WI: Washington's Cherry Trees Completed

Delta Force

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The term Washington Cherry Tree refers to the capital ships that were axed under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. They include the following ships:


What if the ships had been completed, perhaps even under the Washington Naval Treaty? What kind of allowances might have been made for France and Italy to get them into a Treaty including the new capital ships?

Also, how does the world situation change if Washington's Cherry Trees are completed? Would the peace be retained better by the more modern fleets? How would the Cherry Trees perform in war?
 
Don't forget USS Washington, BB-47.

Some of the Japanese ships will be destroyed by earthquake. Some of the Lexingtons will probably be converted to carriers anyway. The British will build the G3s, but I'm not sure the N3s were anything beyond hypothetical case studies.

I don't see a role for the South Dakotas beyond the OTL role of the standards. I also don't see a role for the Japanese capital ships beyond the OTL role of Mutsu and Nagato. (That is, waiting for the decisive battle until they spontaneously combust or get sunk by carrier planes) The G3s would be useful against OTL WW2 capital ships like Bismark and Roma, but the growth of capital ships was regarded by the Washington and London treaties, so there's a decent chance they'll be outclassed in an ATL WW2.

The French and Italians built under treat limits until the mid 30s, at which point they began disregarding limits, so they will have fleets of similar composition as OTL.
 
Firstly, I will presume the Americans and British agree to allow another six ships; remember, paying for these ships would be the biggest problem. That gives Japan another tonnage for four more.

So that means the Americans can complete the USS Washington, and then get three Dakotas and two Lexingtons.

The British would be hard pushed to afford six more warships, if anything I would expect some or all of the Iron duke class to be kept with a replacement planned in the thirties (If this would happen is a different story) and then two or three G3s or another fast Battleship design

The Japanese finish the two Tosa's, and two Amagi's. That gives them a 8-6 fleet if you count older vessels.
 
paying for these ships would be the biggest problem.

The British could have afforded them, the guys on the warships1 forums have run the numbers several times. The USA could have afforded their planned builds too, but political support in congress would be the deciding factor. Japan however would be the one to struggle as their economy was stretched as it was.
 
I will presume the Americans and British agree to allow another six ships; remember, paying for these ships would be the biggest problem. That gives Japan another tonnage for four more.
Would you not try to keep to the 60% rather than 66% ?
Say 10/10/6 or 5/5/3 ?
Say RN gives a compromise that they get to build the 4 G3s larger and agree to keep an older ship as the 5th ?
That could give,
USN Washington and 4x South Dakota
RN Keep one older ship and 4x G3
IJN get 2x Tosa's and 1x Amagi

I don't think you need to worry about anybody else as nobody else had the money to build to the treaty limits in OTL.

The real problem I see with allowing the new ships is that they will render all the old ships very obsolete.

In OTL the 7 x 16" in existence made the old 14"/15" ships very vulnerable but at least you are only talking about a very small amount of powerful ships ( 7 out of USN18+RN22+IJN10+NM7+RM6 = 63 not including any of the obsolete ships owned by 3rd class none treaty powers)

In a world with the Cherry trees you get a much larger ratio than 7/63 say 20+/63 and that makes it much more important to keep replacing the old ships as the new ships are even more powerful.
 
so if the battleship race keeps going, will this leave the japanese with money for the carriers like otl?
 
The UK comes out ahead

The US can afford to build, but political will is lacking

The Uk can afford to build, have the political will, but WNT saved them from going thru with it and they spent it on cruiser commitments instead

Japan have the political will, but the Kanto earthquake brings them to a halt

The G3's will be a match for anything upto an Iowa, the Lexingtons as BC's...not so good
 
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