Supertest: British Tier X Premium Cruiser Gibraltar
4 min readHistorical background
In 1938, the Director of Naval Construction started working on a series of designs to counter the German Deutschland-class as well as the Japanese Chichibu-class.
The Chichibu-class was what the Allies believed to be an improved version of the Deutschland-class armed with 410 mm guns. It ended up being pure fantasy but scared the U.S.N. enough to start working on what would become the Alaska-class.
As for the British designs, multiple proposals were made with displacements ranging from 20 500 tons to 23 700 tons. As for the armament, the “weakest” design was armed with three triple turrets with 203 mm guns while the largest (Design I) was carrying three quadruple turrets with 234 mm guns.
In the end, none of these would be retained.
However, in 1939, as Winston Churchill returned as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty he almost immediately asked for a cruiser design to effectively fight the German Deutschland-class and Admiral Hipper-class. The DNC got back to work and since the restrictions of previous treaties had been abandoned, they simply went back to their previous designs and modified them. Design A was a modified version of Design I from 1938 with higher maximum speed but weaker armor protection.
In World of Warships, Gibraltar is based on Design A but with a much more modern approach. Her main battery can only fire AP shells similar to those of the British CLs and she also has the same Smoke Generator. The Repair Party remains the standard one though.

Ship’s preview
Ship’s commemorative flag
Camouflage
For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.
Modules
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery |
Gibraltar | Propulsion: 135 000 HP | Mk X mod. 1 | ![]() 234 mm/50 Mk X |
General Characteristics
Tier | X |
Health | 59 400 HP |
Torpedo Damage Reduction | 13 % |
Displacement | 27 017 tons |
Dimensions | |
Overall length | 220.4 m |
Beam | 28.84 m |
Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship) | 31.84 m |
Freeboard | 7.09 m |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 16.850 km |
234 mm/50 Mk X | 3 x 4 234 mm |
Secondary Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 7.300 km |
113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI | 6 x 2 113 mm |
Maximum speed | 32.0 knots |
Turning Circle Radius | 840 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 12.6 s |
Surface Detectability | 14.58 km |
Air Detectability | 9.26 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 9.49 km |
Main Armament
3 x 4 234 mm/50 Mk X | |
Maximum Firing Range | 16.850 km |
Reloading Time | 14.5 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 22.5 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 37° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 45° |
Sigma | 2.05 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 149 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | AP – 234 mm AP 6 CRH![]() |
Alpha Damage | 5 750 |
Projectile Speed | 841 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.36 |
Projectile Mass | 152 kg |
Projectile Krupp | 2 950 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.005 s |
Detonator threshold | 12 mm |
Ricochet Angles | 60° – 75° |
Secondary Armament
6 x 2 113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI | |
Maximum Firing Range | 7.300 km |
Reloading Time | 3.0 s |
Sigma | 1.0 sigma |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 113 mm HE Mk XVI![]() |
Alpha Damage | 1 600 |
Damage | 410 |
HE penetration | 19 mm |
Explosion Size | 0.36 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 7 % |
Projectile Speed | 746 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.333 |
Projectile Mass | 25 kg |
Anti-air Armament
6 x 2 113 mm/45 RP 41 Mk VI | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 5.8 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 31 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 126 |
Flak clouds number | 6 |
Flak cloud damage | 1 610 |
4 x 2 40 mm STAAG 7 x 6 40 mm Bofors Mk VI | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 95 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 333 |
10 x 2 20 mm Oerlikon Mk V | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 2.0 km |
Hit chance | 85 % |
Sector’s damage | 36 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 126 |
Consumables
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
Damage Control Party ![]() Cooldown: 60 s | Repair Party ![]() Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration: 0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 30% | Hydroacoustic Search ![]() Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km | Smoke Generator Number of charges: 3 Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 600 m Smoke duration: 96 s |
The Armor
Unlike the Goliath with a spaced armor, the citadel on Gibraltar is fully exposed.
External armor protection:
Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:
Citadel armor protection:
Turrets armor protection:
Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:
Personal Opinion
Right now, Gibraltar looks like a really spicy concept (though I generally hate anything related to smoke camping). Such AP shells coupled with the super-short fuse timer and low arming threshold are gonna be nuts although, there is one, non-neglectable problem.
Because the fuse is so short, it will be literally impossible the get citadels on ships with layered/spaced armor. The shells are guaranteed to detonate before reaching the citadel.
Another downside worth keeping in mind is that the ship doesn’t have torpedoes compared to the Goliath which could be troublesome in close-quarter engagements.
Thank you for reading this article!
Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our notifications to make sure that you don’t miss any future articles.
Have a good one and see you soon!
Imagine coming around a corner in a DD and you find yourself broadside to one of these at 3km. Every single shell is going to arm and fully penetrate you, ouch.
I have seen one nuke a DD 100% to 0% in 1 salvo, so i think they may possibly increase the fuse timers coz right now they seem a little too short.