On December 3, in Wilhelmshaven, the five newest battleships of the German Navy were nervously swarming steam, and the lead ship named after the German Emperor Frederick III succeeded the Brandenburg as the flagship of the newly formed Ocean Fleet. Kaiser Wilhelm the Great and the third ship, Caesar? The Karl the Great was completed in June and October, but they needed six months of training in the Baltic Sea before they could join the Ocean Fleet.

At this time, the German Navy could not even make up the size of a battleship fleet, but this did not reduce the praise of these warships, and in the few days when the countries were invited to participate in the celebrations and the navies of the countries exchanged with each other, the beautiful appearance of the German warships was greatly praised, and today, these battleships of the German Navy will show their performance in front of the countries.

The countries invited to visit the celebration include the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the United States, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The Germans, who felt that the parade alone seemed not grand enough, decided to hold a joint drill with the intention of strengthening the atmosphere of "friendship and cooperation" between the countries.

The Russians sent the German-built armored cruiser Grombowie for Russia, which was supposed to be sent to the Far East to strengthen the Tsarist Pacific Fleet, but the Russians' poor shipbuilding capabilities were difficult to replicate even after obtaining a complete set of design drawings from the Germans.

As a last resort, the Russians had no choice but to leave the Grombowie in the Baltic Sea for Russian shipyards to use as a physical reference, and then revise and modify the German plans. to complete the version he could build, so this time the Grombowie was sent.

The French sent the Portio, the only cutting-edge armored cruiser that the French could get their hands on before their 11,000-ton armored cruiser, the Joan of Arc, was commissioned.

The Americans sent the USS Brooklyn, which showed its skills in the Spanish-American War, and the Italians sent Giuseppe, the lead ship of the excellent Garibaldi class, naturally? Garibaldi.

In contrast, the British were much more pompous, they came with 2 ships, and the British came with the latest majestic class battleships.

This is also something that cannot be helped, the British, who have been out of gear in the field of armored cruisers for 13 years, only began to build the 12,000-ton armored cruiser Cressy class last year. At this time, the armored cruisers in the hands of the Royal Navy were still Orlando-class, which had been started in 1885. I really can't do it.

It stands to reason that in this kind of celebration, all countries sent cruiser-class ships to save face, and the British as guests sent two first-class battleships seemed to be a bit of a bully, which made the German Navy look very unhappy.

But Jochen felt that the British were already very face-saving. Historically, the Kiel Canal was opened in 1896. The Russians sent the Rurik (first generation). The French sent Dubouil? Morality? The Lom, which the Americans sent to the New York, were all ships of the armored cruiser class. The British sent 4 Sovereign-class battleships to "cheer up".

This time only 2 majestic ships came, and Jochen said with some self-deprecation that the British had given the Germans a lot of face this time. The actions of the British that followed seemed to prove this. It is estimated that the unhappiness between Britain and France and the United States during this period made the British want to find a place here, and this dismount was also for the French and Americans to see, and these British officers and soldiers were much more cordial and friendly to their German counterparts.

However, the German Navy and Navy were still quite unhappy with this, so this joint exercise of 5 battleships and 2 armored cruisers went into battle together, determined to let the British take a good look, not to take us seriously, and not to run to my land if you want to show your might to the French and Americans.

Due to the limitations of the performance and type of ships, only ships from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and Italy were included in the exercise, while ships from other countries were used as protocol ships to observe the exercise.

The German armored cruisers using water-tube boilers were the first to leave the port, and it only took 50 minutes to light a fire, which gave them the ability to make extremely fast sorties, followed by 5 battleships, 1 small cruiser, and 8 destroyers, and then the visiting ships of various countries also sailed out of the channel, into the mouth of the Elbe, and then to the Gulf of Helgoland.

As the sea gradually opened up, the originally huge formation began to disperse, the ships participating in the exercise began to line up, and the accompanying spectator ships broke away from the large force, and Frederick III's Hohenzollern, escorted by a small cruiser, led the observation ships to the predetermined observation area.

Five German battleships and two British battleships lined up in a battle line, while six cruisers from Germany, Russia, France, Italy, and the United States also lined up in a column on the right side of the battlefleet, and the whole fleet formed a compound formation. The 8 German destroyers also accelerated forward in a compound formation to form an outpost.

In order to avoid too much unpleasantness between the joint exercises, Jochen deliberately discussed with Tirpitz, who was the planner of the exercise, and decided to carry out the cooperation project of sailing in formation and changing the formation first, while the live fire was put to the end.

