Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 7:04:18-7:05:58

Eight Dutch dreadnoughts would reshape treaties and Far Eastern defense

Eight Dutch dreadnoughts would change treaty allowances before affecting the Pacific war, although eight was a proposed maximum and an uncertain final total.

DreadnoughtsDutch East IndiesImperial Japanese NavyLondon Naval TreatiesRoyal Netherlands NavyWashington Naval Treaty
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Question

How would eight Dutch 1913 dreadnoughts affect the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War?

Short answer

A fleet of eight would first alter treaty allowances, then probably operate after modernization with the free Dutch from Britain or the Far East.

Notes

A fleet of eight Dutch dreadnoughts would be too important for the Washington and London negotiations to ignore. In this counterfactual, France and Italy would seek eight capital ships, Japan would demand at least twelve, and Britain and the United States could return to allowances of twenty or more. The Dutch ships would probably need substantial modernization during the 1920s and 1930s. By the Second World War, they would be expected to operate with the free Dutch from Britain or the Far East, while a ship trapped in dry dock could be deliberately denied to an occupier. Eight is the maximum force discussed for the 1913 proposal, with an explicit caveat that the completed program probably would have been smaller.