If coal-fired boilers and steam engines were used alone, 23 knots would be the limit for large cruisers, and 20 knots for battleships. There is no way, the weight and volume of coal-fired boilers and steam engines are too large and too inefficient. If you want to reach higher speeds, you must raise the boiler or the main engine, both together or separately, and the early dreadnoughts can continue to make do with coal-fired boilers and steam engines (such as the Nassau). But the early battlecruisers had to improve their boilers and steam turbines.

In Ruprecht's case, it was not difficult for a cruiser to have battleship-level firepower, but it was difficult to have a speed that was a fraction higher than that of a conventional battleship. The Japanese like to refer to the Kurama as the world's first war cruiser, simply because the Kurama was armed with a 12-inch gun and had a speed of 20 knots.

But if you want to follow this standard, the Italian Queen Margaret is the earliest battle cruiser, which was put into service in 1904, with 4 12-inch guns, 4 8-inch guns and a speed of more than 20 knots. What are the differences between the two sides? Why is it called BB in Italy and ACR or BC in Japan? It's not scientific.

Of course, there are also those who say that the two ships have the same speed as the cruisers at the same time, and the traverser can only say that it is correct to say this when the Queen Margaret was in service, but when the Kurama is in service, this speed is a little worse than that of the large cruisers of the same era. The Kurama entered service in 1907 at a speed of 20.5 knots, compared to 23 knots for British first class armored cruisers of the same period! The difference in speed is 2.5 knots. Of course, you can also take a slow ship like Rurik 2.

Mixed with some private goods, Ruprecht believed that the real battle cruiser should at least have the same speed as the large cruisers of the same period, and at least have a speed advantage of at least 3 knots over the battleships of the same period, and only in this way can the role of the battle cruiser be brought into full play. That is, in the current situation where slow battleships generally have a speed of about 18 knots, a real battle cruiser should be around 21 knots. Most of the cruisers of the first class of the same period were no more than this speed (except for the BT of the strong one)

What is the purpose of the Battle Patrol? Fisher's definition is faster than battleships, better than cruisers, and can suppress opposing cruisers with battle cruisers. It was not intended to be used for decisive battles on the battle line. The definition of the Germans is to be able to knock at least the British war cruisers of the same period. So what is the definition of Prince Ruprecht?

This definition is complicated, partly because it is really troublesome, and partly because His Royal Highness the Prince himself has not yet figured out what to say!

To put it simply, the firepower is enough to pose a serious threat to a battleship of the same class, and the speed is faster than that of a battleship, and the specific criterion is that if the luck is not very bad, you can get rid of the opponent's range before the superior opponent can inflict heavy damage on you.

This sentence seems very simple, but the amount of information contained in it is still very large, first of all, the first sentence is that the firepower can threaten the battleships of the same class, which requires the caliber of the guns of the battle patrol equipment to be large enough, at least the battle cruisers in German history are not good, and it is still okay to knock the lion with imperfect fire protection with chocolate, but you try to fight with the iron turtle of the Americans? I can't kill you!

The firepower of the battlecruiser can be slightly inferior to that of the battleship, but it must not be too bad, for example, the opponent has 10 14-inch guns, and the BC has only 8 14-inch guns, which is acceptable, 6 guns will not work, as for the 8 12-inch guns, it is even more direct PASS, and the designer can pull it out and shoot it!

The second sentence is more complicated. The latter was able to run out before the battleship hit the battlecruiser hard. A battlecruiser of the same class will definitely not be able to defeat a battleship. This is tolerable, after all, tonnage is limited. Augmenting on the one hand will weaken the other, but at least the defense must not be instantly killed, nor can it be easily slowed down. Of course, if you encounter a bullet in the water and directly stab through the ammunition depot, then there is no way, God let you die, no one else's blame.

Therefore, in order to achieve this purpose, it is necessary to have strong protection and a certain speed. The protection must ensure that the core area can avoid being killed by the guns of battleships of the same level, and the non-core area has a certain amount of damage redundancy. And before this redundancy is reached to the limit, the battlecruiser can rely on speed to run beyond the effective range of the battleship.

The idea of escaping from the enemy simply by speed is sometimes unreliable, there are many such examples, such as the Invincible battlecruiser in the Battle of Jutland, this guy is backed by the British Grand Fleet, and the background is hard and terrible, but because he rushed too far forward, he was directly shot in seconds, and the Germans didn't give you a chance to escape at all! Has the speed without protection and the hairy use?

And also in the Battle of Jutland, in the face of the huge German high seas fleet, Thomas's 4 Queen Elizabeth-class battleships performed much better, their speed was indeed not as fast as the battle cruiser, and there were even rudders damaged and unable to operate, what was the result? The queens braved the rain of bullets from the German BB and BC to turn in victoriously, and not only escaped alive, but also cleaned up the German fleet.

Therefore, it is not advisable to pursue speed excessively, and in the opinion of the prince of the Rupre system, it is okay to build a few BC ships with a speed of more than 27 knots for reconnaissance as an avant-garde. But absolutely not as the core of the fleet. Because in the case of a certain tonnage, this kind of battleship will always have various shortcomings, the British lion and tiger are not good at defense, and the German chocolate is not good at firepower.

The result of the former's insufficient defense is to be lit with firecrackers. (In fact, in the face of German small artillery, if the British had been good enough to prevent firecrackers, there would have been fewer firecracker incidents.) And the latter was helpless in the face of battleships. The real thinking is still the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, which has a moderate speed and can be considered for protection. If the quality of the shells is not taken into account, the level of firepower is the highest. Able to escape from a large number of BBs, and can beat high-speed BC. What's more critical is that if you change it, you can use it for 2 battles.

So in the future fleet plans of His Royal Highness the Prince, neither the number of pure-blooded BCs nor pure-blooded BBs will be large, and the former will be a separate reconnaissance force. The latter is an alternative when the power technology is incomplete. The largest number should have been the Queen Elizabeth-like fast battleships with a speed of about 25 knots.

Of course, this is only a plan for the future, and what the prince needs to do at present is to promote the use of kerosene mixed boilers and the research and development of steam turbines, the former is not very difficult. The latter can only be used on smaller ships such as torpedo boats and destroyers.

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