British destroyer quantity as global strategy

The book describes interwar British destroyers as incremental designs, while German and Italian rivals built larger, more heavily armed ships that sometimes sacrificed seakeeping. The accompanying analysis adds a strategic reason to the familiar cost and political explanations: treaty tonnage had to produce enough viable hulls for a navy spread across several theaters. Twelve good destroyers could provide presence and relief cycles that eight exceptional ships could not. A larger force also reduced the chance that constant deployments would give an enemy temporary local superiority. Training, tactical skill, and luck could then turn numerical parity into operational success. Experience in Norway, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific is cited as evidence that this balance of quantity and capability was defensible.