In the second half of the 19th century, with the continuous development of metallurgical technology, the artillery system of battleships changed: heavy and huge turrets replaced the gunsoft emplacements of the sail age, and the armor-piercing ability of its guns was also greatly improved. At that time, naval artillery shells of the main ironclad class could easily penetrate wrought iron armor with a thickness of more than 400 mm at a distance of 1,000 kilometers; And even small guns of inferior caliber can effectively hit objects behind 150 mm armor. Therefore, if a battleship wants to defend itself against direct artillery bombardment on the side of the gun, it needs to place an extremely thick vertical armor at the waterline. Large ironclad ships, due to their size and tonnage, were able to free up their weight to install these heavy armor on the waterline, which did not appear to be very long; And the cruiser itself was small in tonnage and long in waterline, and there were simply no conditions to lay this armor like a battleship. In this case, the designers had only one option on the cruiser, and that was to be forced to abandon direct protection against artillery.

Although the designers were forced to abandon the waterline armor on the cruiser due to the armor-piercing ability of the artillery, from a certain point of view, the compromise made by the designers after being forced to do so was indeed the most suitable choice for naval warfare at that time. Due to the limitations of technology, the naval weapons at that time were all old-fashioned erection guns, and the rate of fire was extremely slow: even small-caliber guns below 100 mm took 2 minutes to fire a shot, and the larger the caliber, the slower the rate of fire, and the 457 mm cannon equipped by the Italian Navy took half an hour to complete the loading. Multiplying this weak initial density of fire by the probability makes the mathematical expectation of a shell hitting the waterline pitifully small.

In addition to this, shells are also a factor that cannot be ignored. At that time, most of the armor-piercing shells were only solid bullets, which only had the power of penetration and no explosion. Under the combined effect of these circumstances, the designers retreated to the second best thing, and arranged a sloping indirect defensive armor inside the hull of the battleship, and the protective cruiser came into being. The abandonment of vertical armor saves a lot of tonnage, and this part of the weight is used for weapons and power, which can greatly improve the firepower and speed of the battleship. In terms of sacrificed protection, due to the slow rate of fire of the retreating artillery, after a battle, the waterline part was also hit by no shells; Even if a person loses his character and is hit by a cannonball, it is only a hole in the waterline, and the dome armor above the waterline behind it is enough to keep that little bit of water out of the core cabin. This kind of design that does more with less with half the effort soon became popular in all countries in the world, and Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Italy and Austria all began to build their own new protective cruisers; In this context of the popularity of the world, even Germany was not willing to be lonely and built a "Empress Augusta" to put on a score. For a time, various protective cruisers sprung up like mushrooms after a rain and quickly became the new darlings of the navies of the great powers.

However, with the development of technical techniques, by 1895, the technical premise on which the protection cruiser depended was no longer there.

In artillery, with the development of new tube-repelled guns and smokeless gunpowder, the rate of fire of artillery has increased by at least 10 times: shells that used to be fired only once in 3 minutes can now fire more than 5 rounds per minute; The rapid spike in the background value increased the mathematical expectation of the shell hitting the waterline by more than 10 times; The use of the new Shimose gunpowder also dramatically increased the power of the shells. In another plane that Qing Ying did not cross, the four warships of Chaoyong, Yangwei, Guangjia, and Zhiyuan lost by the Beiyang Naval Division in the Battle of Dadonggou were all smashed through the waterline by this dense thunder and artillery fire, causing a large amount of water to enter the side and then capsized and sank. A cruiser without vertical armor is only a matter of minutes before it is turned into a hornet's nest in the face of a new type of artillery that has been rapidly fired and has become powerful.

In terms of armor, the new Harvey armor and the Krupp hardened armor were born, ending the phenomenon of spears outperforming shields in the navy for a long time; In particular, the new Krupp hardened armor can achieve the bulletproof ability of the previous 16-inch wrought iron armor with a thickness of 6 inches, but there is almost no difference in density between the two. In the Battle of Tsushima that broke out in 1905, no shell could cross the trench except for a 305-mm shell that was 6 inches thick (152 mm) and less bullet-resistant than Krupp. The threshold for direct fire from defensive shells was suddenly lowered, reversing the superiority and inferiority of artillery and armor in an instant; Now only a thin layer of new armor is needed to withstand the vast majority of artillery shells, and in this case, the restoration of protection against the waterline is a matter of course. If you still blindly hold on to the design idea of a protective cruiser, you are simply looking for death!

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After listening to Qingying's discussion, Wilhelm II was shocked and shocked, and a monstrous wave had already swept up in his heart. Although he knew that his son had quite a subtle insight into naval development and ship design, he never imagined that he would have such a sharp and penetrating analysis! Although this kind of argument was unheard of, the idea was so clear and clear that after hearing it, he, a person who was familiar with the navy, had a sudden feeling of enlightenment. It's like climbing a rock with a road, a cliff with a bridge, how can it not make people excited and ecstatic?

