A pre-war Anglo-American naval balance turned on timing

Could the Royal Navy have defeated the US Navy in a pre-war surprise attack if wartime expansion never occurred?

Possibly into the early 1940s, because the American tonnage that later transformed the balance had yet to be built.

In this counterfactual, the Royal Navy launches a surprise attack on the US Navy in a world without the Second World War. Britain could probably have retained the advantage into the early 1940s because the United States had yet to build its enormous wartime tonnage. The comparison concerns pre-mobilisation fleets. Overwhelming American strength in 1945 cannot be projected backward into the scenario.