After a battleship had finished at a distance of 5,000 meters, the French and Americans, who could only watch the British show their skills, could not sit still, on the one hand, they were shocked by the excellent gunnery displayed by the British, and on the other hand, they wanted to hurry up and show the British how to show them.

As soon as the second subject, the cruiser's 3,000-meter mid-range shelling, began, the German cruiser at the head immediately accelerated, adjusted its course to close the distance between it and the second group of targets, but in order to take care of the Portio, which was the slowest in the formation, the speed was only increased to 19 knots.

The 6 cruisers all showed good acceleration performance, and the short distance of 4,000 meters between the second group of targets was fleeting, and when it was shortened to 3,000 meters, it was also the distance that the Europeans thought that the medium-caliber rapid-fire guns could play the most effective role after summing up the Sino-Japanese War.

6 210 mm naval guns and 4 150 mm naval guns immediately made the target surrounded by a column of water, but the advantage of the German cruisers in the arrangement of firepower was not very obvious at this moment, the New York-class broadside firepower of the Americans was 6 203 mm and 6 127 mm, the Russians were 6 203 mm and 6 152 mm, the Italians were 2 254 mm and 5 152 mm, and the French were 2 194 mm and 5 138.

Therefore, the Americans, who had taken advantage of the rate of fire of the secondary guns, made a big show, and the water column around the target was nearly twice as large as that of the others, and the other ships were not to be outdone.

However, the laymen were lively, the insiders watched the doorway, and the British who watched from the sidelines still saw something valuable, that is, the Germans' 210 mm naval guns actually had the same rate of fire as their 150 mm naval guns in 12 seconds, even if this is the ultimate rate of fire, the rate of fire in a long artillery battle will definitely not last long, but this is still neither unscientific nor magical!

The 254-mm naval guns of the Italians, who have the slowest rate of fire in the queue now, can only fire one shot in 40 seconds, while the fastest 203-mm naval guns of the Americans, except for the Germans, only have one shot in 25 seconds. Although the Germans had a smaller number of 150 mm naval guns, the number of water columns around the target was not much different, ah, we will ignore the forced rate of fire of the Americans' 127 mm guns, but if you calculate the projection, the Germans did have a higher projection per unit time!

Moreover, the power of 210-mm naval guns is also much higher than that of medium-caliber rapid-fire guns of the lower 5-inch class, and it is not fun to be smashed by 210-mm shells at medium and close range.

Perhaps it was God's favor that it was the American Brooklyn who was the first to hit the hit, but all countries prefer to believe that it was these Yankees who were able to fire a shell in 5 seconds and the 127mm cannon was able to hit the ground running.

It was the Germans who got the hit next, then the French, then the Italians, and the Russians were very embarrassed, the Russians' 6-inch naval guns had a high rate of fire, and the rate of fire at 7 per minute was the top in the 6-inch naval guns at this time, and now the Italians were all hitting before themselves, which made the Russians' faces very uncomfortable.

However, being fired by so many rapid-fire guns at this distance, the poor targets didn't last long before they all turned into sawdust floating on the sea, so the Russians' faces looked much better, anyway, I had already destroyed the corpses of the targets, and it was a matter of luck that was worse than the Italians, and it must be a matter of luck.

At the end of the live-fire exercise, the ships were regrouped, and then they joined up with the ships to return to Wilhelmshaven, but after this exercise, the naval officers of various countries had some thoughts and opinions in their hearts, and their reports after returning home may play a little guiding role in the construction of their own navy, which is also what Jochen did not expect.

On the last night of the Kiel Canal Navigation Celebration, the German Navy held a grand banquet in Wilhelmshaven to bid farewell to the officials and naval officers and sailors of various countries who had come to attend the celebration. At the banquet, the British began to talk to their German counterparts in a roundabout way, trying to know the secret of the rate of fire of the Germans' naval guns, but they were only persuaded by the Germans with smiles and enthusiasm.

In this way, the British, without getting any mouth, returned to England the next day.

Upon their return, the British naval officers and men submitted a report detailing all of their trip to Germany, which attracted the attention of the British.

On the one hand, the joint exercise allowed for a closer assessment of the level of the French and American navies, and on the other hand, it aroused great interest in the German gunnery ideas.

