On the occasion of parting

Li Fushou seized the time to ask for advice and humbly asked questions about the navy's strategy and tactics, which made Rear Admiral He Fang deeply gratified and carefully answered them one by one.

"Brother He, our Brave-class cruisers have invested so much, among the many cruiser sequences in the world, why is the performance not the first in the world?"

"Yuan Ding, you know one but don't know the other, so you have this question." Major General He Fang had a lot of goods in his belly, and replied with a calm smile;

"Before the adjustment, our "brave" cruiser can rank among the world's best cruisers in terms of comprehensive performance, and its technical level and combat effectiveness can be compared with the configuration level of the main fleet cruisers of the world's naval powers, which is enough to be proud of.

After adjustments

In particular, the huge amount of money invested in the purchase of expensive state-of-the-art coal-fired boilers, the huge amount of pounds piled up is the top sailing performance and strong power, which is very suitable for the vast sea area of Australia, which originally took 5 days to reach the battlefield, but now it can be done in 4 and a half days, and this half day saved may have a decisive impact on the final result.

In the case of a stalemate in naval warfare, any investment of weight will cause an imbalance.

It is no exaggeration to say;

Our Brave-class cruisers are among the top in the world, and there is no doubt about the advantages of our cruisers against cruisers of the same class, with better protection, higher speed, and better training at the same level of firepower, which means higher overall combat effectiveness.

The reason why the "Brave" class cruisers are among the top in the world, not the first, is because of the differences caused by the different needs of the naval construction of various countries.

Taking the Royal Navy fleet of the British Empire as an example, their main ironclad ships are not outstanding in terms of comprehensive performance, mainly winning by scale, when the mighty Royal Navy's main ironclad fleet appears on the ocean, just by virtue of the thick smoke covering the sky is enough to make any opponent frightened and obediently surrender to it.

Relatively

The construction of the French navy is more similar to that of the United Kingdom, focusing on ocean-going navigation performance and the size of the fleet, strictly controlling the budget for the construction of a single ship, and taking the path of the ocean-going fleet, which can be said to be a poor imitation of the British fleet.

I would like to talk about the Italian Navy, which is also the focus of my trip to Europe.

The construction of the Italian Navy is very distinctive, taking a small and fine characteristic road, each of the main ironclad warships pulled out, some of the performance is crushed the British and French capital ships, the disadvantage is that the cost is extremely high, so the high performance piled up.

Here I will talk in detail about the "Durio" class ironclad and the "King Umberto" class ironclad equipped by the Italian Navy, and you will understand the difference.

The Italian Navy is a Mediterranean littoral country with a naval tradition, and was known as the strongest navy in the world before the Battle of Lisa in 1866, with 12 steam-ironclad ships.

After the defeat of the naval battle, the Kingdom of Italy continued to increase its naval investment, and built a number of 10,000-ton steam ironclad ships in the 80s of the 19th century.

Take, for example, the "Durio"-class ironclad ships;

Its displacement is 111381 tons, which is on the same level as the British "Majesty" class strategic ships, with a length of 109.2 meters, a width of 19.7 meters, a draft of 8.8 meters, a total power of 7700 horsepower, a two-shaft drive, and a speed of 15 knots.

From the above data, it can be seen that the overall shape of the "Durio" class steam ironclad ship is a wide body and fat appearance, especially the width is close to 20 meters, and the total power is only 7700 horsepower, which is equivalent to the level of the 7600-ton "Zhiyuan" ironclad ship in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, resulting in a speed of only 15 knots.

Maybe that's not a big deal in a small Mediterranean bath, but for the vast ocean of the world, such a trade-off is simply self-defeating.

The most distinctive feature is the main gun fire of the "Durio" class ironclad ship, which is equipped with a 450 mm twin main gun, one in the front and one in the rear, such a main gun firepower is simply perverted, and its armor protection is also perverted, the waterline armor reaches 550 mm, the turret armor reaches 450 mm, and is equipped with three 356 mm torpedo launchers, almost no other battleship can compare with it in firepower and armor, forming a unilateral performance crushing advantage.

As a direct consequence of this, the legs are too short, and at a speed of 10 knots, it can only travel 3,600 kilometers, and if the maximum speed of 15 knots is calculated, its range is only a mere 2,400 kilometers.

At such a distance, it can only go around the doorstep of the Kingdom of Italy.

A little farther away, it is necessary to bring a coal carrier with you, which has very high requirements for coastal supply ports, because the ship has a low freeboard, basically does not have the ability to fight in the ocean.

Such a strange warship was still suitable for the needs of the Kingdom of Italy, which did not have a vast overseas colony, and the main colonization attempts in Africa were the Kingdom of Ethiopia, which was only there after crossing the Strait of Malacca, and it was not far away.

