A treaty battleship was a battleship built in the 1920s or 1930s under the terms of one of a number of international treaties governing warship construction. Many of these ships played an active role in the Second World War, but few survived long after it.
The first of the treaties was the Washington Naval Treaty signed in 1922, the world's five naval powers agreed to abide by strict restrictions on the construction of battleships and battlecruisers, in order to prevent an arms race in naval construction such as preceded World War I. The Treaty limited the number of capital ships possessed by each signatory, and also the total tonnage of each navy's battleships. New ships could only be constructed to replace the surviving ships as they retired after 20 years' service. Furthermore, any new ship would be limited to guns of 16-inch caliber and a displacement of 35,000 tons.
The Washington Treaty limits were extended and modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. During the 1930s, however, the effectiveness of these agreements broke down, as some signatory powers (in particular Japan) withdrew from the treaty arrangements and others only paid lip service to them. By 1938, Britain and the USA had both invoked an 'escalator clause' in the Second London Treaty which allowed battleships of up to 45,000 tons displacement, and the Treaty was effectively defunct.
The strict limits on displacement forced the designers of battleships to make compromises which they might have wished to avoid given the choice. The 1920s and 1930s saw a number of innovations in battleship design, particularly in engines, underwater protection, and aircraft.
After World War I ended in 1918, a large number of treaties aiming to ensure peace were signed. According to historian Larry Addington it was "the greatest effort to that time to control armaments and to discourage war through treaty". [1] These treaties ranged from the Treaty of Versailles, which contained provisions were intended to make the Reichswehr incapable of offensive action and to encourage international disarmament, [2] [3] [4] to the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them". [5] Specific naval treaties that emerged during this era include the Washington Naval Treaty in 1921 and the London Naval Treaty in 1930. [6] [7]
In the latter half of and after World War I, the United States embarked on a large battleship construction program, with the passage of the Naval Act of 1916 allowing for the construction of ten battleships. [8] The Naval Appropriations Act of 1917 authorized the construction of a further three battleships, [9] to the point that it was projected the United States would be comparable to the Royal Navy in strength by 1923 or 1924. In response, the British Navy began campaigning for a ship building program, proposing building the G3 battlecruisers. Such proposals were unpopular and viewed as unnecessarily expensive. [10] [11] The Japanese government was also embarking on a large program of warship building. Britain was eager to engage in naval limitation talks, fearing the danger America's aggressive ship building posed to their empire. All three countries were open to negotiations as a result of the massive cost of building and maintaining a large navy. [12]
In December 1919, former British Foreign Secretary Lord Grey of Fallodon and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lord Robert Cecil met Edward M. House, the adviser of Woodrow Wilson, in Washington, D.C. At the meeting, the United States temporarily agreed to slow battleship building in exchange for the British withdrawing their opposition to inclusion of the Monroe Doctrine in the League of Nations Covenant. [13]
From 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922, [14] the Washington Naval Conference was held to stop a naval arms race from emerging. [15] Nine nations attended at the request of Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes; the United States, Japan, China, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal. [16] The conference led to the Nine-Power Treaty, which reaffirmed support for the Open Door Policy towards China; the Four-Power Treaty in which the United States, United Kingdom, France and Japan agreed to maintain the status quo in the Pacific, by respecting the Pacific territories of the other countries signing the agreement, not seeking further territorial expansion, and mutual consultation with each other in the event of a dispute over territorial possessions. [6] [15]
