The Rise of the Empire

"But according to the experience of this war, we also need some warships with the same speed as the British fleet to ensure tactical advantages. At least they are more suitable as avant-garde." Tirpitz thought for a while and said, Tirpitz's thinking is still balanced The idea of ​​the fleet, that is, we can do whatever the other side does. As followers, we will never make big mistakes. When both Admiral Bohr and Ruprecht*** decided to speed up the main fleet, he Not wanting to object, but at the same time, he insisted on having battleships at the same speed as the British battlecruisers.

"You can have this, but the quantity is debatable." **** Ruprecht nodded after thinking for a moment. The speeding up of the main fleet is a major change. The prince has always been hesitant about whether to keep the pure-blooded battlecruisers. And the reason is as mentioned above, the cost is certain, if a 28,000-ton warship can run at a speed of more than 25 knots, as long as the ship is decent, 70,000 horsepower is almost the same. You know, the Bavarian output power in history Both have more than 50,000 horsepower. Not to mention the queen, the ship design of this thing is a scam, look at the queen. More than 70,000 horsepower does not even have 25 knots. The Japanese Nagato-class battleship is much heavier than it, and the difference in horsepower output is not big. It runs faster than the queen!

In Prince's view, as long as the ship is of a suitable size, the power output uses the same 4-axis propulsion as the Battle Cruiser, and the distance between the propellers is made larger to reduce interference, then even a battleship equipped with 15-inch heavy guns in the later stage will use the maximum output power of 7 A power pack of 10,000 horsepower is enough, and it is more than 25 knots. But if you want to jump from more than 25 knots to more than 28 knots, the price you pay is not small. This is not only because of the increased weight and space of the power system, but also the weight of the armor. After all, the power cabin needs to be extended to increase protection, right? A 180-meter-long warship and a 210-meter-long warship are also 60% of the core area. The difference in defense length is 18 meters! Look at Bavaria, the total armor weight is only 1,000 tons more than Lützow's, but the defense is generally one or two grades stronger!

Don't just think that Bavaria is better than Lützow in terms of the main armor of 350MM vs. 300MM. Other parts of Bavaria are also much better than Lützow as a battle patrol. The upper armor belt is 250MM vs. 230MM. The armor at the gun gallery is 170MM vs. 150MM. And the turret's 350MM vs. 270MM. The most critical thing is the gap between the bow and stern armor belts. Except for a small section in front of the Bavarian bow armor belt, which is 150MM, the thickness of the armor belt in the non-key protection area from the bow to the stern is 200MM! What does this thickness mean? Even the British 13.5-inch guns are not easy to penetrate Bavaria's front and rear armor!

If Lützow and his like may be forced to give up due to the breakdown of the front and rear armor belts, then in artillery battles, regardless of water bombs, more than 80% of the waterline part of the Bavarian hull is 13.5 inches immune to the British. Following the artillery! The 13.5-inch gun also depends on the angle if it wants to penetrate 8-inch armor. And Lützow's armor thickness in the front and rear non-key protection areas is only 4 inches! Almost half of the Bavarian class. Leaving aside whether Bavaria's design is suitable, simply judging from the area and strength of the defense, it is much higher than Lützow!

So the current prince has been struggling between speed, defense, and firepower... The defense of the German battleships in World War 1 was indeed NB, but do you think it must be enough? This is not sure. After all, the shells not only hit the main armor belt, but also penetrate the horizontal armor, and there may be water bombs, and they will hit the head and tail. As a result, the battleship was given up due to excessive water intake. In history, the main PK of the British and German navies only fought once, and the problem was not exposed much, but it does not mean that it does not exist.

In this plane, the main fleet of the German Navy must not shrink back, and if the problem is fought too much, it will naturally be exposed... There is no one who does not wet his shoes when he often walks by the river!

The prince's original plan was that if there were 15 dreadnoughts at the beginning of the war, then the number of battlecruisers would be 7, but after calculations by relevant departments, it was found that this number was still too much, or in terms of budget and tonnage, the number of battlecruisers was 7. The price of a cruiser is a bit high. Take the most balanced and practical German battlecruiser Mackensen during World War I in history as an example. The displacement of this battleship reached 30,000 tons, and its power and speed were almost equal to those of Hindenburg. This is a well-designed battleship, but that doesn't mean it's without problems.

First, the horizontal armor needs strengthening. Unlike other German battlecruisers, this one doesn't have a dome armor and the main horizontal armor is not that thick...  Then, the underwater protection system of all German warships needs to be greatly changed, from the simple empty tank tank mode to the empty tank tank mode, and the last layer of lightning protection is thickened, so as to resist whoever is hit by it as much as possible bomb. And after some strengthening, the displacement will definitely increase. In this case, there will be a lot of pressure on the funds and the construction cycle, and to be honest, the prince is not optimistic about Mackensen's 350MM artillery... . Whether it can deal with the British battleship with iron underwear is really not sure.... And if you plan to change to a 15-inch gun, the tonnage will increase even more.

Of course, if you give up the pure-blooded battlecruiser completely, there will be problems. Among other things, what about those light cruisers? Want to use Germany's own light cruiser? Don't dream, if the British capital ship is a big advantage to Germany, then the British light cruiser formation is an absolute advantage to Germany in history, whether it is quantity or quality, look at the history of Emden, Königsberg The 105MM small pipes and dome armor of his ilk, and then look at the 6-inch large pipes and armor belts of Sydney and Linxian. Don’t have too much hope for the quality of German light cruisers. Look at the British in the Battle of Jutland 4 complete light cruiser squadrons, and only 2 light cruiser squadrons in Germany. It can be seen that the German light cruiser formation is stretched.

Light cruisers also play an important role in reconnaissance and anti-lightning strikes, especially the former. The Harwich fleet is composed of light cruisers. These extremely fast guys are reconnaissance, which is about equal to the German fleet's door-to-door stalking. When you come out with a light cruiser, they will fight you, and when you come out with a fast battleship, they will immediately turn in...  

From time to time, there may be Betty's battlecruiser formation coming over and wandering around. These things can be described as quite annoying. Light cruisers must be strengthened, but the funds that Germany can allocate to light cruisers are really limited, and light cruisers need to better balance quantity and quality. Therefore, when there is a huge gap between the strength of light cruisers and the British, sometimes it is necessary to touch battlecruisers to make up for it, and this era is still an era when battlecruisers can be compared with light cruisers. The fastest fast BB in World War II Not as good as the fastest CA. But in the first battle, the speed of the two sides was really similar....

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