The Royal Navy's main steam ironclad has a caliber of 343 mm, and when you think of the 450 mm twin cannon barrels of the Durio-class ironclads, you know how perverted this Italian capital ship is.

As long as they sailed in the Mediterranean, the British had to give three points of face.

Corresponding to it is the high cost of the ship, as well as the unreliable 450 mm twin cannon, every 10 shells fired will have 1~2 problems of one kind or another, which will also cause significant damage to the hull structure, and the reliability is too poor.

Compared with the extremely perverted "Durio"-class steam ironclad, the 13,300-ton "King Umberoto"-class steam ironclad built later is slightly more normal.

In the face of the harsh reality, the enthusiastic and hot-headed Italians finally admit that the "Durio" class is a fat fat with terrifying data, and that what they get at a high price is just a big toy that is not practical, and the gains really outweigh the losses.

The "King Umberto" class steam ironclad ship uses British 343 mm twin main guns, with a speed of 18 knots, 100 mm of side armor, 100 mm flat deck, and 350 turrets, and its endurance has been amazingly improved, reaching an astonishing value of 7,000 kilometers.

This is again an extreme

Take a look at the 550 mm waterline armor of the "Durio" class steam ironclad ship, and then look at the 100 mm waterline armor of the "King Umberto" class steam ironclad, and you will know how romantic and imaginative the Italians are, and how wild their minds are to let their thoughts fly.

In the vision of Italian ship designers, three "King Umberto-class" main ironclad ships could carry 12,000 soldiers to the Kingdom of Ethiopia to conquer the African country.

Using the main steam ironclad ship of the navy to do the work of transport ships, looking around the needs of the navies of the world, only the Kingdom of Italy is unique.

In any case, this spirit of exploration deserves respect, and I am very much looking forward to meeting with my counterparts in the Italian Navy.

From the point of view of the conquest of the Ethiopian kingdom, 100 mm of waterline armor is too much, because the Ethiopian kingdom has no navy at all, at most only some small wooden sampans.

It is precisely because of the different needs of various countries that countries that pursue a small but elite navy will spend huge sums of money to build cruisers with extremely powerful single performance, which cannot be forcibly compared with the Queensland Navy, which takes into account the size of the fleet. ”

"Oh...... I see. Li Fushou suddenly realized.

Professional problems also need professionals to solve, even if Li Fushou has the welfare of the reborn, it is impossible to be proficient in everything, Major General He Fang's words made him pause, and said solemnly; "Thank you, Brother He, for helping me a lot, and now I have one last question, who will the Borneo fleet hand over to after you leave?"

"My deputy, Colonel Zhu Qingxi, the Borneo fleet has submitted his promotion report, and he can be promoted to commodore based on his qualifications and military merits, please consider it for your approval."

"Well, what's the reason for the recommendation?"

"Loyal and reliable, strictly abide by the rules and never go beyond the limit."

"Okay, just do as you say."

Li Fushou agreed, and Colonel Zhu Qingxi knew very well, he was also an excellent officer from the Royal Manchester Naval School, and Geng Guigui graduated from the same class and returned to Queensland to participate in the preparation of the Coast Guard.

Forget about other qualities, especially loyalty and reliability, strict compliance with the rules is very in line with Li Fushou's wishes, and he immediately made a decision.

Originally, the Borneo fleet was the most powerful of the three fleets, with two heavy cruisers, the "Green Dragon" and the "White Tiger", the cruisers "Naniwa" and "Takachiho", and more than a dozen Seagull II ocean-going cruisers with a displacement of 2,000 tons.

After two years of demolition in the east and west, the Borneo fleet is now only left with the independent support of the heavy cruiser "Qinglong", oh...... By the way, at the end of the year, a 4200-ton cruiser "Brave" can be harvested, and the strength is not much different from other fleets.

After the shelling of Nagasaki, the Far East Fleet formed by Queensland, led by the heavy cruiser "White Tiger", was stationed in Okinawa, the port of Okinawa, and the Ryukyu Marine Police District was formed.

After Li Fushou led the Grand Fleet to inspect the African colonies, he left the cruiser "Naniwa" to the Mozambique Island Marine Police District, and the cruiser "Gao Chiho" to the Xi'an Town Marine Police District.

And so it goes

The Borneo fleet suffered heavy blood loss, and there were only two or three big cats and kittens left.

It is no wonder that Rear Admiral He Fang is so interested in the fact that the "Qinglong" heavy cruiser has to carry it independently in a real battle at sea, and the Seagull-class thin-skinned ship can only be used for reconnaissance, and it is not enough to see in the confrontation between the two armies at the cruiser level!

Fortunately, the Borneo fleet is the focus of naval construction, and six of the twelve "Brave" class cruisers are planned to be attached to this fleet, which is the top priority of construction and the base camp of the navy's mobile fleet.

By the time Rear Admiral Wafang returned, the Borneo fleet had almost returned to its peak and was still surpassed.