In the eyes of the vast majority of people, Germany, which is located in Central Europe, has no future in developing its navy at all. This was not only because the development of the German navy would greatly squeeze out the funds that originally belonged to the army, and put them under more pressure on land, but also because of the invincible and imposing lineup of the British Royal Navy. Their reasons were good, one dreadnought would cost enough to arm two army divisions, and the navy would be of no use in the land theater that would determine the decisive victory or defeat of Germany; In any case, no matter how much you toss, it is impossible to achieve victory on the sea, so it is better to invest all these resources in the army, in order to occupy absolute superiority on land, and completely wipe out France and Russia with an absolutely crushing attitude.

However, the truth of the matter is that at the beginning of the 20th century, Germany already possessed extremely strong strength, and was fully capable of building dreadnoughts at high speed while maintaining the world's first army. In this regard, the huge investment in their own navies by France and Russia, which are far inferior in economic and industrial strength to Germany, in the three years before the outbreak of World War I is the best answer to prove this.

In 1912, the French National Assembly passed a huge naval expansion bill, calling for the French Navy to be built into a powerful force with 28 battleships and 10 battlecruisers by 1920. After the construction of three Brittany-class battleships in 1912, the French completed the construction of four more Normandy-class battleships in one go the following year, and in 1914 completed the fifth of this class. On the other hand, the navy lost a clean Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1909 after the construction of four Gangut-class battleships at the same time. It also launched a naval reconstruction plan that attracted the attention of the world. A huge fleet of 24 battleships and 12 battlecruisers was sketched out by the Russians on blueprints. And it was put into practice with the successive construction of 3 Queen Maria-class battleships and 4 Izmail-class battlecruisers. If it weren't for the unexpected outbreak of World War I. When the warships of Normandy and Lyon in France and Izmail and Nicholas I in Russia are built one after another, the naval strength of France and Russia will inevitably grow by a blowout.

It is worth noting that since 1912, the combined naval expenditures of France and Russia have surpassed that of Germany. By 1913, that number had skyrocketed to nearly twice that of Germany; And in 1914, this figure became 241% in Germany! (Germany's shipbuilding expenditure that year was 10.327 million pounds, and the sum of France and Russia was 24.87 million pounds) That is to say. Neither France nor Russia spends more on their navies than Germany; But one of them maintains an army almost equal to that of Germany, and the other has a huge army 2.5 times that of Germany, while its total national economy is only 50%-70% of Germany's, and its total industrial output is even more different from Germany!

If France and Russia can maintain a large army and build a large number of dreadnoughts when their national power is far inferior to Germany's, then why can't Germany? Historically, Germany still had considerable capacity in the arms race, and its military spending in 1913 was only 4.6 percent of national income, far from the situation in which Germany was about to go bankrupt as those who spoke in the London dialect. Germany is fully capable of building a navy without affecting the construction of the army, so there is no reason not to build warships with this money!

While it may have been more effective in World War I for Germany to devote all its efforts to strengthening the army, it was undoubtedly contrary to Germany's strategy for the development of a world empire. Rapidly developing Germany had to compete for foreign markets, participate in lucrative maritime trade, and seize land under the sun. In order to meet these conditions, a strong navy is necessary to support them by force. The vigorous development of the navy was an inevitable trend in the development of the German Empire. All Qingying can do is follow the trend of this history.

Fortunately for Germany, the Royal Navy during World War I was anything but invincible.

It is undeniable that the British Navy during World War I was indeed at the top of the world since mankind entered the maritime age. At the outbreak of war in 1914, after Britain detained two Ottoman battleships, the number of new capital ships officially completed reached a staggering 31; At the same time, only 17 German ships were available, and one of them, the valuable battle cruiser Goeben, was isolated in the distant Mediterranean, unable to return to its homeland. At the outbreak of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the number of British dreadnoughts in service reached 42, while Germany had only 22 to deal with it, which was an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers. Therefore, when talking about the comparison of the naval power of Britain and Germany during the First World War, some people always like to cite the above two sets of data to prove the invincibility of the Royal Navy. But there is a key problem here, the fact that the historical lineup of the German Navy is only more than 50% of that of the British is not because the German shipbuilding "speed" is only half that of the British, but because the British "rushed"!

