Whether it was during the Anglo-German naval competition from 1906 to 1914, the Washington Treaty from 1915 to 190, the period of the US Navy expansion from 1921 to 1924, and even the period when Germany and Japan dominated the seas after the German-American War, the planning, construction, launching and commissioning of any country's new capital ships would receive attention from all sides.

Since the launch of the first dreadnought in 1906, the Navy's giant ship cannon doctrine has gradually reached its heyday, although aircraft carriers in the German-British and German-American wars of 1914 and 1924 have not fallen away. In the four years from the end of the German-American War in 1924 to the outbreak of the German-Russian and Sino-Japanese wars, there were still many battleships and battle cruisers in various countries around the world, of which Germany built 5 battleships and 3 battlecruisers to replace the old warships that were retired one after another, Japan and Russia each built 2 battleships, Turkey commissioned Germany to build 2 battleships, and the Italian Navy built one on its own, and by 1928, the navies of all countries around the world had built more than 150 dreadnought battleships, super dreadnought battleships and battle cruisers, of which 67 were sunk in previous naval battles, 12 were decommissioned one after another, and the 74 non-aircraft carrier capital ships still in service in 1928 were distributed as follows:

Germany - 29 ships, The total displacement is 1,086,000 tons, Japan - 18 ships with a total displacement of 671,000 tons, Turkey - 8 ships with a total displacement of 162,000 tons, Russia - 8 ships with a total displacement of 224,000 tons, Chile - 3 ships with a total displacement of 72,000 tons, Mexico - 2 ships with a total displacement of 53,000 tons, Italy - 1 ship with a total displacement of 31,000 tons, Spain - 2 ships with a total displacement of 48,000 tons, Greece - 1 ship with a total displacement of 22,000 tons, Brazil - 1 ship with a total displacement of 19,000 tons, Argentina - 1 ship with a total displacement of 25,000 tons.

Among these active battleships. The most representative is Japan's two super battleships "Kii" and "Owari", as well as the German battleship of the same class "Wilhelm the Great", these three standard displacement of more than 2.04 million tons, full load displacement of about 50,000 tons of super battleships can be said to be the pinnacle of battleships in this era, but due to strategic, financial and other considerations, Japan will be Kii-class under construction of the last two into heavy aircraft carriers, and the more powerful Mimasaka-class fast battleships will stay on the drawings forever, With sufficient military spending, Germany also made it clear after the completion of the "Wilhelm the Great" that there were no plans to build new battleships for ten years.

On June 4, 1928, the world situation, which had never really calmed down, resurfaced in Poland. Germany declared war on Tsarist Russia, and Germany's allies, client states, and colonial powers also declared war on Tsarist Russia, which spread across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States except Oceania, and Tsarist Russia was facing a more powerful enemy than Napoleonic France, and the Russians only hoped that the miracle of 1812 would be repeated.

However, Kaiser Wilhelm III was not Emperor Napoleon, Germany in 1928 was not France in 1812, the combat power of the German Army was far greater than that of the French ** team of that year, and the German Navy was not inferior to the British Imperial Navy in its heyday.

At 12:30 p.m. on June 4, Turkey handed over a declaration of war to Russia, and at the same time.

Battleships are gathered at the exit of the Istanbul Strait in the southwestern part of the Black Sea. The combined German and Turkish fleets consisted of seven battleships, three battle cruisers, and one heavy aircraft carrier, making up the most powerful fleet in the Black Sea and even in the Mediterranean.

Since its founding in 1910, the Republic of Turkey has been reborn from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Kemaldi, and has continued to develop its economy and industry. Turkey's military power was also rising, and by 1920 it had a naval force comparable to that of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which had been further strengthened eight years later.

