"From now on, the core of the Navy's warship construction plan is combat effectiveness, and we will surpass each other in both quantity and quality. The Queen's government has given us far more than the Germans, and I want every pound to be put to good use! The British Empire had to deal with not only Germany, but also Italy, Austria-Hungary and Turkey in the Middle East, the French and Russians would have to fight the enemy on land, and we had to make sure that the sea was on our side! ”

"The Naval Design Bureau can no longer work behind closed doors, they must draw on the opinions of front-line officers, rather than taking it for granted that they will design warships according to their own ideas. In the final review stage of a battleship, the Admiralty will pay for the battleship only after it has been approved by a professional officer with actual combat experience! Tell the merchants that if they can't provide the Imperial Navy with sufficiently advanced warships, then the British Empire won't mind buying warships from other countries. We used to believe in their love for the Kingdom, but they traded our trust for high profits, which is absolutely not allowed! I swear that any businessman who dares to put the interests of the Royal Navy at risk will be in prison or even a gallows! ”

Churchill's speech appeared on the front page of The Times on the first day he picked up the Royal Navy scepter, and at this moment it was finally realized that from now on, the British Royal Navy had finally entered a new period, one dominated by Churchill and Jericho. Churchill's determination and perseverance were not just in words, but as soon as he took office, he reformed the relevant departments. And what the British government and people need is not only the pursuit of the wrongdoers, but also the Navy needs to come up with a practical plan to change all this.

The battleship, which is currently under construction on the slipway, must be stopped for remodification. It is easier to get a ship that has not yet been outfitted, and these can be increased on the basis of the original armor, and in history Hood replaced the original 9-inch armor with 12-inch armor when he was on the slipway. As Jericho requested. Without major changes, the armor of all battleships must be guaranteed to be 12 inches thick, and the height of the main armor belt must not be less than 3.5 meters. In addition, the armor at the gun mount and ammunition bay needed to be strengthened, and the gun mount, which was only 10 inches at its thickest point, was too weak. It is more difficult to strengthen horizontal armor, on the one hand, because the weight is too much, and on the other hand, because the center of gravity will be relatively high. For this reason, at the suggestion of the technicians, the main deck that meets the upper edge of the side chord armor remains the same in principle, but the thickness of the dome is increased. AT LEAST THE INCLINED AND HORIZONTAL PARTS OF THE VAULT ARE AT LEAST 75MM.

This plan is mainly aimed at battleships, and the last two battleships of the King George V class and the two battleships of the Iron Duke class that have just been put on the slipway will be modified according to this requirement. The modified battleships will be uniformly called the Iron Duke class battleships. The original HMS George V was grouped with the dreadnoughts, and was listed as the 2nd line instead of the main force. As for the Bold? This guy almost dismantled and returned to the furnace! And the result of such a transformation is that the speed of the battleship is greatly reduced, at most 20 knots.

As for the improvement of the underwater protection system. It is also spread over almost all ultra-dreadnought battleships. The Dreadnought and several battleships behind it were almost all built according to the drawings of the Chinese Republic, and Jericho and Churchill were quite satisfied with their underwater protection. However, the latter ultra-dreadnoughts almost universally reduce the cost by compressing underwater protection. If you want to change this, it will be troublesome, you can't chisel the bottom of the boat and make it again, right?

Destroying the hull structure is definitely not going to work, this is not a modification but a sabotage. But the British still had a way, they decided to add a piece to the battleship! At this time, the lightning protection salient that was popular in the 2nd World War was unexpectedly widely used before the 1st World War, and there were many practices to add additional empty positions under the hull, but one of the important purposes was to increase the buoyancy of the hull. Against super-heavy warships. And now, the British are using this method to increase the depth of the underwater mine protection system. directly applied the set of the 2nd World War. It can be said that this time the British have come to the forefront of the world! At the same time, in order to reduce the damage caused by the mine in the bow, the British unloaded all the torpedoes on the super dreadnought, and then rearranged the forward compartment to prevent the torpedo from hitting the bow and causing a detonation. After some tossing, the British were at least psychologically comforted, and as for the actual situation, this can only be known at the time of the war.

As a result, after a series of tosses and turns of increasing armor and underwater protection, the speed of the British battleships that began to run 22 knots plummeted, that is, the level of 19 to 20 knots, and they properly became turtles, and it is uncertain whether they were iron or not. Compared with the Americans' vote of the Iron Turtle, it is really not necessarily an advantage.

Compared to battleships, battlecruisers are much easier to change, at least the battlecruiser Lion, which is being built on the slipway. This battle cruiser with a standard row of more than 26,000 tons is in good shape, and there is a lot of room for improvement, and the armor belt with a thickness of 9 inches was left when it was designed. And the rated output of up to 70,000 horsepower also ensures that even after a major change, the lion's speed is still relatively guaranteed.