Looking at the dusty history of shipbuilding in the two countries, it is not difficult to find that the speed of shipbuilding by the Germans is definitely not slow. In the six years from 1907 to 1912, Germany built a total of 24 battleships or battle cruisers (the pit Blucher also demonstrated Germany's shipbuilding capabilities), and was able to build an average of 4 capital ships per year, reaching 70% of the British average of 6 ships per year. However, Britain, because it was the creator of dreadnoughts, began the construction of dreadnoughts in 1905 and built them in batches in 1906; Compared with Germany, which was still dreadnought before the start of construction of the German class in 1905 and stopped the construction of new ships throughout 1906 and waited for its own dreadnought design, it obviously gained a great advantage of "rushing to be effective". In addition, coupled with Germany's insufficient exploitation of its own potential in 1913 and the first half of 1914, and the drifting of Britain's capital ships sold to Ottoman and Chile during the war, the number of capital ships in the German Navy was only more than 50% of that of Britain.

But in this plane, the situation has changed radically. As a result of Qing Ying's promotion, Germany became the frontrunner of the dreadnought era, and started construction of seven new capital ships before the British dreadnought began, achieving a huge starting advantage in the dreadnought race. In addition, the economic and industrial level of Germany, where he is located, has improved considerably compared with the historical level, and it is completely possible to achieve a faster speed of warship construction. Under the change of Qingying, the number of capital ships of the German Navy could reach 75% of the British Navy at the outbreak of war, not counting the two capital ship orders belonging to the Ottoman Empire that Qingying would inevitably compete for, as well as the fleet decisive armored cruisers built by Germany in the pre-dreadnought era. As long as the main number of ships of the German Navy can reach 7 to 8 percent of the British, then it will be enough to defeat the latter in a head-on battle!

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Throughout the entire dreadnought era of the British ships completed and served, almost all of them were only 5 in combat power. In terms of firepower, the British battleships not only used soft cap armor-piercing shells with low penetration, but their extremely sensitive fuses would cause the shells to explode when they first touched the armor, and the armor-piercing ability was very different from the German hard cap blunt fuse armor-piercing shells. And in terms of vital defense, the British battleships were even more fighting chickens in the garbage.

As the ancestor of the dreadnought, the dreadnought's broadside armor was up to 280 mm thick, and the protection looked very "heavy". However, its 280 mm armor height was only a narrow strip of the waterline area, and it was the 203 mm upper armor on the upper part that really carried the shells; This thickness is vulnerable even to soft quilt cap armor-piercing shells, let alone the floor-scrubbing hard quilt armor-piercing shells used by German capital ships. What is speechless is that the dreadnoughts built by the British in batches after this not only did not improve their protection, but weakened the armor at the thickest part of the waterline to 250 mm, and their defense power was even lower than that of the first German battle cruiser von der Tann!

From the dreadnought to the Iron Duke, the vertical defense of British battleships was a small strip of 280-300 mm armor that looked good on paper, and the thickness of the armor that really carried the shells was only 203-230 mm, and its defensive effectiveness can be imagined. And the British battle cruisers are not to mention, they can only bully and battle cruisers are not an era of armored cruisers; In the face of the artillery of the German capital ship, the three large firecrackers that burst in succession in Jutland are enough to explain everything.

As for the so-called "perfect peak of both offense and defense" that was touted by some people in later generations, the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is the same as its predecessors. Not only were they far from what was originally expected in terms of speed due to the fact that their actual tonnage was significantly overweight compared to the original design (they were designed to reach a normal speed of 25 knots, and the actual overload barely reached 24 knots), but their 330 mm main armor belt was only 6 to 9 inches above the water during the Battle of Jutland (you read that right, the unit is inches, and this height is a little shorter than the palm of an adult's hand), it is really difficult to hit, and it is even more unbearable than the defense of the scum tinplate equipped with 343 mm guns! Add to this the 230 mm or 250 mm gun mounts that all British battleships have, the large 64 mm thick paper-like turret heads, and the ammunition depot fire doors that are unobstructed at all times, and the piles are fatally flawed; As long as one shot is hit, it will almost be a devastating end for the entire ship!

Based on the above reasons, as long as Germany develops its navy in accordance with its own national strength, Qing Ying is fully confident that it will be able to defeat Britain's thin-skinned artillery ships in a frontal decisive battle. Under the pressure of Britain to start construction of nine capital ships that year, Congress quickly agreed to the naval budget proposed by Qing Ying to start construction of four new battleships and one battlecruiser this year. A vigorous naval shipbuilding competition between Britain and Germany unfolded in a frenzied atmosphere of air hammer striking and liquid steel tilting. (To be continued......)

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