In the early morning of May 20, Fang Yan walked out of the officer's cabin early in a neatly dressed manner, and the first rays of bright golden morning glow had already appeared at the junction of the sea and sky in the east, which looked particularly bright and dazzling in the dark sky. Half an hour later, he had the privilege of witnessing a magnificent scroll that he will never forget: 145 warships of the Commonwealth, and 18 ships of other countries, lined up in the Spithead Strait; With the brilliant red sun rising in the east, it seems that Britain is still the superpower that was in the sky half a century ago!

Amid the earth-shattering cheers of the British people on both sides of the Isle of Wight and the island of England, at 9:15 a.m., George VI, who had just been crowned king, had arrived in the middle of the channel on a tall and luxurious royal cruise ship. According to the list arranged by the British, the Spee Pocket Patrol was ranked fifth among the ships of the 18 invited countries, and was treated as a guest and was the first to be reviewed.

Among them, the Navy team of the invited country is led by the battleship New York of the US Atlantic Fleet, which has been in service for 23 years and looks old from any point of view. Today, the United States has become more and more unwilling to see Britain, a cousin whose strength is far inferior to its own, and they have only sent the oldest active capital ship in this parade.

Compared with the United States, which is not very concerned, France attaches great importance to this show. Although they shared their anger at the British, who had indulged in German rearmament, and called them "dirty egoists," it was clear that they could not be compared to each other because of the Germans' participation in the parade. Driven by this idea, the French sent the battleship Dunkirk, which they had commissioned only the previous month, in order to gain a good stand against the imaginary enemy they were targeting. When the 214.5-meter-long, two-seater quadruple main gun appeared on the New York, all the audience, including George VI, gave warm applause and praise.

"Damn Frenchmen, are they deliberately humiliating us?" Seeing the brand-new French battleship proudly passing through the strait, David, who was standing on the deck, couldn't help but curse in a low voice. To know. The French ships were built to counter the German class, and their tonnage, firepower, and armor were much higher than the latter, and the German Navy sent the Deutsche Spee to participate in the parade. Although the two sides may be on par in terms of actual speed, the speed of the German-class has always been classified as top secret by its own navy, and it is claimed to be only 27 knots. If it were not for this, the lie of the ship's standard displacement of 10,000 tons would have been exposed almost immediately.

Fang Yan smiled slightly, and his thin lips moved: "David, the Chinese have a saying called muffled to make a fortune, this is the best." Although the French won superficial applause today, the situation of their latest capital ship was also exposed to the eyes of the world. I can see that they are not equipped with radars on the bridge. Anti-aircraft firepower is also very weak, and these two items are far inferior to our warships. And the pride of the French is only these two years. Our new battleship will soon be launched, and it will be completed by the summer of the following year; At that time, the ship of the French today was in front of her, like the difference between a hyena and a tiger. ”

"Jonas, you must know the performance indicators of this new class of battleships, right?" David's eyes suddenly lit up, and his voice raised a few points. He remembered that his classmate was a famous designer in the shipbuilding industry. Since the construction of the Königsberg-class heavy cruise 11 years ago, it has made an irreplaceable contribution to the improvement of the performance of naval ships. If it weren't for his guidance, the indicators of the German Navy's gunboats and aircraft carriers would have been several levels worse than the current ones!

Fang Yan smiled bitterly. "David, it's not that I want to keep it a secret from you this time, it's that I really don't know anything about the battleship. The private proposal I originally proposed to the Navy Headquarters was 30,000 tons, which was intended to save a sum of money for the construction of the aircraft carrier; But the Navy Headquarters vetoed my plan. It was considered that its tonnage did not reflect the superiority of the German nation. I may have to wait until the day the first ship was launched to find out. The only thing I know now is that her performance may be far beyond your imagination. ”

In the exchange between the two. The Spee Pocket Patrol slowly approached George VI's cruise ship. Seeing that the supreme head of the enemy country was just a stone's throw away, Fang Yan suddenly burst out with the urge to use the ship's 283 mm cannon to carry out the decapitation operation. However, seeing the more than a hundred British battleships behind the other party, Fang Yan still pressed this crazy idea with interest; He took a deep breath, saluting his future foe as he stared intently at the British warship behind him.

