KING GEORGE V-CLASS BATTLESHIPS

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Details the story of Britain's King George V-class battleships from conception and design through their operational history.

After WWI, the major naval powers agreed to restricting the construction of capital ships and limiting the numbers that signatories were allowed to maintain, so numerous ships were scrapped or disposed of and the majority of planned vessel were either canceled whilst being built or never laid down. By the late 1920s the Royal Navy's battle force comprised of the two Nelson-class ships, the battlecruisers Hood, Renown and Repulse, and Revenge and Queen Elizabeth-class ships, all designed before the First World War.

In 1928, the Royal Navy began planning a new class of battleships which was put on hold with the signing of the Treaty of London. In 1935, realizing its battle fleet was becoming dated as other nations laid down new classes of battleships, the Royal Navy recommenced planning capital ships within treaty limitations. The result was the King George V-class battleships.

Regarded by some as the worst new-generation battleships in WWII, the King George V-class were Britain's most modern battleships during the conflict and saw action in some of the most famous engagements -- from the sinking of the Bismarck in 1941 to the surrender of Japan in 1945.