Capital-ship types can be understood as a spectrum running from conventional dreadnoughts through fast battleships to the more lightly protected battlecruiser designs. Belt thickness alone gives an incomplete picture: its depth and length, armour coverage and internal subdivision also affect protection and survivability. Gun calibre can mislead, as Scharnhorst's 11-inch battery reflected German engineering and political constraints. Drachinifel's classification puts Dunkerque just inside the battlecruiser category and Strasbourg just inside the battleship category, while Alex Clarke regards the overall design as a fast battleship and accepts that Dunkerque herself sits across the boundary. Earlier designs leading to the class had carried a battlecruiser designation before the final design received a different label. National terminology and later analytical systems can therefore place the same closely balanced design in different categories.
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How to place a fast capital ship between battleship and battlecruiser
Armour coverage, subdivision, firepower, and speed provide a more useful classification of fast capital ships than gun calibre or an official label alone.