"Alfred, you said it to Adolf?" Jochen looked at Tirpitz with an unkind face, he had tried to scare the parliament with the British building new battleships, so as to lay a foundation for himself to propose the second amendment to the "Navy Act", but before he could say anything, he was rejected by Machar: "How could Adolf still refuse me without saying anything, and I said, 'It is impossible to continue to increase the funding of the navy. ’？ Did the second amendment to the Navy Act become known to Adolf?

"Your Majesty, I'm really sorry, it was the last time I talked to Adolf about the possibility that the Anglo-French alliance might lead to an increase in the maritime pressure we have to face in the North Sea region, so the naval strength needs to be further strengthened, which may make Adolf hear." Tirpitz looked embarrassed, and then said with a sworn look: "But please rest assured, the content of the second amendment has not been leaked. ”

Tirpitz's second amendment to the Navy Act is not small, and if it were to be revealed now, it would be a lot of opposition, so it must be kept secret for now.

Jochen nodded, as long as the plan was not leaked, it is also a fact that the pressure on the German sea is increasing now, and it is normal for the chief of the naval staff to ask for money, and with Tirpitz's character, it is not normal not to want money.

Jochen decided not to delve into this matter further, so he asked the real purpose of summoning Tirpitz today: "Yesterday Adolf told us the judgment of the General Staff of our Navy about the new battleships of the British Royal Navy, and I heard that you think that their new ships are of the same type as our Germans, and although the anomalies of the British show that the new battleships must have undergone a comprehensive technological innovation, what is the basis for the judgment that they belong to the same type as our German class?" ”

Although he knew all the information about the Dreadnought, he only knew because he knew, and he didn't know why the German Navy General Staff would come to such a conclusion, so Jochen was a little curious. There is also a bit of a school entrance examination in it.

"Your Majesty, first of all, because of the tonnage, the displacement of 20,000 tons is 4,000 tons higher than the current Duncan class and Edward VII class of the British Royal Navy, although we do not have the number of Lord Nelson class that is still under construction, but according to the information now known, the basic gap will not be too large.

In other words, the new battleships of the British had a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, which was used to improve the performance on the original basis. This is not a small amount.

The second is the cost, this performance improvement must be very obvious, otherwise the performance has not changed dramatically, with the current British saving conditions, increasing the displacement of 3000 tons is obviously a huge waste, because according to our calculations, conservative estimates, the cost of the new ship relative to the Edward VII class increase of about 20% or more, if the increase in combat performance does not exceed this value. I can only say that the British Admiralty, which approved this design, are fools. Tirpitz analyzed it in a coherent manner.

Jochen nodded, this calculation is basically reliable, the historical Dreadnought cost 1,813,100 pounds, and the Edward VII class cost 1,455,770 pounds, an increase of about 24%, although the current Edward VII is slightly larger than the historical tonnage and slightly stronger firepower, but the basic change is not much, so the conservative estimate of about 20% is basically correct.

Tirpitz nodded in the affirmative at Jochen's sight. So he continued to analyze: "The General Staff of the Navy believes that the new warships of the British must have made a huge improvement in performance. This increase would far outweigh the cost increase that would come with an increase in tonnage, so that the British could now save money, because they could use fewer of these new warships to ensure that their combat effectiveness did not decrease.

And the reason why we believe that it is a unified full-weight main gun battleship is because only in this way can the increased tonnage be maximized.

And then there was the reaction of the British, and it was not permissible for the British not to have the slightest reaction after the Italians unveiled their ideas for the design of battleships of this type.

For this design. The British had excellent gunnery and were bound to find the merits, so even if they had doubts, they should try it, which is why the British now decided not to build a new type of battleship until the new ship was completed. They want to make an assessment.

And if it were to simply add armor or firepower or speed to the original Edward VII or Lord Nelson, then I don't think this cautious mentality is completely necessary, because there is no subversive change in the general idea, and I don't think that just one or two new technology application tests will make the Royal Navy so determined.

So we think that the probability that the new ships of the British should be of the same type as ours in the German class is very high. ”

Tirpitz's analysis is very accurate, Fisher pointed out that the total ammunition on the ship will decrease after the caliber of the gun is unified, and at the same time, the versatility of the gun parts is greatly enhanced, which is conducive to production and maintenance, so the increase in unit price is completely cost-effective compared to the substantial increase in performance.

The appendix to the report of the design committee stated that under the conditions of the envisaged naval battle, four new battleships could deal with six old battleships in broadside engagement, and 12 old battleships in pursuit battles, which was a huge advantage that could greatly reduce the number of ships built.

