The construction pause mattered more because Britain entered the Second World War with many capital ships that had already served through the First. Wartime steaming and damage imposed wear before the additional two decades of peacetime service. Refitting those hulls therefore required more investigation and repair than modernizing a younger ship with a superficially similar design. This burden is contrasted with newer American battleships and Italy's major reconstructions of the Conte di Cavour class. Britain also needed new carriers because several existing ships were old conversions. The result was a fleet-replacement problem that could not be solved simply by comparing how many named refits each navy completed.
Notable Point · 1:52:34-1:55:13
Why Britain's old battle fleet was expensive to modernize
First World War service and two decades of ageing made British capital ships harder to refit just as Italy was modernizing its own battle fleet.