Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Japanese Submarine Campaign of WW2 - Origins to Coral Sea" video.

  1.  @themanformerlyknownascomme777  your scenario might have happened. During the Washington conference, the UK was willing to accept an individual ship limit around 42,000 tons. An intellectually honest position, due to Hood. The US wanted 35,000, to keep costs down. At the first London conference, with the depression on, the UK was proposing lowering the tonnage limit well below 35,000, to constrain costs. The Dunkerques were built the size they were as a compromise: large enough to deal with the Panzerschiff, but lower cost than a treaty max ship. First London put a fleet tonnage limit on cruisers. While the USN continued to build 10,000 ton cruisers, the Admiralty looked at it's commitments. I recently reread "Fifty Ships That Saved The World", which said the Admiralty's assessment was that German surface raiders would be more of a threat than U-Boats, so wanted more cruisers. The Admiralty's decision was to build somewhat undersized cruisers, so they could have more cruisers, within the treaty's fleet tonnage limit. While a 42,000 ton limit was possible, what each country actually builds is a balance of what they can pay for, and how many ships they want, within the treaty's fleet tonnage limits. I am pretty confident that, whatever limits the US and UK agreed on, Germany and Italy would cheat by 6-7,000 tons, because that is small enough overage to get away with. The Yamato would have been what it was, as Japan had dropped out of the treaty system, so was unconstrained. What tipped off the US and UK that Yamato exceeded treaty limits was the amount of material being ordered for her. Intelligence like that is vague. Apparently, the US and UK thought Yamato would be somewhere in the mid 40,000 range, so negotiated the tonnage escalator appropriately. I suspect that, if Japan had opted to build Yamato at 45.000, the US and UK would not have twigged that she exceeded treaty limits in time to start work on the Iowas and Lions.
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