Formation navigation and formation changes were really not a difficult thing for the navies of these powers, and they did not play any too difficult formations, turning sharply to the complex longitudinal center that the British Mediterranean Fleet had lost in 1893 and turning 180 degrees as a result, the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, the Victoria, was sunk, the Campbell was seriously injured, and the fleet commander Tryon was shipwrecked.

Even if everyone has never cooperated with each other, through the guò flag language and light signals, the ships of various countries are still decent in the exercise.

The British wanted to show the majesty of the Royal Navy of the British Empire to the clowns who dared to kidnap the tiger's whiskers, while Russia, France, and the United States wanted to let the annoying British know. We are not easy to provoke, so the effect of enhancing cooperation is completely absent.

These guys, who are afraid that the world will not be chaotic, are all gearing up to show their skills in the live shooting session, and all of them have a competitive mentality that wants to be a long time.

In the predetermined sea, a set of white targets towed by a ship were waiting there.

Without the knowledge of the navies of other countries, from the flagship Caesar? The radio waves emitted by the Frederick III were transmitted to each other among the German warships.

At the very beginning of the design, it was envisaged that Caesar, who would for quite some time be the general flagship of the Ocean Fleet? Frederick III, the most electrified warship in the German Navy, considered the need for radio communication between fleets from the beginning, and while retaining the ship's microphone, it also experimented with an in-board telephone.

Although there is no research on the sound phone that does not worry about power outages. But at this time Caesar? The communications capabilities of the Frederick III are absolutely unrivalled in the world.

In Caesar? Directly below the heavily armored command tower of the Frederick III was a specially designed radio transceiver. And now it's busy giving orders to the ships.

Before the flags and light signals were transmitted, the five German battleships were ready, and the Germans were already superior to the tried-and-tested British in terms of coalition capabilities.

Caesar? The Mast of the Frederick III was hoisted with a "one qiē ready" signal flag, and the Hohenzollern responded with a bright red starting flag. The live-fire drill at sea officially began.

The Germans wanted to be able to show themselves well this time. As soon as I came up, I took a 5,000-meter long-distance shooting subject. Caesar? The bow guns of the Frederick III opened fire first, followed by a roar of 28 guns from five battleships.

Visibility in the Gulf of Helgoland at this time is so good that an ordinary telescope is enough to tell what is happening in the distance. The 30 jets of water are so spectacular that it's impossible to hit them with the first shot. These water jets are also more than 20 meters away from the slow-moving target.

On the other hand, the British, the 305 mm guns of the Majesty class surpassed the 260 mm guns of the Germans in terms of shell weight and flight stability, which gave the British, who had the advantage in naval gun caliber from the beginning, a big advantage in long-range shooting.

Although the rate of fire was slow, the excellent level of training of the British was evident from the beginning, although the Germans had already fired the third round when the British fired the second round of shelling 100 seconds later, but the appearance of the pinch shells in the second round of the British shelling (Note 1) really surprised everyone, although this was luck, but it was also the luck of the British, who had a high level of training and excellent artillery ballistics.

This situation was also expected by the Germans, although the Germans had been trying for several years to carry out a new way of firing a half-gun salvo-calibration-half-artillery salvo-calibration-a pinch shot-effectiveness firing under the guidance of the firing command room, and it was also a little fruitful.

However, the 260 mm naval guns used by the German Navy at this time had an extremely high rate of fire, so in the Brandenburg class and the Kaiser? The use of the rate of fire on the Frederick III class to wash the opposing deck was still the focus of training.

So now the Germans did not expose their salvo ability to others, but still shelled in the traditional way of free fire from each gun, so it is normal for the hit rate to be unsatisfactory. However, the rate of fire can make up for this problem, and this is not the kind of ultra-long-range shooting that can easily reach tens of thousands of meters in the future, and the naval guns at a distance of 5,000 meters are simply flat fire. The commander of each main gun will make a slight tweak after reloading to fire the next round of shelling.

The Germans' rate of fire superiority was evident at this moment, and while the British fired a fourth round of shelling and got hits, the Germans also hit nine rounds of shelling.

The navies of all countries were concerned about the high-precision shooting of the two British battleships, but the Germans' watch also attracted the attention of many people, although the Germans were calculated to have much worse accuracy than the British, but they also achieved hits in a similar time, and in the following time they had a higher number of hits than the British.

If there is no accuracy, the rate of fire is used, although the use of rapid-fire guns to obtain the advantage of projection was widely accepted by the Great Powers after the Sino-Japanese War, but now the Germans have shown the application of the 10-inch class of the main gun to give everyone a new idea. (To be continued......)

PS: Note 1: Clamp fork bomb is commonly referred to as straddle shooting, but the term clip fork bullet is more accurate.