If someone asks, in the First World War, did the High Seas Fleet have a chance to break the blockade of the British Grand Fleet. Xu Jie's answer is yes. The Germans had every chance to give it a go and gain the initiative in naval warfare. But the opportunity is not in Jutland. But at the beginning of the war. There is such a set of numbers jù to illustrate the contrast in strength of the two navies at that time. In terms of fleet size, the total tonnage of the British Royal Navy is 2.714 million tons, and the total tonnage of the German Navy is 1.305 million tons, and the tonnage ratio of the two sides is 2.08:1. Judging from the sheer number of Jù, it is clearly inappropriate for Germany to seek a decisive battle. But it is important to note here that the Royal Navy is not just a Grand Fleet that remains on the home soil. At the beginning of the war in 1914, the British Grand Fleet had only two-thirds of the total tonnage, and in this two-third, 17 ex-dreadnoughts had to be allocated to escort the British expeditionary force to the European continent. In the last two months of 1914, the situation of the Royal Navy was even worse. After the main forces of the Far East Fleet led by Count Spake successfully defeated the British fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Cladoko, the British Navy finally could not sit still. Admiral Fisher, the First Admiral, sent a navy of 3 battlecruisers (Invincible, Unyielding, Celestial Princess) and 3 cruisers and 2 light cruisers to search for and annihilate the Spei fleet. This move ultimately led to an unprecedented weakening of the British Grand Fleet that remained on the mainland. What did the British have at that time? The battleship Dardacity sank, and the battleships Iron Duke and Ajax were improving the power system. The Orion is being repaired, the Conqueror is being improved, the 7-turret relic, and the Irish are not yet officially combat-ready. The Empress of India, the Bon Bau and the Tiger did not complete the final commissioning. As for the powerful Elizabeth-class and R-class battleships, they were built on the slipway. So under the circumstances, the British Grand Fleet had only 17 battleships and 5 battlecruisers, while the Germans had 15 battleships and 4 battlecruisers. If the two sides were at war at this time, the Germans would really have a chance to break British sea power in one fell swoop. But the Germans gave up, and perhaps later generations would say that these statements were a bit of an afterthought. But the responsibility of the German naval top brass and the Kaiser's passive avoidance of war will never run away. In the eyes of the Kaiser, the German fleet was only a weight to ensure the supremacy of the Baltic Sea and to put pressure on Britain after the victory in the land war, but not a sword used to fight a decisive battle in the ocean and break the British Royal Navy's supremacy of the sea. The significance of the fleet is to go out to sea, to defeat the opposing fleet and gain control of the sea, not just to exist as a threat or as a bargaining weight. And the German Navy top brass made precisely this mistake.

The navies of different countries have different understandings of sea power, some countries require that they have the right to control the sea area, such as the United Kingdom, while some countries believe that as long as the other side does not use the sea area control power, it is fine. For example, France's green-water navy. and the breaking of the German engagement during the interwar period. On the face of it, both sides make sense. However, Xu Jie believes that in the end, only the first sea power can determine the fate of a country's navy. Throughout history, the British only ascended to the throne of maritime supremacy after defeating the Spanish Armadada, and it was only after defeating the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar that the British finally ensured the security of their homeland. Looking at the latter, whether it is the French ocean-going route, or the German submarine warfare, they have not been able to achieve the final victory, the reason is that the sabotage force without the support of a strong fleet can play a heavy role in the period of lack of escort, but as the other side gradually adapts to this mode of operation, and at the same time squeezes out enough naval forces to strengthen the protection of the route, while cooperating with naval bases all over the world. This one-dimensional mode of engagement is bound to be crushed by the opposing side's powerful naval and naval combat systems. Without a powerful fleet to contain the main force of the opposing navy with practical actions, it is very unrealistic to rely only on breaking diplomatic relations to force a naval power.

