![]() The Washington Treaty ensured that the RN could not replace many of its older battleships with ships comparable to those built by the IJN and USN in the late 1910s. D K Brown considered that Vanguard would stand up well to an Iowa - while Vanguard was more lightly armed and slower, she could stand up well to the 16in fire of the Iowa, while the comparatively lightly armoured Iowa would struggle.īritain did have trouble producing battleships in the 1930s this was down to the effects of the naval treaties, and to the decimation of the British armaments and shipyard industries that resulted from the naval cuts of the 1920s, and the Great Depression. Compared to Bismarck, Vanguard was more heavily armoured (a 14in belt and 6in deck against a 12.6in belt and 4.7in deck, with the British ship using superior steel and a more effective layout) and had a better secondary and light AA armament, in addition to Vanguard's better radar and fire control fit. Using already existing guns and turrets allowed for a much quicker production cycle. The Lions would have compared well to the Iowas or Yamatos, but needed a lot of expensive R&D work to produce their guns, while British industry was struggling to produce the turrets needed for them and the KGVs. Vanguard was a compromise design, intended as a quicker, cheaper design compared to the Lion class. The King George V class, while arguably undergunned, were still well armoured (their armour was thicker than any other battleship bar Yamato), and were used well during the war. Though slow, they were well protected and well armed, and could stand up well to any contemporary design. The two Nelsons were highly effective ships. These had thicker deck armour and a heavier dual-purpose secondary battery, making them highly useful ships for the WWII combat environment. More capable were the Queen Elizabeths, especially the heavily modernised Warspite, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth. They had been left un-modernised during the 1930s, and were in poor condition compared to the rest of the fleet as a result, they were only used in peripheral or secondary roles, and saw little combat. The Revenges were far from the best battleships available to the RN in 1939. ![]()
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