"A new telegram came from the Russian side that three Sevastopol-class battleships of the Russian Navy would be put into active service around May 1915. The additional No. 4 ship will be put into active service by the end of 15 years. Three more battleships with 12 14-inch guns will also be completed next year, and if this is true, the Russian fleet will be able to pin down at least one squadron of German battleships. In this case, even if we transfer some of the warships, it will not have much impact. A general said.

"Not just a detachment of battleships of the German Navy, the Russians had 3 dreadnoughts, so that they would have 6 capital ships, and a large number of torpedo boats, who could quite pose a threat to the coast of East Prussia and could influence Germany with submarines to get iron ore from Scandinavia. If the German Navy wanted to effectively contain the actions of the Russians, it would have to mobilize more than half of the main forces. As long as the Russians move, then the North Sea is safe, and we can concentrate our forces on annihilating the Italians together with the French, and then turn back to the Germans! Churchill said what he had planned.

"May 1915? And now it's only January. I don't have much hope for the combat effectiveness of the Russian Navy, which has accumulated over the decades and lost all its strength in several battles with the Chinese Republic, and although it has assembled a powerful fleet at the last time, the decline in the quality of officers and men has been fully revealed, and I do not doubt the ability of General Essen, but his talent must be carried out! If it does not bother the Germans too much to influence the decision-making of the German leadership. Then we will not be able to implement our plan. Jericho didn't have much hope for Churchill's plans, because the Admiralty Chancellor was a qualified bureaucrat who could coordinate all kinds of internal relations. But he is definitely not a general, he just needs to listen to his plans, and he can't take them seriously.

"Give me three months and I can make the Italian Navy a historical name!" Betty said disapprovingly, since the Hippert fleet was fighting, Betty has become more and more unfocused. And when he learned that his country's Queen Elizabeth-class battleships would be commissioned, and that Churchill and other high-ranking naval officials were inclined to allocate this powerful and fast battleship to him, his self-confidence swelled even more. By May 1915. He would receive 1 or 2 Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and Betty, who had 10 capital ships, was confident enough to defeat the Italians with a single fleet.

Of course, there is a premise for all this. That's the top of the Navy, especially Jericho, who agreed to lead the team to the Mediterranean himself! During this time, the German Navy hid in the military port like a turtle with a shrunken head, which made Betty, who took advantage of it last time, feel very angry, and even had a feeling of dissatisfaction in it. He was in contact with Hipper. The only possibility is that the German top brass has restricted the actions of the German Navy, which is definitely bad news in Betty's opinion.

So, when she was bored, Betty looked at the large-scale charts and kept speculating about the location of the next possible naval outbreak. The Indian Ocean is impossible, whether it is Count Spee or Thomas, they have only one port, and they are almost the kind where everyone stares at each other, but no one dares to move easily. Germany did not dare to move because it was afraid that its return route would be blocked by the British, and the British did not dare to move for the same reason. Afraid that the port of Mumbai will be razed to the ground, you must know the way. The defenses of the port of Mumbai could not stop the attack of 4 dreadnoughts with up to 36 14-inch guns!

After successfully defeating the French fleet, the Italians took over the navigation rights in the Mediterranean and covered the landing force to go to Italian North Africa and advance towards Egypt with the Italian troops originally stationed there. And the Italian Navy must keep the sea route open, in this case, their main fleet will definitely leave the port to accompany the convoy transportation, and as long as it comes out, Betty has an absolute chance!

Although Tycho led the Italian fleet to defeat the French, Betty still did not recognize the combat effectiveness of the Italian navy, the French were nothing remarkable, and similarly, the Italy that used the advantage of "sneak attack" to defeat the French was also nothing remarkable! By the way, Betty also despised a handful of Thomas, who he believed that under the circumstances of the time, he should lead the Indian Ocean detachment in pursuit of the Italian fleet, and not retreat! In his eyes, it was definitely an opportunity to make a name for himself! A chance to solve the Mediterranean problem in World War I, and in the face of a huge opportunity, Thomas, a coward, actually gave up!

Compared to Thomas, Betty obviously has better cards to play, and now Betty has 8 battlecruisers in her hands! Together with the remnants of the French fleet, the strength of this combined fleet would directly overwhelm the Italian-Austrian fleet, at least in his eyes. He liked the ferocious, agile Cheetah-like battleship. Instead of the kind of battleship that relies on heavy armor to protect and walk slowly, in Betty's dictionary, attacking and overwhelming the opponent with super firepower is the key to victory, and the key to using firepower is to be able to reach the opponent! He believed that the battlecruiser fully combined the idea of the supremacy of the British Navy's attack! As long as he can bite the Italian fleet, then the other party will definitely not be able to escape!