The battleships "Istanbul", "Great Revolution", "Turkey", "Alanya", and the battlecruiser "Buran", these five battleships constitute a fairly advanced Turkish main fleet, which embodies the expectations of the Turks to revive the navy, but this goal is still a long way to go, because none of these five capital ships were built by Turkish shipyards. With a standard displacement of 270,000 tons, the "Istanbul" and the "Great Revolution" are two new battleships specially tailored for the Turkish Navy at the Rijeka shipyard in Croatia-Slavonia, Germany, and are equipped with three triple 45-diameter 343-mm naval guns. Employing 12 all-oil-fired boilers and Parsons steam turbines, with a maximum speed of 24 knots, the overall performance is superior to that of the German King-class battleships.

The Istanbul and the Great Revolution alone were not enough to give the Russian Black Sea Fleet an overwhelming advantage, and most of the battleships purchased by the Turkish Navy before 1920 were beyond their age in service. Taking advantage of the large-scale replacement of battleships in the German Navy in 1925, Turkey selected two warships that the German Navy was going to transfer to the reserve, the Frederick the Great and the King Albert, and purchased them for 800,000 Euromarks each, and then refurbished and slightly converted them at their own shipyards, and the two ships were named "Turkey" and "Alanya" after entering the Turkish Navy.

In terms of firepower, the two 25,000-ton battleships were slightly inferior to the 220,000-ton displacement of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's leading battleship and the Queen Maria-class with 674 triple 305mm guns, but the defensive strength of the two sides determined that the German-made Turkish battleships equipped with five twin 305mm guns would not necessarily be at a disadvantage in a head-on confrontation between a single ship.

The Turkish naval ground battle cruiser Buran was also purchased from the German Navy. The former "Moltke" was sold to the Turkish Navy for 650,000 European marks after a series of extensive refits and refurbishments, and its displacement of 230,000 tons, speed of 27 knots and 12 55 times diameter 280 mm naval guns still have enough deterrent power in the Black Sea.

In addition to these 4 battleships and 1 battle cruiser, the Turkish Navy currently has 4 other battleships of acceptable strength, all of which are British-made battleships captured by the German Navy in the First Battle of the North Sea, "Kelkit", "Kemuz", "Ceyhan", and "Karasu" were "Daring", "Ajax", "Conqueror" and "Thunderbolt" when they were in service in the British Navy, although these battleships are nearly 20 years old. However, the level of maintenance of Turkey's major shipyards seems to be quite good, and these four warships are in good condition, and they were deployed in the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Marmara Seas (the inland sea between the Strait of Dardania and the Istanbul Strait) when Turkey declared war on Russia, and should the war need it. They can go to the Black Sea region at any time to fight.

Gathered at the mouth of the Istanbul Strait to act together with the Turkish Navy, there was also a German detachment attached to the German Mediterranean Fleet. Although it was an auxiliary operation, the battleships "Saxony", "Prince William" and "Caesar. The huge "sub-fleet" composed of the "Fiterik III", the battle cruisers "Hindenburg" and "Brandenburg", the heavy aircraft carrier "Prussia", and the escort aircraft carrier "Schwering" felt a bit noisy. It is worth mentioning that this German fleet was led by 47-year-old Rear Admiral Andrew. Commanding Klein, this non-aristocratic officer who had risen step by step from destroyer captain to light cruiser captain was another group of new commanders in the German Navy after Raeder and Dönitz, and they began to get very valuable training opportunities when the old group of admirals gradually withdrew from the military service.

Also of interest is the first appearance of the German Caesarfittrid-class battleships and Brandenburg-class battlecruisers, which were built after the German-American War, when the German government announced the construction of these new ships in 1925. The most surprising thing is their tonnage - 33,000 tons and 31,000 tons! In this era when the capital ships of various countries were getting bigger and bigger, the Misasaka-class battleships on the Japanese drawings even had a full load displacement of 53,000 tons, but the Germans did the opposite after the Graff-class battleships and Mackensen-class battlecruisers, and the Caesar Frederick III class built 4 ships in one go, and the Brandenburg class also built 3 ships in one go, which really became the most distinctive and confusing one in the naval news in the 20s!

