By the 1930s, the ships' eight-inch guns put them in the heavy-cruiser category, but their original arrangement was already tightly packed around speed and power. Later experience exposed the mismatch between the new label and the protection available. Unlike cruiser designs that could acquire additional armour, Duquesne had little spare space or weight within its crowded machinery-led arrangement. The treaty vocabulary changed faster than the physical design it described.
Chapter · 22:24-24:24
A light cruiser recast as a heavy cruiser
London Treaty categories turned Duquesne's eight-inch battery into a heavy-cruiser designation without creating room for the protection that role demanded.