Spain projected a third heavy cruiser but did not order or fund it. The three Almirante Cervera light cruisers, armed with six-inch guns, displaced 7,595 tons standard each. Alongside other six-inch cruisers, they left Canarias and Baleares as the navy's only eight-inch ships. A hypothetical arrangement would divide six light cruisers between two hunting groups, each led by one heavy cruiser. That suggestion assumes Spanish participation in the Second World War. Civil War losses had already reduced the heavy-cruiser pair to one before such a wartime force could have existed.
Notable Point · 11:52-14:18
Two heavy cruisers inside a six-inch cruiser navy
An unfunded third heavy cruiser left Spain with two eight-inch ships amid a larger force of six-inch cruisers.