HMS Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during World War II and commissioned after the war.
She was the only ship of her class and was the biggest, fastest and last of the Royal Navy's battleships, and the final battleship to be launched in the world.
Work on the ship's design commenced before the war because the Royal Navy anticipated being outnumbered by the combined
German and Japanese battleships in the early 1940s. The existing Lion-class battleship design was modified to suit Vanguard's main armament.
The British had enough guns and gun turrets in storage to allow one battleship to be built relatively quickly, but the work was started and stopped several times during the war.
Even after construction had begun, her design was revised several times to reflect war experience, and these changes prevented her from being completed during the war.