Anglo-German Naval Treaty (1935)


Figure 1.-- Hitler was less interested in the navy than the army and air force. He thus interfered less. He left choices on naval armament primarily to the admirals. And they chose to use the limited available resources to build surface ships, especially batleships and battle cruisers. Relatvely limited resources were devoted to U-boats. 'Gneisenau' was a battle cruiser laid down at Kiel (1934). She was then redesigned. She was the second in the Scharnhorst class. When finally complete she displaced just under the Washington Naval Treaty limit of 35,000 tons (1936). The ship was completed (May 1938) and thus along with 'Scharnhorst' was operationakl when World War II broke out.

Hitler unilaterally abrogated the Versailles Treay when he announced both the creation of the Luftwaffe and the resumtion of conscription (1935). This could have resulted in war, but neither Britain and France had any desire for a new war. The British response was to negotiate a naval agreement with the NAZI Germany. The agreement allowed the NAZIs to begin a naval armaments program at their weakest point. Britain in the agreement ceeded the right of Germany to build U-boats. The Treaty of Versailles prohbited the Germans from building U-boats. British naval planners were convinced that ASDAC (SONAR) had rendered the submarine obsolete. In addition the U-boat threat had been so completely defeated in 1917 that Royal Navy experts were not concerned with a new U-boat threat. The treaty was a major victory for the NAZIS. The British agreed to levels of parity with the Germans. The Germans were allowed to build a surface fleet equal to 35 percent of the British surface fleet and 45 percent of British submarine fleet. As the Germans had virtually no navy at the time they could begin to build a substantial number of vessels without viloating the terms of the treaty. Of course Hitler reasoned that once the levels were reached, he could negotiate new limits or build in violation of the treaty. The Agreement freed the Germans to build both battleships and U-boats. Hitler was less interested in the navy than the army and air force. He thus interfered less. He left choices on naval armament primarily to the admirals. And they chose to use the limited available resources to build surface ships, especially batleships and battle cruisers. Relatively limited resources were devoted to U-boats.






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