depth and effectiveness of the ships' torpedo protection system, and almost of fuel oil were added to increase the ship's endurance. The beam increase meant that many of the Royal Navy home docking facilities, including Rosyth and Portsmouth, could no longer accommodate these ships. The requirement that 'A' turret had to be able to fire directly ahead at 0° elevation was rescinded as it radically reduced freeboard forward and caused the KGVs to take a lot of water over the bow in head seas. To partially compensate for the additional weight, the belt armour was reduced in thickness by to except over the magazines, and the aircraft and their facilities were removed. The space in the superstructure freed up by these changes was used to increase the light anti-aircraft armament to nine octuple and one quadruple 2-pounder mounts. The overall length of the Lion class increased to and the displacement grew to at standard load and at deep load. No changes were made to the propulsion machinery, but the speed decreased to because of the greater displacement. The of fuel increased their endurance to an estimated maximum of at a speed of 10 knots. The freeboard forward was increased by nearly , and the radar suite was increased to match that of the battleship , then under construction. Because the light cruiser lost all steam power when she struck a mine early in the war, two diesel generators were substituted for two turbo-generators. The extra beam was used to increase the depth of the torpedo protection system amidships from 13.25 ft to . The ships' crew was estimated at 1,750 officers and ratings. 1944 design The RN's Plans Division set a requirement for a dozen battleships for the post-war navy and the DNC began another design in February 1944 that would incorporate wartime lessons, but they soon concluded that "the power of modern weapons had increased so much that ever-increasing armour and torpedo protection was required until it became incompatible with the limited offensive power of the ship." The main armament was revised to an improved Mk IV version of the 16-inch gun in a new Mk III turret that fired a heavier shell at a marginally lower velocity, mounted in three triple turrets. They would also carry twelve twin QF Mk V guns as their secondary armament and one twin and ten sextuple Bofors mounts plus fifty 20 mm