If the Spaniards did not have a complete plan for the coming conflict. The Americans are also arguing over a possible conflict. But unlike the Spaniards, the mastermind of this plan was not the U.S. government, but Theodore Roosevelt's Admiralty! Roosevelt knew that the current president of the United States had no interest in war. He may passively accept a war, but he will never actively plan anything. To put it mildly, Roosevelt could only use some special means to "kidnap the United States" and wage a war.

Finding a "reasonable" excuse was not difficult for Roosevelt, who relatively looked down on the undeclared war of the Japanese in the Battle of Toshima! Such "barbaric" means are clearly not suitable for "civilized" Americans. But finding a suitable excuse does not mean together, at least after Magifin returned, Roosevelt suddenly found that the Spaniards were not so easy to deal with, at least in terms of equipment, not a soft persimmon! But Roosevelt was not a master who could be defeated by the slightest difficulty, and his first first plan was to see if he could increase the naval budget through various channels, but in peacetime, without any threat, it was not easy to increase military spending under the American system, especially before 1900, and even more so when Congress and the president were not interested in expansion!

After the attempt to expand the army was terminated, Theodore Roosevelt could only draw up a feasible plan to deal with the possible arrival of the Spaniards under the present circumstances, and the specific plan was entrusted to a team of four. Admiral Simpson, Brigadier General Dewey, Brigadier General Shelley, and Colonel Magiffen were the main members of it, and in addition to these people, Uemura Hikonojo and Inoue Yoshishin from Japan participated in the formulation of the plan as staff officers.

If you want to develop a perfect plan, then the first thing to do is to understand the background of both parties. And as an important admiral in the U.S. Navy. Dewey and others effortlessly reported the situation of all the warships in service and about to enter service in the entire United States. When they calculated the fleet at hand, the Americans found that they already had a large fleet under their command!

The first is the main battleship, there are currently 6 ironclad ships and battleships in service and about to be commissioned by the Americans, 2 offshore defense ironclads, the USS Tennessee and the USS Maine, the former has a displacement of more than 6,100 tons and is equipped with 2 12-inch 35L main guns. 6 6-inch rapid-fire guns, 12 6-pounder guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes. The thickness of the main armor belt and turret is 12 inches (well. It's just very narrow. With an output of 8,600 hp and a speed of 17 knots, it entered service in 1895. The Maine has a displacement of more than 6,600 tons and is armed with 4 12-inch guns, 6 6-inch guns, 7 6-pounder guns, and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes. The thickness of the main armor belt is 12 inches to 6 inches. The thickness of the turret is 8 inches. The output is 9000 hp and the speed is 17 knots. (The height of the main belt is also obviously insufficient, and the main belt is only 3 feet above the waterline)

Then there are the three Indiana-class battleships, which are the absolute workhorses of the US Navy, and the last battleship has just completed active service. The armament of these three battleships is absolutely formidable in the eyes of the Americans, and the main striking firepower of this battleship is composed of two twin 13-inch 35L main guns and four twin 8-inch guns and 35L main guns at the four corners. In addition, there were 4 6-inch guns and up to 20 6-pounder guns, forming a rapid-fire gun fire network that was enough to discourage small torpedo boats. Of course, in pursuit of comprehensive armament, the Americans also stuffed 6 18-inch torpedo tubes! As for the protection, at least on paper, it can be called quite tough, and the thickness of the side chord armor belt is 18 to 4 inches! The thickness of the main turret is 15 inches, and the thickness of the secondary main gun turret is 8 inches to 5 inches. The conning tower is 9 inches thick. And the tonnage to achieve all this is only a little more than 10,000 tons! Of course. The speed is tragic, and the output of 9,000 horsepower can only allow the ship to run at a low speed of 15 knots! The Iron Tortoise is the perfect way to describe these ships! …,

And the most advanced battleship will be the USS Iowa, which will be launched next year (the name is domineering!!). The new battleship, which was built in 1893, completely shed the shallow-water heavy gunboat appearance of the old American battleships. Its armament has also been improved to a certain extent, first of all, the main gun has been replaced with four 12-inch 35L guns, and the propellant has finally been changed to smokeless propellant instead of maroon gunpowder. The secondary guns were still 4 twin 8-inch guns. 6 4-inch guns and 20 6-pounder guns in the secondary gun position (it seems that the Americans really have a soft spot for 57MM guns!). However, the torpedoes were replaced with 4 14-inch torpedo tubes, (it seems that the Americans also found it unreliable to use battleships for torpedo warfare!) ）

In terms of armor, the Americans expanded the length of the armor belt, appropriately reducing the thickness, and the thickest point was only 14 inches. But the height is still very low. The upper deck is also protected. But the thickness is only 4 inches, which is similar to Indiana. The turret armor was strengthened to 17 inches by the Americans, and the thickness of the armor of the secondary main gun remained basically unchanged. The conning tower is 10-inch armor. In terms of output power, there has also been a certain increase. It has an output of 11,000 hp and a speed of 16 knots. However, Admiral Dewey believed that it was entirely possible to reach a speed of 17 knots under strong pressure ventilation.

