Few people would have imagined that in the toy room of the 12-year-old German Crown Prince Andres would hide numerous secrets of the German Navy. On the rows of simple but almost spotless wooden frames, the German Navy has a wide range of ships, past and present, from battleships, battle cruisers, and aircraft carriers to destroyers, submarines, transports, and even models of Prussian-era naval sailboats. Since these models were basically used by the Navy's technical department for research and discussion, each one was very exquisitely made, and the proportions of each part were exactly the same as those of real battleships, and these models were naturally valuable in the eyes of other countries.

As the world's largest naval power after the war, the German government naturally will not sit idly by and watch the United States and Japan desperately develop their navies, but under the leadership of Chentian, Germany did not blindly compete with the United States and Japan for quantity and investment, but embarked on a unique path on the premise of not affecting economic recovery and development as much as possible.

On the wooden frame of the little crown prince's battleship model, a whole 50 battleships symbolize the past and present of the German Empire. The four Brandenburg-class battleships built between 1890 and 1894 were the first true ironclad battleships of the Imperial German Navy, followed by five Kai, two Frederick III class, five Wiecchersbach class, five Braunschweig-class, and five Deutsche class, these 24 former dreadnought battleships represent the great naval dream of a generation of Germans. After entering the era of dreadnoughts, Germany successively built 4 Nassau-class, 4 Helgoland-class, 5 Kai-2-class, 4 King-class, 4 Bavaria-class, and 5 Graff-class, a total of 26 battleships.

The Bavaria-class and Graf-class battleships were built after the end of the European War, of which the last two Bavaria-class battleships, the "Württemberg" and the "Saxony", were suspended due to the Washington Naval Treaty, but after the United States, Germany, and Japan withdrew from the treaty, the two battleships were relaunched, and certain improvements were made in the details, and the displacement increased by 1,500 tons compared with the first two ships of this class. Both ships were successfully completed in early 1921 and are currently in service with the German Atlantic Fleet.

The Graff class was built after the end of the South American War and the abolition of the Washington Treaty, so it was a considerable improvement over the previous battleships in terms of design ideas and shipbuilding technology. The standard displacement of this class of battleships is 39,000 tons, equipped with 8 45 times diameter 406 mm main guns, which is equivalent to the power of the main guns currently used by the capital ships of the United States and Japan, with a speed of 24 knots and a cruising range of 5,000 nautical miles / 12 knots. The broadside armor is up to 14.5 inches, the turret front is 15 inches, the conning tower is 15 inches, the main deck is 3.5-6 inches, and the total crew under the standard configuration is 1220 people.

Compared to the 25 battleships of the US Navy and the 17 battleships of the Japanese Navy, the 20 ships of the German Navy (Graf, Albrecht, Geertz, August, Albert, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Saxony, King, Elector, Border Governor, Prince William, Kai 2, Frederick the Great, Catherine, King Albert, Regent Louisport, Helgoland, The Oldenburg) was not superior in number or tonnage, but the financial pressure on building these ships was much less than that of the United States and Japan.

After 1915, although the cost of a single battleship varied from country to country, a 30,000-ton battleship cost more than $15 million, and the South Dakota-class of the United States, the Kaga-class of Japan, and the Graff-class of Germany all cost more than $20 million per ship. For the construction of these battleships. U.S. Navy spending has increased to nearly 25 percent of total federal spending each year. That's about $200 million, two-thirds of which was spent on the construction of battleships and airships, and the size of the army was tripled compared to 1920. The annual cost is only 30 million US dollars, and the high cost of the navy has begun to affect the development of other arms; Although the Japanese government's economy is developing rapidly, it is far inferior to the United States and Germany in terms of total volume, and they have spent a huge amount of $245 million on the "New 88th Fleet Case" alone, accounting for one-third of the entire Japanese government's annual expenditure, which indirectly led to the outbreak of Japan's national economic crisis in 1923, the price of rice and daily necessities in Japan skyrocketed, the people struggled in hardship, and the "rice riot" swept the country, although the Japanese government finally quelled the crisis through various emergency measures. However, Japan's economy has also moved from a relatively sluggish trough from its previous rapid growth, and agriculture has also been hit hard, with rice and wheat production stagnating for a long time.

