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I’m pretty new at naval history, but I’m quite puzzled why the British were so far behind others in battleship design by WWII. Their best battleship was the George V class that was badly outclassed by the much larger and newer American and Japanese designs. When HMS Vanguard was commissioned in 1946, it was much less powerful than the Bismarck which was built 6 years earlier. It’s guns were the old WWI guns used on the Revenge. Compared to the Bismarck, which was outclassed by the Iowa and Yamato, the Vanguard was inferior in guns, speed, and armor. The only thing in its advantage was modern radars.

It's understandable that the British didn’t build the best tanks of the war, but being left so far behind by all the major naval powers is surprising to me. So what happened?
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