Qingying and Tirpitz walked side by side, and soon they came to the battleship. Looking at the three mighty main turrets on the deck and the main armor protruding from the side of the gunwale, Tirpitz's face showed a strange look, as if admiring and regretting: "It is really a sophisticated and powerful murder weapon." It is equipped with six new 283mm L42 guns, which have a 25% increase in single-shot destructive power compared to the old L40 guns; Considering the 5.5-meter-high 270 mm main armor on its broadside, its frontal combat effectiveness is almost two notches higher than that of Frederick III. It's a pity that its 3 main turrets are actually arranged in front 1 and 2 in the rear, which is really disappointing. With such an arrangement, isn't this a declaration to the world that our German battleships were made for escape? ”

Before coming, Qingying had guessed that Tirpitz would give his opinion on how the ship's main guns would be arranged. He shook his head slightly and explained, "General Alfred, this is not an intentional act of the designers, but an inevitable product of the development of the technique. Although this turret layout is not pretty, the rear firepower is stronger than the front, which is indeed conducive to the firepower of escape; But this method is the optimal arrangement under the premise of 3 main turrets of the long bow ship! Seeing Tirpitz's blank look, Qingying briefly explained the cause and effect of this layout to him.

The number of naval ships of Germany was much inferior to that of the British. In order to subvert British supremacy at sea, German warships had to reduce the weight of their structures by lowering their freeboard in order to improve the performance of their ships. However, the freeboard cannot be lowered indefinitely. Because although the Baltic Sea is calm, the North Sea is often stormy and turbulent; In order to ensure that the battleship could calmly cope with the tyrannical weather in the North Sea, the German designers could not sacrifice a file like SerB and cut the freeboard height, and the seaworthiness of the battleship had to be considered. In order to take care of both, the artifact of the bow tower came into being under the impetus of Qingying and became the standard configuration on the current German capital ships.

The so-called bow tower is intuitively a single-storey building on the deck that resembles a building. Due to its smaller width than the hull, the bow tower exists as a superstructure in the middle of the hull; At the bow, due to the gradual narrowing of the hull, the bow tower and the hull become one in the bow of the ship, raising the freeboard height of the bow by a whole deck. In this way, the height of the deck of the battleship in the bow of the ship is enough to effectively improve the seafaring ability of the battleship; And because the width of the bow tower is smaller than the hull, the overall length is only two-thirds of the battleship, which can save a lot of structural weight compared to ordinary flat-deck ships. This method of maximizing tonnage and obtaining high seaworthiness at a small cost soon spread throughout the German Navy.

In fact, the Brandenburg class, which began construction in Germany in 1889, already used the bow as an artifact, but the length of the bow tower was only a short section; This design was fine with only two main turrets, but with the addition of a third main turret, it was quite embarrassing. Due to the short length of the bow tower, the main turret on the amidships was at the same level as the main turret at the stern, which seriously encroached on the space of the superstructure for the secondary guns, and the layout of the three main turrets had to be insisted on by the German Navy! In the case of a gun caliber one size smaller than that of the Great Powers, the German battleships needed more projection to compensate for this shortcoming; In addition, the 3 main turrets were also the best stepping stone for the German Navy to step into the dreadnought. To solve this problem, the German designers extended the bow tower and placed the main guns of the amidships on the bow tower to make room for the secondary guns. The two Frederick III-class battleships, designed and built according to this concept, were a perfect balance of performance, and became a success of 1894.

However, Frederick III's design was far from perfect, and there were no small shortcomings in the layout of the main gun. The ship's handling of the main guns of the amidships was only to raise them one level and place them on the bow tower; As a result, the turret, like Brandenburg, was still sandwiched between two superstructures, with only a 60-degree broadside firing boundary on each side. Therefore, the ideal situation is to swap positions between the main turret and the aft bridge, and use the height difference between the bow and deck to achieve a knapsack arrangement of high and low firepower at the stern. In this way, it is possible to achieve a significant increase in the firing range of the main gun of the amidship without paying any additional cost. After Qingying returned to China, he wanted to make such an improvement to Frederick III; However, due to the technical limitations of the time, the propeller shaft leading from the steam engine room was not allowed to be stretched too long, and the ammunition magazine under the turret and the steam engine room could not overlap, so it had to be foolish. After a few years of technical development, the rotation axis was lengthened by another 10 meters, and Qing Yingcai realized this idea on this new class of battleships.

