The British Slow Battleships were not useless. They protected convoys which effectively metered German attacks on convoys. Convoy protection is not glamorous but it is essential.glenn239 wrote: ↑06 Nov 2019, 19:38Discounting the British 21kt battleships as next to useless in an Atlantic war, the balance of power at the start of the war was, (British vs. German-Italian)pugsville wrote: ↑06 Nov 2019, 07:39But if the Germans actually started building 4 carriers the British would notice and consider their options.Paul Lakowski wrote: ↑05 Nov 2019, 21:23
From Hitler's FOUR YEAR PLAN, on , treaties were meaningless, just obstacle's to be side stepped.
They were not building 4 carriers historically. If they started a large carriers program the British would look at it and it's pretty certain they would have had a reaction.
CV - 7 to 0
BB - 3 to 8
PB - 0 to 3
C - 64 to 27
DD - 192 to 81
DE - 73 to 87
SS - 62 to 178
Given the scale of the theatre and the vulnerability of the British maritime position from Sealion to Singapore, to call the Axis situation "hopeless" is like calling a Superbowl at halftime when the score is 20-10. (Add in the USA for the UK and its another story).
The British were also building a lot of ships at the start of the war, their capacity to do so was quite large unlike the Germans.Who had quite limited ship building capacity.
The bases and topography made the Axis Navies quite weak, while the British had a large area of commitment there was no real prospect of much combined action by the Axis, and all their ships could only reach the Atlantic in dibs and drabs through choke points.
I pretty sure all the Italian destroyers were pretty short range and useless in An Atlantic war.