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[Today's second update]

In terms of anti-aircraft firepower, because the German army has never studied the secrets of the Vulcan Phalanx of the Chinese Empire, it also uses the anti-aircraft fire system of parallel anti-aircraft guns) At the same time, Germany does not attach importance to the development of aircraft carriers, and most of the warships are fighting without air cover, so they pay special attention to anti-aircraft firepower, and even the shipboard reconnaissance aircraft are equipped with 20 mm cannons. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The anti-aircraft defense of the Hindenburg class consists of heavy, medium and light anti-aircraft guns. The heavy anti-aircraft guns were 16 twin 125-mm SK-C37 anti-aircraft guns, all located on the deck of the first superstructure, with 4 on the front, rear, left, and right sides. Six of them can shoot directly into the airspace ahead, the other six can shoot directly into the airspace behind, and eight on each side can fire directly into the air. This type of anti-aircraft gun is a significant improvement over the 105-mm Mk15 equipped with the "Bismarck" class, with a maximum rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute, an altitude of 12,500 meters at an elevation angle of 80 °, a maneuver angle of 360 °, and a maneuver speed of 8.5 degrees per second. The medium anti-aircraft guns consisted of 24 twin 37-mm C83 guns, all of which were placed on the superstructure and could maneuver 360 ° at a speed of 4 degrees per second. The light anti-aircraft gun was a 78-seat 20-mm C65 single-mounted gun with a maximum rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute. Its range is 4900 meters at an elevation angle of 45 °, 3700 meters at an elevation angle of 85 °, and the maneuver angle is also 360 degrees.

In terms of carrier-based aircraft, the "Hindenburg" class is equipped with six "Arado 1935" seaplanes for reconnaissance, calibration, and liaison. Two of them were placed in one hangar under the main mast, and four were placed in two standby hangars on either side of the chimney. The plane was launched from 2 catapults on the chimney and mainmast. The Hindenburg class also carries up to 28 small boats.

In terms of armor protection. The armor of German ships is often obtained at the expense of firepower, because it is difficult to balance firepower, mobility and defense. The German ship adopts the "heavy armor doctrine", which will be more advantageous when the enemy is outnumbered. ╔╗German ship designers believed that one more gun would not necessarily hit the enemy. An extra inch of armor allowed the shells of several enemy ships to be bounced off at the same time. According to the Chinese saying: stay in the green mountains, don't be afraid of no firewood. Therefore, when designing the "Hindenburg" class, the Germans placed great emphasis on medium and short-range protection, which could not only withstand shelling by enemy ships, but also have sufficient protection against torpedoes.

Therefore, the armor of the battleships of the "Hindenburg" class was even thicker to an outrageous extent. The upper deck is reinforced with 150 mm steel armor to protect against shrunch and delay the downward penetration of shells, allowing them to explode before they can penetrate the armor plates. The armored deck protects the vital parts of the ship. The thickness is 120~160 mm, and the total length is 275 meters. The armor plates on both sides are up to 300~600 mm thick, protecting the engine room, boiler room and ammunition room. The conning tower and fire control parts were protected by thick armor, 670 mm at the thickest point. For vulnerable main gun turrets. Its thickness reaches 800 mm on the front and 480 mm on the sides. The main armor of the secondary gun also reached 380 mm.

The armor coverage rate of the entire Hindenburg-class battleships reached 80%, and the weight of the armor alone reached 20,000 tons, which shows that the Germans attached importance to the defense capability of the battleships to the point of "turtle shell" thinking.

Other than that. According to the intelligence obtained by the Chinese Imperial Intelligence Bureau, there are mediastinal walls on the inside of the "Hindenburg" and the center line of the hull, and the most important power area and the lower part of the turret are set up with triple bottoms. The standard at the time of design was the ability to protect against 1 torpedo with a 450 kg TNT charge. Hitting 4~6 torpedoes with a 450 kg charge can still continue the battle. If you hit more than 8 pieces, you will remain unsinkable for a long time until the ship returns to port or runs aground nearby.