The most important treaty signed during the conference was the Washington Naval Treaty, or Five-Power Treaty, between the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. [15] The treaty strictly limited both the tonnage and construction of capital ships and aircraft carriers and included limits of the size of individual ships. The tonnage limits defined by Articles IV and VII limited the United States and Great Britain to 525,000 tons in their capital fleets, Japan to 315,000 tons and France and Italy to 175,000 tons. It instituted a 10-year "battleship building holiday". No agreements were reached on cruiser tonnage amounts and submarines. [15] The treaty limited capital ships (battleships and battlecruisers, defined as any warship with guns more than 8-inch in caliber and 10,000 tons standard displacement) to 35,000 tons standard displacement and guns of no larger than 16-inch calibre. [17]
Chapter II, Part 2, detailed what was to be done to render a ship ineffective for military use. In addition to sinking or scrapping, a limited number of ships could be converted as target ships or training vessels if their armament, armour and other combat-essential parts were removed completely. Part 3, Section II specified the ships to be scrapped to comply with the treaty and when the remaining ships could be replaced. [18] In all, the United States had to scrap 26 existing or planned capital ships, Britain 24 and Japan 16. [19]
The First Geneva Naval Conference was a meeting of the United States, Great Britain and Japan (France and Italy declined to engage in further negotiations) called together by Calvin Coolidge in 1927. The aim of the Conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The Washington Treaty had limited the construction of battleships and aircraft carriers, but had not limited the construction of cruisers, destroyers or submarines. [20] The British proposed limiting battleships to be under 30,000 tons, with 15-inch guns. The Conference ended with no agreement reached. [21] The Second Geneva Naval Conference in 1932 similarly ended without an agreement, after nations deadlocked over rearmament of Germany. [22]
The limits set in the Washington Naval Treaty were reiterated by the London Naval Treaty signed in 1930. A limit of 57,000 tons for submarines was decided upon, and the battleship building holiday was extended for a further ten years. [7] Signed in 1936, the Second London Naval Treaty further limited guns to 14-inch calibre. The Second London Treaty contained a clause which allowed construction of battleships with 16-inch guns if any of the signatories of the Washington Treaty failed to ratify the new one. It contained an additional clause which allowed displacement restrictions to be relaxed if non-signatories built vessels more powerful than the treaty allowed. [23] [24]
The Washington and London Naval treaty limitations meant that fewer new battleships were launched in 1919–1939 than in 1905–1914 due to an imposed battleship construction holiday, which ended in 1933. They also inhibited development by imposing upper limits on the weights of ships. Designs like the projected British N3-class battleship, the first American South Dakota class, and the Japanese Kii class—all of which continued the trend to larger ships with bigger guns and thicker armor—never finished construction. [25]
The Japanese battleship Mutsu was laid down on 1 June 1918. [26] It was one of the largest battleships in the world at the time, and at the Washington Naval Conference, the United Kingdom and United States urged the abandonment of the project. However, it was allowed under the condition that the US and UK got two additional 16-inch gun ships. In 1920, Japan began building the Amagi and Akagi . The next year, the Kaga and Tosa were launched with around a 39,900-ton displacement. Upon the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, Amagi and Tosa were abandoned and Kaga and Akagi were converted to 30,000-ton aircraft carriers. [15] [27] While a party to the treaty, Japan completely halted construction of battleships, instead focusing on battlecruisers. They embarked on an extensive cruiser building program, and began aggressively modernizing naval equipment. [28] After leaving the treaty in 1936, they planned to construct the Yamato class, which would be the largest battleships in the world. Two were completed during World War II and a third was converted to an aircraft carrier. [27]
The United States was allowed to keep three Colorado-class battleships that had been funded in the Naval Act of 1916 and a total of 500,360 tons of capital ships in the Washington Naval Treaty. Reduced naval spending by the Republican Party led to the navy remaining well below the maximum size specified in the treaty. Construction on several others was stopped, and the hull of the abandoned USS Washington was used for testing resistance to bombs, torpedoes and gunfire. Technical development and research towards battleships was severely restricted. The USS Lexington and Saratoga were originally designed as battlecruisers with 33,000 ton displacement, but were converted into aircraft carriers while under construction following passage of the treaty. [29] The United States decommissioned a total of sixteen existing battleships, and stopped construction on the six ships of the first South Dakota class. The United States modernized their fleet but did not build up to treaty limits. [30] The battleship holiday was extremely popular among the general public. [31] The ships of the Nevada class had their gun elevations increased although the British argued it was a violation of the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. [32]