After receiving orders from their respective Admiralty Commands, the Turkish battleship "Istanbul" raised the flag of the Allied Fleet, and the commander-in-chief of this naval operation was to be Admiral Sariander, while the commander of the German fleet, General Klein, was the deputy commander-in-chief, and the commander of the "Prussia", Commodore Uwokern, was the commander of the fleet's aircraft carrier formation. It has one German Ernst-class heavy aircraft carrier, one escort aircraft carrier and three Turkish seaplane carriers. A total of 140 fighters were available.

At 12:55 p.m., the signal flag for the departure of the Istanbul, a sea area with dark water, stormy water and few fish, is jointly owned by Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Turkey and Russia have the longest coastlines, and their Black Sea fleets make the weak navies of Bulgaria and Romania seem insignificant.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet, built under St. Peter the Great, may not have a long history, but it had the joy of the glory of the Second Russo-Turkish War and the Second War of the Anti-French Coalition and the sorrow of the decline of the Crimean War, and after several baptisms, it spent the German Navy in 1914 and 1915 in inaction, when the German Navy was still busy dealing with the British, and the Turkish Navy was weak enough to dominate the Black Sea.

Compared to 1914, the Russian Black Sea Fleet still had 5 battleships, of which 3 were dreadnoughts with a displacement of 22,000 tons. "Ivanstafi" and "St. John" were only quasi-dreadnoughts, and during the brief reign of Aglini I, the Black Sea Fleet had the ambition to build 5 new battleships, but at the beginning of the reign of Empress Diana I canceled these plans and instead divided the funds among the economy, industry, and land and navy, and in more than a decade the Black Sea Fleet was supplemented by 8 coastal defense gunboats, 9 light submarines, and more than 40 military aircraft. However, the Russian Baltic Fleet, which was beloved by the empress, added 2 30,000-ton battleships, 25 light ships, and a large number of submarines and aircraft during this time.

Before the German-Turkish combined fleet advanced into the depths of the Black Sea, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was in the hands of German and Turkish spies, and as it had been at the outbreak of war in 1914, the fleet remained in the fortified port of Sevastopol as war approached. The feat of holding on for 349 days in the Crimean War under the onslaught of the British, French and Turkish forces made the Russians quite confident in the defense of the fortress here, and since 1914 has carried out some expansion and strengthening projects, known as the fortress of Qingdao in the Black Sea!

The huge German-Turkish fleet set sail through the Black Sea and arrived outside the port of Sevastopol the next evening.

The harbor is spread over nine bays, surrounded by mountains, the terrain is very secluded, the fortress is built on the trapezoidal slopes along the coast of Sevastopol Bay and South Bay, and can overlook the large water area outside the harbor, although the fortress facilities are somewhat old, but the power of many large-caliber guns is still not to be underestimated.

That night, Turkish destroyers and minesweepers took advantage of the night to carry out minesweeping operations outside the port. According to information gathered by spies, the Russian fleet had laid mines outside the harbor in late May and early June, and the Turkish ships soon discovered a large minefield 8-9 nautical miles from the entrance to the harbor. The minesweeping operation continued until midnight, when the Russian fortress suddenly opened fire, and the continuous falling shells forced the Turkish minesweepers to quickly retreat, and shortly thereafter, German submarine hunters equipped with sonar equipment and Turkish destroyers respectively spotted Russian submarines near their own fleets, and although the destroyers of both countries quickly attacked and sank one of the submarines, the main force of the combined fleet left the port overnight for safety reasons. Only a dozen or so light ships with anti-submarine capabilities were left to continue hunting in the sea area where the Russian submarine was discovered. Before dawn, the Coalition forces harvested another Russian submarine, according to the confession of the captured Russian submariners. In total, Russia deployed eight light submarines near the port of Sevastopol.

