While Prince Ruprecht was making the final pre-war plans for the German High Seas Fleet, Britain on the other side of the Black Sea was also preparing for the coming war, and after the first German dreadnought battleship and the first dreadnought battlecruiser were put into service, the British government decided to respond with a more aggressive and massive shipbuilding plan. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"We can't wait, we'll start construction of 7 ships this year!" Churchill's speech in the British Parliament is a good interpretation of the psychology of the British at this time, as a maritime hegemon with a history of hundreds of years, the British people's obsession with sea power is absolutely unthinkable for ordinary countries! It wasn't just government action, this shipbuilding frenzy quickly spread from top to bottom, and the whole British society saw Germany's new warships as a naked challenge to the British Empire! British newspapers even called the British Admiralty a gross malfeasance! And Fisher, the enterprising and reform-minded Admiralty, was also highly sought after at this time.

The British Empire built seven dreadnoughts between the second half of 1904 and the first half of 1905, and thanks to ample funds and a large number of shipyards, the British generally completed a dreadnought in a little more than two years. In other words, in 1907, the British Royal Navy had about 10 dreadnoughts! The number is about 4% higher than that of the German Navy! And this was only the beginning, in 1906, the British considered starting a new batch of battleships!

Of course, in the opinion of Prince Ruprecht, the difference in strength between the two sides is not as big as the number, although the German battleships are expensive, the construction period is relatively long, the tonnage is relatively large, coupled with the technical guidance advantage of the traverser itself, the German fleet firmly occupies the quality advantage.

Think about it, under normal circumstances, how can a 18,000-ton British dreadnought win a German dreadnought of more than 23,000 tons? The so-called penny is worth the goods, ten dollars to buy good, the expensive ones are not necessarily easy to use, but too cheap things are generally not good! (Not to mention the cost relationship between Japan's Yamato and the United States' BB, this is a ...... determined by national conditions.) ）

(Of course, the author admits that it is still possible for a small ship to be better than a large ship in extreme circumstances, for example, the Scharnhorst in World War II in history could not defeat the Strasbourg ...... of the French.) ）

For example, the St. Vincent-class battleship that the British are now building, which is a first-class battleship equipped with 10 12-inch guns, has a displacement of only about 19,000 tons, and the maximum thickness of the main armor belt is only 10 inches, and the thinnest part is 7 inches. The front of the main gun is 11 inches, and the armor of the gun mount is generally between 9 inches and 5 inches....... Not to mention the prince of such defense, even the designers of Krupp said that it was unbearable, and as for the underwater defense system, structurally it was no different from the former dreadnought, with an empty compartment on the outside and a liquid tank inside. And the gun layout is the same as the dreadnought, which means that the firepower on its side is only 8 12-inch guns, this time, the German designers finally found a sense of superiority, they think that this battleship is okay in addition to the speed, compared with the original German dreadnought, the defense and firepower are not good!

"If nothing else, we will have 10 battleships completed and about to be completed in 1908, and by 1909 we will have 6 battlecruisers armed with 8 12-inch guns in service. The number of our capital ships will stabilize our opponents. In 1909, it was already good for the Germans to have 11 dreadnoughts in service! "Said Prince Louis, Britain's First Sea Lord.

At this meeting, the British were discussing the future development plan of the navy's capital ships, and if the British were ruthless and violent in order to make up for the gap in numbers, after regaining their technological superiority, the British could finally take a breath and review their shipbuilding plan. Because simply repeating the process of building ships cannot bring about essential improvement.

"Do we already have 6 battlecruisers? And the Germans had only 2 of them, and we had three times as many battlecruisers as the opposing side. Isn't it too much? Churchill said thoughtfully.

"No, not much, we also have to face the armored cruisers of the Germans, the Germans have troops overseas, there are ports in the Far East, in East Africa, in Angola where armored cruisers can be moored, after the war, these battleships are very threatening to us, we need to have enough high-speed warships to hunt them. And the original Minotaur-class armored cruisers did not have enough speed and firepower. Fisher said.

"One of the important questions I have convened this meeting is not to discuss whether we have built too many battlecruisers, I think that if we want to completely pinch the Germans in the North Sea, it is not enough to rely on our current battleships, we need to suppress our opponents both quantitatively and qualitatively."

"The Royal Navy should be equipped with larger caliber guns, and in general, I think our early plan for building dreadnoughts was too chaotic, and we almost followed in the footsteps of the other side, and now is the time for us to re-lead the way in naval development, and we are going to build a class of unbeatable warships!" A new type of battleship that can overwhelm all previous warships, and everyone here can call it a super dreadnought! Fisher gave an impassioned speech.

"For this reason, the Admiralty decided to equip the newly equipped battleships with 13.5-inch guns! The new battleships will be equipped with five twin 13.5-inch gun turrets and will reach a speed of about 21 knots, while the new battlecruisers will be equipped with four twin turrets and will reach speeds of more than 25 knots! Prince Louis, who was on the side, suddenly spoke. And what he said also made Fisher feel very dissatisfied!

"Your Royal Highness, this is not our original script!" Fisher glanced at the other party with resentment. According to Fisher's plan, all battleships were supposed to have a speed of more than 23 knots. Strive for a speed advantage over known German battleships. And the speed of the battlecruiser was supposed to be at least above 27 knots. And just now, the prince's statement directly cut the speed by 2 knots, which made Fisher, who pursued speed, very unhappy. But clearly, now is not the time to show dissatisfaction. The conflict between the First and Second Sea Ministers should not be made public, otherwise it will be very detrimental to future work.

The rest of the meeting tasted like chewing wax. After Fisher absentmindedly walked through the motions, he finally waited for the end of the meeting, and immediately after the meeting, he found Prince Louis, the Second Sea Lord, who needed an explanation.

The second is more ~~~! Ask for subscription, ask for tips~~~! (To be continued.) )