BRITAIN'S GIANT BATTLESHIP

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 98, 12 December 1944, Page 3

BRITAIN'S GIANT BATTLESHIP

• Officially at least the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz were said to be,of 35,000 tons displacement. Actually they may have been larger than that„ but .as they have, both been sunk their size is now immaterial. However, it has •been stated that the super-battle-ship just launched from a British shipbuilding yard "would dwarf and overshadow the Bismarck and the Tirpitz as the bettleship dwarfs the cruiser." If that is so then it must be gigantic, for even the largest cruiser looks comparatively small, even fragile, alongside a modern battleship. There have been reports that Japan had built some battleships in the 45,000-ton class, and the United States is said to have matched them with huge vessels, but the increased displacement may be due, at least in part, to heavier armour-plating and more massive construction, and not so much to greater size. The lost German battleships were reputed to be 792 feet in length, with a beam of 118 feet, and the craft that could dwarf them would indeed be a leviathan, says the Dominion.