"Well said, Ettel." William's heart was excited, and he couldn't help but applaud, and sighed, "You can accurately grasp the core of this in that I don't know how many factors there are, and find the root of it, and respond to the situation; This kind of insight and creativity has surpassed most people, and even I must applaud you! I'm not afraid to tell you that even Alfred and I didn't expect the two points you just said! Protective cruisers, it seems, really do not need to be built. ”

was praised by William like this, Qingying's face was slightly red; All these things he said just now were obtained after collecting information on the Internet in later generations. The great gods at the forum studied hard, and they had already studied all the technical developments in this era of great naval change, and he just stood on the shoulders of giants and made a little effort. The corners of Qingying's mouth raised, and she smiled: "Father is overrated." There is a philosophical saying in the ancient Oriental country: those who play in the chess game will feel confused, but those who watch by the side will have a clear heart. Both my father and Mr. Tirpitz were far more learned than me, except that they were in a chess game, and their eyes were covered by a leaf. And because I was out of the way, I couldn't think about it, and because I was lucky, I could barely see it clearly. ”

"What a guy stuck in the chess game, his eyes covered by a leaf!" William Ha Lu Ha Da smiled, his laughter was full of joy and relief, "Then what kind of warships do you think the German Navy should build?" Before he knew it, William had asked Qingying as a highly accomplished naval expert.

"Back to my father, since protective cruisers without waterline armor are outdated, then we will build armored cruisers with waterline armor. According to the estimation made by Krupp Military Industry, once the latest case-hardened armor is successfully developed, its bullet resistance will be almost 3 times that of the original wrought iron armor; In this case, all our newly built cruisers, like battleships, should be equipped with vertical armor. Qingying replied.

"Then you mean to change the original 5 6400-ton protective cruisers to 5 6400-ton armored cruisers?" William asked to himself, and then said with some regret, "But in this case, due to the need to lay more armor in the waterline part, each battleship will lose at least one main gun." ”

"If it's just a few minor repairs, it's really the easiest way to improve these ships by directly applying a layer of waterline armor. However, the development of the German Navy must have a clear concept, so that no warship can play its role to the fullest; Under this premise, simply changing the protective cruiser to an armored cruiser of the same tonnage is not the optimal solution. Qingying shook her head and said.

William was slightly stunned, and then secretly surprised. Just now, he was still immersed in the outdated theory of protecting cruisers put forward by Qing Ying, and he didn't ease his mind for a while, so he said this kind of minor repair for headaches and headaches. He gave Qingying a look and motioned for him to continue.

Qing Ying nodded slightly and said, "This time, what is the purpose of my German development of fast cruisers?" A large part of the reason for building them was to use them for overseas cruising missions and to protect the Empire's rights and interests in the far seas. At present, Germany does not have many colonies overseas, and the two third-class cruisers and eight fourth-class cruisers sent overseas before are all small cruisers built for colonial guard patrols; Judging by their service over the years, it is enough to take on the mission of cruising. Cruising to overseas colonies with 6,400 tons of loading is not only quite inconvenient at the port of call, but also really wasteful. ”

Qing Ying returned the information in his hand to William and said, "In addition, there is a more important significance for the development of fast cruisers in the Empire, that is, to form a reconnaissance fleet independent of the main fleet to counterbalance similar ships in the enemy navy. In the active lineup of our hypothetical enemy French Navy, only a group of protective cruisers of about 3,000 to 4,700 tons can be used. They are all goods without waterline armor, and the fixed inclination height is pitifully short, as long as our rapid-fire cannons fire continuously, we can send this outdated battleship to the bottom of the sea in half an hour! Therefore, whether it is in terms of the operational needs of France or the patrol guard of the colonies, the 6,400-ton patrol seems to be a bit excessive. ”

"But Etter, you have to understand that the power of naval warships will never be excessive. Yes, the French don't have any fast ships at the moment, but who knows if they will start a more powerful new type of cruiser next year? Under normal circumstances, due to the existence of secrecy, all countries have to wait for a long time after the warships of other countries have started construction to know the approximate data of this warship. This time it was the Russians who leaked the secrets, and it was just a special case. If we wait until one or even two years after the construction of the opponent's warships has started, and then design and start countermeasures based on these performance indicators, the time has already passed, and Germany will always be left behind. Therefore, amplification and breakthrough to a certain extent are necessary innovations in the construction of the Navy. William shook his head slightly.

Hearing William's words, Qingying was amazed. Historically, the German Navy has been following the butt of the British Navy in a hobbling way, and in many cases even Handan has followed suit; Now it seems that Wilhelm II actually had a breakthrough and innovation plan in his heart, but he really couldn't grasp the core of the concept of battleship design, so he had to choose to follow closely behind the British teacher to avoid being pulled too far away.

According to Qing Ying's original plan, it was to save the expenditure plan of 54 million marks and invest this money in other places, so as to win more funds for the development of the German navy in the future. And now, William actually has such a motivated mind, which suddenly made Qingying change her mind. Now that the design and construction of the German Navy's warships have matured, in the second half of 1895, it is time to start stockpiling warships in advance for the final naval decisive battle between Britain and Germany 20 years later!

Today, I changed 3,700 words, and I sent them at the same time. The author is really working hard to update.,Please give some collection and recommendation.