I got a promo from Amazon.com today, based of course on my previous purchases.

It included this statement: ** Although naval development before World War II focused on aircraft carriers, the British nevertheless had seventy battleships–larger and more powerful than ever before–under construction at the outbreak of the war. Indeed, one of the Allies’ first successes came in December 1939 when British ships hunted down and successfully engaged the German Graf Spee off the coast of South America. The war would hasten the battleship’s decline, but not before producing dramatic moments at sea. ***

1. Can any list member name all 70 battleships under construction at the outbreak of the war?

2. Failing that, what do you suppose this ignorant person really meant? I think some of the King George V class were under construction, and perhaps even some of the Lions, but I don’t know the exact number in September 1939. But were 70 warships, perhaps, under construction in the UK in September 1939? That seems possible.

The book Amazon is offering is: The Great Ships: British Battleships in World War II (Stackpole Military History Series) by the way.

— Jonathan Beard 820 West End Avenue, 3B New York, NY 10025 212-280-2798 jbeard@panix.com

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