A later war would have given British shipyards the same additional time available to German naval construction. The resulting Royal Navy could have included four battle carriers, three strike carriers, HMS Unicorn, and two generations of fast battleships. Older unmodernized ships would have retired first, beginning with the R-class battleships and then unreconstructed capital ships, while major refits determined the fate of vessels such as Hood. Cruiser development might also have introduced a quadruple 6-inch turret. The counterfactual requires comparing both navies as they would have developed by the same date.
Notable Point · 18:22-20:18
The Royal Navy Germany would have faced in the mid-1940s
Delaying war to the mid-1940s would have allowed Britain to complete a carrier-centred modernisation rather than leaving German plans to confront the 1939 fleet.