Q&A ยท 13:41-14:53

German coastal-defence ships instead of Deutschland-class raiders

An alternate German design path trades ocean-raiding reach for heavily armored ships tailored to Baltic operations.

Question

What would change if Weimar Germany built coastal-defence ships instead of the Deutschland class, including later procurement and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement?

Short answer

Germany would gain tough Baltic-focused ships but lose the long-range surface raiders used at the opening of World War II.

Notes

The counterfactual replaces Germany's long-range Deutschland-class ships with heavily armored coastal-defence vessels. An all-forward arrangement with six 11-inch guns is suggested as a way to concentrate protection and make the pocket-battleship label more literal. Such ships would give Germany useful forces for Baltic operations. They would also remove the long-range surface raiders available at the beginning of World War II. The reply concentrates on that operational tradeoff and does not develop a separate prediction for the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.