Why the planned Norfolk class shrank to two ships

This opening sets the central problem: an intended sequence of County-class batches added up to roughly 24 cruisers, while the Royal and Royal Australian Navies took only 15. The Norfolk batch alone was supposed to contain five ships, but only Norfolk and Dorsetshire entered service. Even completing that batch without the later Yorks would have produced a materially larger heavy-cruiser force. The missing ships matter because each additional hull could cover trade routes, hunt surface raiders, or release another major warship for a different task.