The Royal Navy scrapped or stopped construction on sixteen ships as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty. HMS Hood (40,000 tons displacement) was exempted from the restrictions set by the treaty. After the signing of the treaty, as a result of compromise with Japan, two Nelson-class treaty battleships were built, HMS Nelson and Rodney, the only two built by the Royal Navy until 1936. [15] [28] [33] [32] Their navy, while it remained the largest in the world until 1933, became increasingly out of date. Though the Royal Navy had the most battleships active at the outbreak of World War II, all but two dated back to World War I or earlier. [34] As a result of the battleship building holiday, the Armstrong and Beardmore shipyards were forced to close. [31]
France and Italy did not embark on large naval expansion programs, though the French battleship Béarn was converted to an aircraft carrier. [28]
Ship | Country | Class | Displacement (tons) | Main Gun | First commissioned | Fate | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Carolina | United States Navy | North Carolina | 35,000 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 9 April 1941 | Decommissioned 27 June 1947; museum ship | |
Washington | United States Navy | North Carolina | 35,000 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 15 May 1941 | Decommissioned 27 June 1947, scrapped 1960 | 27 June 1947 |
Alabama | United States Navy | South Dakota | 35,000 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 16 August 1942 | Decommissioned 9 January 1947; museum ship | 9 January 1947 |
Indiana | United States Navy | South Dakota | 35,000 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 30 April 1942 | Decommissioned 11 September 1947, scrapped 1963 | 15 November 1945 |
Massachusetts | United States Navy | South Dakota | 37,970 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 12 May 1942 | Decommissioned 27 March 1947; museum ship | |
South Dakota | United States Navy | South Dakota | 35,000 | 16"/45 calibre Mark 6 | 20 March 1942 | Decommissioned 31 January 1947, scrapped 1962 | 31 January 1947 |
Nelson | Royal Navy | Nelson | 34,000 | BL 16-inch Mk I | 10 September 1927 | Decommissioned February 1948, scrapped March 1949 | |
Rodney | Royal Navy | Nelson | 34,000 | BL 16-inch Mk I | 10 November 1927 | Scrapped 1948 | |
Anson | Royal Navy | King George V | 39,000 | BL 14-inch Mk VII | 22 June 1942 | Scrapped 1957 | 1 November 1951 |
Duke of York | Royal Navy | King George V | 39,000 | BL 14-inch Mk VII | 28 February 1940 | Scrapped 1957 | 1 November 1951 |
Howe | Royal Navy | King George V | 39,150 | BL 14-inch Mk VII | 28 September 1942 | Scrapped 1958 | 1 January 1951 |
King George V | Royal Navy | King George V | 39,100 | BL 14-inch Mk VII | 11 December 1940 | Scrapped 1957 | 1 June 1950 |
Prince of Wales | Royal Navy | King George V | 39,000 | BL 14-inch Mk VII | 31 March 1941 | Sunk 10 December 1941 | 10 December 1941 |
Dunkerque | French Navy | Dunkerque | 26,500 | 330 mm (13 in)/50 Modèle 1931 | 15 April 1937 | Scuttled 27 November 1942 | 1 March 1942 |
Strasbourg | French Navy | Dunkerque | 26,500 | 330 mm (13 in)/50 Modèle 1931 | 15 March 1938 | Scuttled 27 November 1942 | 27 November 1942 |
Richelieu | French Navy | Richelieu | 35,000 | 380 mm (15 in)/45 Modèle 1935 | 15 July 1940 | Scrapped 1968 | |
Jean Bart | French Navy | Richelieu | 48,950 | 380 mm (15 in)/45 Modèle 1935 | 16 January 1949 | Launched during war 6 March 1940, scrapped 24 June 1970 | 1 August 1957 |
Littorio | Regia Marina | Littorio | 41,377 | 381(15 in)/50 Ansaldo M1934 | 6 May 1940 | Renamed Italia, scrapped 1948 | |
Roma | Regia Marina | Littorio | 41,649 | 381(15 in)/50 Ansaldo M1934 | 14 June 1942 | Sunk 9 September 1943 | 9 September 1943 |
Vittorio Veneto | Regia Marina | Littorio | 41,337 | 381 (15 in)/50 Ansaldo M1934 | 28 April 1940 | Scrapped 1948 | 10 September 1943 |
Gneisenau | Kriegsmarine | Scharnhorst | 32,000 | 28 cm (11 in) SK C/34 | 21 May 1938 | Sunk as block ship March 1945 | 1 July 1942 |
Scharnhorst | Kriegsmarine | Scharnhorst | 32,000 | 28 cm (11 in) SK C/34 | 7 January 1939 | Sunk 26 December 1943 | 26 December 1943 |
Ship | Country | Class | Displacement (tons) | Main Gun | First commissioned | Fate | End of service |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nagato | Imperial Japanese Navy | Nagato | 39,130 | 41 cm (16 in)/45 3rd Year Type | 25 November 1920 | Sunk as target 29 July 1946 | |
Mutsu | Imperial Japanese Navy | Nagato | 39,050 | 41 cm (16 in)/45 3rd Year Type | 24 October 1921 | Sunk in harbor by internal explosion 8 June 1943 | 8 June 1943 |
