Germany's L20 and the appeal of 16.5-inch guns

The L20 was Germany's much more direct answer to the Queen Elizabeth class in this interpretation, rather than the slower Bayern class. Its proposed 26-knot speed and eight 16.5-inch guns sought to meet British advantages in mobility, protection, and firepower with a single fast battleship. German expectations that Britain would make a similar jump turned gun size into an anticipatory arms-race decision. A speculative British counter-design follows: knowledge of German development may have encouraged a proposed sixth Queen Elizabeth-class ship armed with six 18-inch guns. The comparison combines a plausible German technical response with the intelligence-driven pressure to outguess the next capital ship.