The 1932 fleet plan for Baltic and North Sea defence

Raeder's November 1932 programme called for one aircraft carrier, six cruisers, six destroyer flotillas, sixteen U-boats, and six battleships. Six flotillas meant roughly forty-eight destroyers in this estimate, although the planned flotilla size is uncertain. The force was meant to control Germany's Baltic and North Sea approaches against French aggression. Maintenance and refits would leave only part of that paper strength operational at any one time. The reduced force might defend the approaches, but it offered little capacity for offensive action against France. The absence of Panzerschiffe from the stated inventory also exposes a gap between the ships Raeder was building and the force structure he described.