The Germans don't have many options for replacing their Pre Dreadnoughts and the Panzerschiffe were about the best they could do within (sort of) the restrictions placed upon them. There other options are more conventional Heavy Cruisers or full blown Coast Defence Battleships. Neither of those two options can really do what the Germans want.
Whitley mentions in German Capital ships one the Weimar Navy's considerations was the MN using the surviving
Dantons to force entry into the Baltic. They felt the French would not risk their dreadnoughts in such an effort, and the
Dantons would be the likely capital ships.
We explored a similar scenario when Warship Projects 3.0 was around and when Bob Henneman had is board on phpbbplanet. A repost is here:
Sometime ago (a couple of years at least) I remember a thread (which I think was on the Predread/BC forum) about the French venturing into the Baltic
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From a bang-for-the-Reichsmark, wouldn't a few more merchant cruisers had equal utility? But part of the deal with the Panzerschiffes was also to stick a PR thumb-in-the-eye of the Anglo-French leaders and a homefront PR win.
Had the Germans pushed more of the merchant cruiser building scheme, then would the Anglo-French navies probably push more for construction of light cruisers, within treaty limits?
The Panzerschiffes called for something bigger, heavier, and faster, at least from a preference standpoint by the Admiralties (Even with the OTL end result of the Graf Spee - that was a bit too close for comfort).
In a
guerre de course, armed merchant raiders can do real damage for a small navy on the strategic offensive, but surface warship raiders can relieve the pressure the larger navy on the strategic defensive can bring to bear. A merchant hull by nature is large, roomy, able to store provisions and supplies necessary for long raiding cruises. Usually too far out to sea to be concerned about destroyers, cruisers are their natural predators. Those same cruisers will always hunt a warship raider first. By its very nature, a warship is more dangerous to commerce, better armed, armored, faster, etc.
A program of merchants that could be converted to raiders, with appearances similar to the merchants of other nations' trading fleets, would be beneficial at least early in the war. But I still think surface warship raiders are a necessity. But they need not be panzarschiffe....
Regards all,