Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:27:21-2:28:07

Retained battlecruisers would support a three-fleet Royal Navy

Without treaty scrapping, older British capital ships would spend the interwar years on exercises, reviews, diplomacy, and overseas stations.

BattlecruisersFleet DeploymentInterwar PeriodNaval TreatiesRoyal Navy
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Question

What duties would surviving British battlecruisers perform without the interwar naval treaties?

Short answer

They would train, conduct diplomatic visits, serve on overseas stations, and help sustain separate Home, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean fleets.

Notes

The surviving ships would rotate through fleet training, imperial visits, and station duties. They could support Jellicoe's concept of distinct Home, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean fleets. The arrangement would spread more capital ships across Britain's principal commands. The counterfactual shows how treaty limits affected the Royal Navy's geographic organization as well as its raw ship count.