UK: ‘Milk Thief’ Not Averse to Fighting

By Georgy Tomin

At the height of the Empire’s power, the Royal fleet The “Dual Power Standard” was passed by the British Parliament on May 31, 1889, and was officially known as the “Naval Defense Act.” The rationale behind this regulation was that the Royal Navy should be equal in strength to the navies of the two next-largest maritime powers (initially, France and Russia). This requirement was already established, but had been put forward much earlier, as far back as 1782. And it was met! £21,5 million was allocated for the naval shipbuilding program in 1889 over five years. Moreover, given that the Royal Navy was constantly scattered around the world, to ensure reliable defense of the islands from the enemy, it was planned that the number of squadron battleships to the combined fleets of France and Russia would be 5:3, and cruisers 2:1.

True, the German Navy soon began to emerge from the shadows (it was first mentioned in Parliament in 1900), and then the American and Japanese fleets began to grow by leaps and bounds. By 1904, a budget of 37 million pounds sterling was being pushed through Parliament, exceeding the 1890 budget by 22 million and the 1900 budget by 11 million. After the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Navy was written off, but the Kaiserliche Marine was rapidly gaining strength.

In short, the “two-power standard” proved beyond Britain’s capabilities by the start of World War I. The United Kingdom won the “dreadnought race,” but when calculating the “capital ship” numbers, foreign navies began to engage in mind games: the American fleet was not counted because it was too far away; cruisers were no longer included in the standard (destroyers had been excluded from the outset), and only battleships were counted; then the French fleet was no longer counted—since it was an Entente ally—and only Germany and Austria-Hungary were counted. Finally, on March 28, 1912, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill authorized the construction of a battleship fleet 60 percent stronger than Germany’s…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (en.topwar.ru)

 

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