The Swedish Odin class can be read as a proto-dreadnought even though it did not carry an all-big-gun battery. The design centered its fighting value on the heavy guns, with the secondary armament retained for the practical threat from torpedo boats. That arrangement matters because later dreadnoughts also needed smaller weapons despite the simplifying label of an all-big-gun ship. The example shows a smaller navy applying the same design logic to coastal defence before HMS Dreadnought made it famous. The ships also suggest that Sweden would not have been a simple German walkover.
Notable Point · 28:12-29:47
Sweden's Odin class as a proto-dreadnought
The Swedish Odin class anticipated dreadnought thinking by organizing a coastal-defence ship around its heavy guns while retaining smaller weapons against torpedo boats.