The accession of Britain, largely against the will and in a rather unprepared state, in the war with Germany questioned the most promising projects in the field of shipbuilding, related with large artillery ships. The main victim, of course, were the battleships, but got the cruisers. At first, everything was still quite cheerful, the benefit of restricting constructors contractual limitations gone. In early 1940, the Admiralty began development of a new heavy cruiser with three treboradice towers and a displacement of about 15 thousand tons. It was assumed that such a ship can be effectively protected from fire by six-inch with 152-mm armor on the sides and 76 – 63-mm deck.
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