"Your Excellency, the Admiralty has agreed to conduct a thorough examination of all munitions, and until a solution is found, the U.S. Navy will provide us with the munitions, and the experts of the Ordnance Bureau have stated that the Americans' armor-piercing elasticity is indeed good, that the D-explosives they use are very stable, and that the fuses are much better than ours."

"The government has agreed to tilt the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in terms of manpower and materiel, and all five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships will be completed by October. If we're lucky, we'll have one more Vengeance-class battleship in service this year, and by August next year at the latest, all five Vengeance-class battleships will be completed and commissioned, and a new ship construction program will begin, and we'll be building a new class of unbeatable fast battleships to completely overwhelm our opponents. ”

"Very well, Rear Admiral Harry, I now wonder how soon the entire fleet will be able to complete maintenance, and what exactly is the performance of our new warship." Jericho asked. Although he experienced another fiasco, this matter really has nothing to do with Jericho, the intelligence is provided by the intelligence department, and the omissions in the intelligence should naturally not be borne by the commander of the Grand Fleet, as for the engagement? Jericho's command is understandable, his own shells just can't penetrate the opponent, this is something that God can't do, and the only thing to blame is those arms manufacturers! Jericho was fine, but Betty wasn't so lucky this time.

Even Churchill could not tolerate Betty's repeated defeats, and at the last moment, Betty actually blocked the German fleet like a mantis arm, causing the British Navy to lose two more warships. This kind of behavior is simply a crime in the eyes of some! Well, these paper-based guys may have forgotten the accusations against Thomas when he quit the battle at the Battle of Malta, and many of the people who now accuse Betty of being presumptuous are the same people who once accused Thomas of not taking advantage of the victory. But the blessing of misfortune is this. Betty managed to sink two of the Germans' capital ships.

But according to reliable sources, even then, it is possible that Betty will be forced to resign from his post as commander of the fast fleet of the Grand Fleet and go to the Mediterranean. And he will be succeeded by Thomas, who will soon return to the Mediterranean with a fleet from the Indian Ocean bypassing Africa! Betty will command 4 overseas consular battleships and the remaining French warships to pin down the Allied fleet in the Mediterranean, while Thomas will command the fast fleet and work with his old boss against the German High Seas Fleet!

The successive setbacks did not discourage the British Navy from abandoning its ambition to win at sea, and to be fair, Yiqiē's mistake had little to do with the Grand Fleet. The first was the intelligence mistakes of the intelligence system, which relied too much on the codebook that fell from the sky and led them into the trap of the Germans. The second is the question of preparation, from the statistical point of view of actual combat. The hit rate of the Anglo-German navy was actually not bad. Otherwise, Jericho would not have seriously injured the three Caesars simply with armor-piercing shells that were more like high-explosive shells. The British Navy was still as high as it had been before, hoping for revenge in the next engagement. And what made them even more encouraged was that a new warship was coming.

And not just the Queen-class battleships that withstood the guns of the German fleet in this naval battle. And the speed is slower though. But the better protected Vengeance-class battleship. What's more, the Admiral-class battleships that the British have already started work on will also continue to work overtime, they are even more powerful than the Queen-class battleships! (Of course, it is inferior in speed.) ）

Fast battleship with 8 16-inch guns! The displacement is up to 34,000 tons! The maximum output is 60,000 horsepower! The maximum speed is up to 24 knots! The armor belt is more than 4 meters high, and it is also 14-inch armor with an 18-degree inclination, and the thickness of the turret frontal armor and turret armor has also been increased to 16 inches. This time it was Xu Jie who miscalculated, and the speed at which countries developed 16-inch guns in history was indeed very slow, on the one hand, because the technical difficulty was really high, and on the other hand, because there was no pressure. The first two countries, Japan and the United States, were the first to produce 16-inch guns, and did not face the threat of war at first. Don't look at Japan as an Entente power, but in addition to undertaking escort missions and individual combat missions. Other times they were not involved in the war. Europe is fighting to the death, and Japan is still making money in the development of Asia with peace of mind, so that Britain, France and Italy are all poor in the end, and Japan still has the spare energy to start a shipbuilding competition, not only 2 Nagato, but even Kaga and Amagi-class battle cruisers!

Another point is very important, because of the emergence of Xu Jie, the speed of technology research and development has been advanced to a certain extent, the British completed the development of the 15-inch gun very early, but because of the Daring incident delayed the construction plan of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, the delay in the installation time of the 15-inch gun, but the artillery has been there very early, and the pace of the Americans to equip the 14-inch gun has also been greatly advanced, so the research and development process of the 16-inch gun has also been advanced. It seems really feasible for the British to equip a 16-inch 45L main gun on an Admiral-class battleship! After all, the Admiral will be in service for at least 2 more years!

