With a bitter sea breeze and raging waves, the Nuremberg, with a full displacement of 9,300 tons, cleaves the waves in the noisy ocean and sails quickly along the planned route. Looking from the navigation room, the bow of the ship rushed out of the vast water waves as white as silver, like two waterfalls spraying into the sky on the left and right sides; This vast and pleasing momentum is enough to make everyone who witnesses this scene feel the excitement of the German Navy!

"The speed is 27.5 knots, and there is no wave in the bow." Fang Yan looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction, and there was a trace of joy and pride in the depths of his eyes. In order to make this class of cruiser have the ability to conquer the ocean, Fang Yan focused on improving its ocean-going navigation performance at the beginning of the design: its bow freeboard height can still be 7.5 meters under a full load draft, and the longitudinal backward shift of the center of gravity of the whole ship is also conducive to the bow of the ship to be raised proudly in bad wind and waves. At this moment, Fang Yan's technique has been put to the test, although the roll of the hull is a little too large due to the reduction of the width of the deck on the water, but for the sailors who use the sea as their companion, this shaking is nothing at all.

After more than ten days of sailing, Nuremberg and the ships entered the North Atlantic through the Danish Strait, where drift ice was floating and sinking, and entered the North Atlantic on a route that was completely equivalent to actual combat. The warships immediately launched a series of joint exercises, such as replenishment at sea, reconnaissance and search, and attack on the enemy. In the process, despite the all-out efforts of the 5,000 naval officers and men, many problems were exposed, which made the Grandis, who commanded the fleet, grim; Fortunately, however, this was not a real battle, and they still had plenty of time to make relevant improvements to the operational command and the quality of the personnel.

With the advancement of the diplomatic breakthrough exercise, the importance of aircraft has also been reflected more and more profoundly. In the vast ocean stretching thousands of nautical miles, the reconnaissance range of a single surface ship is as insignificant as a grain of rice in a football field; Only with the help of aircraft can it have a subtle dispersal effect on the thick fog of the battlefield. And the number of aircraft is also a very important factor. Because as the distance increases, the total area requiring aircraft reconnaissance will also increase sharply in a squared trend; Those artillery-type warships, which can only carry a total of several seaplanes, are simply not able to carry out effective reconnaissance coverage of the target sea area. You must know that the planes of this era absolutely do not have the large-scale search radar of later generations, and the targets found are all dependent on the visual inspection of the pilot, which makes the reconnaissance range of the aircraft linear, and in order to achieve a plane search, it is necessary to have sufficient quantity.

In addition, the convenience of aircraft in artillery firing and attack on merchant ships was also fully demonstrated in the exercise. Originally, Grandisch also complained that the construction share of 2 armored ships was replaced by 2 aircraft carriers, but at this moment, he was already looking forward to the completion and service of 2 aircraft carriers. It is true that the overall sea conditions in the North Atlantic are much worse than those in other sea areas, but seaplanes are still allowed to fly most of the time, let alone regular carrier-based aircraft taking off and landing from flight decks at an altitude of more than 10 meters. What's more, the battleship can also avoid the storm area to a limited extent, all of which makes the aircraft carrier have a lot to do in this sea area!

At the same time, Fang Yan's professionalism has also grown rapidly. The operation and maintenance of naval guns, torpedoes, boilers, main engines, electrical equipment, as well as communication services such as radio and semaphore flags have greatly enriched his experience, and have truly expanded his nautical expertise from navigation, steering, and nautical charts to the overall planning of the whole ship. The logistics management and damage management and rescue on the warship also benefited Fang Yan a lot; A second officer who is proficient in both of these can keep the warship and sailors in top condition and minimize damage in battle. Fang Yan felt with joy that if he could sharpen himself in this position for two years, then he would be able to achieve the second sublimation of his professional ability and lay a solid foundation for his future combat command.

The howling sea breeze grew colder, and at the end of 1930, German naval officers and men were training day after day over the North Atlantic. After more than two months of drills, everyone from Commander Grundish to ordinary sailors had a clear grasp of the key points and rhythm of the ocean-going sabotage, and they were all proficient in dealing with various situations. If a Franco-German war breaks out at this time, these 6 light cruisers, with the support of supply ships, will be able to launch a mastery attack on France's North Atlantic route, so that the other side can feel the pain of suffocation by the rope!

