"We dropped a total of 56 250-kilogram bombs on Frederick the Great, with 5 hits and 2 close misses, including 1 unexploded. Most of the bombs hit penetrated multiple decks, and the unexploded bombs smashed into the boiler room, and if this bomb exploded, it would basically guarantee the complete destruction of the entire power compartment. Tirpitz stood in front of Jochen and reported.

A week after the trials, Frederick the Great not only presented the world with a great show, but also brought the German Navy an extremely valuable number of tests. Since Jochen demanded that the conclusions of the test be reported to him, Tirpitz appeared in the Charlottenburg Palace as soon as the preliminary conclusion report was released.

"That is, in fact, 250 kg of bombs was enough to cause damage to the core compartment of Frederick the Great to completely destroy?" Jochen said.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Frederick the Great is only an old ironclad ship after all, and it has no horizontal protection capabilities, so 250 kg of bombs can already cause considerable damage." Tirpitz replied: "However, we have calculated that a 250-kilogram bomb should be capable of penetrating about 50 mm of horizontal armor. ”

"In other words, in the face of attacks from above, most of our current active ships have insufficient horizontal protection, except for the heavy cruisers under construction, even the horizontal protection of the German class is slightly insufficient, right?" Jochen asked.

"You're right, Your Majesty." Tirpitz was a little embarrassed: "However, the German-class armor deck is protected by a protective deck, so it is unlikely that the bomb will threaten the core compartment." In addition, if it is an artillery shell, if you want to attack the horizontal armor of the battleship, you need to fire at a very long distance, so I am afraid that the hit rate is not ideal. ”

"Ten years ago, our navy's artillery training of 5,000 meters was considered long-range shelling, and after 10 years we have doubled that number, so maybe in another 10 years it will double again. If we are not prepared, then horizontal protection will become the biggest weakness on the battleship. "A 250-kilogram bomb may not threaten the core compartment, but the British 305-millimeter shells may be, and our own 305-millimeter shells have already weighed 450 kilograms, and the British must not be much different." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." No one can say what the future holds. However, the emperor's vision of the navy was already a foregone conclusion, and it was not a bad thing to ask for a stronger level of protection, so Tirpitz agreed.

When the British opened fire at a distance of 20,000 meters, the Germans' naval guns with insufficient elevation angles could only watch and could not return fire. Although the British shelling was not accurate at this distance, after all, even in World War II, the farthest hit record in the mobile engagement was only the 23-kilometer hit made by the legendary old ship of the Royal Navy.

However, although the Germans, who underestimated the range, quickly increased the elevation angle of the naval guns, their horizontal protection was very helpless. Although the British were fired in three cannon battles in the Battle of Jutland, the state of the German ships was actually quite miserable. Almost all the turrets of Hipper's battle cruiser fleet were destroyed, and if it weren't for the Germans' improved ammunition lifting channels, they would have ended up in the same fate as their British counterparts. And the only lost battlecruiser Lützov was mainly in the bow of the ship, which was penetrated by 305-mm shells from top to bottom, and a large amount of water was flooded.

It would also be a good thing to take this opportunity to knock the Germans and make them pay more attention to horizontal protection. Strengthened horizontal protection would add much more weight than broadside protection, and the Navy's designers would soon be faced with the dilemma that the weight could not be increased indefinitely, and the concept of focused protection had already been handed over to them, and there was a physical test of a high-speed battleship to verify it. It is believed that it is only natural that the key protection design idea can be applied to other ships.

"Go on." Jochen nodded.

"On the second day's test, we dropped five 450-kilogram bombs on Frederick the Great. One hit, according to the regulations, the test was then suspended so that the personnel could board the ship again to record the test results, which proved that the boiler room of the Frederick the Great was completely flooded, and it had affected the engine room, and the engine room of the guide zhì began to slowly enter the water.

And all airships returned to reload with 900 kg bombs. Two hours later, the experiment began again, and a total of 24 900-kilogram bombs were dropped on Frederick the Great, hitting 3 and 1 missing.

Frederick the Great had a stern roll when the second bomb was hit, and foam began to appear on both sides of the ship when the third bomb was hit, indicating that the ship's engine room had cracked. The hull of the ship began to enter the water strictly, and although the close misses did not hit, the destructive power expanded the speed of the port side of the water, and the guide hull quickly tilted to the left and finally the guide capsized. Tirpitz reported: "Based on the actual results, we believe that 450 kg of bombs is enough to cause serious damage to the battleship and to sink the battleship, while the power of 900 kg of bombs is somewhat excessive." ”

"In other words, at least so far, 450 kilograms of bombs are enough to fatally damage our ships in service and under construction, right?" Jochen asked.

