Top Heavy RN?

Obi Wan Russell said:

Jackie Fisher has always been an inspiration to me, even though some of his ideas were flawed he dared to think them in the first place and carry them through to completion. If only he had been around another twenty to thirty years (he died in 1920) one can only imagine how different the RN would have been at the start of WW2.

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The Pre-WW II RN was a product of 2 things:
1.) The Washington Naval treaty
2.) Post WWI British financing

After WWI, the British economy went from a lender to a creditor nation. It simply did not have enough money to keep the 2 power standard. The Washington treaty was a god send in that it artificially kept the RN dominance.

IDonT said:

The Pre-WW II RN was a product of 2 things:
1.) The Washington Naval treaty
2.) Post WWI British financing

After WWI, the British economy went from a lender to a creditor nation. It simply did not have enough money to keep the 2 power standard. The Washington treaty was a god send in that it artificially kept the RN dominance.

Click to expand...

The RN was certainly struggling after WW1. Although numerically they had the largest fleet it was in danger of falling well behind both the USA and Japan in the qualitative capability of its battle fleet. At the time the Washington treaty was signed the USN had no fewer than 10 battleships and 6 battlecruisers under construction, all with 16" guns. Japan had 8 battleships including 4 with 18" guns and the rest with 16" guns and 8 battlecruisers with 16" guns. The new Japanese ships were also fast in the case of the battleships and well armoured in the case of the battlecruisers, so in some ways they were binging the two types together, a prelude to the fast battleships of WW2. The RN by comparison had 4 battlecruisers with 16' guns on order and 4 battleships with 18" guns projected, with some doubt as to whether they would actually be funded. Once these programs were complete the British battle fleet would have been outgunned by either the IJN or the USN.

Cheers