Alexander Clarke often speaks of Churchill's folly at the start of WWII where he suspended construction of capital ships to concentrate on escorts. Basically, the escorts had already been ordered, and his actions made no material difference as the capital ships were using different pools of resources and infrastructure.
What his decision did do was see the RN have to fight with fewer cruisers, carriers and battleships than they needed in 1941 to 1943.
Intriguing Alternative there.
How many might have completed earlier and how early?
Except Alexander Clarke only ever tells part of the story and muddles up events of 1939 with those of 1940, and wrongly attributes much to Churchill.
In mid-1939 the Admiralty formulated a plan for what it would do on the outbreak of war. This was implemented on 4th Sept, the day after Churchill returned as First Lord of the Admiralty.
So what was to be done in the Admiralty plan?
The KGVs were to be accelerated so far as possible.
The Lion & Temeraire were to proceed slowly (changed at the beginning of Oct to a 1 year suspension)
The 1939 Lions, Conqueror & Thunderer, would not be proceeded with (in Oct some work on guns and mountings was allowed to proceed)
The carrier programme would go ahead as planned ( Indefatigable ordered in June 1939 was laid down on 3 Nov)
The Fiji class cruisers Bermuda & Newfoundland would have the placement of their orders advanced from March 1940 (they were ordered on 4 Sept 1939. In late Sept / early Oct it was decided that two further Fijis ordered 1 Aug 1939 from Portsmouth & Devonport should be cancelled. Churchill seems to have had a hand in this last move).
4 more Dido class cruisers would be ordered (6 were ordered on 4 Sept 1939. At the same time it was decided to complete Scylla & Charybdis with 4.5" guns ordered for D class cruiser conversions which were cancelled as planned, in the hope that that pair could be completed earlier than planned. It is never explicitly stated but adding 2 Didos would utilise the 5.25" turrets already ordered for S & C that were subject to delay)
A new 'intermediate' destroyer was to be planned (the order for the 8 O class was placed on 4 Sept followed by an additional 8 P class on 2nd Oct).
20 more Hunts were to ordered (orders placed 4 Sept)
8 U class subs to be ordered. (In fact 12 were ordered on 4 Sept)
6 S class subs to be ordered. (None ordered and 4 planned in 1939 Programme cancelled before orders placed)
No T class had been planned in mid-1939, but as part of a rationalisation of the sub programme 7 were ordered in place of the S class.
30 Flower class were also planned (30+ ordered)
Many other smaller vessels like Bangor class minesweepers (10 ordered on 4 Sept)
1939 had already seen 20 Hunts and about 60 Flowers ordered before the outbreak of war.
Everything on the above list down to the Flowers were being built in the naval shipyards. So for example at John Brown on 4 Sept they lost Conqueror but still had DoY to build, Indefatigable to start, Fiji in build plus Bermuda to start, 2 N class in build, 2 Hunts in build with 2 more to start, as well as the depot ship Hecla.
Where the plans had to be rethought is in May / June 1940 with the German advance and the Fall of France changing the whole direction of the Battle of the Atlantic. So while Flowers were built mostly in smaller yards (except for H&W in Belfast which was building them 8 at a time) there were changes that affected the naval yards.
The following were suspended for periods of time.
Anson
Howe (work on her guns was authorised again in Sept 1940 and her hull in Dec)
Lion (never restarted)
Temeraire (never restarted)
Vanguard (still on paper order placed March 1941)
Indefatigable (But not Implacable. Work authorised to restart in Sept 1940)
3 Fijis
5 Didos (ships ordered 4 Sept 1939)
R class destroyers (ordered April 1940 but Q class ordered at the same time to continue. Work authorised to restart in Sept)
10 Black Swan class sloops (ordered 15 April. 6 were reordered as Hunts)
These were all in the big naval shipyards. But they were necessary to release labour for repairs to naval & merchant shipping. The winter of 1939/40 was very harsh and generated a lot of weather damage as well as action damage from the Norwegian & Dunkirk battles. Liners needed conversion to AMCs and troopships to transport men and material around the world (the Winston Special WS convoys to the Middle & Far East started sailing in June 1940). Something had to give as there was not enough labour resource to go around.
The suspensions to the 5 Didos and 3 Fijis allowed time for redesign in the light of war experience, greatly enhancing their AA capabilities.
There must remain some doubt as to whether or not additional cruisers could have been obtained in 1942 even without the suspensions. At Fairfield for example they had so much work in hand in 1941 that there were long periods of time when Implacable & Bellona could not be worked on. Orders for 2 R class destroyers had to be passed to John Brown down the river because they couldn't cope.
