Renown is presented as arguably the best battlecruiser built to that point, raising the question of why Britain did not repeat the design. Courageous and Glorious instead sacrificed a main-battery turret for more 4-inch guns, leaving ships better described here as large light cruisers. Two additional Renown-class ships would have served the original combat requirement more effectively. Their later conversion into aircraft carriers gave them a useful second career, but it does not erase the weakness of the initial capital-ship choice. The speculative alternatives, two triple 15-inch turrets or a three-turret Renown, return to the underlying requirement: rapid wartime construction still had to produce a ship suited to its intended role.
Notable Point · 5:29-6:35
Renown and Courageous as competing wartime choices
The balanced Renown design and the lightly armed Courageous class reveal what Britain gave up in its wartime capital-ship choices.