With Christmas just over three weeks to go, two brand-new black submarines were ready for their voyage by the pier at the Danzig naval base. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The info is a slightly smaller U-12 of the German Navy, with a displacement of 450 tons above water and 520 tons underwater, armed with 3 torpedo tubes and 1 88mm deck gun; The slightly larger type is the U-25 type, with a displacement of 630 tons above water and 720 tons underwater, and is armed with 5 torpedo tubes, 1 88 mm deck gun, and 1 37 mm rapid-fire gun.

By the time the New Year approached in 1911, the German Navy had officially equipped 34 combat submarines, a figure that far exceeded historical records thanks to those within the Navy who recognized the value of submarines, including naval engineers, officers and generals of all ranks, including Admiral Henning von Holzendorf, commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, who was seeing off the German crew at the docks.

A total of 52 German naval officers and sailors lined up next to the two submarines will spend the next few weeks sailing their submarines across the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to Ottoman Turkey on the other side of Europe. Although the long journey of thousands of nautical miles was accompanied by two Brandenburg-class battleships and the supply and maintenance ship "Sadlet", which had just been delivered to the Ottoman Navy, a submarine with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons was no different from a canned meat in the wind and waves compared to these large ships of tens of millions of tons, which meant that the officers and men of the submarines needed strong mental will and skillful piloting skills -- the former was a character that the German soldiers were proud of, and the latter was what these crew members who had just served or had recently transferred from other posts in the Navy lacked the most.

Under the watchful eye of Admiral Holzendorf, the initiator and organizer of the overseas dispatch operation, codenamed "Forged Sword", Prince of Prussia and Rear Admiral of the Imperial Navy, shook hands with every naval officer and sailor who volunteered to participate in the operation.

Nearly a quarter of the officers and men of this small naval contingent had served on the battleships Alsace or Nassau, which means that a significant number of them had worked with Prince Joachim. Not only that, but many of them maintained correspondence with members of the noble royal family, and the reason why they were transferred to the submarine force, which had not been formed for a long time, was due to both vision and interest, as well as personal development considerations - when they came to this unit, the Prussian prince promised them that their salaries would be better than those of the surface fleet, that they would have more opportunities for promotion than in the surface fleet, and that in the event of war, they would have more opportunities to become meritorious heroes than those of the surface fleet!

The officers and men are eager to get the opportunity to prove themselves, and Natsuki hopes that the aspiring young people of the Navy will enrich the submarine force, and at the same time, he is also working hard to cultivate his ability to recognize people and talents. The main officers of this dispatch mission were all personally selected by Natsuki. Due to the peculiar tasks, the two newly built submarines were not assigned the regular numbers of the German Navy, but were denoted by the numbers R and T. Captain R Willy Altendorf was a young officer whom Natsuki had befriended during his tenure on the Nassau, a graduate of the Naval Cadet School in Pullen, who had specialized in torpedo weapons in the past and became a submarine commander after a short two-month training; Captain T Robert Naumann was a skilled sailor from the battleship Alsace and the preferred left wingback of the Alsace Mariners' football team.

When Natsuki returned to his side, Holzendorf held his head high and said in a sonorous tone: "German naval elites, today, you are about to embark on a difficult voyage to a distant and strange land. There, your task is to help the Turks, who are moving closer to us politically and militarily, to consolidate their coastal defenses, and thus to contain the countries that are not friendly to the Empire, so it is important to keep this principle in mind in everything you say and do. When you return to Germany at the end of your assignment, you will be the most experienced and qualified submariners in the German Navy, and you will be proud of not only the Navy's submarine forces, but the entire German Navy. Here, on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor, I would like to salute you! ”

After the short speech, the military band played the "Hymn to the Emperor". Amid the joyous music, the crew boarded in procession, after which the two submarines set sail for Wilhelmshaven, where they would rendezvous with two Brandenburg-class battleships and supply repair ships, which had been renamed "Barbaros Highredding" and "Turgitres", and these five ships were to form a peculiar fleet and sail at a relatively slow speed to the Mediterranean Sea - the maximum surface speed of the two submarines was only 15 knots, and the maximum speed of the Brandenburg-class battleships was 16 when they were built. 5 knots, but after the accumulation of mechanical wear and tear, after the overhaul, it can only barely reach 14 knots, and the fleet's speed is "shortcoming", and the supply repair ship "Horst" can only run at a speed of 10 knots despite its desperate efforts. From the point of view of fuel consumption and equipment maintenance, it is most economical for such a fleet to maintain a speed of 7 to 8 knots.

Natsuki and Holzendorf left the dock in the same car.