The reason why so much attention is paid to the ability to resist sinking. In addition to Germany's emphasis on defense, more importantly, the cost of the Hindenburg-class battleships was as high as 800 million dragon dollars...... Book friend upload update} is equivalent to four Ming-class battleships, so once it sinks, the losses for Germany will be miserable, and the Germans do not want to accept this blow. ╔╗

Initially, the designers planned to use the electric propulsion propulsion power system on the Bismarck-class battleships for the Hindenburg class. However, due to safety and fuel saving considerations, high-pressure turbine steam turbines were finally used. The "Hindenburg" was equipped with three "Bismarck" class Curtiss light turbines, each in three transversely arranged watertight cabins, each driving a propeller. The power plant includes 16 500 kW diesel generators, 10 690 kW turbine generators and 4 460 kW turbine generators. They are installed in six compartments, with turbine generators in the nose compartment and diesel generators in the tail compartment. The number of personnel is 2,500, and the maximum number of people as a flagship in wartime is 3,400.

The German Navy built warships on a large scale, and the hull of the 100,000-ton Hindenburg-class battleship could not be concealed, and it was quickly detected by naval spies of various countries, and the whole world was shocked for a while.

The British Navy suddenly became nervous about the German Navy's crazy moves. Although the British were the balance of power between the British and German navies, the German navy should not have the British navy as an imaginary enemy. However, the disastrous defeat at Jutland was still fresh in the memory of the British Navy, and the fear of the German Navy suddenly exploded.

As a result, the British Admiralty immediately conducted a study, gathering all of Britain's top shipbuilders and naval gun designers to study the German Hindenburg-class battleships.

After systematic discussion and research, British intelligence infiltrated the shipyard and, after actual detection, decided that the displacement of this Hindenburg-class battleship of the German Navy should be more than 80,000 tons. Raul, the British naval gun designer, analyzed: "The long-term goal of the German Navy is the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the Hindenburg-class battleships should be based on the Ming-class battleships of the Chinese Empire as an imaginary enemy." It is a well-known fact that if any warship is regarded as an imaginary enemy, it will inevitably increase the caliber of its main guns. We know very well that the main guns of the battleships of the US Navy cannot penetrate their armor at all, so it can be seen that if they want to take the Ming-class battleships as an imaginary enemy, they can only increase the caliber of the main guns, so the Hindenburg-class battleships of the German Navy are at least 19 inches or more. Then we must not follow behind the German Navy. Therefore, our newly built battleships should be equipped with at least 20 inches of main guns! ”

According to Raul's judgment, the British Admiralty then adopted his opinion and asked Britain to also build the "ultimate battleship", requiring a displacement of about 100,000 tons. Equipped with a 20-inch gun and maintaining a speed of 30 knots, the requirements of the German Hindenburg-class battleships were completely suppressed.

In fact, back in 1931, after completing the Queen Elizabeth-class superbattleships, Britain began to think about building 90,000 or even 110,000 tons of superships. At that time, the British Admiralty also called this concept battleship the ultimate battleship, because the British also found that the battleship was built to such an extent that it had reached the limit of human industrial manufacturing. No matter how large-caliber the main guns are, they have lost the meaning of fighting on warships. Moreover, Britain was different from Germany, which had not conducted aircraft carrier operations, so it only valued the Giant Ship Artillery Doctrine. However, in the British Navy, although the mainstream idea is also the theory of victory of giant ships and cannons. However, Britain has been developing aircraft carriers, and a considerable number of British naval officers have gradually changed their previous views on adhering to the theory of giant ships and cannons, and have turned to support the theory of aircraft carriers' sea supremacy, which has affected the overall judgment of the British Admiralty to a certain extent, so the British Navy top brass believes that battleships have reached their peak era.