Nelson, Queen Elizabeth, Revenge, Hood...... The British capital ships anchored in the strait like floating islands in the sea, their thick and majestic barrels pointing up to the sky, and their sailors proudly watched the foreign visitors passing in front of the British king. These are the enemies that Fang Yan and the German Navy will face in the next two years. However, compared to the pride faintly revealed by the British in joy, the corners of Fang Yan's mouth pulled up a different sneer with ridicule.

At present, the tactical basis of the British Navy is still based on battleships, and all the funds that have been deducted from the cabinet are used to feed these "wives" first. HMS Malaya and HMS War Weary have completed two major rebuilds, and the Queen Elizabeth and HMS Warrior, both of which belong to the first class, will return to the shipyard this year for a "second refit".

However, these fast battleships, which were known for their speed in World War I, were not as fast as they were when refitted: due to limited power growth and too much tonnage increase, the speed of the Queen dropped from 24 knots to 23.5 knots, which is comparable to that of the Nelson class. In the coming naval warfare of the new era, high speed has become a necessary element for the survival of battleships: turtle ships can not coordinate with high-speed ships to reach the predetermined area in time, and can not effectively avoid torpedo bomb strikes from the air, and can only become foodies who waste fuel bombs in the end.

As for the revenge class, which has a speed of only 21 knots, it is even more unable to fight in the front-line battle zone. The Queen-class has been equipped with underwater anti-mine protrusions, and the horizontal protection has been significantly thickened compared with 20 years ago, and the ability to carry bombs and torpedoes has been greatly improved; The Vengeance class is the same from beginning to end, and their poor underwater protection, thin horizontal armor, and extremely low GM value make them as vulnerable as paper under the threat of the air!

Therefore, although Britain now has 12 battleships, they are all paper tigers with no firepower. The only real threat to the German fleet was the three high-speed cruisers and the five George V-class battleships under construction. However, even so, they have shortcomings of one kind or another. 3 old battlecruisers were weakly armored, and even the prestige of the Hood and the overhaul could not withstand battleship-class shells; The construction of the five George V-class ships was too long to exert their might in the first year of the war. Historically, this ship, which had been under construction since New Year's Day in 1937, was not gradually commissioned until the end of 1940; If the German Scharnhorst-class had been regular high-speed battleships, Britain's maritime pressure would have increased several times before 1941.

In fact, the reason why Britain in the historical plane was able to suppress the surface ships of the German Navy in World War II was because of the strongest backing of aircraft carriers. Although the British Navy's aircraft were extremely bad compared to the land-based air force, the German Navy did not have a single aircraft carrier to match it; And the performance of the 37mm hand-pulled anti-aircraft gun was even more clumsy, which gave the Swordfish, a slow-moving biplane, an opportunity to establish meritorious service. In addition, the Luftwaffe was almost entirely short-legged and lacked coordination with the Navy; All these tragedies led to the final defeat of the German Navy's surface warfare, and directly led to the fact that 70% of the lone submarine force was killed at the bottom of the Atlantic.

However, in this plane, these historical regrets are gone. The German Navy is about to have its own regular battleships, and its aviation combat power is already far superior to that of Britain: even if it is only three Hipper-class light aircraft carriers, its carrying capacity, engine capacity, and defense power are far from being comparable to the three British 22,500-ton fleet aircraft carriers that were converted from "shhhhhhhhh The length of the latter's flight deck is only 180~195 meters, and the horizontal armor is only 25 mm. Considering the tragic carrier-based aircraft of the British Navy, if we really want to fight, the German aircraft carrier will have an absolute advantage in all fields!

However, even so, Fang Yan still didn't feel completely satisfied in his heart. Although Germany's greatest enemy in Europe is Britain, its most dangerous enemy in a future war is the United States; Considering the many variables and uncertainties in the aircraft carrier engagement, Fang Yan felt that it was necessary to minimize the losses of the German Navy in the war against Britain as much as possible. Thinking of Taranto and Pearl Harbor, Fang Yan's mind suddenly burst into an unprecedented thought; His hands were clenched into fists, and there was already a certain determination and brightness in his eyes.

"The capital ships of the High Seas Fleet have been soaking in icy waters for 20 years, and they must be so lonely that they are going crazy." Fang Yan looked at the brazen British ships in front of him, and muttered in a voice that only he could hear, "If there are some enemies who can go down to accompany them, I believe this will definitely be the best comfort for these loyal soldiers." (To be continued.) )