"Gentlemen, the Battle Patrol or the Dreadnought has never been a multiple-choice question! Because we have no choice!"

The Battle of Dogel Sands on November 14 proves the value of battlecruisers.[..com]

First of all, the advantage of combat cruise speed is extremely effective in this melee of intelligence errors. It must be known that even in the shallow pond of the North Sea, the main fleet and the fast fleet can still be separated by three or four hours.

Two hours from the early warning issued by the raid fleet to the beginning of the naval battle, only General Hippel's three combat patrols were able to arrive at the battlefield in time, while General Schell's six powerful battleships were restricted by their speed and could not reinforce.

The British were just like this. In order to strengthen the interception fleet's strength, three Orion battleships joined the Battle Cruise fleet. It is no longer necessary to say whether this move was a masterpiece or a complete defeat. In the naval battle, the three dreadnoughts could not keep up with the rhythm of the fast fleet, so Betty had to ask them to take on the back interception mission. Even so, they still spent more than an hour to stop the Von-der-Tann, which had an overload speed of more than 27 knots. When General Hippel's two Derflinger-class and Seidlitz arrived on the battlefield, the advantage of combat cruise speed was beyond the reach of the escaping. The Thor super dreadnought, which was beyond the reach, was quickly sunk.

Secondly, the Dogersan Naval Battle affirmed the design idea of ​​the German Battle Cruise attaching importance to defense and taking into account the caliber of the main gun. Although Moltke, von der Tann and Blüchel were former Sedlitz type battle patrols, the design was unreasonable, but the 250mm waterline with main armor (Moltke 270mm main armor), with a focus on protection and sealing capsule design, which gave them strong defense. At the same time, the Invincible Class, the Fury Class Battle Cruise waterline with main armor was only 6 inches (about 152 mm), and the famous Lion-class battle patrol and the Tiger Battle Cruise equipped with 15-inch main gun were only 9 inches (229 mm). It was the powerful armor protection that allowed the raid fleet to persist for more than two hours under the siege of eight main battleships, and also allowed the Moltke, whose turrets were completely destroyed, to obtain the reputation of "Unsinking Ship".

Third, the naval battle confirmed the strength of the rear Sedlitz type battle patrol. Although the rear Sedlitz type battle patrol is not as high as that of the British type battle patrol, they can overturn the super-dreadnoughts to the ground with the help of thick armor.

In the late stage of the Dogel Sands Battle, three reinforcements came, with a 350mm waterline and a main armored rear Sedlitz battle patrol footrest, which could ignore the Orion-class super-dreadnoughtsman with only 12-inch (305mm) main armor of the British.

On the other hand, although the British generally equipped 13.5-inch (343 mm) main guns, the Tiger Battle Cruise and even 15-inch main guns, the maximum speed is one knot faster than the German Battle Cruise's 26.5 knots, but this cannot be the biggest reliance for the British. Because the British deliberately maintained the caliber advantage of the main gun, their first-level battle Cruise was equipped with 305 mm main guns, but with picric acid as the warhead, the extremely unstable fuse made the British shells far inferior to the German armor-piercing bombs with **agriculate** as the warhead, so Hippel's three battle Cruise could easily sink the British super-dreadnought.

Fourth, the importance of naval battle patrol to the main fleet was fully exposed. Although General Jelico's cautious character was a good opportunity for the British to annihilate the first reconnaissance fleet of the Ocean Fleet, David Betty's first reconnaissance fleet was either divided or suffered heavy damage. The collapsed reconnaissance system made it impossible for the British to evaluate the number and strength of the Ocean Fleet reinforcements, so that the loss of the large fleet was also one of the absolute negative factors.

Although the Sedlitz type battle cruiser is expensive to build ships, facing the British aggressive battleship peak, using the fast battle cruiser to attack the large fleet is undoubtedly more affordable than a simple battleship competition.

"Three Marnson-class battleships and two enhanced Bavarian-class battleships are enough. Although we have the quota of seven main ships, during the war, the army was a bottomless pit. The Bavarian-class battleships under construction, the Hindenburg battleships, the modified German battleships and many light ships will undoubtedly disperse a lot of resources, not to mention the British long-range blockade. Germany does not have much resources to waste. Instead of greed for more and more, it is better to maximize the utilization of resources."

"Lieutenant General, as the ship supervisor, I have to remind you that even if we have five main battleships, we may not be able to complete the construction as scheduled..."

"No, it can be completed!" Wang Heidi raised her head and said confidently: "Because this is a beautiful misunderstanding!"

****

The lengthy naval meeting ended. With Wang Heidi's insistence, the three Markensen-class battleship construction plans were approved. The Ocean Fleet, whose maritime policy was swaying, will also break the long-range blockade of the large fleet through a series of battlegrounds, battleship harassment wars and even the decisive battle of the main ships as a tactical goal. It will block the British maritime transportation lines and weaken and destroy the British wartime economy will be clearly a strategic goal.