Naturally, this exercise of the German Navy did not hide from the eyes and ears of neighboring Britain and France. In fact, the German navy, under the pressure of the Treaty of Versailles, had no intention of concealing this ocean-going training from Britain and France; In order to avoid a larger diplomatic dispute, Raeder officially informed the other party from the beginning that he was going to hold exercises on the high seas. And as the exercises continued, very different attitudes emerged within Britain and France.

For Britain, the limited recovery of the German Navy is undoubtedly what it would be happy to see. Because this can play a role in containing France, the current pattern of Western Europe is gradually deflected in the direction of the ideal balance of power. Although the theme of the German Navy's exercise was the most threatening breach of diplomatic relations with Britain, Britain was still calm enough: with the grace of its predecessors, the Royal Navy today is still the largest armed force in the Atlantic, and it is impossible for the six cruisers of the German Navy to make any waves under their encirclement.

Even the German-class battleships, armed with eight 11-inch guns and capable of reaching a speed of 27 knots (a figure released by the German Navy), entered service and joined the ranks of breaking diplomatic relations, the British did not think there was anything to fear. The Royal Navy currently has three battle cruisers armed with 15-inch guns, all of which can reach speeds of up to 31 knots, and 15 new high-speed heavy cruisers built after the war are enough to sweep away these sea rogues like a storm. In the present circumstances, Britain had every reason to believe that the German Navy was conducting this exercise for the sole purpose of waging war against France. In fact, all the German naval leaders, including Raeder, also had this intention, but the situation in Europe in 10 years would allow Britain to replace France and suffer all the bitter fruits of sea power.

However, in the eyes of the French, this action of the German Navy was completely intolerable. With only eight heavy cruisers and no high-speed capital ships, the French Navy would pose a major threat to France's Atlantic routes if the other side's Deutschland-class joined the ranks of breaking diplomatic relations. The French top brass realized that in today's situation where Germany is weak and France is strong, it is impossible for Britain to stand on its side and blockade the German Navy as it did in the past, so it can only rely on itself to resist the threat of German fast attack ships!

The French Navy, feeling the pressure, immediately began to counteract. Since it doesn't have a high-speed capital ship that can counterbalance the German class, it will build a few new ones to deal with it. According to the contents of the Washington Naval Treaty, France was able to build capital ships from 1924, but it was not implemented because of comprehensive considerations such as international politics, its own economy, and military objective needs. It's clearly time to change course.

After many trade-offs, a plan aimed solely at destroying the Deutschland-class warship was chosen by the French Navy. It has a standard displacement of 27,000 tons, a full load displacement of 33,000 tons, and a design power of 112,500 horsepower, allowing it to sail at speeds of up to 30 knots, enough to catch up with its imaginary enemies after discovering its target. In terms of firepower, the ship is equipped with two quadruple 330mm L50 main guns in the bow of the ship, and the firepower level is three grades higher than that of the German class; This unique turret layout allows it to fire at enemy ships with all its main guns, even in a chase from a small angle.

In order to prevent a backbite from the opponent who jumped over the wall in a hurry, the French also laid a perfect defense for the ship. The 225 mm main armor is tilted 11.5 degrees inwards and has an extremely conscientious height, and the frontal and turret thicknesses of 330 mm and 310 mm are enough to withstand direct fire from 283 mm shells. Taking into account the test of horizontal armor from the growing range of artillery battles, the horizontal protection of the ship is 115 mm + 40 mm, of which the latter is on the same trajectory as the main armor. Although its TDS thickness is only 30 mm, the depth has reached an astonishing 6.5 meters, and the same air-liquid-air three-layer buffer structure makes its actual lightning protection effect absolutely not weak. In all fairness, the French designed this class of warships are already quite good.

The exercises of the German Navy have not yet ended, and the first high-speed capital ship, officially named "Dunkirk" by France, was laid at the Brest shipyard. The construction of another sister ship is also in the pipeline, which is expected to begin in earnest in two years. The French Navy claimed that the Dunkirk was built to replace the dreadnought "France", which sank on the reef in 1922, and that its sister ship was to replace the severely aging "Paris", so as to minimize the turmoil caused by their construction.

However, Italy, which is close to France, could not remain indifferent to this situation. The Italian Navy's capital ships, which were already inferior to their French rivals in terms of quantity and quality, are now being built by France to build new capital ships, which already poses a serious challenge to Italy's maritime security. Italy, which has Libyan oil interests on its own, cannot accept this situation of being pinched above the economic artery; Under the impetus of Mussolini, the development of new battleships for the Italian Navy was also put on the agenda.