Redbeard
Banned
Good point, especially the French.
They were cashstrapped enough before WWII, if they don't have to build ships because the Germans aren't building any ships either they would have a lot of money to spend on their army instead.
The French could then easily skip some of the next:
-Dunkerque (1935)
-Strassbourg (1936)
-Richelieu (1939)
-Jean Bart (1940)
The British considerations on the composition of the RN were not based on the European situation alone, in the end it was about defending the Empire against the worst threat – where ever that came from. If Germany abstains from building capital ships there still is a substantial threat from Italy and especially Japan. That leaves no room to reduce the number of active capital ships and so the KGV programme will be needed anyway to replace the R-class. But the race to have the first KGVs in service in time to meet Bismarck and Tirpitz will not be necessary, and the KGVs might end up short of some of the OTL initial technical troubles with turret turntables, safety interlocks etc.
The emergency programme to build destroyers and escorts will probably be needed anyway as in OTL, but if the Germans early on (pre war) build many more U-Boats than in OTL, it will show the British that the German rearmament is mainly directed against British interests. In OTL they could to a degree see the German naval rearmament as coupled to a ditto French – and take it easy.
The French in OTL built the Strasbourgs as a response to the pocket battleships, I guess we will see that again (pocket BB’s not in the PoD?). Otherwise the French naval rearmament was much coupled to the Italian ditto, certainly considering cruisers and destroyers. I think we need a significant Italian PoD to have the French cut seriously down on the naval programmes.
Regards
Steffen Redbeard