Admiral Frederick Richards, First Admiral of the Royal Navy, paid a special visit to William Henry White, the Director of Shipbuilding of the Royal Navy, who was knighted in 1895 for designing the best ships of the Royal Navy, such as the Sovereign and Majestic classes.

Frederick sat face-to-face with William in William's office with black tea, enjoying a leisurely afternoon tea time, "Sir Sir, you should have heard of the German Navy's performance in this joint exercise, right?" After chatting on some inconsequential topics, Frederick asked about the main purpose of the trip.

"Yes, I've heard that the Germans' ship watches are pretty good, but in my opinion, the Germans' designs don't have much value for us." William said with some disapproval.

Seeing Frederick's expression of interest, William explained: "It is true that the main guns of the German battleships have a much higher rate of fire than our naval guns, but the gap between them and our naval guns in terms of accuracy, range and power is still obvious.

A shot of 5,000 meters is indeed a long-range shot, and the fact that the Germans were able to score such a result is indeed a sign of the rapid improvement of their gunnery skills, but it is not impossible for us to shell at a greater distance (Note 1).

Moreover, now it is just to hit the target in good sea conditions, and in actual combat in a harsh environment, the accuracy advantage of our naval guns will be more obvious, so we have the initiative in the choice of combat distance. ”

"You mean that such a design of the Germans is not desirable for us?" Frederick asked.

"Yes, it's not desirable, we don't have to give up our advantages to learn from the Germans, but that doesn't mean that some of the Germans' design ideas don't have the value of learning." William said slowly: "As we all know, the Sino-Japanese War had a very important impact on the design of ships in Europe, and the same is true for our country.

At the beginning, your Admiralty demanded a substantial increase in the number of secondary guns to make up for the slow rate of fire and insufficient projection capability of the main guns, and even proposed to abolish the large-caliber main guns and install 6-inch guns uniformly to win with the rate of fire.

But when the number and rate of fire of our 6-inch naval guns were sufficient, there was a lack of power, but the approach of the Germans gave me a new idea. Although we are not prepared to lower the caliber of our main guns, we can use our brains on the secondary guns. ”

"Sub-artillery?" Frederick was a little confused.

"Yes, secondary guns, now we are facing the problem that the 6-inch naval guns are not powerful enough, and the 12-inch naval guns are too slow to fire, so at a distance of 3000-5000 meters we need a gun with a higher rate of fire than the 12-inch naval gun, more powerful than the 6-inch naval gun, which can cause damage to enemy battleships, and the rate of fire can threaten the naval guns of high-speed cruisers.

This kind of naval gun, which can cause damage to enemy battleships and has a caliber smaller than the main gun, I call it a secondary main gun, unlike the Germans, who regarded the secondary main gun as the only firepower, and we only used the secondary main gun as a supplement to the primary gun.

The tonnage of our battleships is also far superior to that of the Germans, so I think we can install 4 12-inch first-class guns and 8 second-class guns above 8 inches at the same time, so that in the artillery battle we can put in 4 12-inch naval guns, 4 8-inch and above naval guns, and still overwhelm the Germans in terms of firepower 6 10-inch guns. ”

"If you install a 10-inch class secondary gun like the Germans, the displacement of the ship will exceed the standard, and our 10-inch guns will not have the same rate of fire as the Germans. And I really can't imagine how the Germans managed to bring their 8.3-inch naval guns to a rate of fire of 5 rounds per minute. Frederick said in a tangled voice.

"As you said, the installation of 10-inch naval guns does put a lot of burden on the displacement of the ship, and the rate of fire of our current Mark.VI-type 10-inch guns is not as good as that of the 12-inch naval guns of the Majesty class, so I am not prepared to use 10-inch naval guns.

I don't know how the Germans managed to make their guns so fast, but we have a good option, and the Mark.IX 9.2-inch gun, which was developed in 1895, should be ready for use next year.

It also had a rate of fire of 3-4 rounds per minute, and the shells were more powerful than the Germans' 8.3-inch guns, and the weight was within the range of our battleship's displacement, which was quite in line with our requirements, so I was going to use it as a secondary gun to design a new battleship. William said confidently.

At this time, the old man star of the British Royal Navy was almost completed, the Dreadnought class began to be launched one after another, the London class had already been put on the slipway, and the new battleship that William said was naturally the future Duncan class.

The flapping of butterfly wings during a joint exercise allowed the British to enter the era of secondary artillery two years ahead of schedule. R1152