In the next two weeks, the German-Turkish combined fleet adopted an operational strategy based on air strikes, mine-sweeping, and anti-submarine operations, and carrier-based aircraft taking off from the "Prussia" and "Schweiling" took turns to launch air raids on the harbor, and carried out key attacks on some batteries and three Queen Maria-class battleships, and finally severely damaged the "Catherine" and "Alexander III" at the cost of losing three fighters and dive bombing frames, of which "Alexander III" The ship was so badly wounded that it had to sit in shallow water and use it as a floating battery.

At the same time, German bombers taking off from Romania also flew over the port every day to bomb, in order to destroy as many Russian fortresses as possible, the German army put in a large number of more than 500 kilograms of heavy aerial bombs, of which 2.5 tons of "super aerial bombs" dropped more than 900.

As a result, the Russian garrison of the Sevastopol fortress was busy with air defense and repairing fortifications all day long.

During this time, the German battleships "Caesarfedriy III", "Prince Wilhelm"

and the Turkish battleships "The Great Revolution" and "Turkey", along with a number of light cruisers, shelled the coast of Russian Ukraine and provided artillery support to the German ground forces advancing on the Crimean Peninsula.

On June 20, the above four ships returned to the port of Sevastopol to rendezvous with the main force of the Combined Fleet, and in the afternoon of the same day, four Turkish battleships, two German battleships, and two German battlecruisers approached the port in a column and engaged in a fierce artillery battle with the Russian garrison.

The first day of artillery combat lasted more than 3 hours, and the heavy artillery fire of the German-Turkish combined fleet destroyed 2 Russian batteries located on the slopes south of Sevastopol Bay, and the Turkish battleships "Great Revolution" and "Alanya" were hit by Russian 280-mm and 203-mm shells, respectively.

However, the injuries of the two ships were not bad, the "Great Revolution" lost a 150-mm secondary gun and 17 sailors, the "Alanya" chimney was blown out of a large hole, and both ships took part in the next two days of artillery fighting.

In contrast, the huge body of the German battleship seemed to attract more Russian shells, and the Bavarian-class battleship "Saxony" was hit by three 365 mm and two 280 mm shells, and the stern was once on fire. The brand-new German battleship "Caesarfittrid" was similar in size to the "Saxony", but it ate two more 280-mm shells, one of which hit the ship's conning tower with a 305-mm fortress gun, one hit its No. 2 turret, and the other blew up a twin 150-mm secondary turret on its starboard side! However, after the smoke and splash of the explosion, people were surprised to find that in addition to the smooth hull blackened by the gunfire, the speed of the battleship did not decrease, the artillery fire did not stop, and there was only a shallow crater left on the conning tower and the No. 2 main turret, which was the German Kaisafettrie III class battleship - while equipping three triple 343 mm naval guns, the length of the hull waterline was reduced to save structural weight; The ship was carefully designed, with a bulbous bow to reduce drag, and a new engine to achieve a maximum speed of 25 knots; Increase the thickness of deck armor and increase the inclination angle of the side armor belt to improve the resistance to attack in the armored area; Raised the position of the secondary cannon to improve the firing range.

In the next two days, the nine German-Turkish capital ships carried out two extremely fierce artillery bombardments, coupled with the calibration and air strikes of carrier-based aircraft on the German aircraft carriers, the resistance of the Russian fortress gradually weakened, coupled with the news that the German ground forces entered the Crimean Peninsula from land and the instigation of the Russian Revolutionary Party lurking in the Russian army, the fortress garrison launched a mutiny on the night of June 22, in this case, the officers and men on a part of the warships of the Black Sea Fleet responded positively, The remaining ships were forced to give up resistance due to the might of the combined German-Turkish fleet.

On June 23, Sevastopol officially fell, and after the loss of its capital ships, the remnants of the Russian Black Sea Fleet had to retreat into the Sea of Azov, and control of the Black Sea fell indisputably into the hands of the coalition forces.