Chapter 642: This is called a violent soldier

While Prince Ruprecht was drawing up 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. The Germans' first fearless battleship and the first After the dreadnought battlecruiser entered service, the stimulated British government decided to respond with a more radical and massive shipbuilding plan.

"Can't wait, we will start construction of 7 ships this year!" Churchill's speech in the British Parliament well explained the British psychology at this time. As a maritime hegemon with hundreds of years of history, the British have a great deal of sea power. Persistence is absolutely impossible for ordinary countries to think of! This is not just a government action. This shipbuilding mania quickly spread from top to bottom. The entire British society believes that the new German warship is a naked challenge to the British Empire! British newspapers even claimed that the British Admiralty had serious malfeasance! And Fisher, an enterprising and reforming minister 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, construction of seven dreadnought warships was started. Thanks to sufficient funds and the blessing of a large number of shipyards, the British completed the construction of a dreadnought warship in general. A little over 2 years. In other words, in 1907, the Royal Navy had about 10 dreadnought ships! 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 eyes of Prince Ruprecht, the power gap between the two sides is not as large as the number. Although the German warships are expensive, the construction period is relatively long, the tonnage is relatively large, plus the technical guidance of the traversers themselves. Advantages, the German fleet steadily occupy the quality advantage.

  Think about it. Under normal circumstances, how can a British dreadnought with 18,000 tons win a German dreadnought with more than 23,000 tons? The so-called "you get what you pay for, you get a good price for a cent, but the expensive ones are not necessarily easy to use, but things that are too cheap are generally not good!"

For example, the St. Vincent-class battleship that the British are now building. This is a first-class battleship equipped with 10 12-inch guns. The displacement is only 19,000 tons. The maximum thickness of the main armor belt is only 10 inches. The thinnest place is 7. 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 princes of this kind of defense, even Krupp's designers said it was unbearable. As for the underwater defense system, structurally speaking, it is no different from the former dreadnought. It has an empty warehouse outside and a tank inside. The artillery layout is the same as that of the Dreadnought, which means that its side firepower is only 8 12-inch guns. This time, the German designers finally found a sense of superiority. They thought that this warship was reasonably good except for its speed. Compared with the first generation dreadnoughts, the defense and firepower are not good!

"If nothing else, we can have 10 battleships completed and about to be completed in 1908, and by 1909 we will have 6 battlecruisers equipped with 8 12-inch guns in service. The number of our battleships Will stabilize our opponents. In 1909, the Germans could have 11 dreadnoughts in service and it was already very good!" said Prince Louis, the British First Maritime Secretary.

At this meeting, the British were discussing the future development plan of naval capital ships. If the British were trying to make up for the gap in numbers, they were brutal and brutal. After regaining their technological advantages, the British can finally take a breath. Let’s examine my own shipbuilding plan. Because simply repeating the shipbuilding process does not bring about essential improvements.

  "Do we already have 6 battlecruisers? The Germans only have 2 battlecruisers. We have three times as many battlecruisers as the opponent. Is there too much?" Churchill said thoughtfully.

"No, not much. We have to face the German armored cruisers. The Germans have garrisons overseas. There are ports in the Far East, East Africa, and Angola where armored cruisers can be anchored. After the war, these warships Our threat is very big, 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.

"An important question for me to convene this meeting is not to discuss whether we have built too many battlecruisers. I think if we want to completely push the Germans in the North Sea, our current battleships are not enough. We need Suppress opponents both in quantity and quality."

"The Royal Navy should be equipped with larger-caliber artillery. Generally speaking, I think our early dreadnought building plan is too chaotic. We almost follow in each other's footsteps~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and now we are re-leading the navy. It’s time for the trend to develop. We are going to build a first-class warship that is unparalleled! The first-class new warship that can overwhelm all previous warships, everyone in this room can call it a super dreadnought ship!” Fisher gave a passionate speech.

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

   "His Royal Highness, this is not our original script!" Fisher glanced at each other with 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 battlecruisers should be at least 27 knots. And just now, the prince's statement directly cut the speed by 2 knots, which makes Fisher, who pursues speed, very unhappy. But obviously, now is not the time to show dissatisfaction. The conflict between the first and second maritime ministers should not be made public, otherwise, it will be very detrimental to future work.

  The rest of the meeting was a bit like chewing. After Fisher absently walked through the cutscenes, he finally waited for the end of the meeting. After the meeting, he immediately found the Second Maritime Minister, Prince Louis, who needed an explanation from the other party.

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