Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 38:39-38:57

Would Britain keep building battlecruisers without the Washington Treaty?

The brief answer uses the actual design sequence to show that British confidence in the battlecruiser survived Jutland and would have shaped the immediate postwar program.

BattlecruisersG3 Class BattlecruisersNaval ProcurementRoyal NavyWashington Naval Treaty
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Question

Without the Washington Naval Treaty, would the Royal Navy have shifted from battleships toward battlecruisers?

Short answer

It would certainly have continued building battlecruisers for a time, with Renown, the Admiral class, and G3 forming three successive fast-capital-ship classes.

Notes

Battlecruiser construction would have continued at least through the immediate postwar sequence. Renown and Repulse were followed by the Admiral class, and G3 was the next ordered fast-capital-ship design. Three successive classes show that the Royal Navy had not accepted the simple claim that Jutland made the type obsolete. The answer does not mean Britain would abandon battleships, because the G3 program is also paired here with the heavily armed N3. It instead identifies the fast ship as a continuing and deliberate part of a mixed capital-ship force.