17 - King George V

At the beginning of the 1930s Britain was obliged not to build new battleships due to signed naval treaties. Standard displacement for any new battleship was limited to 35,000 tons with the caliber of main armament not exceeding 406 millimetres.

Britain was trying to impose the next treaty decreasing guns caliber even further to 356 mm.

Five King George V-class battleships eventually were armed with guns of such caliber.

Standard displacement limits compelled placing main guns in three separate turrets with two of them carrying four cannons each. King George V-class entered service in 1940. Out of the five battleships of this class ever built one was sunk (HMS Prince of Wales) while the other four survived the war and were scrapped in the 1950s.

This book by Witold Koszela starts with the set of perfectly made detailed line drawings/scale plans of all King George V-class vessels.