In the center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna, the Imperial Admiralty.

"His Majesty Friedrich has asked to speed up the outfitting of the four 'Romanian' class aircraft carriers, which must be commissioned before we re-open the Suez Canal in November, and for this purpose, the Naval Armament Department needs to send special personnel to the captains of the major ships to supervise and supervise the construction of the aircraft carriers." Imperial Admiral Miklosh. Marshal Holty conveyed the emperor's request to the admirals, and the construction of aircraft carriers was made a priority project, and all necessary armor plates and other materials were given priority.

As the liaison between His Majesty the Emperor and the Naval Command, the Admiralty Secretary briefed the senior generals attending the meeting on the latest developments, and that as a result of Japan's entry into the war, Germany's colonies in the Pacific had been largely wiped out, and that almost all of Germany's colonies in the Pacific had fallen into Japanese hands, with the exception of New Guinea, the largest in area.

The meeting was attended by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Hans. Admiral Frankl, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy Matthias. Vice Admiral Schindler, Commander of the First Fleet, Matt. Schindler. Admiral Kovacic, Commander of the Second Fleet, Luka Kovazic. Vice Admiral Wagner, Commander of the Third Fleet, Vilmots. Admiral Yankel, Commander of the Submarine Force, Egon Egon Lieutenant General Lerch and Commander of the Dalmatian Coast Defense Force, Evan Anderson. Vice Admiral Camp and others, the conference room was star-studded, and the naval giants gathered together to discuss the general strategy of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in future naval battles.

The importance of the conference is self-evident.

"It is already known that as a result of Japan's entry into the war, our colonies in the Far East are in jeopardy and may be attacked at any time. Due to the blockage of the Suez Canal, it will take us at least three months to clear the channel that was damaged by the British troops. Until then, the Far East has no support. "Chief of Staff of the Navy Matthias. Vice Admiral Schindler continued to speak after Field Marshal Horty, and at the moment the only Austro-Hungarian Navy was able to operate outside the Mediterranean, the less powerful East African Fleet. The Far Eastern Fleet can now also only hide in the harbors of the Gulf of Tonkin and do nothing under the cover of aviation. "Until our and German forces take full control of the Suez Canal and clear the shipping lanes, the heavy task of striking at the enemy's sea transport lines in the Indian and Pacific Oceans can only fall on the submarine forces."

"Feng. General Lerch, could you please tell us about the recent combat readiness of the submarine forces! "The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Hans. Admiral Frankl turned his attention to the commander of the submarine force, Egon Egon Lieutenant General Lerch.

"Yes, honorable marshal, and Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy!" Lelch leaned forward slightly. "So far, the Imperial Navy has been equipped with a total of 112 submarines, of which 26 are old submarines built between the late European war and 25 years ago, which are no longer up to the tasks of the current operation, and can only be used as training submarines. Of the 76 new submarines currently equipped by the submarine force, 8 are undergoing major repairs at shipyards, 38 are in the Mediterranean, 14 are currently active in the Atlantic Ocean and 6 in the Indian Ocean. In addition, 10 submarines are operating in the Far East and the Pacific Ocean. Since most of the submarines of the submarine force are in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, the results achieved by our submarines are very limited at present. However, the construction of our latest SMUB35C submarine has been in full swing since March, and due to the use of the sectional construction process, our submarine construction period has been shortened to 7 months, and the average man-hours have been reduced to 170,000 man-hours, and it is expected that the first batch of 16 new submarines will be able to enter service in early September. ”

At present, Austria-Hungary has four shipyards capable of building submarines, and the Admiralty intends to expand the scale so that a number of medium-sized shipyards can also join the ranks of light ships and submarines. This will require the renovation of most of the shipyards, and it will not be possible to increase the number of ships built in the short term.

"Our future operational focus will be on the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Atlantic, on the other hand, was handled by the German Navy, which required our surface ships to have sufficient endurance. Due to the advent of aircraft, the chances of survival of surface assault ships are getting smaller and smaller, and His Majesty the Emperor vetoed our plan to send a single surface assault ship to operate, that is, without the support of aircraft carriers. The scope of our surface fleet is limited to the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. "In the future, the actions of our surface fleet will be dominated by aircraft carriers, forming a task force, in view of this situation." Our surface ships are mainly built with aircraft carriers and light cruisers and destroyers for air defense and anti-submarine missions, and the guns of the heavy cruisers of the 'City' class under construction have been changed from twin 203 mm to triple 127 mm high-level guns, and we need to speed up the development of 150 mm anti-aircraft guns, and all 150 mm naval guns on light cruisers need to be replaced with anti-aircraft guns. ”

"We currently have more than 40,000 tons of aircraft carriers, and only the naval shipyards of Islaia, Royal, Danube and Bora can build them, and in fact the two medium-sized aircraft carriers currently being built for China are performing very well, and we need more shipyards to be involved in the construction of aircraft carriers. If it is an aircraft carrier with a displacement of less than 30,000 tons, we have a total of eight shipyards capable of building such large warships, and in addition to the construction of large air defense cruisers, the number of aircraft carriers built by us can also be greatly increased. Yankel opened his mouth and said that the Chinese followed the German "Graf. The performance of the new aircraft carriers improved by the Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers is actually quite excellent, except that the number of carrier-based aircraft is not as good as that of the "Romanian" class aircraft carriers built by Austria-Hungary, but when performing some tactical tasks, they have an advantage over the heavier aircraft carriers.

At least this kind of medium-sized aircraft carrier consumes nearly half less fuel during operation than that of heavy aircraft carriers, and from the perspective of combat economy, many small and medium-sized combat operations do not need to dispatch heavy aircraft carriers.

"This is a good idea, and I will do my best to instruct the Navy's shipbuilding department to evaluate the Chinese aircraft carriers under construction, and if feasible, we will do our best to place orders with the shipyard." Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Hans. Admiral Frankl said, "The parliament has approved a supplementary budget of 1.5 billion kroner for the construction of naval ships, and the problem of funding is not too big. ”

"In order to win, we need to strengthen our strength as much as possible, and the council has me and the emperor come forward to solve it." Marshal Holty said, "It should be noted that the emperor will no longer approve any plans for the construction of heavy cruisers and battleships, but it will be possible to build anti-aircraft cruisers with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons." This is where the Admiralty needs to pay attention when developing shipbuilding plans and budgets. ”

In fact, by the beginning of October, after the four "Romanian" class aircraft carriers were put into service, the Austro-Hungarian Navy would have the same number of aircraft carriers as the Japanese Navy, but the combat effectiveness of a single ship would be much stronger.

At least at the beginning of the war, the Austro-Hungarian navy would soon have a certain advantage at sea. (To be continued......)