In terms of size, the German Navy can only be regarded as a second-rate navy, and in terms of the scope of activities, it can only be regarded as an offshore navy, because the German warships have hardly left the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and are blocked by the British at the doorstep, lacking a way to kill them.

The commander of the German Navy, Field Marshal Raeder, was a veteran of World War I, and he also participated in the "Battle of Jutland". Strategically, the German High Seas Fleet suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Jutland and has since lost the ability to compete with Britain for sea supremacy in the North Atlantic.

This experience was unforgettable for Field Marshal Raeder, and no matter how brilliant the German submarine forces under the command of Dönitz at that time achieved in the Atlantic, Raeder still adhered to the policy of focusing on the development of a large fleet. After the successive construction of two battleships of the "Bismarck" class, new battleships, as well as aircraft carriers, were also put on the slipway. But the problem was that Germany simply did not have the ability to support Raeder's huge naval shipbuilding program at that time.

If the war broke out five years later, maybe Raeder's plan has become a reality, but the reality is cruel, after the outbreak of the war, most of Germany's materials have to be used on the ground battlefield, 23 years, Germany's 6 military spending accounted for 40% of the total expenditure, the air force 3 and a half percent, and the navy only got 2 and a half percent of military expenditure (in the same period, the proportion of military spending in the Tang Imperial Navy reached 6 and a half) It can be said that the navy is the least valued of the three major branches of the German military. With such a small amount of military spending, the navy must also give priority to the needs of the submarine force, strengthen the strangulation of the British and French lifelines at sea, and finally provide the funds and materials that can be provided for the construction of surface warships.

From a practical point of view, it was extremely difficult for the German navy to defeat the British and French navies, and even against the British navy alone, there was little certainty of victory. Germany itself is a large 6-type country, and the reunification time is not long, it missed the initial stage of the naval exhibition, and it does not have the characteristics of a maritime nation. There is no ideological basis for the development of the Navy. More importantly, Germany did not have a good enough access to the sea, and its geographical location was extremely unfavorable to the development of the navy. Relatively speaking, Britain is an island nation and has always attached great importance to the development of its navy (a common feature of island countries, and Japan is also the same) France is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, and there are natural harbors in both directions, and the passage out of the Atlantic Ocean is not completely blocked. Arguably. In any respect, Germany did not have the basis for developing its navy.

Germany's status as a great power is recognized, and one of the necessary signs of a great power is a strong navy. The navy represents not only a maritime military force, but more often than not, a wide range of overseas interests. And extensive overseas interests are the foundation of a strong country. Two extreme examples, the Tang Empire was strong to a large extent because of its extensive overseas interests and the world's number one naval fleet. On the contrary, the Russian Empire, although also powerful, was never recognized by the great powers, and at best it was a second-rate power, a giant who could only walk on one leg.

The Germans were stimulated by the purpose of becoming a great power. It's also stimulating Raeder. After the last war. The German Navy drew up an ambitious shipbuilding plan, and later demanded a 70% share of the Tang Imperial Navy in the Treaty of Songjiang. This requirement was met, but Germany's strength was not enough to support such a large naval fleet. From the signing of the treaty to the outbreak of war. The size of the German Navy has never reached the ceiling of this treaty!

In the final analysis, the reason for the lack of attention of the German Navy was determined by its own reasons and geographical location. With France to the west and Russia to the east, two powerful "neighbors," and its own country not having sufficient strategic depth and strategic resources, Germany must focus on building up its ground forces, and it is only natural that its navy will be left out in the cold because it is on guard against the two powerful "neighbors" in the east and the west, and Germany has few overseas interests.

In the last war, the crushing defeat of the "Battle of Jutland" stung the Germans, after losing sea supremacy. Germany was almost finished, if it were not for the timely opening of ground contact with Germany by the Persian Empire and the arrival of the expeditionary forces of the Tang Empire on the European battlefield, I am afraid that Germany, like Russia and Japan, would have surrendered before the end of the war. Maintaining a strong navy and maintaining the safety of the lifeline at sea became all the consensus of the Germans, and it was recognized. It doesn't mean that you have this ability.

At that time, the German Navy was still a "sabotage" navy, not a "control" one. The difference between the two is that a "sabotage" navy can only destroy the enemy's sea lines of communication and destroy the enemy's sea supremacy, and can never gain sea supremacy, control the sea, and use the sea for its own use, just like the "control" navy. And hundreds of years of naval warfare have proven that "sabotage" does not bring sea dominance, nor is it possible to bring much benefit to the country, and in a large-scale war, it is always more effective to control the sea than to disrupt sea communications.

It can be said that the German Navy went "astray" under duress, and the focus of the German Navy has always been on submarines, and the meaning of this "focus" is not the same. The Tang Empire, the United States, Japan, and Britain all attached great importance to submarines, but they did not use submarines as a major force, but only as a part of the navy. In the German Navy, on the contrary, submarines were almost everything, representing almost the entire German Navy. By the end of '23, the German Navy had more than three hundred submarines, and for a long time there were dozens of submarines operating in the North Atlantic. On the contrary, the surface ships of the German Navy remained in the Baltic Sea for the most part, and did not even have a chance to break out of the Kattegat Strait (northeast of Denmark, the Baltic Sea estuary).

Falling to this point can also be regarded as the sorrow of the German Navy. But this does not mean that the Germans did not have the ambition and determination to go to the sea. Relatively speaking, the shipbuilding program of the German Navy was larger than that of many countries, and could even be compared with the navy of the Tang Empire.

After the last war, the German Navy formulated a 25-year shipbuilding plan, preparing to use 25 years to catch up with Britain and build the most powerful naval fleet in the North Atlantic, and indeed in the entire world. But in fact, this plan is very unrealistic.