The Chinese Empire suddenly unsealed 27 super battleships. This made the former world's number one naval power very faceless. The British Navy naturally wanted to restore the glory of the British Navy of yesteryear, so when it became known that the German Navy was building the Hindenburg-class ultimate battleship, the British Navy could not sit still, and was under the enormous pressure of financial difficulties. ╔╗ finally persuaded the British Parliament.

In September 1938, two months after the start of construction of the German Hindenburg-class battleships. The British government and the Admiralty reached an agreement to allocate £3.3 billion (around 1.5 billion dragon coins) to build the last super-battleship in the history of the British Navy, the Britannia-class ultimate battleship.

Britannia-class super-battleship. The design displacement is 103,100 tons, nine 504-mm 45-diameter guns are installed, and the required speed is 30 knots. The British Admiralty demanded that its hypothetical enemy be the ultimate battleship of the German Navy, the Hindenburg-class battleship, with vertical armor capable of withstanding 20-inch shells fired from 20,802 yards (27,432 m) away from the main guns of the Hindenburg-class battleships and 19-inch shells fired from 30,000 yards (27,432 meters). Horizontal protection against 2,000 pounds (908 kg) of armor-piercing shells dropped from a height of 15,000 feet (4,573 m). The protection outside the furnace compartment can be lower than the standard of the ammunition compartment. Underwater protection against explosions of 2,000 pounds of TNT equivalent.

The British Navy plans to build four ultimate battleships, namely the HMS England, HMS Wales, HMS Scotland, and HMS Northern Ireland.

Compared with the German Hindenburg-class battleships, the Britannia-class battleships under construction by the United Kingdom actually led ~~update the first launch~~ in terms of firepower and speed. This shows that since 1871, the British Navy's strategy against the German Navy has not changed, and it is still in the direction of high firepower and high speed, which has become the enemy of the century with the German Navy still taking the route of attaching importance to armor protection. Although the starting points of Britain and Germany were different, the final ultimate battleships were all 20-inch guns, and the British Britannia-class battleships had one more main gun than the German Hindenburg-class main guns, and the firepower was superior. The speed is one step higher, and it also has a slight advantage, but the armor protection is not as good as the German Hindenburg class. ╔╗

Compared to the 500 mm average armor protection of the German Hindenburg class, the average armor protection of the British Britannia-class battleships was only 450 mm. However, the British Navy is not without a long memory, the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Jutland has taught the British Navy a certain lesson, and the armor protection has been greatly improved, at least the attention is paid to the armor protection of key vital parts, which is basically the same as the German Hindenburg-class battleships. In actual combat, Germany's comprehensive heavy armor protection was actually much redundant, so the comprehensive combat capabilities of the British Britannia-class battleships surpassed those of the Hindenburg-class battleships.

However, the financial resources of the British Navy to build only four have already stretched the financial constraints, compared with the nouveau riche finances after the expansion of Germany, Germany built six Hindenburg-class battleships, and may build more battleships in the later period, from this point of view alone, Britain's national strength after the post-war economic crisis has been greatly inferior to before, serious decline, and there is no stamina to compete with Germany.

The fateful enemies of Yingde and Germany were once again opposed, which made several families happy and sad. France simply didn't have the money to build such a huge super-battleship. But it was enough for France to have Britain as an ally. Britain was preparing for a naval arms race with Germany, and France did not need to vigorously develop its navy. However, France is also a country that wants to save face. After all, France does not know when Britain and Germany will become allies, so France is in the interests of its own security. Even if there is no money to build a 100,000-ton super battleship, it would be good to build at least one or two 50,000-000-ton and 60,000-ton capital battleships.

To this end, the French government tightened its belts and scraped together a sum of money for the construction of France's ultimate battleship.

The French class battleship came into being, and the French Admiralty required its standard displacement to be controlled at about 70,000 tons, equipped with 406 mm 50 times the caliber main gun, and four triple loads (2 in the front and 2 in the rear), which was designed to counter the German "Bismarck" class 460 mm main gun. With a firing range of 39 kilometers (the main gun range of the "Bismarck" is 41 kilometers), the "France" class can gain the advantage of artillery combat with a relatively strong hull and a faster firing rate by narrowing the gap in range.

