Obsolete 13.5-inch shells survived for decades in storage

When did the Royal Navy dispose of its 13.5-inch shells?

They were theoretically obsolete before the war, yet a substantial stock was still sitting in a Ministry of Defence warehouse in the 1960s.

In theory the Royal Navy no longer needed 13.5-inch shells after Tiger and the last weapons using them disappeared. In practice a surveyor still encountered a warehouse full of the unmistakably large rounds in the 1960s. The story illustrates the gap between an official disposal decision and the physical clearance of a dispersed military inventory. It also explains why inherited stores can create safety, accounting, and infrastructure work long after their ships are gone.