More importantly, Betty's fleet would be further strengthened with the commissioning of two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, even after the Mediterranean route was cut off, as Jericho agreed. After acquiring two Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleships, Betty was confident that she would challenge all Allied fleets except for the High Seas Fleet!

After some discussion, the British decided that if the German navy did not act, then it would be best to maintain the status quo, and if the Russians had acted, and then knew with certainty that the German High Seas Fleet had transferred some of its warships to the Baltic Sea, the British would concentrate all their fast warships and quickly rush to the Mediterranean, and together with the remaining French fleet, attack the Italian navy, which was covering the transport fleet, in order to solve the crisis in Egypt and reopen the connection between the east and the west of the Mediterranean.

At the same time, the British were negotiating with the Dutch, who eventually chose the Americans as their warship builders, but the British, who provided the financial design and diplomatic support, said they needed a piece of the pie. The two Dutch warships were named Amsterdam and Seven Provinces in honor of the two Dutch capital ships that were destroyed in the Second Sino-Russian War. And both ships, like their predecessors, were designed as fast battleships. Its parent was the British Navy's own battleship Tiger, which was almost a heavily armored 6-gun Tiger battlecruiser with medium to high speed.

AT THE REQUEST OF THE DUTCH, THE SIDE-CHORD ARMOR OF SHIPS OF THIS CLASS WAS INCREASED TO 320MM INCLINED 12 DEGREES. HORIZONTAL ARMOR WAS INCREASED TO 75MM. TURRET DEFENSE WAS RAISED TO THE TOP OF THE LIST, AND IT WAS THOUGHT THAT AT LEAST 350MM WOULD BE SUFFICIENT. The underwater protection adopts the Americans' 5-layer underwater protection system, and the performance of anti-torpedoes and mines is still good, but if you resist water bullets, you should wash and sleep.

THIS CLASS OF BATTLESHIPS CHOSE THE AMERICAN 14-INCH 45L MAIN GUN WITH BETTER POWER AND GOOD ACCURACY IN TERMS OF FIREPOWER, AND ITS PERFORMANCE WAS STRONGER THAN THE BRITISH'S 343MM GUN, AND IT WAS EQUIPPED WITH THE 1916 ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES. There is another reason why the American artillery was chosen instead of the British artillery, the famous Dutch naval commander who participated in the Second Sino-Russian War, the silent Jack once compared the armor-piercing shells used by both sides in the naval battle, and he found that the British and Russian shells had great loopholes in the fuses, and they were very easy to explode early during the collision, and they were not very satisfied with picricin explosives, relatively speaking, he preferred more stable TNT explosives. The American fuse seemed to Major General Jack to be at least good, and the internally filled D explosive was even better. So with his support, the Dutch Navy decided to use American artillery and shells. In terms of firepower layout, the Dutch also referred to the advantages and disadvantages of twin and triple installation, although the artificial twin turret has a relatively small interval between turrets and a relatively large length of armor belt, but it has some advantages in accuracy, so it declined the triple installation scheme provided by the Americans, and completely used 3 twin guns

Although the defense and firepower of this class of battleships are good, if Xu Jie is allowed to evaluate it, it is worse than the standard fast battleships built by Huaxia for foreign countries. Of course, the difference here is the ability to die, if we talk about speed, the maximum overload output is 75,000 horsepower, and the new seven-provincial fast battleship with a good ship shape can make this battleship with a displacement of up to 26,000 tons soar to a speed of more than 26 knots. Although there is still a gap compared to the speed of the Tiger at more than 28 knots, the Dutch are basically enough to get rid of all the warships of the Central Powers because of this speed, so they don't mind it very much.

The British were still very fond of these two cutting-edge capital ships, and they very much wanted to include these two warships in the battle sequence of the British Royal Navy's fast fleet. However, these two battleships have not been completed for a long time due to various problems in the construction period and technology, and American shipbuilders said that many large battleships have been built, but not a single fast battleship! More importantly, it is also necessary to press a large number of British-made things on the warships built by the United States, which makes the American industrial giants somewhat dissatisfied. So the construction period was a little longer, but now the two cutting-edge warships are finally completed. And the British began to further intensify their actions to bring it under their command!

And the Dutch are naturally reluctant to send their precious warships to the meat grinder of this giant beast in the North Sea, the Germans are not vegetarians, but thinking that the French in the Mediterranean are no longer good, then it seems that the difference between going to the North Sea or going to the Mediterranean Sea is not very big!

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