Q&A · 2:33:52-2:39:15

Greek and Ottoman super-dreadnoughts in perspective

A regional arms-race answer shows how the same battleship program can be decisive locally and marginal against a much larger fleet.

Question

Were Greece's proposed Bretagne-type ships meant to counter Ottoman super-dreadnoughts, and how serious were those Ottoman ships to the Royal Navy?

Short answer

They made sense as a Greek answer to Ottoman capital ships, but the same Ottoman force was too small to challenge a Royal Navy that would soon field the Queen Elizabeth and Revenge classes in numbers.

Notes

The Greek ships were intended to answer the Ottoman super-dreadnoughts. In the eastern Mediterranean, that local comparison gives the proposed ships a clear strategic purpose. Against the Royal Navy, however, Ottoman ships with ten 13.5-inch guns would enter service beside a far larger British capital-ship force. By then Britain expected the Queen Elizabeths and probably the Revenge class as well, making the Ottoman addition important regionally but not a fleet-level threat to Britain.