The unbuilt F3 and F2 capital-ship designs connect interwar procurement choices with Rodney's failed interception of Gneisenau. The figures presented give F3 nine 15-inch/50 guns and about 28.5 to 29 knots, while F2 carried six of the same guns and could approach 30 knots. Those speeds were far above the historical Nelson class and close enough that a machinery-worn Gneisenau might not have escaped. The comparison is explicitly counterfactual because the Washington Naval Treaty produced a different British capital-ship program. This is a concrete example of how treaty-era design choices could shape wartime interception geometry two decades later.
Notable Point · 2:58:30-3:00:40
F2 and F3 designs show why interception speed mattered
Unbuilt British designs combined 15-inch guns with nearly 30-knot speed, suggesting how a faster Rodney-type ship might have caught Gneisenau.