In the whole plan, the battleship was the most important, and the German Navy, after ending the experience and lessons of the "Battle of Jutland", believed that the degree of the battleship was as important as the defense and firepower. Therefore, they need better, faster, more powerful, and more defensive warships to enrich their high seas fleet. But the problem was that Germany simply could not afford to build a large fleet at that time, and the German government could not afford the cost of building warships. In addition, in terms of technology, Germany also lacked a base, this was only a fleet on paper.

After Raeder took office, the construction of the German Navy accelerated, but the opportunity of the economic crisis that followed destroyed the whole of Germany (Germany is the country most affected by the economic crisis in Europe) Not to mention the navy, even the construction of the 6th Army is difficult, how can the German government have the money to support the construction of the navy? As a last resort, Raeder had to find ways to buy ready-made technology directly from the Tang Empire (the problem was that no country was willing to transfer the most core technology to other countries) and send officers to the Tang Empire for study and further study (this was welcome). The navy of the Tang Empire also needed to compete for extra speed, and to train the soldiers of the allied countries, which was a multi-tasking thing) at a time when there was almost no hope of completing the twenty-five-year shipbuilding program. Raeder is still doing his best to promote the German Navy's exhibition.

Before the construction of the "Bismarck" class battleships, the German Navy built several pocket battleships. Pocket battleships were actually smaller battleships with fewer guns and more small battleships in defensive areas. Of course, this was also a last resort, and when there was not enough money for the construction of battleships, and many old battleships were facing retirement, the German Navy had no choice but to do so.

Subsequently, the battleships of the "Bismarck" class were put on the slipway, which, in fact, remained a kind of battleship of a transitional type. But it was the most powerful battleship of its time. The battleships of the "Bismarck" class had already passed the limits of the treaty (the German Navy withheld most of the performance data), and its opponents, none of the battleships in the British Navy, could compete with them. This is also the reason why later the British immediately launched the program for the construction of battleships of the "George V" class. Britain has always regarded Germany as its number one rival, and the navy is the basis of Britain's survival, and Britain will naturally not let the German navy's warship performance prevail.

Because it was only a transitional model, only two "Bismarck" were built ("Bismarck" and "Tirpitz"), according to Raeder's vision, the real battleships of the German Navy were "H" class battleships (not officially named, "H" is the code name of the plan), and the "H" class battleships had a design displacement of more than 50,000 tons. It is the largest displacement battleship in the world since the Japanese "Yamato" class battleships. But until 21, the year of the war, the German government did not approve the construction of the "H" class, and even the design drawings were not fully completed. That is, by this time, the battleships of the "H" class largely existed only in the minds of drawings and designers.

The Germans don't stop there. In 2o, Raeder had already proposed a more powerful battleship after the "H" class, and tentatively named the "Z" class. The full load displacement of such a battleship turned out to be 80,000 tons! At that time, the full load displacement of the Japanese "Yamato" class was only close to 70,000 tons! But the question is, Germany can't even turn the "H" class into a real warship, so what ability does it have to build the "Z" class?

In addition to battleships, the German Navy has long recognized the importance of aircraft carriers (in fact, in this small pond in the North Sea, aircraft carriers do not necessarily play a big role) When advancing the construction of battleships, the German Navy also began to plan the construction of aircraft carriers, and its first aircraft carrier "Zeppelin" was put on the slipway at the end of 2o. And the basic design work of this aircraft carrier was not completed in Germany, but in the Tang Empire, which was also designing the "Yangtze River" class aircraft carrier at that time, and the German Navy had no experience in aircraft carrier design, so it directly paid for the designers of the Tang Empire to design the aircraft carrier for them.

The aircraft carrier was not built until the next year. Because most of the important supplies were invested in the 6th Army and the Air Force, the Navy was in the construction of submarines (by this time, German submarines had already been successful in the Atlantic), and the construction of aircraft carriers was postponed indefinitely. If the situation of the war does not change significantly, I am afraid that by the end of the war, the "Zeppelin" will be parked on the slipway.

In addition to the battleships and aircraft carriers, the German Navy also has a huge set of exhibition plans in all aspects such as cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. Most of these plans are just plans. Tan Renhao also had to marvel at the ambition of the Germans, and had to sigh at the detail and meticulousness of the Germans in making plans. It can be said that if Germany is really capable of completing their 25-year shipbuilding plan, then the situation in the North Atlantic will be one-sided, and the British and French navies together will not necessarily be the opponent of the German navy, but the problem is that the warships on paper have no threatening effect.

What made Tan Renhao feel the most was the navy's dependence on national strength, especially industrial strength. Behind any naval power is actually a strong industrial base. Japan may have been an exception, but it was eventually defeated. Without a strong industrial base, there will be no strong navy, and the presence of the navy will become meaningless. Germans have their own dreams and lofty ideals, but they do not have the corresponding strength. When the threat on the ground was far greater than the threat at sea, the German Navy could only swim in the small pool of the Baltic Sea, and did not have the ability to fight the waves in the Atlantic!

When Tan Renhao finished flipping through the document in his hand, the time had already passed eleven o'clock. He immediately left the study and slipped back to his bedroom to sleep. His wife was already asleep in bed, and Tan Renhao climbed into bed lightly, but he couldn't sleep.

The Imperial Navy was fortunate because the Empire had a centuries-old maritime history, and the Empire had a strong industrial base and abundant strategic resources. This is perhaps the most fortunate thing, if Tan Renhao was in Germany, I am afraid that he would not be commanding the fleet to fight now, but shaking with a rifle in some trench!