The Rise of the Empire

Chapter 383: situation



"Admiral Liole is theirs, Prince Heinrich is the Kaiser, and his attitude is unclear. He is fishing in troubled waters. Tirpitz and Boll are still neutral, but their attitude tends to be conservative. Scheer has no right to speak! "Ruprecht wrote in his diary.

"It's careless." The prince sighed. He did not expect that when he had led two consecutive German naval expansion plans, he would encounter such a fierce resistance in the most critical military expansion plan this time! The Prussian capitalists joined forces with the Admiralty to work on the prince’s plan, which probably means the Kaiser. It seems that the top Prussian leaders are very dissatisfied with their actions.

But to be fair, the plans made by the Kaiser Wilhelm Shipyard and the Krupp factory behind them are really good, at least much better than in history. They have two relatively good plans on the battleship, namely the No. 3 plan with the layout of the Historic Hill Caesar and the No. 4 plan with the king's layout!

In the No. 3 plan, there are a total of 5 twin-mounted main guns, two of which are deployed at the diagonal position in the middle of the hull, and can fire from opposite sides within a certain angle. There are 2 double-mounted turrets placed on the back of the hull. The side-string armor is 280mm thick, and the main armor belt is 4 meters high. The upper gun gallery armor is 150mm, the front and rear armor is 100mm, the front armor of the turret is 300mm, and the side armor is 150mm. The rear is 200mm. The armor of the gun mount is 300mm.

The horizontal armor of the hull consists of two layers, a 30mm-thick upper armor plate is connected to the upper armor of the side chord, and a dome underneath, the horizontal part is 30mm, and the side chord part is 50mm. Using steam turbines and coal-fired boilers, the maximum output is 30,000 horsepower, and the theoretical speed is about 21 knots. With a total displacement of about 23,000 tons, it can be regarded as a weakly protected Kaiser-class battleship. The No. 4 plan is the layout of 5 double-mounted turrets, of which there are 2 double-mounted turrets at the beginning and the end, and a double-mounted turret in the middle. The other attributes are almost the same as the No. 3 plan.

And the prince’s battleship plan? The layout of the bottom bracket is necessary, and the triple-mounted turret is also necessary, and 3 are incorrect, at least 4! It's almost an enhanced version of the combined forces of the later Austro-Hungarian Empire! Four 12-inch l45 main guns in 3 units. And 14 6-inch secondary guns. The side-string armor belt has a maximum thickness of 280mm and an inclination of 12 degrees. Taking into account the British tragic fuze technology and unstable charges, the 280mm inclined armor can almost be immune to all British armor-piercing projectiles in the normal combat distance. The upper armor belt is also 150mm, with 100mm at both ends. This is for immunity from secondary artillery attacks.

In order to enhance the horizontal armor, the prince’s battleship completely abandoned the dome armor and saved weight to enhance the horizontal defense. A layer of 90mm horizontal armor connected to the upper part of the main armor belt was enough to be immune to the horizontal strikes of the 1st war shells. At the same time, the underwater protection system is enhanced, and the layout of empty storage-liquid tank-empty storage is adopted, and the depth reaches 3.5 meters to 4 meters! There is also a 50mm high-strength steel plate behind the empty warehouse on the last layer. Fighting torpedoes and mines is not a big problem. As for bombs in the water, it depends on the situation.

If you only look at the layout of the surface artillery, the Bavarian plan is not better than the plan of the Royal Wilhelm Shipyard. Although the former has two more main guns than the latter, considering the complexity of the three-gun turrets and the smaller artillery spacing, Qi The weak point of shooting and walking, in terms of firepower, may not be better than the 5-seater double-mounted warship. Moreover, the coordination of the half-volley is also more convenient for the 5-seater double installation. At first, Count Vittorio also proposed this plan to the prince, but then the prince refused.

"Every warship of the German High Seas Fleet is very precious. We must consider the improvements and upgrades that may be needed in the future when we build it. It is foreseeable that once we go to war with a major country in the future, the other side will have A huge quantity advantage, and we can only balance out the other's quantity advantage by improving the quality as much as possible!"

"The mount of the triple-mounted 12-inch gun is large enough, so we can replace it with a double 14-inch gun in the future. After a short period of modification, we can increase the combat effectiveness of this warship to a higher level. Instead, use 10 It is absolutely impossible for a battleship with a 12-inch gun to make such an improvement." The prince said at the time.

That's right, the prince did not intend to let his warship use the 12-inch main gun from the beginning to the end. As a traverser, the prince quite understood the situation of the German High Seas Fleet 1 during the war!

First of all, the High Seas Fleet faces a huge shortage of warships in the British fleet! In addition to the battle that just started in 1914, the British sent two battlecruisers to South America to kill the Earl of Spey. At the same time, several battleships were under maintenance, which caused a military vacuum. (Even then, the Royal Navy still had a certain number of Advantage,) At other times, the Royal Navy is a stabilized high seas fleet in terms of tonnage and quantity!

In order to balance the huge number advantages of the British Royal Navy, Scheer was forced to bring as many as two teams of former dreadnoughts in the Battle of Jutland. The speed of the former dreadnoughts was originally slow, and the service time was longer. , The speed is even slower! The 11-inch l40 gun can only be said to be stronger than the fire stick. But why does Scheer bring it? The reason is simple, I can’t bear to run with 40 doors and 11 inches! When the wind is downwind, it can be strong, and when the wind is upwind, the gecko can dock its tail~www.novelhall.com~. It turns out that these former dreadnoughts have too little effect, and some even drag the fleet action. As for firepower? Hehe, the 11-inch l50 artillery on the German Battle Tour can barely deal with the British first-generation Battle Tour, which had the worst defense. The 11-inch L40 gun is even more useless!

And on this plane, the Germans don't have so many Pre-Fearless to deploy. Before the First World War, the Germans had 20 Pre-Fearless, but this plane only had 6! In addition, there are only 10 mainz-class armored cruisers. Considering the decommissioning and resale of these warships, this number may be lower.

Therefore, the prince is very clear, the quantity is not enough, the quality is supplemented! Every dreadnought ship must be designed for quality! The first generation of fearlessness that can suppress the British is only the most basic requirement, and when necessary, they must be able to go up and be super fearless! And if facing those super fearless, the first thing to make sure is that the firepower must be sufficient! So now the question is, is the German artillery powerful enough?

The answer is simple, obviously not enough! Needless to say, Nassau’s 11-inch l45 and Battlecruiser’s 11-inch l50 artillery are at most the level of 6-inch armor against the British’s first battle patrol, and it must be fireproof. The German’s 12 The performance of the inch guns is also very average. Although they showed their power in the Jutland naval battle, they also fought the weaker battle patrols. At the same time, the British's poor fire prevention also helped a lot! Throughout the entire first battle, the German 12-inch artillery has never achieved a record of penetrating armor over 9 inches!

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