Treaty limits and the Nelson-class choice

Nelson and Rodney combined heavy armour and firepower with speed too low for an era of faster opponents. The Washington Treaty still left Britain a choice: battlecruiser-level protection would have freed tonnage for more machinery while retaining heavy guns. A fast design armed with 15- or 16-inch guns might have been more useful in the Second World War because it could pursue threats and respond across a wider area. The comparison exposes the operational cost of maximizing protection and gun power within treaty tonnage. Treaty design was therefore a force-employment choice as well as a tonnage problem.