 Various reasons were behind this.Among other reasons, experiments showed that the smaller gun was "far less effective" than the larger gun, a class of twelve ships would have overtaxed the shipyards already heavily burdened with other ships, and the smallest guns on any foreign capital ship in service or under construction were more than larger in caliber than the 283 mm guns.The most persuasive argument for increasing the armament came in 1939, when Adolf Hitler denounced the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement.