Arizona’s two aft turrets were salvaged in 1943 and installed in shore batteries, one of which was ready to fire by VJ Day. This was a waste. I could understand remounting the 8” turrets from Lexington and Saratoga in early 1942; there may still have been some concern about a Japanese attack, but that was no longer an issue after the battle of Midway. If there was felt to be a need to get the turrets back into the war, perhaps they.could have been put into a couple of monitors similar to the British ships. I’m not aware of shipbuilding facilities in Hawaii, but the ships could be built on the west coast (Kaiser?) and sent to Hawaii for installation of turrets.
Were the British monitors you mentioned blue water worthy? Or just able to be used in coastal settings?
Their combat use was in coastal waters, but they were capable of ocean transits; Terror went to Singapore and served there for much of the 1930s, and many of them operated in the Mediterranean. The largest carried twin 15" gun turrets weighing around 1000 tons, so they were fairly substantial ships. Slow though, no more than about 12 knots. Churchill mentions that when WWII broke out, it had been planned to send the monitor Erebus to South Africa for some reason. He asked the South African prime minister, Jan Smuts, if they could retain the ship in European waters, and Smuts agreed.