In addition to these battleships, the U.S. Navy can best show its hands on two large armored cruisers, the USS New York, an 8,200-ton armored cruiser commissioned in 1893, with an output of 16,000 horsepower, a speed of up to 20 knots, armed with six 8-inch guns, 12 4-inch guns and eight 6-pounder guns, and three 14-inch torpedo tubes. The Brooklyn, on the other hand, had a tonnage of 9,200 tons, armed with eight 8-inch guns (four turrets formed into cross divisions), 12 5-inch guns and 12 6-pounder guns plus five 18-inch torpedo tubes, and in terms of armor arrangement, the two cruisers were strikingly similar, both 3-inch plus to defend against small and medium-caliber guns, and then relied on inclined dome armor up to 6 inches thick to deal with large-caliber shells. The thickness of the turret is 8 inches, and the thickness of the turret is more than 5 inches. And the protection of the secondary gun emplacements is 4 inches.

The list of capital ships is finished, and the rest should be counted as protective cruisers, those who served before 1890 and can only run 13 to 14 knots are no longer counted, these need to be speed without speed, and fire power is not energetic. Even if you can't beat and run, there is really no need to go to the battlefield, "The minimum design speed is 18 knots, don't consider ships below this speed!" "Majifen, who is accustomed to seeing high-speed warships in the Beiyang, really expressed extreme displeasure for these ships with an initial speed of only 18 to 19 knots. And those 14-knot or so battleships are even more than the bottom line of his tolerance!

But when a few people studied the American protective cruisers on their own, they found that it was not only speed that limited combat effectiveness, but also tonnage, with a total of 13 warships that had reached the speed standard and could be commissioned before 1898. But 5 of them have a displacement of less than 3200 tons. Two of them are just 3,000 tons, while the other three are only 2,000 tons. So much so that even Hikonojo Uemura thought that these battleships really couldn't be cruisers! Even the third-rate warships in the old Japanese Navy were stronger than this! "We also have 2 7,000-ton protected cruisers of the first rank. The tonnage of most of the remaining warships is about 4,000 tons, and the strength of our protective cruiser fleet is also very strong! Dewey exclaimed.

These two so-called first-class protection cruisers are Columbia-class protection cruisers, compared to other American warships, the two Columbia-class battleships are very different, their firepower is very weak compared to the same class of battleships, only 1 8-inch gun, 2 6-inch guns and 8 4-inch guns 12 6-pounder guns. Plus 4 torpedo tubes. The protection is also decent. However, with a power of up to 21,000 horsepower and a top speed of 21 knots, it can be said to be the fastest warship in the American fleet!

Secondly, the United States also has a 5,800-ton protective cruiser USS Olympia, which is definitely the best among American cruisers, with 2 twin 8-inch guns, 10 5-inch guns, and 14 6-pounder guns, and the firepower of 14 6-pound guns is absolutely powerful, and the Americans may not feel enough, so they stuffed 6 18-inch torpedo tubes into it! In terms of protection, the sloping part of the dome armor that is more than 4 inches thick is enough to withstand most artillery. The artillery also has protection of about 2 to 3 inches. It is not necessary to tell about anti-artillery shells, but it is okay to block shrapnel, with an output of 13,500 horsepower, and the maximum speed is 20 knots, and it ran at a speed of 21 knots in the sea trial. …,

In addition to 5 junk and 3 elite, the remaining 5 protective cruisers are generally around 4,000 tons and are generally equipped with more than a dozen rapid-fire guns. The speed is between 18 and 19 knots, but because of the long service period, it is generally 89 to 90 years of service. So a drop of 1 knot in speed is for sure.

"These cruisers can't fight even three to one in the face of Pisa-class armored cruisers." When Inoue saw those 4,000-ton warships. Said bluntly. And this made the American cowboy angry, and Brigadier General Dewey almost had a real PK with this Japanese dwarf. But what made the Americans even more angry was that Inoue Yoshio's prophecy was verified in the future battle!

After taking an inventory of these warships suitable for fighting in the open sea, Commodore Dewey found the information of several shore defense ironclad ships from the thick fleet materials, these tonnage of 3,000 to 4,000 tons, almost no dry strings, armor at the waterline was more than 12 inches thick, and the turtle speed battleships equipped with four 10 to 12-inch guns were also turned over by the Americans. The best of these was the BM1, which was more than 6,000 tons, armed with 4 12-inch 35L guns and 6 4-inch guns and 6 6-pounder guns. "These seemingly sturdy, artillery-sharp things are of no use at all in the open sea. There is not the slightest reserve buoyancy, the freeboard is basically the same as the water surface, the stability is extremely poor, the firepower cannot be played at all, and the opponent only needs to make a hole in an unprotected place will make the battleship in danger of capsizing, of course, it is more likely that he will be burned by picric shells. Majifen was also completely speechless about these typical battleships of the extreme small boat anti-cannon mode.

"That's all the navy is about, and we're going to use it to defeat the Spanish fleet." At the end, Admiral Simpson said.

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