In contrast, after 1920, the German government only continued to build the last two Bavaria-class battleships and five new Graf-class battleships, and the seven warships cost a total of 60 million Euromarks, or $120 million, equivalent to 2% of the total government expenditure during the same period, and kept the cost of the navy at a relatively desirable level.

The square next to the "exhibition area" of the battleship model of Little Andres is the territory of the battlecruiser and the aircraft carrier model, and the two types of warships have not appeared for a long time, so the number of them together is not as large as the battleship. If the "Blucher" is counted as combat cruisers, then Germany has built a total of 12 battle cruisers so far, they are the Blücher, the Vonsuten, Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, De Vellinger, Luzo, Hindenburg, Thessaloniki and the Mackensen-class Mackensen, Count Spee, and Prince Frederick, which were built after 1920. The 3 Mackensen-class battle cruisers cost the German Navy close to 24 million European marks, although the price is expensive, but they are also good value for money, this class of battle cruisers has a displacement of 36,000 tons, uses a full heavy oil boiler, has a maximum speed of 33 knots, and is equipped with 8 380 mm guns with a diameter of 45 times, and the performance is comparable to the American Lexington class, slightly inferior to the Japanese Amagi class.

Therefore, by 1924, in addition to the 20 battleships in service, the German Navy also had 9 battlecruisers: Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, De Fllinger, Lützov, Hindenburg, Mackensen, Count Spee, and Prince Frederick. In fact, the German Navy has invested in the construction of capital ships for many years and has also reached 120 million European marks, counting the cost of battleships and battle cruisers, the remaining more than 30 million marks have all been invested in the construction of aircraft carriers, and the cost of a single ship of the Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier is only 10,000 Reichsmarks, that is, 1.2 million European marks (excluding carrier-based aircraft, the cost of aircraft carriers is indeed much cheaper than battleships, even during World War II, the cost of a 30,000-ton aircraft carrier is only 3 million US dollars. At the time, the cost of a South Dakota-class battleship was $60 million, which means that this was enough to build 20 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers. However, the German Navy did not intend to use a violent aircraft carrier sea tactic, but spent a quarter of the funds to build five 22,000-ton Zeppelin-class ships, and the remaining budget was partly for the construction of 10,000-ton light escort aircraft carriers, and partly for the construction of 40,000-ton heavy aircraft carriers with reinforced armor.

Against this background, there are a total of 24 aircraft carrier models for Little Andres, including the "Super Duck Mother", which has been given to the Japanese Navy, and the "Lisa" and "Prince", which were commissioned before the end of the European war. Plus 8 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, the Kemal, a converted Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, 10 Leopold-class light escort carriers, and 2 Ernst-class heavy carriers. It can be said that the German aircraft carrier formation can kill all the American aircraft carriers and Japanese aircraft carriers at one time, and after the Battle of Laura in South America, the United States and Japan are not as enthusiastic about aircraft carriers as before, as a response to Germany's large-scale aircraft carriers, the two countries have strengthened the anti-aircraft firepower of their respective capital ships and escort ships, such as the United States' Colorado-class battleships are equipped with nearly 80 anti-aircraft guns of various types, and Japan's Kaga-class is even more exaggerated, together with 127 mm secondary guns, 76 mm high-level dual-purpose guns, There are more than 100 25-mm anti-aircraft guns, and from the appearance of the battleship, which was originally simple in line, has become a "big hedgehog" with many barrels, and even a destroyer of one or two thousand tons has been equipped with more than a dozen weapons to deal with aircraft.

In the words of the US Admirals of the Navy. As long as German planes dared to approach their battleships. Just make their butts smoke. As for how high the interception capability of anti-aircraft fire of ground warships in manual mode is in real combat, the generals do not seem to be worried about this aspect, because, in their opinion. German carrier-based aircraft were nothing more than small wooden-skinned planes.

It's a pity that the Americans are a little too arrogant, and even Andres, who is still receiving primary education, knows that the German aircraft carriers have long been "all-metallized"!

After a complete refitting in 1921, the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft were replaced with meritorious fighters such as the Sea Hummingbird, Swordfish, Sea Hawk, and Camel, all of which were replaced by new monoplane all-metal fighters.

