2nd and 3rd Class Battleships

In the 1933-1945 period, I would call newly built battleships and battlecruisers with 11in and 12in guns 3rd Class ships. IN the 1880's and 1890's, some countries were actually building such ships, although most were created through aging of new construction. In the later period, such ships were often the result of treaties. The 11in-gun German panzerschiffe were a way to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty drafters had envisioned coast defense battleships being built. They had not realized that German ingenuity, and cheating, would produce a much more capable design, although only at the low end of 3rd Class. Examples of 2nd or 3rd Class ships built or reconstructed were the following:

• Italian Conte de Cavour class and the Duilio class battleships through reconstruction
• French Dunkerque and Strasbourg
• German Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
• German Deutschland (later Lützow), Admiral Graf Spee, and Admiral Scheer
• US Alaska class

The German Panzerschiffe and the Alaska class are large cruisers that have large caliber guns. That is my justfication for designing 12in and 14in-gunned battleships for the 1937-1945 period. At a time when capital ships might be operating independently, with escorting ships, they are less likely to have to face the largest ships, and would not have to fight them in a line, Jutland-style.