By February 1938 it appeared increasingly likely that the Second London Treaty’s tonnage related escalator clause will be activated soon due to Japan’s unwillingness to answer questions on its new battleship’s displacement. If the previous 35kton designs were more in line with the US North Carolina and South Dakota classes than the following ones were…

Great Britain tried very hard for many years to keep the 35.000 ton limit set by the Washington Treaty as long as possible. They committed first to building new ships after the expiration of the building holiday and came up with the King George V class. To get the ships into service at the earliest…