In February 1922, the Washington Naval Agreement on the Limitation of Naval Armaments was signed between the United States, Britain, France, Japan and Italy. So in the fleets of these countries appeared “Washington battleships” and “Washington cruisers”.
RSFSR entry is prohibited
In less than 20 years, they were to meet in the naval battles of the Second World War.Ironically, pygmy battleships built according to Washington restrictions had to fight with overgrown cruisers.
The conference was proposed to be convened by the United States.The countries with access to the Pacific Ocean, the USA, Japan and China were supposed to participate in it.Plus, the countries that had colonies in this region – Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal. Well, countries that had concessions in China —Belgium and Italy.
Battleship BB-36 “Nevada”, 1944. Photo: Public Domain
Soviet Russia did not receive an invitation on the grounds that since 1920, instead of the RSFSR, the Far Eastern Republic had been going to the Pacific Ocean instead of the RSFSR. Moscow responded by saying that it does not recognize any decision taken at the conference.
The Conference began its work on November 12, 1921. As a result, three agreements were signed: on the division of spheres of influence in the Far East, on respect for the sovereignty of China (into which troops were introduced at their discretion not so long ago) and on the limitation of the naval arms race.
Let’s focus on the latter.The fact is that the competition that began after the First World War between the United States, Great Britain and Japan for the construction of the largest ships of that time, battleships, threatened to ruin the participating countries. Indeed, the “battleship race” of the early 20s threatened to slide into the final madness. Ships were laid at the shipyardswith a displacement of more than 40 thousand tons and a caliber of 16 inches (406 mm) guns — this is in Britain and the USA. The Japanese, who switched to the metric system, settled on a caliber of 410 mm. Next in line were 18-inch monsters with guns of “Anglo-Saxon” calibers (457 mm) and Japanese almost half a meter — 460 mm. More caliber —- more ship — more shipyard, and so on without stopping.
Battleship Yamato on trial, 1941. Photo: Public Domain
One country laid down a battleship, another, to counter this, laid down an even more powerful one, and so on. Sometimes ships became obsolete even in the process of construction.
But the main reason was not even the size. A large ship cost tens of millions of dollars, at that time a gigantic sum, and the construction and maintenance of a large fleet could literally ruin even the most powerful economy. The growing calibres of artillery required an increase in the displacement of ships. Not far off was already the “heavyweight problem” when the battle of even two heavy ships with powerful artillery inevitably led to the death of one of them, therefore,the fight should be avoided as long as possible. The prospect loomed that giant fleets, literally devouring the budget every day (after all, ships must be maintained in combat readiness and regularly go to sea at least for exercises, and this costs a lot), would simply be an ever-growing “black hole”, which at the same time is dangerous to bring into a general battle. With the same success, countries could demonstrate their power by simply throwing money into the sea by trucks.
Someone should have been the first to say “enough is enough” at least for their own good.
Not to mention the fact that the presence of a large fleet is too tempting to use it against a smaller power, and this is already the beginning of a chain to a new world war. In any case, such arguments were also heard in society — later it will be seen that the arms race is only a consequence of the contradictions between large economies and the division of sales markets, but then it was believed that it could be stopped.
Victims of the struggle for peace
The agreement was intended to preserve the existing ratios between the tonnages of the fleets of the superpowers at that time. The total tonnage of the largest —British fleet — was set at one million tons. The same limit was provided for the American Fleet.
The tonnage of the French and Italian fleets should not exceed 1/3 of the tonnage of the British Fleet, rounded up 350 thousand. tons, of which 175 thousand were accounted for by dolyulinkors.tons.
Japan’s share was set at half of the American — half a million tons, but the Japanese managed to bargain for another 10% and received a quota of 600 thousand tons.
Thus, the proportions of the tonnage of battleships for 5 states were to be 5:5:3:1,75:1,75.& nbsp;
The United States pledged to scrap 9 unfinished battleships and 6 battlecruisers.Great Britain was asked to abandon the construction of 4 battlecruisers and scrap 19 obsolete battleships.The Japanese should have abandoned 7 unfinished ships and 10 battleships of the pre-dreadnought era (that is, obviously very outdated).Only 3 great maritime powers refused 70 large military ships with a total displacement of 1.878 million tons.
«US Secretary of State Charles Hughes (he was the “motor” of the conference. — AiF) sank more battleships in 35 minutes than all the admirals of the world over the centuries, the London Times wrote about it.
Washington Restrictions
According to the Washington restrictions, the standard displacement of battleships should not exceed 35 thousand.tons, and the caliber of the guns is 406 mm.
For aircraft carriers, the maximum displacement was set at 27 thousand tons. Curiously, the maximum caliber of guns was also set for aircraft carriers. Then it was believed that a self-respecting aircraft carrier would fight off enemy surface ships with its own artillery. Each of the signatory countries was allowed to convert two battleships or battlecruisers from among those intended for scrapping into aircraft carriers.
The conference did not accept any restrictions on cruisers, except for determining the maximum allowable tonnage of 10 thousand tons.tons and caliber of the main artillery in 203 mm.
About what role aircraft carriers will play in the coming world war, no one has yet guessed. But the restrictions on battleships caused an increase in interest in cruisers.High speed, long range and strong armament made cruisers the main ships in the European Theater of Operations in World War II.They were engaged in raiding and guarding convoys, and if necessary, they could compete on equal terms with their older brothers, battleships.
Our people in Washington
As already mentioned, Russia was not allowed to participate in the Washington Conference. But our people were still working in the US capital at that time. We are talking about the trade mission of the DDA, with which the Americans decided to cooperate after all. Not for naval affairs (the RSFSR did not have such ambitions then), but for purely Far Eastern ones.
The Chairman of the mission was appointed Alexander Yazykov. He was born in 1874 in St. Petersburg, studied at the University. Established Soviet Power in Kostroma, since 1919.He worked as Deputy People’s Commissar of Foreign Trade.
OdessaBoris Skvirskyborn in 1887, he was a Socialist Revolutionary, later a Bolshevik. At the beginning of 1920He was hired by the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, from where he was sent to the DIA.
Peter Karavaev like his colleagues, he was a professional revolutionary. He was born in 1884 in Kostroma province. Since 1903A member of the RSDLP, a Bolshevik, a participant in the Civil War in Siberia and the Far East.By the way, he became the only member of the Washington Troika who was not later repressed.
Troika was accepted in the Russian Department of the State Department, she managed to establish contacts with the business circles of the USA and American newspapers. It is believed that it was Yazykov, Skvirsky and Karavaev who managed to achieve that the United States “asked” Japan from the Soviet Far East.
By the way, Soviet Russia gained strength to build an ocean fleet only 15 years after the end of the Washington Conference. Laid down in 1938 at the Baltic Shipyard, the battleship “Soviet Union” had a total displacement of 65 thousand tons and 406-mm guns of the main caliber. However, due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, neither he nor his two “sister ships” were ever completed.
