Chapter 86 The Crisis of the Royal Navy

"Your Excellency, this is the information our intelligence personnel risked their lives to obtain. For this reason, we even lost two very outstanding intelligence personnel." Sir John Fisher, the British Secretary of the Navy, put the information on the British Prime Minister Benavan Sir's desk.

Sir Benavin put on his glasses and carefully looked at the information that the intelligence officers had exchanged their lives for. When he saw those photos, the expression on his face became serious.

"Sir Fisher, is this a new battleship of the German Navy?" Sir Benavan asked.

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister. This should be the German dreadnought ship. And, it looks like it should be completed soon. According to my experience, these battleships are already preparing for outfitting. It is estimated that by the end of this year Able to serve." Sir John Fisher looked serious.

"God! How is this possible? How can the Germans build faster than us? When we were building new battleships, we only started to build one. But they started so many ships in one go .Aren't they afraid that this will be a trap set by us?" Sir Benarvin looked shocked.

The United Kingdom only built a battleship "Dreadnought" at the beginning, and later began large-scale batch construction. Even so, the construction of the British Navy's Bellerophon-class battleship only started last year. If it is expected to enter service, it will have to wait until 1909. The follow-up "St. Vincent-class" battleship has not started at all. This also means that once the new battleships of the German Navy enter service, the British Navy will be at a disadvantage in terms of the number of new battleships. And this is a completely unacceptable result for the Royal Navy of the British Empire. In order to maintain the maritime hegemony of the British Empire and the world colonial system, they must ensure that they have the most powerful navy in the world.

"Your Excellency, it is hard to believe that the Germans will make such a determination. However, the facts are now in front of us, that is, the British Empire is already at a disadvantage in the competition for new capital ships." Sir John Fisher said with bitterness.

"What about the performance of the battleships? Can the performance of the German battleships be compared with our battleships?" Sir Benavan had a look of expectation in his eyes, as if he didn't believe that the Royal Navy of the British Empire would be defeated.

Sir John Fisher hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Because there is no specific data on the battleships of the German Navy, it is still difficult to evaluate their specific performance. However, the only thing that is certain is that the German battleships have more The larger displacement of our battleships allows their battleships to have thicker armor and surpass us in terms of defense. However, this also makes their battleships inferior to ours in terms of speed. As for firepower , we have five twin-mounted 305mm main guns, while the Germans use three triple-mounted main guns. Although I don’t know if the Germans have solved the problem of triple-mounted main guns. However, in terms of firepower, we should not will be inferior to them.”

Sir John Fisher, it is only my own guesswork. This made him make mistakes in his judgment. The "Nassau-class" capital ships of the German Navy did not have a lower speed than the British Navy's capital ships because of their larger displacement. On the contrary, after adopting oil-fired boilers and steam turbines, the "Nassau-class" battleships have a faster speed. In terms of speed, it is not inferior to the battleships of the British Navy at all, and even has a certain advantage.

In terms of firepower, all three triple-mounted main guns can fire to one side, which is one more than the British Navy can fire with up to four double-mounted 305mm guns. At the same time, the 50-caliber main gun used by the capital ships of the German Navy obviously has a stronger armor-piercing capability than the 45-caliber main gun of the British Navy. Once the war starts, if the capital ships of the two sides encounter each other in the naval battle, the British Navy will know that the main guns of the German Navy's capital ships are powerful.

Sir Benarvin's complexion couldn't help but become even uglier.

"God! It seems that from now on, the Royal Navy is in a great crisis. We must treat it with caution. Otherwise, the Royal Navy will face a disaster." Sir Benavan said.

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister, I completely agree with your point of view. Moreover, the situation may be more serious than we expected. The German capital ship is far more than that. In addition to those few battleships, our intelligence personnel also found The other three battleships being outfitted. Although the progress is behind the other battleships. But our intelligence personnel believe that the three battleships being outfitted should be battlecruisers, and our "Invincible" A battleship like a battlecruiser. The despicable Germans probably want to use this kind of battleship to attack our sea transportation line. This is undoubtedly an extremely sinister intention." Sir John Fisher said through gritted teeth.

The reason why Sir John Fisher advocated the construction of battlecruisers in the Royal Navy was that he hoped that this new type of warship could be comparable to cruisers in speed and not inferior to battleships in firepower, and could protect Britain's sea transportation lines. Originally, this was just a preventive plan. But I didn't expect it, but it really came in handy.

"Damn the Germans, they are indeed too despicable." Sir Benavan turned pale. He deeply knows that as an island country, once the sea transportation line is hit, what it means to the British Empire.

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister, fortunately we have also built battlecruisers, otherwise, facing the German battlecruisers, there is really no way to deal with it." Sir John Fisher also expressed his gratitude.

"Can our 'Invincible Class' battlecruisers be able to deal with German battlecruisers?" Sir Benavan asked.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, this may be difficult. From the photos, we can see that the German battlecruisers are larger than our 'Invincible' battlecruisers. The larger displacement makes them have greater defense. In terms of speed, it may not be as good as ours. But it must not be underestimated. More importantly, the German battlecruisers are about to be completed. And our "Invincible" battlecruisers may have to wait until the end of next year or the beginning of the next year. It can be done," said Sir John Fisher.

"My God! That means the Royal Navy of the British Empire is lagging behind the Germans in terms of battleships and battlecruisers!" Sir Benavan exclaimed.