Walking onto the bridge of the "Catherine", Natsuki still clearly remembers the commissioning ceremony of this cutting-edge dreadnought in Kiel a year before the outbreak of the war, which was really a grand and unprecedented time. From the Nassau class to www.biquge.info the Helgoland class to the Caesar class, the tonnage and combat power of the German capital ships continued to increase, and the German nation's ambition for the sea was also increasing day by day, almost everyone realized that there would eventually be a war between Britain and Germany, whether it was soldiers or civilians, the enthusiasm for war preparedness was almost fanatical, but few people expected that the war would come so quickly, and the German High Seas Fleet was not in the ideal situation of basic equal strength to meet the British home fleet, and the number and total tonnage of the capital ships on both sides were close to two to three- That's a frustrating ratio.

In the Jutland Sea, where the flames reflected the sky red, the clash of steel was thrilling, and the duel of wills was singing and weeping, the German Navy broke free from the shackles of the first battle, and then marched forward with great triumph, never giving the opponent any chance to turn the tables. Time flies away in a blink of an eye, five years have passed, the blue waves of Kuwait Bay are lightly washing the waterline of German warships, and German sailors in white summer clothes are blowing the gentle sea breeze with a relaxed attitude, and the background of the picture is the ancient city of Kuwait......

"The biggest change since the overhaul in 1915 was the mainmast lookout, which used to accommodate up to three people, now five, and the addition of a three-meter rangefinder."

Introducing this, von Hippert paused slightly, and then said with respect: "It's not that the engineers don't want to do anything with it, but they find that its design is completely in line with the needs of naval warfare, and the insertion of an additional secondary gun will destroy its balance, which shows how perfect the battleship designed by His Majesty is!" ”

This is a heartfelt compliment, and it is something that Natsuki has always been proud of. He smiled but didn't say a word as he looked at the exterior wall of the bridge, which had been repaired and painted, but still visible traces of trauma, and touched the railing, which was as clean as new.

As if to vent all the feelings of these years, Hipper said: "Because of such a warship, we can win the victory, we can save many lives, and we can win the respect of the world." Every time we think of this, we think of you, you are the eternal pride of Germany! ”

Natsuki replied solemnly: "It is precisely because of such an excellent commander and brave and fearless naval officers and men that a warship can give full play to its design ability, and it is you who have won the victory for Germany." No matter where you are, I will always be proud of you! ”

After receiving Natsuki's praise, Hipper became modest, he felt that his overall view was not as good as that of the commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, Scheer, his adaptability was not as good as that of the highly decorated Shi Pei and Su Xiong, and his tactical strategy was inferior to that of the commanders of the main battlefleet, Beinke and Funk, and the reason why he was able to wear the Blue Max Medal was due to the exquisite deployment of the German Navy in the Battle of Jutland, and the source of the wisdom of this battle plan was precisely the genius standing in front of him.

Hippert can have such a mentality, and Natsuki has a little more respect for him. Compared with the British Royal Navy commanders of the same period, the generals who now hold major positions in the German Navy are significantly better on the battlefield, and the victory in the war has greatly boosted their self-confidence, but this does not mean that they are flawless soldiers. Sometimes, these weaknesses and shortcomings are flawed and irrelevant, but sometimes they can be the difference between victory and defeat – on the battlefield, whoever makes fewer mistakes is often one step closer to victory!

In the current world situation, the hidden danger of war has not been removed, but has been buried deeper than before. The development of the situation is far from the familiar historical trajectory, and Natsuki's judgment of the general trend will no longer be as accurate as before, and if he wants to make his country invincible, he must rely on his true skills.

With nearly a century of knowledge of ships ahead of this era, Natsuki is confident that he will be able to design and build first-class warships that meet the existing technical conditions, and as he just said, the key to whether a battleship can play its design performance lies in the human factor, and whether a well-equipped and well-staffed fleet can win in a naval battle depends to a large extent on the ability of the commander.

Who will be the key figure in the next war, which will break out at some point?

In terms of rank, age and prestige, Reinhardt-Scher, 56, and his contemporary, Franz von Hipper, will remain the pillars of the German Navy for the next decade, while several squadron commanders, Maximilian von Spee, 58, and Wilhelm von Lanslian, 58, are still in their prime, while Felix Funck, 54, and Paul Bernke, 49, who historically served as the first commander-in-chief of the national navy of the Weimar Republic, are in the prime of life...... As they have said, the German Navy today is star-studded – in terms of talent, it is definitely at its strongest in history, and it will probably be difficult to find so many generals at any time in the future.

But if war had broken out twenty years later, these illustrious generals would have long since passed the age of retirement, and might even be buried in a cemetery, reuniting with nature, and it would have been the younger generation of generals who would have been at the helm of the German navy.

