I still refuse to believe that Germany should be wasting that kind of money on fleet.
I just finished a game where the German player kicked the allied navies out of the Atlantic by Germany 3. He lost. Why? Because Russia turtled up, England and America moved in massive air force and then Russia pushed forward. A russian infantry stack + 20 allied fighters landing behind it is NOT getting strafed by Germany.
Course, I was also annoying the ever living hell out of Japan with a sizable British navy and a small American contingent of warships. He was able to hold off without losing more then New Guinea and E. Indies, but at the cost of not being able to push hard on Russia.
In that game, Germany should have stopped iwth fleet. But he didnt. he kept building just enough that I couldnt sink him with a 1, 2, 3 punch with my air force. (not that I was going to throw away 260 IPC in fighters to do it! (7 British Fighters, 1 British Bomber, 13 American Fighters, 1 American Bomber, 3 Russian Fighters) but he did.