Minotaur

Line drawing of "Design ZA" on which Minotaur is based.

Minotaur in World of Warships is not to be confused with the 1943 Minotaur-class cruisers, which were a modified version of the Crown Colony cruisers. The same goes for the Minotaur-class armoured cruisers from 1906.

The Minotaur in World of Warships is an interpretation by Wargaming of Design ZA from 1947, which was one of many design studies in the Minotaur series of light cruiser, following on from the earlier Neptune designs. The main feature of the Minotaur designs was the use of dual purpose 6-inch/50 Mk.V (152mm) and 3-inch/70 (76mm) guns of a new design. The 6-inch (152mm) gun was the same as proposed to be used on Neptune, however a new twin turret was used, designated as the 152 mm Mk.XXVI.

Design

In 1946, in response to a request for improved habitability a new series of cruisers were designed, which utilised the new two-gun 6-inch Mk.XXVI turrets. These designs were designated as different versions of Design Z, and when compared with Neptune in June 1946, Sketch D, one of four versions of Design Z proposed was selected for further development. 'Sketch D' had five of the new Mk.XXVI turrets, three super-firing forward, and two aft, and a secondary dual purpose battery of Sixteen 3-inch/70 guns, which eliminated the need for any smaller anti-aircraft guns. The machinery of Sketch D was provided in 4 combined boiler and engine rooms, and the standard displacement was 15,530 tons, while being 10ft shorter than Neptune, at 645ft (197 meters) long. Sketch D was further refined and became known as Design Z4C, and then Minotaur, to avoid confusion with the previous designs.

Designs ZA and ZB appeared in 1947, as a smaller alternative to the earlier Minotaur designs, which only offered a small improvement in terms of size and cost over the Neptune designs. ZA kept the same armament of the earlier designs, 5 twin turrets housing the dual purpose 152mm guns and 8 twin 3 inch (76mm) /70 calibre dual purpose guns, but on a smaller hull. The most visual change was 'B' turret being lowered to the deck level, no longer super-firing over 'A' turret. She was 616ft long (187.8m), with a standard displacement of 13,870t and 16,760t at full load. She kept the machinery layout of the earlier design 'Sketch D'. Design ZA achieved 770t of weight savings in the hull over Sketch D/Design Z4C, courtesy of being smaller in length. A proposed compliment was 1090 crew members.

Also first appearing in 1947 were versions of the design designated Design P, Q, R and S, with alternate versions called P1, Q1 and so on. These designs varied the armament and size of the proposed new cruisers, ranging between six and 10 6-inch guns, and up to 21,000 tons in displacement.

Six cruisers were planned to be built, potentially to a Minotaur design like ZA or Z4C, keeping the same names from the five planned Neptune cruisers; Neptune, Minotaur, Centurion, Edgar and Mars, while adding Bellerophon as a sixth ship. In mid-1947, it was projected that two cruisers could be laid down in 1951, 1952 and 1953. This was later revised to two cruisers by 1954, after a 5 year break in building ships larger than a frigate. However, due to the financial nature of the United Kingdom at the time, it became apparent that such cruisers wouldn't be completed for several years, and would be prohibitively expensive, so the cruisers were never laid down or ordered. The 6-inch (152mm) Mk.XXVI mount and 3 inch/70 (76mm) dual purpose guns proposed for the Minotaur designs were eventually used on the later Tiger class cruisers.

Historical Inaccuracies

• It is unlikely that twin mount 20mm Mk.V Oerlikons would be fitted to a ship that would most likely be completed in the 1950s. A more realistic light AA weapon for the ship would be 40mm Bofors, possibly the twin RP50 Mk.V 'Utility' or heavier Mk.II'STAAG' mounts amidships in the superstructure, and single 40mm Bofors Mk.VII or "Boffin" mounts on the open fore and aft decks.
• The design sketch for Design ZA features the early LRS-1 (Long Range Surface) fire director on the fore and aft superstructures, however in game a previous cruiser fire control director is present in both cases instead.
• The armour model of Minotaur differs in some regards to the design sketches, most prominently, the main belt is 101mm thick in game compared to 89mm as designed. This could be explained by the inclusion of backing plate in the thickness of the armour belt.