Raeder?

History testifies to his leadership and, surprisingly, in the time of the emperor he was a young officer favored by Wilhelm II, and during the Third Reich he was the favorite of the Führer. Now, at the age of 43, he is in a critical period of ascension, and with the rank of Colonel of the Navy transferred to Reinhardt-Scheer, succeeding Colonel Trota as Chief of Operations of the High Seas Fleet, the future is bound to be limitless if he can seize the opportunity.

Lütjans?

In this time and space, he may have the opportunity to become a successful naval warlord, and now he is not yet 30 years old, all he has to do is to study steadily, accumulate qualifications, and strive to learn valuable experience from his predecessors.

Natsuki and Hipper, two people who admire each other, talk freely about the topic of reality and the future.

Despite the devastating blows in the last war, the British Navy remained the number one rival of the German Navy. With the 45,000-ton Super Queen-class battleship designed for displacement, the first ship of which was launched, and the outfitting was expected to be completed by the end of 1920, with this true supership as the cornerstone of the British Navy's strong recovery. Guilty of defeat, two outstanding naval commanders, Jellico and Betty, were completely abandoned, with Admiral John de Robeck, 57, and Admiral Henry Oliver, 54, becoming the pillars of the Royal Navy, and they gathered a group of talented squadron commanders: D. Wharton Steddy, an independent, brave, and hot-tempered admiral; Lévis Berry, a brilliant tactician with extraordinary independence; William Buckingham and Osmod Bullock, bold and courageous fighters......

The economic, trade, and even military cooperation between Britain and the United States increasingly tied their interests, and the Portuguese crisis caused by the Azores made the German rulers realize the true position of the United States. In addition to defeating the decaying Spanish Navy and organizing the Great White Fleet to sail around the world, the US Navy has no achievements worth boasting about in modern times, and its active generals have participated in large-scale naval battles in modern times as military observers. However, most of Britain's new generation of capital warships are designed and built in American shipyards, which has brought considerable gains to the US Navy. By the beginning of 1919, the most advanced capital ship of the US Navy was the New Mexico class with a displacement of 32,000 tons and equipped with 12 14-inch guns, and its biggest feature was that it had ultra-thick armor like a turtle shell, even against the German Bavarian class equipped with 15-inch guns, it may not be inferior, and the new class of capital ships under construction, the Tennessee class, obviously absorbed the design experience of the British Navy, and had great improvements in power and seaworthiness, and the displacement of 43,000 tons was also comparable to the new generation of capital ships of the British and German Navy.

On the other hand, Japan, another naval power in the Pacific region, can be said to be a formidable force that has grown up in the smelting of blood and fire. Imperial Marshal Heihachiro Togo, who led the fleet to defeat the Russian Navy, is still alive, but the 71-year-old "Oriental Nelson" has faded out of the naval decision-making circle, and the head of the navy is Yuzaburo Kato, the "fierce general" during the Russo-Japanese War, and the elderly and steady Shimamura Suo is the head of the naval command. Most of the commanders of the Japanese Navy's fleets and sub-fleets were generals who performed well in the Russo-Japanese War, and their courage and fearlessness were their character labels, and their emphasis on naval training and rigor were not inferior to those of the Anglo-German Navy, and the development of capital ship technology kept up with the trend, and the most advanced Ise-class battleships were among the top with a displacement of 31,000 tons and a firepower configuration of 12 14-inch guns, and they were potential opponents that should not be underestimated.

The topic finally returned to the German Navy, and the four new-generation capital battleships under construction in Kiel, Wilhelm, Bremen, and Hamburg have been designated as the Deutsche class, with a design displacement of 45,000 tons, and are as unimaginable sea monsters as Britain's "super queen". They use an astonishing 50 times the diameter of 16-inch naval guns (according to the American and British standards should be 46 times the diameter), although the maximum speed of 25 knots is much slower than the "Super Queen", but the outstanding protection ability is still the pride of the Germans - adhering to the German battleship's consistent comprehensive protection design, the armor thickness of the turret front and the conning tower has reached 16 inches of the same size as the caliber of the naval gun, and the absolute protection capability is second only to the Americans' "Super Turtle". At the same time, the first Mackensen-class has already been launched at the naval shipyard in Kiel, ships 2 and 3 will be launched within the year, and ships 4 and 5 have been modified to adapt to the changing situation. The Anglo-German naval rivalry seems to have returned to around 1909-1910, except that the positions of the two sides have been reversed, and the British have become ambitious pursuers, and no one knows whether the contest will end in diplomatic negotiations or drag the world into another catastrophic war.

(End of chapter)