HMS King George V was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War in all three major naval theatres of war, the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, as well as part of the British Home Fleet and Pacific Fleets. In May 1941, along with HMS Rodney, King George V was involved in the hunt for and pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck, eventually inflicting severe damage which led to the German vessel's sinking. On 1 May 1942 the destroyer HMS Punjabi sank after a collision with King George V in foggy conditions. King George V took part in Operation Husky and bombarded the island of Levanzo and the port of Trapani. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Duilio, to Malta. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific.

Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included her sister ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Her outfitting was completed in May 1938: she was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. At one point after construction had started, a plan had been approved to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets, but when it was realized that this would involve a lot of redesign, that plan was abandoned, and construction continued with the originally planned lower-calibre guns. The upgrade had been intended to be completed in the winter of 1940–41, but instead, due to the outbreak of World War II, that work was stopped.