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The Revenge class had pushed the 12" triple turret armed battleship to the limit. The next jump would have to be to something bigger, better, faster. But how big? How much better? How much faster? While Panagaea had built the two Revenge class the Royal Navy had built eight battleships with 13.5", had another five under construction, and were in the process of laying down twelve more ships with 15" weapons. The Panagaean Navy decided that building ships with 13.5" or 14" guns would not cut it. The next ships would need to be armed with 15" or even 16" guns. The new ships would need to be the new hybrid fast battleship type. Every time the plans for the ships were refined, they got bigger. There was going to be a 10,000+ ton jump in size from the Revenge to the Repulse. The other question was whether to stick with triple turrets or go to twin turrets. The armouries advised that if they went with 15" then triple turrets could be produced. Triple 16" might be beyond the foundries at that time, but twin 16" would be of a similar size to the triple 15". So it was decided, a fast battleship of 26-27 knots, armed with eight 16" guns, and 13"-14" armoured belt. They were going to be huge.
And huge they were. A little digression. It is not just the size and number of the guns that dictate how big your ship is. It is how fast you want those guns to go. To get the Hood to go 32 knots with 8 x 15", required a 144,000shp powerplant. To contain that sized powerplant required a hull 860 feet long and a 40,000 ton displacement. If the RN could have accepted a 30 knot or even a 28 knot speed, Hood would have been a lot smaller. The Repulse was the biggest of the new generation of fast battleships. Going to the 16" guns and the 27 knot speed produced the biggest ships in the world for nearly three years. While other navies had 16" armed ships, the speeds for the ships were the same 'Fleet' speed as the other battleships 21-22 knots, so the size of those ships were a 100 feet and 6-8,000 tons smaller. It is not till the Hood and Nagato that the world catches up.
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Mid 1930's and it is the Repulse classes turn to go through a rebuild to bring the ships up to date. The superstructure between B and X turrets is removed and replaced with new units. While the superstructure is off, the old deck armour is removed and replaced with a new six inch covering. The powerplant was replaced at the same time with new uprated boilers and engines. The biggest changes were in the secondary and tertiary armaments where the new 4.5" dual purpose weapons system was fitted with five twin turrets on each broadside. The rest of the AA armament was the 2 pounder pom poms and 20mm H-S cannons. Aircraft handling facilities were fitted between the new funnels. Further refits mainly centered on improving the electronics systems.
1939 and the four Repulse class, the Formidable, and escorts were tasked with clearing the Pacific of Germanic States shipping. It is known that the Grosser Kurfurst has been in Japanese waters on a show the flag exercise. The Panagaean Navy would love to catch and dispatch that ship. The Grosser Kurfurst had to leave Japanese waters or risk being interned. There were no friendly ports for the Grosser Kurfurst this side of Germany. It was a long way from home. To get home the Grosser Kurfurst would need a stores ship and a tanker. Two such ships were available in the Indian Ocean where they were supporting the Friedrich Der Grosse. If it could get into the Indian Ocean and join the FDG then its chances of survival would increase tenfold. But first the GK had to sneak through one of the Straits of the East Indies. Admiral Kirk, commanding the Panagaean hunting force, knew all of this and also knew he would have to have ships in the Straits to at least have contact with the GK and know when it went through which Strait. Destroyers were dispatched to those Straits that the GK could get through. These included both British and Dutch warships, everyone wanted to be in at the kill. The Australis Navy had ships in the Indian Ocean hunting for the FDG. 'Contact'. The Dutch destroyer in the Lombok Strait yells to the world "German Battleship passing through the Lombok Strait at 01.53am, in contact". Admiral Kirks main force is stationed south of Java to cover the entrances to the Indian Ocean. He moves his force South-East on what he hopes will allow the searchers from his carrier to locate the GK. First light and the aircraft are flown off. Within 20 minutes two of the aircraft have reported the GK's position. The strike force is flown off. Admiral Kirk, on the bridge of the Victorious, is hoping the strike force does not sink the GK, only damages it, so that his four battleships can have some target practice. And so it proves, three bomb hits and one torpedo hit have slowed and hurt the GK but it is still a going concern. Admiral Kirk orders an interception course for his battleships and hoists "Chase" to the top of his signal mast for all to see. Off they go at 25 knots. 30 minutes and 'contact' is made by Victorious' radar office. 20 minutes later and it is all over. The Grosser Kurfurst is armoured to take damage from battleships, but not from 16" battleships. For Admiral Kirks four ships it really was target practice.
The four ships had busy wars, but the sinking of the Grosser Kurfurst was their only ship-to-ship action. They were mainly used as escorts to the big carriers and as shore bombardment vessels. Only the Courageous was lost in the war, sunk by Fritz-X glider bombs in 1943. The other three ended their careers at the breakers yards between 1946 and 1947.
