In early 1938 the british admiralty got information, the japanese were building a new class of battleships, superior to any existing warship on earth. The german Z-plan began to spit out masses of ships with a clear proposal: defeat of the Royal Navy. Rumors of german H-class-successors and giantic battleships made Admiral Tovey order design plans for an ship that should be as superior to any existing or planned ships as the Dreadnought once was.
What came out was a 359m long and 135000 tons weighting monster. 12 20"- and 16 14"-guns where to give here an overwhelming firepower. 24 5.25" DPs and masses of pompoms gave her an effective airshield. Her main armorbelt was 20.9" strong the lower still 9". Her engines produced 275000 hp that gave her a top speed of 29 kn. (come on, masters of springsharp...) Despite the building costs of 38 mio. pound sterling (more than the whole KGV-class) per unit two were ordered after chosing the best blueprint.
The keel of HMS Superb was layed jan.1939, a second one followed feb.1939. The hull was 30% ready, when war broke out, work was stopped. In 1940 after the armistice building went on. Reports had shown, the frightened Yamato-class was definitly inferior to the Superb-class. H-class, Iowa-class and whatever was no match for the new so called ultradreadnought.
Launch of HMS Superb was in 1943, followed by two years of outfitting. Commissioning was in April 1945, her sistership HMS Conqueror only two weeks later.
And now it's to you: what is the fate of the two ships in KM46? Make your suggestions (PN please), I will post the best one.
The ship is evolved from an oversized Nelson-drawing. I made it fit into SB-style (was more work than drawing a new one, but was fun). Then equipped it with details from KGV.