Rear Admiral Emil Felix von Bendemann's real advocacy of heavier battleship guns anchors the counterfactual in an option available to the Imperial German Navy. Tirpitz rejected that pressure because the existing naval law specified the programme and reopening it could provoke disagreement with the army. A different administrator had alternatives to explore rather than treating the rejection as inevitable. One ship could be cancelled or deferred so that the remaining money funded heavier armament in the current class. Some of the savings might also support the infrastructure needed to make the design practical. The example shows how procurement choices combine legislation, service politics, fleet numbers, weapons, and shore capacity.
Notable Point · 31:42-32:47
Bendemann's heavier guns reveal real fiscal options
A real German heavier-gun proposal shows how ship numbers, naval law, army relations, and infrastructure could be traded against one another.