Colorado | United States Navy | Colorado | 31,500 | 16"/45 caliber Mark 1 | 30 August 1923 | Sold for scrap, 23 July 1959 | 23 July 1959 |
Maryland | United States Navy | Colorado | 32,600 | 16"/45 caliber Mark 1 | 21 July 1921 | Decommissioned 1947, scrapped 1959 | |
West Virginia | United States Navy | Colorado | 31,500 | 16"/45 caliber Mark 1 | 1 December 1923 | Decommissioned 9 January 1947, scrapped 1959 | 9 January 1947 |
Hood | Royal Navy | Admiral | 42,100 | BL 15-inch Mk I | 5 March 1920 | Sunk 24 May 1941 |
The Washington Naval Treaty was signed by the US, UK, Japan, France and Italy—all the principal naval powers. At various stages Italy and France opted out of further negotiations; however, their economic resources did not permit the development of super-battleships. Germany, while not permitted any battleships by the Treaty of Versailles, developed one in the 1930s; this was legitimised by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which placed Germany under the same legal limits as Britain. [35]
Japan's policies were largely decided by militarists through the 1930s. Partially influenced by the passage of the Vinson-Trammell Act in 1934, and the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, in 1934 Japan announced they planned to leave the treaty system in two years. At the Second London conference, Japan showed willingness to negotiate, but left the conference in January 1936 and other treaties expired on 31 December 1936. [36] [37] They built mammoth treaty-busting battleships–the Yamato class. [38]
As a result of the treaties, by the time rearmament began in the 1930s, before the onset of World War II, the world's battleships were largely aging and obsolete due to the rise of air power and increasing use of submarines. As a result, dreadnought technology had dramatically improved, and the building of new and upgrading old battleships began in earnest. [39]
The battlecruiser was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers typically had thinner armour and a somewhat lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds. The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, and chase down any ship with lesser armament; they were intended to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire while avoiding combat with the more powerful but slower battleships. However, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were increasingly used alongside the better-protected battleships.
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922 and signed by the governments of the British Empire, United States, France, Italy, and Japan. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement each.
USS Illinois (BB-65) was the fifth Iowa-class fast battleship that was laid down for the United States Navy during World War II in the 1940s, although she would not be completed. The Navy had initially planned on building four of the Iowas and then developing a new, more powerful ship for what was to be BB-65. The pressing need for more warships at the outbreak of World War II in Europe led the Navy to conclude that new designs would have to be placed on hold to allow the shipbuilding industry to standardize on a small number of designs. As a result, BB-65 was ordered to the Iowa design in 1940. Illinois was laid down in December 1942, but work was given a low priority, and was still under construction at the end of World War II. She was canceled in August 1945, but her hull remained as a parts hulk until she was broken up in 1958.
A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast enough to outrun any battleship it encountered.
The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address issues not covered in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which had created tonnage limits for each nation's surface warships, the new agreement regulated submarine warfare, further controlled cruisers and destroyers, and limited naval shipbuilding.
The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed as a result of the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference held in London, the United Kingdom. The conference started on 9 December 1935 and the treaty was signed by the participating nations on 25 March 1936.
The Alaska class were six very large cruisers ordered before World War II for the United States Navy, of which only two were completed and saw service late in the war. The US Navy designation for the ships of this class was 'large cruiser' (CB) and the majority of leading reference works consider them as such. However, various other works have alternately described these ships as battlecruisers despite the US Navy having never classified them as such. The Alaskas were all named after territories or insular areas of the United States, signifying their intermediate status between larger battleships and smaller heavy and light cruisers.
