PS: Ask for tickets at the end of the month

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The victory of the Central Powers in the Mediterranean was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Entente. At the same time, this was also the victory of Italy and Austria-Hungary, and the Italian navy suddenly became the world's upstart, not to mention, even the Austro-Hungarian navy, which has always been criticized, has changed from an unpopular "coastal defense fleet" to a sea force worthy of a war. As for Turkey, not to mention, they have already made a splash in the Russian-Turkish battle for the Black Sea.

Needless to say, Turkey's Fuxi-class has long been familiar to the world as the "standard battleship" with the largest number of manufactures and the most used countries in the world.

There were three Italian dreadnoughts in the battle, the Dante Aligo Icherry had already been sunk in battle, and the three Count Cavour and the two Andrea Doria class had excelled in the battle. The Earl of Cavour is exactly the same as the same type in the history of the original plane, and there are no changes, so I won't say much here.

Andrea Doria's class has changed a lot, and it was also stimulated by the Fuxi class, and Iduli also put forward higher requirements for the new battleship than the original time and space, and the 12-inch class main gun that was originally prepared to be configured was outdated. The Italian Navy asked the designer to raise the main gun to the 14-inch level, and the designer enlarged it on the basis of the original and redesigned the Andrea Doria class.

At that time, Italy actually did not have the technology to produce 14-inch main guns, but there was no need to worry, the Entente and the Allies were courting them, and the threshold on the main guns was not a problem for Italy. The Allies gave the same 360 mm naval guns as the Fuxi class, while the Allies gave the same 14-inch (356 mm) guns as the King Kong class. In other words, Italy was the only country in the world at that time that mastered the main artillery technology of both opposing camps.

The Italians were dazzled by the feeling of being served by two major powers at the same time, but in the end they chose the British 14-inch (356 mm) gun.

There are two reasons, one is because this main gun was tailor-made by Niu Niu for his younger brother Japan, taking into account Japan's production capacity, so the technical requirements were specially reduced and the process was simplified. And the Italians have a slightly stronger production capacity than the Japanese, and this main gun is easier for them to use. Second, it is naturally a blind trust in the empire on which the sun never sets, can the things of the number one naval power on the earth be worse today?

As a result, the Andrea Doria class, which was larger than the original space-time, appeared, but the shape and weapon layout did not change much, the weapons were replaced with three triple and two twin 356 mm 45 times the caliber main gun, and the thickness of the main armor belt was also increased to 12 inches (the original version was 9. 8 inches), so that the displacement rose in a straight line, reaching 34000 tons, which is half more than the original.

Two warships of this class were built in Italy, the Andrea Doria and the Caillo Duelio, both of which began construction in October 1911 and entered service in August and December 1915.

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There are only two kinds of dreadnoughts in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and the first type of combined force class is not much different from the original time and space, that is, the main gun has been replaced from the original 305 mm to a 310 mm 45 times diameter gun. In addition, the turret is different, although the original combined force class is also a triple-mounted turret used, but there is a problem with the design of their turret, and there are only two ammunition lifting channels for the turret, which limits the ammunition supply speed and cannot give full play to the advantages of its main gun configuration, so it can only be regarded as a "pseudo-triple". On this plane, due to the Chinese triple turret design, this problem is gone. The Combined Forces class of the Plane also had four ships, the United Forces, the Tiger Hoff, the Prinz Eugen, and the St. István.

And the second type of dreadnought is a model that did not exist in the original time and space. This kind of super dreadnought, known as the "Queen Elizabeth class", is the first battleship in this plane with three triple main turrets, two in the front and one in the rear. The design of this class of warships is based on the German Bavaria-class (an enlarged version of the Fuxi class), the main gun is also 390 mm 45 times the diameter, and due to the use of a bulbous bow, the appearance at first glance looks a bit like the small "Yamato-class".

Because the competition for building ships on this plane is more intense, watching the major powers are holding back their efforts, at this time, Archduke Ferdinand, the crown prince who actually holds the political power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, can't sit still. He was also an ambitious monarch who was interested in freeing his navy from the hat of a "coastal defense fleet" and was also very concerned about naval construction.

