The Pennsylvania class answered Queen Elizabeth with twelve 14-inch guns, heavy armor, and about 21.4 knots, giving the United States a plausible firepower response without copying British speed. Germany's Bayern class remained closer to a conventional slow battleship, and only two were completed. In this interpretation, Queen Elizabeth broke the Anglo-German competition by forcing Germany toward a ship it could not build in comparable numbers. The ten Queen Elizabeth- and Revenge-class battleships together vastly outnumbered the two Bayerns. Queen Elizabeth won the race, while the eight-ship Revenge program advertised that victory through the Royal Navy's force structure.
Notable Point · 47:20-54:54
Pennsylvania, Bayern, and the Revenge-class answer
The immediate American, German, and British follow-ons reveal how Queen Elizabeth occupied several naval races at once and why the Revenge class advertised Britain's quantitative victory.