If I can just finish some of those armour kits I keep starting and leaving half-done, I could get back to my several part-built ships.

[NARSES2]

Photo of the Paraguyan gunboat is interesting - thanks  There is a small mention of these ships in the Osprey book on the Gran Chaco War and a couple of photos. Apparently they were mainly used in the transport role during that conflict and were still in service as barracks as late as 2010 (they may still be in use)

[rickshaw]

Something like this.....?

I've seen that one before.  Its a Russian whiff - a gun boat that was planned but never built IIRC in the 1930s.

[Old Wombat]

For a gunboat? ...

Dunno ...

Brown-water gunboat or green-water gunboat? ...

Given the (early-)1930's as a time-frame, I'd probably go with (one or two) 4.7" or 4" naval guns for direct-fire
& either (one or two) 3.7" (mountain) or 4.5" howitzers for indirect HE fire
+ various mountings for Lewis &/or Vickers guns.

A 4" & 3.7" armed boat is probably more of a river (brown-water) gunboat, I guess, & I'd give it a river-boat style hull
or I'd give a corvette style hull to a heavier (4.7" & 4.5") armed coastal (green-water) gunboat.
You can toss up whether you want steam-turbine or diesel engines.

PS: I guess I prefer the smaller gunboats with an indirect fire capability. When you get to 6"-plus weapons I can't help but think of them as monitors despite the historical fact that many British gunboats were armed with 6" guns.

Once you start going blue-water I can't see the point of anything smaller than a destroyer (or a 6" cruiser, if you want guns that big).

EDIT: Duh! Fixed idiot error - I says RN in the title!