Under the kind care of His Highness Ferdinand and the Imperial Government, the Austro-Hungarian Navy received great support and built the "Combined Forces Class", a dreadnought that could keep up with the times. But His Highness Ferdinand's ambitions were more than that, and he couldn't sleep again when he saw that the Andréa Doria class was being built in Italy next door. Compared to the Andrea Doria class, which had 13 356-mm guns, the "Combined Forces class" with only 12 310-mm guns was completely crushed.

As the inheritor of the dignified HRE Empire, how could he be overwhelmed by mere mere intentions? Because Austria-Hungary's warship design ability was limited, His Highness Ferdinand asked Germany for help. At this time, Germany already had several new warships, and for Austria-Hungary, an important ally, they did not leave a hand, and took out all the models for His Highness to choose.

Originally, Germany was going to recommend their king class, which is the German version of the Fuxi class. However, the high-spirited Archduke Ferdinand was not satisfied, and he believed that although the battleships of this class had good performance, their main guns were a little smaller, and they could not form an overwhelming advantage over the Italian Andrea Doria class. So he took a fancy to the Bavaria-class, a battleship with 390 mm guns that Germany was building.

Yes, the Grand Duke was ready to play a big leap and jump the main guns of his own battleships from the 310 mm level directly to the 390 mm level. This is also the largest plan to increase the caliber of the main gun in the world.

As for the problem of the main gun, there is no need to worry at all, even the German 390 mm main gun manufacturing technology was imported from the Austro-Hungarian company Skoda, and their technical cooperation with China was not in vain. It can be said that on this plane, Austria-Hungary has the technology to manufacture large-caliber artillery second only to China.

Initially, Austria-Hungary was ready to copy the Bavarian design exactly, and Germany gave them even a full set of drawings anyway. But then they were embarrassed to find out that the Empire was not well funded to meet the need to build two ships at the same time. So Archduke Ferdinand had to frustrate the designers to revise, and the Austro-Hungarian designers redesigned it on the basis of the Bavarian class, they reduced a rear main turret, and reduced the speed and endurance, so that the cost was greatly reduced, and finally met the requirement that two ships could be built at the same time.

So there is this "Queen Elizabeth class" battleship that did not exist in the history of the original time and space, although this is a shrunken Bavaria-class, but it is also the most powerful warship built by Austria-Hungary to date. The "Queen Elizabeth class" has a standard displacement of 34,500 tons, three triple 390-mm guns, a maximum speed of 22 knots, and a cruising range of 5,000 nautical miles. Although the speed and endurance have been cut a lot, the armor has not shrunk at all, the 360 mm main armor belt, 130 mm horizontal armor, and 400 mm of turret and conning tower frontal armor can be described as an amazing defense.

It is worth mentioning that there is a twist and turn in the naming of this class of warships, originally its name was set as "Holy Roman Empire class", but this name is too hateful, not to mention that the hypothetical enemy Italy is unhappy, and even its close ally Germany is uncomfortable, this kind of orthodox thing is not a joke. After receiving a private protest from Kaiser Wilhelm II, Archduke Ferdinand had to change the name of the ship to his aunt "Empress Elisabeth" (also known as Princess Sissi), and the other ship took the name of his uncle "Emperor Joseph I".

The construction of the "Empress Elizabeth" and the "Emperor Joseph I" began in June 1912, more than half a year later than the Italian Andrea Doria class, but the construction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was much faster, and the two battleships entered service in February and April 1915 respectively, half a year earlier than Italy.

The tables of these two battleships also lived up to expectations, and in the Battle of Corsica, they were extremely eye-catching. The British and French battleships could not touch their armor at all, and their 390 mm guns were extremely deadly. The British Dreadnought Africa was blown up by the Queen Elizabeth, as well as the Duncan, Rapid, and New Zealand dreadnoughts, as well as the French Dreadnought Jean Bar. If it weren't for the fact that the Austro-Hungarian navy officers and men were a little worse, the losses of Britain and France would have increased.