Therefore, when the above two articles were combined, the Commission specifically stated in its report that "in addition to the obvious advantages of firepower, the cost saving of new designs is the most important reason for their adoption." ”

The Germans' new battleships were hoping to close the gap in strength with the British in limited numbers, but in fact the two had the same effect, so it was normal for the German Navy General Staff to make such an inference. is still the same sentence, and if you have your own horizons, you will be broadened.

"And how is the General Staff of the Navy prepared to respond? Our warships have not yet been built, and the technological superiority is no longer there. Jochen asked, and Tirpitz was expected to be in a hurry to demand an increase in the number of new battleships to be built at once.

But I didn't expect Tirpitz to be very calm: "I don't think there is a need to worry about the new battleships of the British, we now have 6 under construction, and according to the current progress, 2 will be commissioned next year, I think the British will be faster." It's also a year behind us, so there's no need for us to change our pace, and next year we can relax a little bit. ”

Tirpitz's so-called relaxation here means that in 1906 the German Navy did not plan to build any large ships, let the major shipyards that have completed the construction of German-class battleships summarize the experience and problems encountered in the construction process, overhaul the shipyard equipment, and see what needs to be supplemented. The German Navy also needed some time to get used to the new battleships, and then by 1907 the construction of four new battleships would continue.

However, Tirpitz probably did not expect that the British would get the dreadnought out in just 14 months in order to meet the construction deadline, and the news of the launch of the Dreadnought in February next year is estimated to scare the people of the Navy General Staff half to death.

Of course, Tirpitz, who was not in a hurry about the construction of battleships, did not have any other opinion about the Navy's idleness in 1906: "But your Majesty, although we are not in a great hurry on battleships, we are making some slow progress on cruisers, except for the two heavy cruisers that began construction at the beginning of this year. We do not have plans for the construction of heavy cruisers next year and the year after. The new armored cruisers built by the British this time are very likely to pose a huge threat to the heavy cruisers N and O that we are building (note that at this time, the Scharnhorst class has not yet received a ship name, only a construction code), so if we don't continue to build heavy cruisers now, the gap may be reopened by the British. ”

Tirpitz was somewhat apprehensive, and thanks to Jochen's involvement, the British armored cruisers were also very different from their battleships, and only 4 Monmoth-class ships armed with 6-inch guns were built. The Duke of Edinburgh, armed with a 9.2-inch gun, built 6 ships, except for the number of ships. These two classes of armored cruisers are no different from history.

After that, the Warrior class has changed a lot, because since the Elizabeth class, the German Navy's heavy cruisers have maintained the level of 6 210 mm naval guns with side projection firepower, so although equipped with 6 9.2-inch guns, the Edinburgh class with only 4 side projection firepower is still not the ideal armored cruiser for the Royal Navy.

Therefore, the number of 9.2-inch guns continued to increase the number of 9.2-inch guns in the 6 Warrior class built later, so there was a big difference from the historical models, and the original 4 7.5-inch secondary guns on both sides were replaced by 2 9.2-inch main guns, so there were 8 9.2-inch main guns. The broadside projection firepower was 5 doors, and the firepower surpassed the Elizabeth and Bismarck classes and approached the Rohn class.

This naturally attracted the attention of the German Navy, and therefore there was some speculation about the construction of 3 new armored cruisers at the beginning of this year, since the British Royal Navy was still building a small tonnage at this time. Equipped with a 7.5-inch main gun, the Devonshire class was judged by the Navy General Staff to be "cheap", "quantity not quality", and "the lowest in the high and low combination", so the Navy General Staff judged that these three new armored cruisers should belong to the "high in the high and low combination", and must be stronger than the Warrior class.

Then it means that the performance of this class of armored cruisers is likely to reach and exceed the level of the Ron class, and the gap should not be too big a gap with its latest heavy cruisers. Jochen knew that this should be the last armored cruiser of the British Empire, the mother of battle cruisers, the Minotaur class. But Jochen is also difficult to draw conclusions about what the current Minotazur class will look like, because the Warrior class has changed a lot, and the Minotaur class will certainly not be what it was in history.

The General Staff of the German Navy was already under tremendous pressure after concluding that the new armored cruisers being built by the British might be stronger than the Ron class.

Then the new armored cruisers that the British are preparing to build are likely to be more powerful than the ones being built, then it is possible to reach or even surpass the Scharnhorst class under construction, which makes Tirpitz a little uncomfortable.

"Your Majesty, if the new armored cruisers of the British are equipped with 10 9.2-inch naval guns, then it is possible that our N and O will not be opponents, so I hope that we can start the design and construction of the new heavy cruisers immediately."

Although Tirpitz had thought as best as possible about the performance of the enemy that would appear in front of the Scharnhorst class in the future, he would never have imagined that what was about to appear was a completely out-of-spec product above the armored cruiser, and her name was Invincible. (To be continued......)