The Delaware-class battleships of the United States Navy were the second class of American dreadnoughts. With this class, the 16,000 long tons (16,257 t) limit imposed on capital ships by the United States Congress was waived, which allowed designers at the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair to correct what they considered flaws in the preceding South Carolina class and produce ships not only more powerful but also more effective and rounded overall. Launched in 1909, these ships became the first in US naval history to exceed 20,000 long tons (20,321 t).
The Lion class was a class of six fast battleships designed for the Royal Navy (RN) in the late 1930s. They were a larger, improved version of the preceding King George V class, with 16-inch (406 mm) guns. Only two ships were laid down before the Second World War began in September 1939 and a third was ordered during the war, but their construction was suspended shortly afterwards. The design was modified in light of war experience in 1942, but the two ships already begun were scrapped later in the year.
The Geneva Naval Conference was a conference held to discuss naval arms limitation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. The aim of the conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The Washington Treaty had limited the construction of battleships and aircraft carriers, but had not limited the construction of cruisers, destroyers or submarines.
A fast battleship was a battleship which in concept emphasised speed without undue compromise of either armor or armament. Most of the early World War I-era dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, so the term "fast battleship" is applied to a design which is considerably faster. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required to allow the vessel to carry out additional roles besides taking part in the line of battle, such as escorting aircraft carriers.
The Alsace class was a pair of fast battleships planned by the French Navy in the late 1930s in response to German plans to build two H-class battleships after the Second London Naval Treaty collapsed. The Alsace design was based on variants of the Richelieu class, and three proposals were submitted by the design staff. The proposed armament included nine or twelve 380 mm (15 in) guns or nine 406 mm (16 in) guns, but no choice was definitively made before the program ended in mid-1940. According to one pair of historians, logistical considerations—including the size of the 12-gun variant and the introduction of a new shell caliber for the 406 mm version—led the naval command to settle on the nine 380 mm design. But another pair of authors disagree, believing that the difficulty of designing and manufacturing a three-gun turret would have caused prohibitive delays during wartime, making the third, largest variant the most likely to have been built. The ships would have forced the French government to make significant improvements to its harbor and shipyard facilities, as the smaller Richelieus already stretched the limitations of existing shipyards. With construction of the first member of the class scheduled for 1941, the plan was terminated by the German victory in the Battle of France in May–June 1940.
The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts. Her design had two revolutionary features: an "all-big-gun" armament scheme, with an unprecedented number of heavy-calibre guns, and steam turbine propulsion. As dreadnoughts became a crucial symbol of national power, the arrival of these new warships renewed the naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. Dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, lasting up to the beginning of World War I. Successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armour, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships outclassed Dreadnought herself. These more powerful vessels were known as "super-dreadnoughts". Most of the original dreadnoughts were scrapped after the end of World War I under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, but many of the newer super-dreadnoughts continued serving throughout World War II.
The Number 13-class battleship was a planned class of four fast battleships to be built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1920s. The ships never received any names, being known only as Numbers 13–16. They were intended to reinforce Japan's "eight-eight fleet" of eight battleships and eight battlecruisers after the United States announced a major naval construction program in 1919. The Number 13 class was designed to be superior to all other existing battleships, planned or building. After the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, they were cancelled in November 1923 before construction could begin.
The Eight-Eight Fleet Program was a Japanese naval strategy formulated for the development of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the first quarter of the 20th century, which stipulated that the navy should include eight first-class battleships and eight armoured cruisers or battlecruisers.
The Amagi class was a series of four battlecruisers planned for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as part of the Eight-eight fleet in the early 1920s. The ships were to be named Amagi, Akagi, Atago, and Takao. The Amagi design was essentially a lengthened version of the Tosa-class battleship, but with a thinner armored belt and deck, a more powerful propulsion system, and a modified secondary armament arrangement. They were to have carried the same main battery of ten 41 cm (16.1 in) guns and been capable of a top speed of 30 knots.
The Lexington-class battlecruisers were officially the only class of battlecruiser to ever be ordered by the United States Navy. While these six vessels were requested in 1911 as a reaction to the building by Japan of the Kongō class, the potential use for them in the U.S. Navy came from a series of studies by the Naval War College which stretched over several years and predated the existence of the first battlecruiser, HMS Invincible. The fact they were not approved by Congress at the time of their initial request was due to political, not military considerations.
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