1930 and the major powers sit down in London to hash out another Naval Arms Limitation Treaty. The Japanese are there to see if they can right the wrongs that were done to them at the previous Washington Treaty talks. The Japanese are again marginalised by what they call the 'Occidental Warmongers' and refuse to sign or be bound by any further treaties. The gloves are off. While the Japanese intimated they would follow the spirit of the Treaty, they actually had no intention of ever doing so and laid down the first pair of the Yamato Class Battleships. If the other Major Powers had known how far the Japanese were going to stretch the limits, none would have built the 35,000 ton battleships. Only one class of 35,000 ton ships was built by each power, and putting it nicely, most cheated on the limit by 3-5,000 tons.



The three Antarctican ships grew about 3,500 tons during the building phase and added another thousand tons during acceptance trials. The rest of the 1930's the three ships spent their service in Battleship Division 1. Only minor upgrades were fitted with extra Dual purpose directors being fitted (the two on top of the hangar). Space for extra 20mm were found. From late 1938 onward, electronics began being added at an ever increasing rate. Radar started sprouting from every direction and by the end of 1941 the aircraft handling facilities were removed and the hangar broken up into more accommodation and offices. The biggest change in 1941 was the replacement of the 2 pounder gun system with the Bofors 40mm quad mountings.



The Baer class proved to be a durable battleship with good firepower, protection and speed. The Holy Trinity. The ships spent their war as escorts to the big aircraft carriers in the huge 'Attack Fleets' built around the carriers. All of the ships took damage in air attacks on the fleet from a torpedo hit to multiple bomb hits. The torpedo hit gave the Baer a six month stay in the dockyard for repairs. None of the three were lost during the war but all three had been discarded and scrapped by 1950. The Antarctican Navy had no time for ships that took such large crews and whose main armament had hardly fired a shot in anger in fifteen years.

 

Displacement	39,500 tons standard, 45,500 tons full load
Length	770 ft
Breadth	110 ft
Draught	29 ft
Machinery	4 shaft, steam turbines, 150,000shp
Speed	30 knots
Range	12000 miles at 12 knots
Armour	13" side, 6" deck, 13" turrets
Armament	As completed 9 x 16" (3x3) 18 x 5" (9x2) 72 x 2pd (9x8) 22 x 20mm (22x1)	1941 9 x 16" (3x3) 18 x 5" (9x2) 88 x 40mm (22x4) 12 x 20mm (12x1)
Aircraft	4	nil
Complement	1950-1980 as Flagship
Notes	Commodore Baer Commodore Evans Commodore Ushakov

Building the beasts - 16" guns under construction.