According to the speed of the British fleet, only the new Lion, Tiger and Queen Mary can reach such a high speed, and the other battle cruises are only about 25 knots, so even if the speed drops a little, they can still keep up with the formation. The main armor has been directly increased to 12 inches, and the height covers all the original 9 inches. THE MAIN HORIZONTAL ARMOR WAS INCREASED TO 85MM. The upper armor was also strengthened, and the upper armor was 8 inches thick. Mine protection salients of sufficient length were installed under water. After some refinement, the designers of the British Admiralty decided that the battleship was definitely not inferior even to the Australia.

The shipyard would have to improve and upgrade so many warships in a short period of time, which would certainly take up a lot of slipways and labor, and Churchill's decision to overturn the entire capital ship shipbuilding plan made the already somewhat chaotic production system even more disorganized. In this way, at least in 1910 the British were not in good shape. However, Churchill believed that labor pains were necessary, and that long pains were better than short pains. And he's already figured out how to make up for the lost capacity.

"If Australia and New Zealand can order warships from China, why can't Canada and South Africa?" When Jericho asked about the Royal Navy's production capacity over the next three years, Churchill replied. Although neither the local governments of Canada nor South Africa will be able to come up with enough money to order warships for a while, it doesn't matter, what the British government needs is just an excuse, as long as it is not a direct order from the British Imperial Navy, then it is not a shame, even if it is a shame? Australia and New Zealand have already bought 2 ships, and it's not a big deal to throw them all over.

And for this suggestion, Jericho agreed, because now Germany and Turkey have ordered 4 ships, in order to prevent Germany from ordering new warships, and also to make up for the capacity gap during this time, plus the performance is really reasonable, at least on paper. So under the impetus of Churchill and Jericho, the British Royal Navy ordered 2 new Australian-type battleships in China in the name of the Dominion of Canada and the Dominion of South Africa, and the Royal Navy of the British Royal Navy undertook most of it, except for a small amount of money borne by the Dominion.

As a result of this reorganization, the Royal Navy's shipbuilding was greatly delayed, but Churchill believed that in the future, the British fleet would be leaner and stronger. Even with the slowdown in shipbuilding, the British still outnumbered the Germans in terms of warships and tonnage, and improvements to older ships narrowed the gap in quality. So Churchill believed that he was absolutely right in what he was doing. HOWEVER, CHURCHILL WAS NOT SATISFIED AT THIS TIME, BECAUSE THE BRITISH ALREADY FELT THAT THE 343MM GUNS AND 14-INCH GUNS DID NOT GIVE THEM ENOUGH SECURITY. Because the 350 guns of the Germans were already ready to be massively equipped.

"Our ships must not only overwhelm our opponents in defense and speed, we must also surpass the Germans in firepower! The 14-inch artillery is outdated, we need a 15-inch heavy gun, which will sweep away all the enemies that appear on the sea! At a meeting of the Admiralty, Churchill laid out his plan. The British Navy advocated attack, and fighting every enemy was a product of this offensive mentality. The British have always attached more importance to firepower, at least in terms of caliber, otherwise they would not have made such a monster as an 18-inch gun in World War I. Of course, this gun was a little shorter than the length to diameter, and it was so heavy that no battleship could put a sufficient number of 18-inch guns. Well, except for N3 in the plan.

As a result, the 15-inch gun development plan, which had been carried out at a low speed, began to improve rapidly under Churchill's strict orders, and the British were tired of mere quantitative competition, and in the future they would overwhelm their opponents in all aspects! Directly use the powerful 15-inch gun to end the firepower contest between the British and German navies! AFTER COMPLETING THE TRANSFORMATION PLAN OF THE IRON DUKE-CLASS AND SEVERAL SUPER-DREADNOUGHTS IN FRONT, THE BRITISH WERE READY TO LAUNCH 15-INCH BATTLESHIPS, AND THE BRITISH MADE 12 SUPER-DREADNOUGHTS EQUIPPED WITH 343MM GUNS IN HISTORY, AND NOW, THE BRITISH PLANNED TO BUILD 10 SHIPS, SO THE FAMOUS QUEEN ELIZABETH-CLASS BATTLESHIPS IN HISTORY WILL START CONSTRUCTION AROUND 1911.

Overall, for the time being, the situation of the British Navy is better than historical, at least the dreadnoughts in front are still full of conscience, except for the weaker caliber of artillery and a smaller number, the armor protection is still good. BEFORE 1916, THE 343MM GUN SUPER DREADNOUGHT WAS MISSING, BUT THE QUALITY WAS IMPROVED, AND FOUR BATTLESHIPS WERE ORDERED FROM HUAXIA. And all this makes the already changed history confusing, and even Xu Jie can't figure out whether the gap between the current British and German navies has widened or narrowed compared to history? !

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~~. Today 2 more presents ~~~~. I hope you enjoy it~~~. (To be continued......)