To say that the start of construction of the Admiral-class battleships has some Italian elements in it. The British have always pursued absolute superiority, and when the Italians unexpectedly hit the French hard, and the United States had no idea of entering the war immediately, the British realized that in order to ensure absolute superiority at sea, 5 Queen-class fast battleships and 5 Revenge-class battleships may not be enough! Therefore, after some research, the British decided to start construction of four new and more powerful battleships that year (1914), and this was the admiral-class battleship that was later called the strongest capital ship of World War I.

Unlike history, the British who really felt the pressure did not continue to compose as they did in history, and if you look at the new battleships built by the British after completing 5 revenge-class battleships, it can be described as funny. Two prestige battlecruisers with a displacement of up to 27,000 tons, armed with six powerful 15-inch guns, output up to 112,000 horsepower, and can run at a high speed of 30 knots! But the armor is only 6 inches! It's not as good as the Tiger Lion of the year, of course, although the Battle of Jutland had been fought in September 1916, it was obvious that the armor could not be improved, and the mistake had been made, and it was impossible to change it. Let's forgive it for now.

BUT WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAY THAT THE TWO SHIPS THAT WERE COMMISSIONED LATER IN 1917 HAD A DISPLACEMENT OF NEARLY 20,000 TONS, WERE ARMED WITH FOUR 15-INCH GUNS, HAD AN OUTPUT OF 90,000 HORSEPOWER, AND HAD A SPEED OF 32 KNOTS, BUT HAD ONLY 50 MM OF SIDE-CHORD ARMOR? Could this be the so-called former dreadnought battleship with 15-inch guns? What's even more terrifying is that the British later Fury light battleships were actually equipped with 2 18-inch 40L guns! Of course, it was later converted into an aircraft carrier. However, in general, these warships can be described by the word pit dad when they were first built. And these 5 warships together used a total displacement of 120,000 tons.

Historically, the British started construction of 4 Admiral-class battlecruisers in 1916, but by 1918, except for the Hood, the remaining 3 battleships were discontinued, and these terrible sea monsters were finally stillborn for these two reasons. But this time, the British, under tremendous pressure, decided not to be funny! In 1914, shortly after several Queen Elizabeth-class battleships stepped off the slipway, several Admiral-class battleships had begun to lay their keels, although the British had to revise the original design because of the lessons of many naval battles, but because of the early start of construction, these sea-behemoths that can be called the most powerful in the British Empire will definitely be stronger than in history, and they will be completed earlier. (Of course, the speed will be sad.) But firepower and protection will stabilize the historic Hood. ）

The Germans are already hesitating whether to save up for 2 more Bismarck-class battleships with the last bit of capital, and the British have no more energy to build new warships after starting construction of 4 Admiral-class battleships! At this moment, the last bit of strength of the British was also suppressed. In addition to maintaining the completion of the revenge-class battleships and admiral-class battleships, the resources of the British Navy also have to repair and improve the damaged battleships, this time all the battleships of the British Grand Fleet were damaged, the only difference was the problem of serious injuries, and the maintenance of more than 20 capital ships was a huge project, but fortunately, the same was true on the German side! By the time 1916 arrived, the British and German navies were powerless and had no desire to continue fighting, the British had to wait for battleships and shells, and the Germans had to wait.

While Jericho was working desperately to restore the Grand Fleet, his old subordinate and friend Thomas was preparing to move. The second-rate British army guarding Egypt was finally unable to stop the influx of Allied troops, and finally decided to surrender at Alexandria after paying a heavy price! At this point, the whole of Egypt was brought under the control of the Central Powers, the Suez Canal was opened, and the combined Ito-Austrian fleet, which had been idle since the heavy defeat of the French fleet, finally moved south under the command of Tycho, and their target was the British Indian Ocean Fleet stationed in the port of Bombay.

Faced with a gap of nearly three to one, Thomas did not even have the slightest desire to fight, so packing and moving out of the Indian Ocean to Guò Horn of Africa and crossing the Atlantic into the Mediterranean was the last option. There, he would fend off the Allied navy with the remnants of the French fleet and secure the western Mediterranean. And the Germans finally got the passage they had always dreamed of, a passage connecting Germany and China. At this point, there is no longer a force from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia that can cut off the connection between the two!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward, as well as the book friend Kuaifeng and 4561234567657 monthly pass support ~~~~. (To be continued......)