Carrier-based fighters are divided into combat reconnaissance type and combat type, of which the combat reconnaissance aircraft adopts the Sky Can type, the conventional arrangement of the lower wing, the single engine and the two-seater, the maximum flight speed is 390 kilometers per hour, the maximum range when carrying the auxiliary fuel tank can reach 1600 kilometers, and the weapon is a roteuverable 7.92 mm twin-mounted machine gun in the recoil position. The wings are foldable; The fighter adopts the Heinkel DD type, with a conventional layout of a single wing, a single engine and a single seat, a maximum flight speed of 360 kilometers per hour, a combat radius of 750 kilometers, equipped with a 20 mm cannon and four 7.92 mm machine guns, and a 100 kg bomb or a corresponding auxiliary fuel tank can be mounted under the fuselage, and the combat radius is increased by 150 kilometers when the auxiliary fuel tank is added.

Carrier-based bombers are divided into dive bombers, horizontal and torpedo bombers, of which the Junkers Ju-DD dive bomber was designed by the research laboratory led by Dr. Junkers himself, and has a single engine and two seats. A 7.92 mm machine gun in the rear is used for defense, and the inner section of the trapezoidal lower wing is turned down, and the outer section is folded up to form an inverted gull, (as early as in history, the Americans built the first dive bomber - Kodis Glennh, and the naval aviation of Japan, the United States, and Britain were equipped with dive bombers before World War II, but the performance was not as good as the famous Stuka Ju-87), the maximum flight speed was 305 kilometers per hour, the bombing radius was 800 kilometers, and a 75 kg bomb could be mounted under the wings. A 150-kilogram bomb can also be hung under the belly, and there are high-explosive bombs, semi-armor-piercing bombs, anti-ship bombs and incendiary bombs to choose from, with a maximum dive angle of 70 degrees; Designed by Dr. Dornier's laboratory, the Barracuda horizontal/torpedo bomber has a speed of 275 km/h and a range of 780 km when carrying a heavy torpedo of the Trade-millimeter, with a single-wing, two-seater, and one rear-mounted machine gun to provide defensive fire.

With a limited number of capital ships, the German Navy was able to devote a considerable part of its funds to the construction of light ships. In the past four years, the Guardian-class escort cruisers and Schlieffen-class battles that performed well in the naval battles of South America, 10 and 8 escort cruisers have been built respectively, and the designers of the Admiralty have also designed three types of cruisers of different tonnages and purposes according to the requirements of the Admiralty, namely a combat/alert cruiser with a displacement of 12,000 tons and equipped with 3 twin 203-mm guns, a combat/support cruiser with a displacement of 15,000 tons and 5 twin 203-mm naval guns, and a displacement of 18,000 tons, Equipped with four 280 mm heavy cruisers, a total of 24 cruisers of the three types were built between 1920 and 1924, bringing the total number of cruisers in the German Navy to 86, basically meeting the needs of German overseas route guarding. In addition, destroyers, minesweepers, transport ships, hospital ships and other auxiliary ships have also been upgraded and strengthened, and 36 Bayonet-class destroyers, which performed well in South America, were built in one go, 24 Leopard-class destroyers were completed in 1922, and the total number of German destroyers reached an astonishing 347 by 1924, with the addition of old destroyers such as the standard-class, competition-class, and hound-class destroyers that had undergone major modifications.

In contrast, the total number of cruisers and destroyers of the United States and Japan is not so impressive, with the United States having 2 heavy cruisers, 18 light cruisers, and 85 destroyers, and Japan having 12 armored cruisers, 18 light cruisers, and 73 destroyers, which together are less than the German Navy. However, judging from the current situation, the US Navy, which has set active defense as its future war strategy, seems to be very satisfied with its superiority in capital ships, and its only major expenditure in light ships in recent years has been the construction of more than 220 submarines, which is undoubtedly a very staggering number.

In Little Andres's "toy room", the number of submarine models does not represent the number of submarines of the German Navy, because each class of submarines usually only has one model here, from the original offshore submarine to the current ocean-going minelayer, a total of 7 classes and 22 different models, plus 33 ace submarines with a record of more than 100,000 tons in the war, 55 submarines constitute the submarine collection of the German crown prince.

"General Ollie and his troops will leave for Mexico this Sunday, and I will see them off at Williamshaven, will you go with me?"

Chen Tian asked in a calm and slightly casual tone.

"Of course, my father! Uncle Ollie is my best friend, and as the Crown Prince of Germany, I should be there for such an important occasion, shouldn't I? Little Andres replied very seriously.