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After the Battle of Corsica, the situation in the Entente was not so good. Most of the army losses are easy to handle, anyway, Britain and France have vast colonies, there are a lot of cannon fodder, and China and the United States are open to selling weapons and ships, so there is no need to worry about equipment and transportation capacity.

However, the navy was not easy to manage, and the two defeats in less than a month caused heavy losses to the Allied navy, especially the loss of large warships. Now the British dreadnought is the only seedling left "Australia". The French still had 5 ships in the Battle of Corsica, and two of the Lone class were badly damaged and would take at least two to three months to fully repair. There were also three newest Brittany-class ships, but these ships were deployed along the Atlantic coast to defend against the Germans, and after the destruction of the British home fleet, the pressure on France's coastal defense was even greater, and it was impossible to transfer them to the Mediterranean now.

Now it is too late to place orders with China and the United States, and the allies will not wait stupidly.

Now among the members of the Entente, the navy on the Russian side should not be counted on, and the Black Sea Fleet was crippled by Turkey. The Baltic Fleet was also blocked by the Germans, with four Gangut-class dreadnoughts and four ex-dreadnoughts, which also did not work.

It's not that the Russian navy doesn't dare to fight, but that there is a problem with their system, and the actions of the Baltic Fleet are actually controlled by the army. The army bigwigs felt that it would be good for the navy to guard its own doorstep and prevent Erdezi from landing, and there was no need to go out to fight, so the Russian Baltic Fleet became a coast guard.

Now the only thing that can be counted on is the Japanese Navy. At this critical juncture, the British Empire could no longer afford to lose face, and the new Admiralty, Arthur Belfort, went to Japan by airship to visit Wèn and demanded that the Japanese Navy immediately go to Europe to participate in the war.

In the Sino-Japanese War of April 1913, the Combined Fleet was either sunk or captured, and all troops were annihilated. Almost all decent warships in active service were lost in the two battles of the Battle of Zhoushan and the Battle of Diaoyu Island, and under normal circumstances, the Japanese Navy could be said to be completely abandoned, and at least for a dozen years, it would not want to turn over.

But with the opium cow, the-stirring stick is different. They don't want this handy dog to hang up just yet, and if Japan is finished, how can they continue to stir up in Asia in the future? On the one hand, they are using both hard and soft measures against China to allow the two countries to hold peace talks, and on the other hand, they are stepping up efforts to support Japan in rebuilding its navy to contain the rising China and the United States.

After the outbreak of World War I, Japan's importance began to gradually appear, and the Entente countries supported Japan as a small partner even more, not only giving a large number of loans, forgiving a large number of debts, but also a large number of material orders, as well as various advanced technologies were vigorously stuffed into Japan.

This is probably "Saion lost his horse, but he knows that it is not a blessing", and after the fiasco of Japan, it is better mixed than the same period in the original time and space. With the support of the Entente at no cost, the current Japanese navy has recovered some of its vitality, at least with the strength of the First World War.

Compared with the same period in the original time and space, the Japanese Navy has another advantage, that is, it has no baggage. Although they lost almost all of their ships in the Sino-Japanese War, it must be noted that most of these ships were relatively old equipment, and except for the two Hanoi-class, the rest of the capital ships were outdated former dreadnoughts.

In the history of the original time and space, the Japanese Navy spent a lot of money every year on the maintenance, maintenance and renovation of these old ships. Later generations know that this kind of behavior is actually very uneconomical, especially in this period of rapid technological development. Instead of spending a lot of money on rebuilding old ships, it's really better to build new ones. However, the Japanese have always been accustomed to being small, and coupled with the weak national strength, they are always reluctant to replace the old ships. Their ships are often overdue, and they often undergo major changes, resulting in more money than new, not to mention performance.

Although they have lost most of their ships in this plane, it is equivalent to throwing off a heavy burden. Without the drag of a large number of old ships, the Japanese Navy was able to devote all its energy and funds to the development and manufacture of new ships. Up to now, although the number and tonnage of ships have not returned to the pre-war level, the quality has completely improved, and on the contrary, it has developed more decently.