Italy, Japan, and the United States have little immediate reason or political capacity to react, but France does. French gun and battleship programs are difficult to accelerate, making the Joffre-class carrier the most flexible response. Paired with Dunkerque and Strasbourg, it would form a fast hunting group able to cooperate with British carriers against surface raiders while also supporting French commitments in the Mediterranean and Far East. Carrier construction can therefore be the practical response to a battleship program.
Chapter · 54:44-1:03:43
France accelerates a fast raider-hunting force
German fast raiders make Joffre and the Dunkerque class more urgent as the core of a French carrier-and-capital-ship hunting group.