"That's true, Your Majesty." Tirpitz replied respectfully: "Although the after-effect of the bomb charge is much greater than that of the shell, and the angle of penetration of the shell is very different from that of the vertically falling bomb, this test still brings us a very valuable number."

This is only a preliminary conclusion, and we will continue to make more careful calculations, but the conclusions reached can already provide a relatively clear idea of the power requirements of the next type of naval gun of the Navy and the improvement of the protection design of the warship. ”

After the target shooting of the Saxony that year, there was a demand for naval guns with larger caliber and heavier shells within the German Navy, so various ideas emerged, and proposals from 320 mm to 410 mm were all available, but none of them were conclusive. Out of the preference for smaller-caliber naval guns and the difficulty of developing large-caliber naval guns, most people still appreciate calibers below 350 mm.

However, because Krupp was developing a 283-mm 53.22-diameter naval gun at that time, and Skoda was developing a 305-mm 50-diameter naval gun, there was no time to develop something with a larger caliber, so although this matter was debated within the navy, it didn't matter.

But now that Krupp's new naval guns have been completed, and Skoda's new naval guns have only one last step left, and both naval guns have been determined as the main guns of the two types of warships that have already started, then the development of the next type of naval guns will naturally be put on the agenda.

"So what's your idea? Alfred? Jochen asked with a smile.

"I think the caliber of the next new naval gun should be 350 mm, the weight of the shell should be more than 600 kg, and the muzzle velocity should be able to reach the level of the 283 mm 45 times the diameter of the current German gun, which should be enough to deal with the threat in the next 10 years." Tirpitz said.

Tirpitz's judgment was very reasonable, the power of the German shells using the hard cap was already one level stronger than the British naval guns before the use of the green bullets, and if the muzzle velocity could be guaranteed to reach a higher level, there was no problem that the 350 mm naval guns were more powerful than the British 381 mm naval guns.

Historically, the 356 mm 50 times diameter naval guns that the Americans have been equipped with since the New Mexico class are more powerful than the 380 mm 45 times diameter (42 times diameter of the British standard) naval guns of the German Bavaria-class battleships.

But if the performance number is not announced, in fact, everyone has no bottom in their hearts, and the arms race is often a thing that you have, regardless of the actual performance, at least on paper, you have it, I have it, and I still have to have what you don't have.

Therefore, Jochen, who knew that the British would soon develop a 343-mm naval gun, and that it might even be already developing, and that it would not be long before a 381-mm naval gun would be developed, felt that it would be difficult for the Germans to sit still and watch the caliber of the British's naval guns be one level larger than their own, even if Jochen knew that in terms of performance, it was actually his own.

"Alfred, what do you think about the firepower layout of the battleships that we are preparing to build this year?" Jochen suddenly asked a question that seemed completely irrelevant.

Tirpitz was stunned for a moment and immediately replied: "Masterpiece, Sigfred's design is very novel, but it is very good, the firepower of the whole ship has increased by 50%, but the weight increase is far below this level, compared with the previous design, the weight is saved by about 15%, and it will not affect the firing range of the turret." With this design, our battleship will overwhelm the new ships of the British in firepower. ”

Tirpitz still appreciates Poper's new design.

Fearing that Poper would be almost blind by the end of the design process due to overwork as in history, Jochen asked his chief designer to take a break and reduce his workload after the German-class design was completed. As the head of the naval designers, he was only responsible for the overall review and final review, and only some very innovative designs required him to work on them himself, so in fact the battleships and heavy cruisers that had just started construction last year were not made by Boper.

However, in response to the German Navy's request to continue to improve the firepower of the battleship, Poper finally took matters into his own hands and completed the design of a new battleship to be built in 1908, and this design bears a huge resemblance to his classic works in history.

"Well, Alfred, you should also know that in order to achieve this design, the diameter of the turret seat of the battleship was increased, the turret rotation torque was also increased a lot, and the rotation rate was also affected to a certain extent, of course, such a small flaw did not matter for the increase in firepower of the whole ship.

But if we use a 350 mm naval gun, if we still use the same turret layout, we may not increase but decrease our projection ability per unit time, right? And now the diameter of this turret seat can fully withstand a larger caliber naval gun, right? (To be continued......)