The Rise of the Empire

While Prince Ruprecht was making the final pre-war plan for the German High Seas Fleet, Britain on the other side of the Black Sea was also preparing for the upcoming war. After the first Dreadnought battlecruiser entered service, the stimulated British government decided to respond with a more radical and large shipbuilding plan.

"We can't wait, we will start construction on 7 ships this year!" Churchill's speech in the British Parliament perfectly explained the psychology of the British at this time. Persistence is absolutely beyond the imagination of ordinary countries! This is not just an act of the government. This kind of shipbuilding frenzy quickly spread from top to bottom. The entire British society believes that Germany's new warships are a naked challenge to the British Empire! British newspapers even called the British Admiralty serious malfeasance! And Fisher, the enterprising and reforming Admiralty of the Navy, was also highly sought after at this time.

During the period from the second half of 1904 to the first half of 1905 in the British Empire, seven dreadnought warships were started. A little over 2 years. In other words, in 1907, the Royal Navy had about 10 dreadnoughts! The number is about 40% higher than that of the German Navy! And this is just the beginning. In 1906, the British considered starting a new batch of warships!

Of course, in the view of Prince Ruprecht, the strength gap between the two sides is not as big as the numbers. Although the German warships are expensive, the construction period is relatively long, and the tonnage is relatively large. In addition, the technical guidance of the traverser itself Advantages, the German fleet firmly occupies the quality advantage.

Think about it, under normal circumstances, how can a 18,000-ton British dreadnought beat a 23,000-ton German dreadnought? As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, ten cents is a good buy, expensive ones may not be easy to use, but things that are too cheap are generally not good products!

For example, the St. Vincent-class battleship that the British are currently building is a first-class battleship equipped with ten 12-inch guns, but its displacement is only about 19,000 tons. The maximum thickness of the main armor belt is only 10 inches, and the thinnest part is 7 inches. inch. The front of the main gun is 11 inches, and the armor of the gun mount is generally between 9 inches and 5 inches... Not to mention the prince, even the designer of Krupp said that this kind of defense is unbearable. As for the underwater defense system, structurally speaking, it is no different from the former dreadnought, with an empty tank outside and a liquid tank inside. The artillery layout is the same as that of the dreadnought, which means that the firepower on its side is only 8 12-inch guns. This time, the German designers finally found a sense of superiority. They think that this warship is not bad except for its speed. Compared with the first generation of dreadnoughts, the defense and firepower are not good!

"If nothing else, we can have 10 battleships completed and about to be completed in 1908. In addition, we will have 6 battlecruisers equipped with 8 12-inch guns in service by 1909. The number of our capital ships It will stabilize our opponents. In 1909, the Germans had 11 dreadnoughts in service, which is already very good!" said Prince Louis, the British First Sea Lord.

At this meeting, the British were discussing the future development plan of the naval capital ship. If the British were to make up for the gap in numbers before, the British were violent and violent. After regaining their technological advantages, the British can finally take a breath Let's take a look at our shipbuilding plan. Because simply repeating the shipbuilding process cannot bring about essential improvements.

"Have we already had 6 battlecruisers? The Germans have only 2,

We have three times as many battlecruisers as the other side. Is it too many? "Churchill said thoughtfully.

"No, not many. We still have to face German armored cruisers. The Germans have troops stationed overseas. There are ports in the Far East, East Africa, and Angola where armored cruisers can berth. Our threat is very large, and we need to have enough high-speed warships to hunt them. The original Minotaur-class armored cruisers did not have enough speed and firepower." Fisher said.

"One of the important issues I called this meeting is not to discuss whether we have built too many battlecruisers. I think that if we want to completely pin the Germans in the North Sea, our current battleships are not enough. We need Overwhelm opponents both in quantity and quality."

"The Royal Navy should be equipped with larger caliber artillery. Generally speaking, I think our dreadnought construction plan in the early stage was too chaotic. We almost followed each other's footsteps. Now it's time for us to lead the development trend of the navy again. We are going to build an unparalleled warship! A new type of warship that can overwhelm all previous warships, everyone here can call it a super dreadnought!" Fisher delivered an enthusiastic speech.

"For this reason, the Admiralty decided to equip the newly equipped battleships with 13.5-inch guns! The new battleships will be equipped with 5 double-mounted 13.5-inch artillery turrets, and the speed will be around 21 knots, while the new battlecruisers will be equipped with 4 double-gun turrets. With the turret installed, the speed will be above 25 knots!" Prince Louis said suddenly. And what he said made Fisher very dissatisfied!

"Your Highness, this is not our original script!" Fisher glanced at the other party full of resentment. According to Fisher's plan, the speed of all battleships should be above 23 knots. Strive for a speed advantage over known German battleships. The speed of the battlecruiser should be at least 27 knots. But just now, the prince's statement directly cut the speed by 2 knots, which made Fisher, who pursues speed, very upset. But clearly, now is not the time to express dissatisfaction. The conflict between the First Sea Lord and the Second Sea Lord should not be made public, otherwise, it will be very detrimental to future work.

The rest of the meeting was a bit of a bummer. After Fisher absent-mindedly went through the cutscenes, he finally waited until the end of the meeting. After the meeting ended, he immediately found Prince Louis, the Second Sea Lord, and he needed an explanation from the other party.

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