After World War I, the demand for oil in Europe increased dramatically, and the major oil companies were rapidly expanding their tanker fleets due to the loss of tankers due to unlimited submarine warfare during the war, and the shipbuilding market was unprecedentedly prosperous. After losing several tankers in the war, Mexico's Eagle oil company developed a five-year expansion plan to build 25 new tankers, including the six largest tankers with a deadweight of 19,000 tons at the time.

However, the plan was not finalized, and Eagle sold to Shell due to concerns about the nationalization of Petromexicano, which is why Anglo-Iranian oil companies are eager to get a piece of the North African oil pie – failing to do so and they will be left behind in the competition.

After the acquisition of Eagle Company, Shell became even more ambitious, and in 1920 they ordered a package of 23 tankers from a British shipyard. The total tonnage was 134,000 tons, and the following year there were additional orders for 9 45,000 tons, and in the following two years, 17 oil tankers were ordered from American shipyards, and even 5 of them were built by two British merchant shipyards in Hong Kong, and the total tonnage of all oil tankers combined was nearly 300,000 tons, but in order to be put into service quickly, Shell Oil preferred small tonnage tankers, and the most preferred was 5,000-7,000 ton tankers.

In 1921, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company also announced the order of 22 oil tankers of more than 10,000 dwt, and their thinking was closer to Contini's idea: a single oil tanker had a high carrying capacity, and a more advanced steam turbine was used as the power instead of a triple-expansion steam engine, which reduced vibration and improved propulsion efficiency and speed.

Standard Oil of California, an important subsidiary of Standard Oil after the spin-off, ordered 11 12,000-ton tankers a few years ago, and Standard Oil of New Jersey has been a leader in oil transportation and refining, ordering two 10,000-ton dwt tankers from Newport News Shipyard in the United States five years ago, indicating that American shipyards also have the capacity to build large tankers.

None of them were as ambitious as Contini: they would build 20,000-ton tankers, and they would aim for 25-30 tankers (120 in fact), but Italian shipyards were grateful to Contini: without these orders, they would have been thrown out of this shipbuilding race. Now that they have orders from the United Group, they don't have to worry about the future - even if they can't get orders from the United Group, they can go to other oil companies. Therefore, the manufacturers said that they would strive to build the oil tanker requested by the president in early 1929, and they were still waiting to seize the market.

Although the construction cost of tankers of the same tonnage is much lower than that of warships, and the technical threshold is not as high as that of capital ships, 20,000 tons of tankers are also a new thing, and the cost of batch construction is at least 4 million US dollars, and the cost of individual construction is even higher like now, 120 articles are at least 500 million US dollars of total input (constant price), if amortized over 20 years, the annual depreciation alone is a big hole, but Contini's account is not so: after building a batch of accumulated experience, large-scale construction will be delayed until after the 29-year economic crisis, At that time, not only would it be much cheaper to build, but it would also be able to generate employment, which was a very good choice - together with the road and rail, the entire transportation and material transportation system in Italy would be upgraded by several levels.

In his eyes, don't look at 120 ships, it seems scary, but compared with the number of more than 500 T3 tankers built by the United States in history, it is simply not worth mentioning.

In addition to taking the lead to lay a first-mover advantage, it is more important to be able to improve technical strength, build 20,000-ton oil tankers, and have the opportunity to build 25,000-ton and 30,000-ton aircraft carriers in the future - aircraft carriers do not necessarily have to be armored aircraft carriers! At the same time, with this tonnage capacity, it is logical to build other large ships, and as for some Italian shipyards to take on foreign orders, it is basically impossible, and the impending collapse and depression will cause all shipyards and oil companies to face a contraction, and then there will be another trend - the wave of shipowners abandoning ships.

Leo bluntly criticized this costly construction method, believing that we should learn from Shell Oil Company to build 5,000-7,000 ton oil tankers to quickly form a merchant fleet, and Contini said to him with a smile: "Don't worry, we will have a lot of these 5,000-7,000 ton ships in a few years, and it will be very flexible and convenient to use at that time." ”

"Why?"

"It's very simple...... "Contini blinked, "and when we build the 20,000-ton tanker, we can fight a price war - you say, is it cheaper to transport 5,000-7,000-ton tankers, or is it cheaper to ship 20,000-ton tankers?" After the price war, it is a winner-takes-all world. ”

Leo was really defeated: he couldn't get back the interest and precipitation costs of building so many ships, and he still wanted to fight a price war? Wouldn't it make matters worse?

