Why the Royal Navy's fast fleet train shrank

Britain had developed fast fleet oilers, but wartime priorities converted many into landing-craft support ships before the Japanese threat became immediate. Its interwar concept also expected a fleet to advance between bases such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Weihaiwei, with slower tankers feeding those bases, rather than sustaining an American-style force across the open Pacific. The shortage visible in 1942 therefore reflected both a different strategic design and wartime conversion of the assets that had existed.