An emergency class built at wartime speed

The M15 class provides a striking contrast with slower modern procurement. Britain ordered fourteen monitors in March 1915 and had the class built within a year, with individual ships entering service within weeks of launch. Specialised landing craft later covered parts of the fire-support role in the Second World War, but the First World War monitor programme remains the stronger example of rapid emergency output. The mixed machinery fitted across the class also shows how this pace depended on accepting wartime compromises.