"You can't just look at the hull, you have to look a little bit further and focus on the supply chain – if one day we have a conflict with Great Britain, if I have mastered the tankers on the Mediterranean route, what do you think will happen if I cut off the route?"

Leo cried out in horror: "You are going to war with Britain in the future? ”

"Who is good to say what is to come? At least we should have the final say in the Mediterranean, and besides, the British are not good at stubble, and I have to prepare some material for them......" Contini smiled, "I never want to go to war, but if I have to go through war to achieve my goal, I will never back down." ”

Just as he arranged for Göring to be the captain of the HNA and allowed Germany to send designers to visit the floating airfield at sea in Rome, after such a toss, how much would the German Navy, which has the potential ability to build aircraft carriers, want to build those large and inappropriate battleships?

If he is lucky, I am afraid that the whole line of thought of the war will be rewritten - he has a great deal of confidence in the affairs of Italy, although he does not say the affairs of Germany, but he can influence those who have the final say, such as Goering, for example, "Mein Kampf", which has just finished printing and became an instant hit in Germany, the preface on it was written by Contini himself, speaking highly of the feat of national socialism and the Munich revolution, and saying in the tone of a prophet: "I believe that Adolf Adolf, who has always held high the banner of national socialism, said in the tone of a prophet: "I believe that Adolf Adolf, who has always held high the banner of national socialism, is a prophet. Mr. Hitler would complete his redemption of Germany and would truly make the German people feel proud and honored. And Hitler wrote many times in his book that Contini had influenced and helped him and the National Socialist Party - whether it was the theoretical inspiration of the three flags or the financial help in all aspects (only the provision of weapons was omitted), was an honorary leader to be written into the party constitution, and now the whole of Germany knows that the president and Adolf Hitler are comrades and brothers.

The first stage of shipbuilding is the oil tanker, which has already been launched, in addition to the oil tanker, the second goal of the shipbuilding industry is registered on the memorandum locked in the president's safe: to build a standardized cargo ship!

The members of the "Iron Ambition" expert group never simply look at who has the best weapon when considering the data design, and no matter how good the weapon is, it will not work without quantity in a world war, Contini, like Hoffman, is full of envy and admiration for the American Freedom Wheel/Victory Wheel system in the war, believing that it is this thing that determines the success or failure of the European war! - When American freighters were built faster than German submarines could be sunk by three times, the war was already lost without fighting.

In the same way, Germany and Italy, as a relatively resource-poor country, will inevitably need a large amount of material input, and these standard freighters will play a pivotal role in the future, but it is still early at the moment, and wait for the tanker to settle down before considering starting, Contini believes that he still has a little time, and then the German and Italian shipyards can start together and sprint with all their might, which is also a good way out of the Great Depression.

As for the goal of the third stage of the shipbuilding industry, it is the conclusion he came to after thinking hard -- to build submarines, it is necessary to build a large submarine.

Judging from the experience of the war, in order to contain the United States, it is necessary to strain Great Britain, the European bridgehead, and to shackle this bridgehead, it is necessary to first strangle Britain's material sources, and with the strength of the German and Italian navies, it is not easy to barely maintain the superiority of the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic in some waters

Historically, there is also an interesting reality: when German submarines were brilliant, they lacked enough submarines; When they finally had enough submarines, the improvement of anti-submarine technology and the boom of American shipbuilding capabilities had made Germany lose this possibility forever.

On more than one occasion, Contini discussed with his old friend Hoffmann a hypothesis: what would the world be like if Germany and Italy had 300 or even 500 more advanced submarines at the beginning of the war in '39?

Hoffman shrugged: "Maybe Churchill won't win the battle to defend Britain at all, because they have no oil - the British are more miserable than us, Germany at least has coal to oil to survive, the British have no technical reserves, the planes can't move without oil, the Royal Navy can only lie on their stomachs - those days are comparable to Italy in 1943." Oh, I forgot one thing, you guys have hundreds of thousands of tons of oil hidden in the Alpine caves! Of course, there is also a relatively small chance that the American cousin will end directly. ”

Contini was convinced of this, so the third most important object of his shipbuilding business was submarines, the standard document of the United Group was a special underwater sightseeing pleasure boat.

Now he is very close to this goal: Volkeng shipyard has complete and advanced experience in submarine construction, the submarine cavern and shipbuilding facilities set up by the small joint shipyard in Venice are almost completed, and more importantly, he has asked for a group of naval officers from Germany, mainly submarine officers, and the first name makes him happy, it is actually Carl Dönitz.