In the end, the French Navy Design Department came up with a plan that. The "Française" class battleship is 282 meters long, 37 meters wide, has a draft of 12 meters, a standard displacement of 60,500 tons, and a full load displacement of 73,500 tons. The power is 172,000 horsepower, the speed is 28 knots, the 15-knot cruise has a range of 15,000 kilometers, and it is equipped with four triple 406 mm guns. 10 twin 127 mm, 10 quadruple 40 mm, 56 20 mm secondary guns.

In terms of protection capabilities. In order to counter the German Navy, the French Navy paid attention to protection capabilities. Although it is equipped with a 406 mm gun. However, the average armor reached 430 mm, which allowed the Franco-class battleships to lose some speed at the cost of withstanding Bismarck's 18-inch guns at a distance of 15 km.

A total of two France-class battleships were built, but with the rapid expansion of the German Army, Britain asked France to strengthen the army force, and France invested a huge amount of money in the Maginot Line, in order to increase military spending for the French Army, often embezzled the cost of naval shipbuilding, as a result, the two France-class battleships were not delivered for a long time, and it was not until the outbreak of World War II that France hurriedly completed them.

Although France did not have the money to build the ultimate 100,000-ton battleship, there was a so-called "big country" that was poorer than France, and that was Italy.

Mussolini always paid attention to the military strength of the surrounding countries, when Germany, Britain and France all rumored to start building the "ultimate battleship", the Italian Navy still had to stare at the dry envy, Mussolini could not afford to build the 100,000-ton ultimate battleship, but he was not willing to be compared with other countries, so he came up with a way to get the best of both worlds - political deception.

Mussolini didn't have the money to build the ultimate battleship, but he would brag. He gave the Italian Naval Engineering Agency the order to build the ultimate battleship of the Italian class, with a design displacement of 102,300 tons, equipped with four triple 20-inch 45-diameter main guns, and a speed of 30 knots, and announced that it would be completed in the next five years, and allocated 40 billion lira to the Italian Admiralty for this purpose.

In fact, Mussolini allocated only 200 million lira to set up a large dock in the Genoese shipyard, deliberately for foreign spies to detect, thinking that the Italian Navy was really building this ultimate battleship. Even Mussolini lied even Hitler.

When Hitler learned that Italy was also building super battleships, he immediately praised Italy as Germany's best ally, and as long as Germany and the Italian navy combined, they would be invincible in the world. It wasn't until years later, when the largest naval battle of World War II broke out, that Hitler asked Mussolini's super-battleship formation for support, that he knew he had been deceived. It was precisely because Hitler was deceived by Mussolini that many of Hitler's planned battles could not be carried out as scheduled, delaying major events.

Speaking of European powers, by the mid-thirties of the twentieth century, with the successful completion of the Soviet Union's first five-year plan, the Soviet Union had achieved an astonishing rapid development in socialist construction, making it undoubtedly a European power, at least stronger than France and Italy.

At that time, European countries were suffering from an economic crisis, and the international situation was becoming increasingly acute and complex. The failure of the Five-Power Pact in 1935 and the launch of a large-scale arms race among countries greatly shocked Stalin.

Stalin, who had a keen sense of smell, believed that it was entirely possible for the fascist capitalist countries and the old powers such as Britain and France to unite against the Chinese Empire, and it was even more likely that they would once again intervene and invade the newly restored Soviet Union and seek a way out for the crumbling economies of various countries. And the Soviet Navy was clearly unable to compete with any potential adversary, even inferior to the Italian Navy, which was a great headache for Stalin.

On May 27, 1935, the Admiralty, under the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, submitted a huge plan for the rebuilding of the Navy, requesting the construction of eight 35,000-ton 406-mm battleships with 406-mm guns and 18 26,000-ton heavy cruisers. (To be continued.) )rx