Main-gun magazines, shells, and propellant charges needed distance and insulation from boiler heat, adding weight and protected volume. Wartime magazine losses showed that explosives remained a caged danger when heat control failed. Concentrating the battery at one end avoided duplicating that separation on both sides of the machinery spaces. The Royal Navy expected its dockyard and building infrastructure to remain constrained until about 1928. A G3 shorter than Hood could therefore deliver much greater fighting power without rebuilding every facility needed to construct or support it.
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G3: magazines, machinery, and existing dockyards
The G3 design shows how grouping main turrets can save hull space, separate vulnerable magazines from boiler heat, and fit more combat power into existing British infrastructure.