And in terms of naval construction, the Kaiser's fleet is still remarkable. Good protection and watertight compartment design, combined with the high technical level of Germany, German battleships enjoyed the reputation of unsinkable ships in World War 1. But in the choice of firepower, Germany tended to be conservative. The firepower layout also makes people feel egg-wrenching. Let's talk about firepower first, the 11-inch guns of the first class battleship Nassau-class are barely in the past. The Helgran-class battleships were reequipped with 12 12-inch guns. Then the Caesar-class 12-inch guns, and the King-class guns that served after the outbreak of World War I were still 12-inch guns. It wasn't until the Byrne-class battleships and the Mackensen-class battlecruisers were replaced with powerful 15-inch and 14-inch guns, respectively. Perhaps one would excuse the Germans with the massacre of the German battle cruisers against the British ones in the Battle of Jutland. But then, when Thomas led 4 Queen Elizabeth-class battleships to meet the German High Seas Fleet, and turned down the firepower of 16 battleships and 5 battlecruisers, it was enough to show that in the face of a new warship like the Queen-class revenge class, 12 inches of firepower was simply not enough. The German 11-inch and 12-inch guns, which were also thin-skinned battle cruisers against the British, were quite difficult for ultra-dreadnought battleships like the Iron Duke, and far less for the more powerful Queen-class and revenge-class battleships. As for the artillery layout, the 6-corner arrangement of the Nassau and Helgrande classes has a strong pre-dreadnought color, and the 2nd class is equipped with 12 main guns, but only 8 can be used in battle, which must be said to be quite tragic. The Caesar-class battleships, because of the diagonal arrangement, could achieve a salvo of 10 guns on the side of the side at a certain angle, but the angle was too small. Usually 8 guns are put in. It was not until the King's class entered service that the arrangement of all the main guns on the central axis brought the German artillery layout flush with the British. It cannot be said that there were no top warships in the 1st World War of Germany, whether it was a Byrne-class battleship or a Mackensen-class battleship, it was the pinnacle of the time, and the later York-class battleships were the culmination of the technology of the time. But with the exception of 2 Byrne-class battleships, neither Mackensen nor later Yorke were only unfinished ships on the slipway. And there is no chance of a table xiàn. …,

Therefore, from Xu Jie's point of view, if there is a suitable naval composition and a suitable strategy, the high seas fleet will definitely play a greater role in history. And not just spend most of the time in a military port as a storage fleet. As for the composition of the naval fleet, Xu Jie's opinion can be summarized into the following three points. First, to strengthen the firepower of the fleet, not only battleships, but also battlecruisers must also be proudly strengthened, 11-inch and 12-inch guns can only effectively deal with British war cruisers in actual combat, it is difficult to fight battleships, and there is no way to fight a battleship like the Queen. The fact that the 4 Queens were victoriously turned in front of the High Seas Fleet was not penetrated and that the main gun fire was preserved intact is ample proof. If Germany wanted to deal a fatal blow to the British main fleet, it had to be equipped with a large number of 14-inch or even 15-inch guns by 1915. Second, expand the formation of battle cruisers. Before the Battle of Jutland, Germany was most active in reconnaissance fleets of battle cruisers. Considering the Kaiser's caution with regard to the fleet, the Kaiser at most gave the battlecruiser formations some authority to operate before a stalemate on the ground. Therefore, increasing the proportion of battle cruisers and decreasing the proportion of battleships is equivalent to giving the high seas fleet more operational capabilities. At the same time, it is possible to consider removing 3 flashy armored cruisers and giving up resources to battle cruisers. It can be seen from the sinking of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Brussel that these expensive patrols are basically useless in the face of the battle patrol, and even the earliest British Invincible patrol is not unmanageable for Brucher. The difference in cost between the two is only 360,000 pounds. (Brushell is £1,390,000, Invincible is £1,752,000) Therefore, for Germany, which is weak in overall power, it is undoubtedly very important to use every mark in the most critical place. Third, the strengthening of the submarine force, as for the reason, it is needless to say that the main force of the battle can contain a large number of escort forces of the British Royal Navy at the same time, and indirectly support the main fleet.

Therefore, from an outsider's point of view, Xu Jie has a feeling of regret for the German High Seas Fleet, but in the communication of the father of the German Navy, Xu Jie inadvertently revealed some of his own feelings about naval warfare. What he didn't expect was that some of his ideas had a direct impact on the war 25 years later.