One day at the end of July, tens of thousands of German soldiers and civilians braved the scorching sun at the Kiel Hovald shipyard in Germany to witness the official commissioning of the "Bavaria". The Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info the first of the Bavarian class, Germany's first super-dreadnought, with its main guns jumping from 12 inches (305 mm) to 15 inches (380 mm) in the King-class.

With the commissioning of the "Bavaria", the embarrassment of the absence of super-dreadnoughts in the world's first navy today has become history.

Unlike most German politicians and ordinary military and civilians, a discerning person like Natsuki knows very well that the "world first" of the German Navy is not only unstable, but also somewhat unworthy of the name. After the British Navy experienced several disastrous naval battles, it handed over a lot of ships because of the London Armistice, and in the world naval rankings ranked by the total tonnage of the navy, the world number one almost fell out of the top ten, although the German Navy paid a heavy price for victory, but because the anti-sinking resistance of the main ships was extremely prominent, the total tonnage of the navy was only slightly reduced, so it moved forward one place from the world second before the war, and became the coveted world first, but in 1916, Germany has a lead of more than 20,000 tons over the world's first pair and the United States, which is in the second position, and with the huge gap between the shipbuilding industries and the overall national strength of the two sides, the Americans can throw the German emperor's fleet out of the street with a little exertion.

The Germans should be glad that with the end of the war, the Americans slowed down the construction of capital ships, but this was by no means a matter of capacity or funding, but the US Navy actively learned from the experience of naval warfare in the war and improved the ships under construction and ready to start construction, so the original construction period was delayed. If these ships are commissioned as scheduled, will the German Navy continue to hold the top spot?

Among the guests invited to the ceremony was a foreign monarch who was deeply respected and loved by the German military and civilians, who was a member of the Hohenzollern royal family and made great contributions to the construction of German naval strategy and war strategy.

Sitting in the front row of the viewing platform, Natsuki looked at the brand-new "Bavaria" with mixed feelings, its service should have become a sensational news in the world, it has every chance to become the world's first super warship equipped with 15-inch guns, provided that it is built and put into service before the British Queen Elizabeth class, but the construction period of the "Bavaria" gave way to the strategic situation under the will of Natsuki - during the war, the historic and powerful Hovald shipyard undertook the repair work of many capital ships of the German Navy, In order to return the active warship to the combat sequence as soon as possible, the shipyard transferred a lot of manpower from the construction team of the "Bavaria", and the steel parts that belonged to the common standard were also given priority to the repair of the ship, based on these factors, the construction period of the "Bavaria" was delayed for several months, and then the design was improved by drawing on the experience of naval warfare, and there were power problems during sea trials, and as a result, its service time was more than half a year later than that of the British Queen Elizabeth-class first ship.

If the war had not ended, this time lag would have had an incalculable impact on the situation of maritime confrontation between the two countries.

The gap has been created, and it is better to catch up than to complain. Fortunately, the victory in the Great War freed Germany from the previous trapping situation, and even if there were no super-dreadnoughts, the German Navy could make up for it by virtue of its strategic deployment, the number of ships, and the combat psychology of the battle, as evidenced by the recent Anglo-Irish fishing dispute.

In any case, the commissioning of the "Bavaria" was a milestone in the German Navy's entry into the era of super-dreadnought, and it was of epoch-making significance in the military field. Since the Bavarian class entered service later than the Queen Elizabeth class, it has 2,500 tons more tonnage than the latter, the construction cost is 30 percent higher, and the performance on paper is better than that of this natural rival. The No. 2 ship of the same class, the "Baden," has now completed all outfitting works and is undergoing sea trials and adjustments, and will be incorporated into the battle sequence of the German Navy in a month or two.

The German top brass warmly invited Natsuki not only to thank him for his contribution to the design and construction of Bavaria, but also to discuss how to deal with new challenges -- according to the intelligence obtained by the spies from the British side, at the request of the British Navy, the New York shipyard under the name of the US government has secretly completed the design of the Super Queen-class battleship, which is designed to have a standard displacement of 45,000 tons, and once commissioned, it will become the largest warship of this era.

To the great concern of the Germans, the design proposed by the Americans to the British Navy had reached a near-perfect level - four twin-mounted 45x-diameter 16-inch guns provided superior firepower, a powerful power system capable of driving the ship at a top speed of 28 knots with an output of 150,000 horsepower, and the armor thickness of the main armor belt, turret front, and conning tower was 14 inches.

Such a super queen, even against two or even three German dreadnoughts, has enough strength to beat them to the ground, and has a clear advantage in one-on-one confrontation with the Bavarian class.

