Are Royal Navy ships today smaller since the World Wars?
Short answer, yes they are. Long answer, they’re smaller because modern navies have changed roles. During WW1, whoever had the most capital ships (Battleships and Battlecruisers) would pretty much win the engagement, crew training and build quality were nice bonuses but it was mostly numbers. The aircraft carrier was around in WW1, but they were hardly used atall. During the inter-war and the start of WW2, battleships were still the Queens of the seas but slowly that started to change. The British used aircraft carriers effectively against the Kriegsmarine (HMS Ark Royal was crucial in sinking the Bismarck) and the Regina Marina (3 or 4 Italian battleships were sunk in port at Taranto, Italy) and soon after the Pacific theatre opened up into a spammage of aircraft carriers. After WW2, the battleship was second fiddle to the carrier and the submarine was also catching up fast and by the Cold War, the threat from Russian subs forced the Royal Navy to become an almost purely anti submarin
