Themes

Conflict and Change

• Introduction

• In Focus: 1900

• In Focus: World War One

• In Focus: Interwar

  • Surface Fleet

  • Submarines

  • Royal Marines

  • Fleet Air Arm

• In Focus: World War Two

• In Focus: Post War Conflict

• In Focus: Cold War Climate

• In Focus: Falklands and Beyond

• Special Exhibition: Falklands 25

Learning

• How To: Understand Propaganda

• Propaganda Image Galleries

• Education Project: Sea With Your Own Eyes

Interwar: Surface Fleet

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• Decommissioning and limitation

• Washington Treaty

• The Interwar ships

• Threat of war

• Rearmanent

Decommissioning and limitation

When World War One ended in 1919, the Royal Navy was the largest and strongest navy in the world. However, the British economy was exhausted by years of war and the government was obliged to produce economic recovery by improving industry and exports.

With defence spending taking the lion's share of the budget (and the Navy taking the greater part of that), cutbacks in the funding of the armed forces were inevitable – and severe.

In August 1919, Cabinet introduced the 'Ten-Year Rule', which stated that the armed forces should make plans based on the assumption that there would not be another major war for at least a decade. This gave the Treasury the ability to prune defence spending, and the Navy suffered considerably – although the other forces had it worse, with the Navy receiving more funding than either of them right up until 1938.

The lack of funds meant that the building of new ships and the refitting of older ones was reduced considerably, in both quantity and quality. Low budgets for ammunition and fuel meant that vessels stayed in harbour for longer and weapons practice was infrequent, leading to crews being unprepared for the realities of battle.

Naval aviation also suffered a rapid decline, enhanced by the formation of the Royal Air Force and the subsequent inter-departmental wrangling over who should control the Fleet Air Arm. Where Britain had led the world in naval aviation in 1918, by the end of the Twenties the American and Japanese navies were out in front, both numerically and technologically.

The Twenties saw massive cutbacks in the numerical strength of the Navy's sailors and officers, with the overall number of personnel in 1932 being little more than a quarter of that prevailing in 1919. Midway through the decade, the Admiralty decided to revise the generous rate of pay introduced after the war to a figure 25% lower for all new recruits. The resulting 'two tiers' of pay set the scene for growing discontent and disillusionment on the lower decks.