This seems to be an unrealistic plan, but Natsuki knows that the current best level of shipbuilding can meet this "crazy plan". The 15-inch naval guns have been installed in the Queen Elizabeth class, and the performance has basically reached the design level, while the Americans have designed a 35-fold diameter 16-inch gun in 1902, and when Britain and Germany competed to climb the high ground of the 15-inch naval gun, the US Navy directly challenged the 45 times the diameter and 50 times the diameter of the 16-inch gun. Soon after the end of the war, the 45 times the diameter gun was the first to be developed, and the prospects for the 50 times diameter gun were also very optimistic, which means that as long as the super queen built by Britain started construction in the United States, there was no technical problem with the 16-inch main gun, and the Germans' research and development design of the 16-inch naval gun had only really started recently, and even if the research and development process was surprisingly smooth, it would not be possible to get mass production until two years later.

In terms of power, the three-cylinder heavy oil boiler with small water pipe technology and the mature steam turbine can provide sufficient power output, and if the characteristics of key protection are continued, it is not a problem to assemble the main armor with a thickness of 14 inches.

In the old historical time, the construction of the "Hood" started in 1916 was an ideal technical reference.

In Natsuki's view, as long as the United States and Britain do not take aircraft carriers as the focus of development, the Allies will still have opportunities to take advantage of the future naval battles, but Kaiser Wilhelm II and his naval staff do not have such a vision, the victory of the Great War has made their self-confidence unprecedentedly inflated, they are ambitious to dominate the sea like Britain for hundreds of years, and the German economy has shown explosive growth this year due to the receipt of a large number of war reparations and overseas colonies, according to this trend, The country's finances would soon be freed from the burden of the pre-war development of armaments, and the optimistic situation emboldened the country's policymakers to invest huge sums of money in naval construction.

At the urging of the emperor, the naval proposal to build new ships was finally approved by the German parliament, which means that Germany will start construction of five Mackensen-class and five super Bavaria-class ships in the next three years, and the total investment of ten super warships will exceed 700 million marks. To the comfort of the German Chancellor of the Exchequer and members of the Parliament, the old enemy France had been trampled underfoot, the Tsarist Russia had only survived, and the German Army's funding had dropped significantly compared to before the war, thus providing financial space for the frantic expansion of the German Navy.

The Mackensen-class was eventually designed with a standard displacement of 37,000 tons, eight 15-inch guns, and a speed of 28 knots, while the design standard for the Super Bavaria was at least the same as that of the British Super Queen - and with the same technical conditions, the Germans were confident that they would win with the "human" factor.

The previously drafted Mackensen-class design is an improvement plan completed by the Irish ship design agency under the leadership of Xia Shu, with a standard displacement of 35,000 tons, and a triple 14-inch gun, which has the advantage of balanced performance, suitable for a variety of maritime tactics, and the construction cost is relatively reasonable. Although there are no major technical problems in the revised design scheme, it has lost the aura that once made Natsuki feel very satisfied, and this approach is full of impetuousness and lacks the real heritage of a great country, which has triggered a deep reflection on Natsuki.

If we want to catch up with the footsteps of the United States and Britain, we must fully mobilize the country's shipbuilding resources, and the battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, destroyers, and various military auxiliary ships will be promoted simultaneously, and the orders for large and medium-sized civilian ships will be handed over to Ireland to solve, and the funds for the Irish shipbuilding industry will be sufficient to provide sufficient funds, and the Irish government will be able to launch the follow-up projects of heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers as soon as possible.

Anyway, there was no need for the German government to pay extra money, and Wilhelm II readily agreed. A few days later, the German government's department of industry and trade provided the Irish government with a list, and after the two sides agreed, the Germans sent two truckloads full of technical information -- the order to start construction of six 10,000-ton ocean-going freighters, 10 10,000-ton ocean-going tankers, and three large cruise ships within 10 months fell to the Irish in the form of subcontracting.

Hearing this news, the Irish shipbuilding industry from top to bottom could not help but feel excited.

Having promised the German allies to start construction of new heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers as soon as possible, funding was the first issue to be solved, and the two paths of foreign loans and the issuance of government bonds had their own advantages and disadvantages. As soon as the east wind arrived, the No. 2 heavy cruiser and two 20,000-ton aircraft carriers, whose design plans had already been determined, immediately began construction at the Royal Shipyard in Limerick.

A new round of naval competition has quietly begun between the British and American camps, which have formed a strategic cooperative relationship, and the German-Irish alliance, which maintains a close alliance......

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