Inside the car, the admiral asked the Prussian prince with some puzzlement: "Although His Highness has never spoken outright, His Highness's words clearly convey the point that the Ottoman Empire will definitely be involved in war in the near future, and our submarines will definitely be useful." ”

In front of Holzendorf, Natsuki could not reveal the truth, and he did not want to always play the role of a god, so he replied: "By chance, the commercial charge d'affaires of the Friedrich shipyard in Italy learned from a senior Italian government official that the Italian General Staff had issued a secret mobilization order to the army, and the combat targets were the North African territories of the Ottoman Empire, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. It was also revealed that Italy had secretly reached some agreements with the British, whereby Britain pledged that the Triple Entente would not interfere in Italian military operations in North Africa, and that in return Italy would remain neutral in good faith in the event of any kind of conflict between the Central and Entente powers. ”

Holzendorf pondered for a moment: "If this information is true, Your Highness, isn't the submarine we sent to the Mediterranean Sea going to fight the Italian fleet?" ”

"Are you worried that the Italian government will accuse us of sabotaging the alliance?" Natsuki said contemptuously, "We don't have to expect the Italians to fulfill the alliance at a critical time, if they can reveal their true intentions as soon as possible, it can also allow us and Austria-Hungary to take precautions in advance, so as not to be stabbed in the back." ”

Holzendorf is a man who understands, and it is not difficult to figure out the logic.

Natsuki deliberately said, "Alas, it would be nice if God gave me a pair of magical ears to hear whatever I wanted, so that we wouldn't have to rack our minds to guess what our opponent would do." News like what I just said doesn't happen by accident. ”

"I kind of understand what you mean." Holzendorf turned his head and said, "You have long suggested that the Navy should set up its own professional intelligence agency, and increase its investment and scale year by year. Judging from the strategic planning of the German Navy, it is necessary to take this step in advance. ”

"Yes, when we have professional spies in various countries, we don't have to always find out through private channels like now. In this regard, I recently heard that the Joint Advance Council, which wielded the power of the Ottoman military, had approved a budget of £1,200,000 to order a new type of all-heavy gun battleship at a shipyard in Germany or England. ”

Holzendorf let out an "oh" and then said, "I know that they have always wanted to order all-heavy gun battleships, so they have been actively raising funds." £1,200,000...... If you want to build a normal battleship, you can use the best materials and the most advanced equipment, but if you want to keep up with the trend of all-heavy gun battleships, this money is far from enough! ”

Listening to the admiral, he should not know about this freshly baked news yet.

After returning home with a free submarine lease agreement, Fatih really got the benefits of fame and fortune, and his close cooperation with Natsuki began.

"It depends on the standards by which it was built," Natsuki replied, "and the cost of our capital ships is much more than that, and every battleship the British have built from the Dreadnought to a cost of far more than £1,200,000, but it is not impossible to build an all-heavy gun battleship at this price." ”

"Cut weight, lower standards, and simplify equipment." Holzendorf gave him the answer.

"Yes, that's right." Natsuki said, "With a few purchased ships, the Ottoman Turks could not become a naval power, and it was difficult to stand alone against the Italian navy with their strength, but against the Balkan countries, especially Greece, a simplified configuration of a fully heavy artillery battleship would be enough." ”

From the position of the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Horzendorf has a nonchalant and even contemptuous attitude towards the Turks' shipbuilding orders: "But if the Turks insist on the construction standard of more than 20,000 tons, we will not have a spare slipway to help them fulfill this cheap and extravagant dream, right?" ”

As the director of naval shipbuilding and the chairman of the shipbuilding alliance, Natsuki has a different position and perspective, he said: "All Caesar-class warships will be launched one after another this year, and there will be only three new warships started this year, and we have at least one large slipway that is free." If the basic design of Kaiser had been adopted and the structural configuration had been simplified, we would have been able to complete the hull construction within 12 months, which would not affect the construction of subsequent ships of the Navy and maintain the operational vitality of the shipyard. ”

"You have the most say in this regard, and I personally have no opinion as you see fit." Holzendorf's tone did not contradict, but this attitude made Natsuki a little speechless, and I don't know when the ship engineers, technical supervision officials, and even admirals were reluctant to engage in a head-on heated argument with him, which proved that Natsuki's position was becoming more and more consolidated, but it also increased the chance of human error, and was not conducive to the overall development of naval technology.

The car will soon arrive at the Danzig railway station, Holzendorf will go to Berlin to report to the Kaiser, and then take his family to Baden-Baden for a vacation, while Natsuki has already begun a month-long vacation, and at Christmas, he will take Charlotte to Berlin to spend Christmas with the German royal family. Maybe it won't be long before she becomes a part of the family, Natsuki is looking forward to.

"I wish you all the best and wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, Your Excellency the Admiral!" Before parting, Natsuki gave a message.

Holzendorf waved to Natsuki: "I also wish you all the best, Your Royal Highness the Prince. ”

(End of chapter)