Britain’s Last Battleships

Britain’s last generation of battleships emerged in the 1930s to the backdrop of a fading Empire. Industrial production had fallen sharply since the First World War, and Britain’s economic position was poor. These constraints shaped the nature of Britain’s last battleships - a continuum of designs that culminated in HMS Vanguard, completed after the war when a near-bankrupt Britain had to confront the reality of a lost empire.This short book, a monograph, explores the way that British designers responded to this challenging framework, revealing the context within which the decisions that shaped Britain’s last battleships were made.