As for the carrying at the bow of the ship, Qingying will not consider it at this stage, because from the perspective of design, the bow carrying is an out-and-out barbarian practice of wasting tonnage. If the knapsack main gun arrangement were to be adopted in the bow of the ship, the height of the gun mount of the No. 2 main gun would have to be greatly increased, which would mean adding a large circle of additional gun mount armor weight, causing a serious spike in the displacement and cost of the battleship. In addition, in order not to be covered by the raised No. 2 turret to obscure the forward view of the conning tower, the entire bridge must also be raised; In addition, the gun mount and turret that have been upgraded by one floor will also greatly increase the center of gravity of the battleship, which will inevitably reduce the stability and greatly disadvantage the anti-capsizing ability of the battleship.

As for the forward firepower advantage gained by carrying the bow on the back, it is actually not of much use on the battlefield! During World War I, when the number of battleships was overwhelming, when the great powers fought a decisive battle at sea, it was generally a large number of battleships lined up in two rows to bombard each other; Britain and Germany were at the top of the world's navy, and the battleships were counted in units of 10, and their decisive battles were even more so. Since the ships have all crossed in the decisive battle of the fleet, and everyone is facing the enemy with the broadside, what additional significance does the main gun carried by the bow be achieved at great cost?

Taking a step back, there were still a large number of skirmishes during World War I in non-decisive situations, such as the historical Battle of Helgoland Bay and the Battle of Dogger Sandbank; Even so, there is no advantage for the side with the main guns on the bow of the ship. Because as long as the enemy's main gun fire range at the amidship and tail is large enough, then the opponent only needs to turn in time when encountering the enemy ship, and still be able to exert all its firepower. And even in a pursuit battle, it is difficult for the side with the main gun in the bow to make any substantial progress. Because both sides are moving at high speed, as long as the distance is a little farther, their hit rate can be described as miserable; Unless the pursuer has excellent fire control and a burst of character, it will be difficult to inflict the imaginary damage on the enemy ship.

Therefore, from the point of view of the design of the warship, the cost and benefit of carrying the bow are completely disproportionate; Its existence only makes the warship more tall and powerful, and it is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and its symbolic meaning is far greater than the actual combat significance. In addition to the stern piggyback obtained by adopting the long bow boat type, any deliberate pursuit of the piggyback design is a barbarian behavior that lowers the cost performance!

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"General Alfred, since the long bow tower has achieved a natural drop of 2.2 meters in the stern of the ship, why don't we take advantage of this factor? The rear movement of the main turret of the amidship gives it an additional 120 degrees of backward fire, and the Imperial battleship previously had 2 more rear fire, but now it can have 2 more guns for no reason; If it were anyone, I wouldn't think this was a bad thing, would it? ”

Looking at Tirpitz, who still had an unwilling look on his face, Qingying couldn't help but shake his head helplessly, and said, "Besides, my Minister of the Navy, this layout is also the best plan we can think of." Imagine if you didn't do that, where would the third main turret be placed? If you put it in the middle as usual, you will waste a full 150-degree backward shooting boundary; And if it is placed in a position where the bow is raised by one level, the displacement and cost of the battleship will be out of control. You must know that it is precisely because of this main gun layout that the cost of a single battleship of this class is only 21 million marks; If it is placed on the bow of the ship with one floor raised, then the price is at least 23 million marks. The huge loan we got from the United States, but not a single cent of it went to the army! ”

Tirpitz had a complicated expression on his face, his lips twitched, and finally he sighed: "The ship has been built, even if I am unwilling to accept this turret layout, I can only choose to accept the reality." What's more, in addition to the 'Wiecchersbach' and 'Vidin' already in service, there are also four ships of the same class, 'Odin', 'Swabi', 'Zaringen' and 'Mecklenburg', which are under construction. Qingying was secretly overjoyed when she heard this, but heard Tirpitz say again: "It's just that the battleships that started construction this year must not be like this again." If our warships are not powerful enough, how can we attract young people from our country to join the navy, and how can we make a deep impression in the minds of the people and make them continue to support the navy? Even if we can't pile up illegal buildings on the ship like the French in the pursuit of performance, the necessary majesty and magnificence are essential; As for the extra overflow budget, I will go to the council for it! ”

"So, what are your plans for the next class of battleships?" Qingying stopped and asked in a low voice.

Tirpitz pondered for a moment and said, "The stern carrying is a gift from the low-freeboard long bow type, and we have no reason to give it up. However, our warships must not become escape-type warships. We could try to equip the battleship with one more main turret for a bow piggyback arrangement to balance the front and rear fire. Although this solution will be equipped with 4 twin main turrets, and the tonnage cost will be greatly increased, we have every reason to try; If it succeeds, then Germany will be able to replace Britain and lead the trend of the world's navy! ”

(Thanks to the book friend Tianyu Congyun's reward and the book friend Blood Soul 1937 voted for the 4 update votes~~~ But the 4 update votes can only be seen and not eaten)