Tiornu -> RE: Vote for: Beauty and the Battleship (12/13/2009 6:53:42 PM)
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The 1937 Anglo-German Treaty starts with a section lifted directly from the 1936 London Treaty regarding warship definitions, and this of course is an outgrowth of the previous treaty definitions including the "treaty cruiser" limits. Then in Article 4, there's the explicit limit on battleship tonnage to 35,000 tons. An appended exchange of letters between Eden and von Ribbentrop spells out some issues with interesting comments on cruisers. It was understood that Germany was entitled to five heavy cruisers (the five Hipper/Eugen ships) but, by a voluntary measure, would agree to give the last pair a battery of guns of light cruiser caliber. You may recall that Lutzow and Seydlitz were planned to carry four 15cm triple turrets; this was part of the diplomacy that coordinated with the Anglo-Soviet treaty, signed at the same time. But after the treaties collapsed, the ships switched back to 8in. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to find online the British agreements with Germany and the Soviet Union as it is the Washington and London treaties. I'm not sure they're posted at all, but maybe a good search will yield results.
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