Of course, the famous Saxon-class super battleship is also a product of this compromise and turning point meeting. In this regard, Claibon, a designer of the Navy design department, wrote in his private diary:

“On November 19, 1914, sunny

In addition to the modification of the German battle patrol, the Markensen-class battle patrol, Strasbourg-class (formerly Konnisburg-class) and Cologne-class light patrol design work, and the follow-up sketches of several destroyers and submarines. In 1914, the Empire assigned many design tasks to the Navy Design Office.

In order to speed up the construction period, we used old boilers and steam engines on the German battle patrol, which greatly reduced the German modification period. It is expected that by the end of this year, the former Greek Salamis, the new German battle patrol will be launched; the Markensen-class battle patrol design mission is also about to be completed, which is a new war patrol costing 2.89 million pounds, with a standard displacement of more than 35,000 tons, a maximum speed of 27.3 knots, 4 seats dual-mounted 380 main guns and 350 mm main waterline with defensive armor, make it the most powerful warship ever made in Germany; the Strasbourg-class light patrol design mission has been completed. In order to commemorate the Strasbourg light patrol that sank in the Battle of Helgolan Bay, we decided to make this standard displacement of 5,440 tons, a maximum speed of 27.5 knots, and has 8 skls.

The 50 150 mm main gun, the light cruiser with excellent performance is named Strasbourg class. As for the improved Cologne class of Strasbourg-class light cruiser, its shipbuilding funding will not be allocated next year, and the time is still abundant.

In November of the war, the design department, which had always been a heavy task, was relaxed. The leisure after the war made me feel uncomfortable. Because my newborn young son Klose was too noisy at night, I sat in front of the design table with a cup of coffee in the morning and was drowsy. At this moment, the office door was blown open. The new Chief of the Navy General General Hugo Von Schell, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Ocean Fleet General Reinhard Schell, and Deputy Commander General Franz Von Hippel led a young man in a fierce manner.

I looked closely and found that the young man was not a good man, but Lieutenant General Heidi Silaime, who was afraid of the enemy and hated him to the core.

In 1897, Silame proposed "On Asymmetrical Warfare in the Age of Battleships". The paper mentioned the design of all-heavy artillery, perfect cruiser, watertight capsule, and key protection concepts, as well as the new tactics of submarines, airships, and aircraft. Silame's insights were too advanced and were criticized by the top naval leaders as an outstanding science fiction novel, but his paper impressed the naval iron-fisted figure, Tirpitz, who strictly ordered the naval design department to track these technologies. Judging from the naval arms race, Silame's contribution is not an exaggeration, but these too wonderful theories are not a blessing for the naval design department. I still remember countless hard discussions, red eyes, broken pen tips, abandoned sketches stacked like mountains, and more white hairs of designers.

On November 19, Silame broke into the Navy Design Office roughly. I don’t know how many designers were trembling and their souls were crying.

"My German needs to be remodeled. Don't fool me with the construction period and old boilers. I know that the German has left a lot of room for modification, and its maximum speed must exceed 26.5 knots!" The first request of the devil Silme gave everyone a sigh of relief. The surplus funds in 1914 and the upcoming allocation of funds in 1915 made the Admiralty, which had always been reserved, instantly became a rich man. This is no secret. Replacing the boiler and steam engine did not make the German design drawings much.

"Marchinson-level battle patrol design mission must be completed before the end of November. I need it to appear on the ship platform of the Brom-Foss Shipyard before the end of the year!" The second requirement of the devil Silme was not outrageous, because the design drawings of the Markinson-level battle patrol have basically been completed, and only a little finishing work is left.

"Finally, the Ocean Fleet needs a battleship that is more powerful than the Bavarian class!" The devil's third request made all designers feel inexplicably shocked.

"General, how much budget do we have?" Designer Brooklyn tried to use funding questions to vague Lieutenant General Silame's crazy whimsical ideas.

"At least 5 million pounds!" The devil Silem expressed his expressionless face, stretched out a finger and lifted his weight lightly, adding: "Of course, I mean the cost of a single ship!"

5 million pounds! Including inflation and other factors, that is the 110 million Empire Mark! It should be noted that the Deflinger-level battle tournament, which was denounced by the Army to spend money, is only 2.77 million pounds! Everyone's breathing is heavy, and I even heard Brooklyn swallowing saliva.

Designing a perfect warship is the ultimate dream of every designer, but reality can never bear the dream. The tight naval funding and the harsh ocean fleet have forced naval designers to make heartbroken choices between speed, range, defense and firepower, and designed conservatively criticized German warships with short legs and slow speeds.

Now, the £5 million single ship cost is enough to make every designer change his words to the devil Silem, and even I secretly decided to call him the undefeated Ares!

"Are there any... what are the requirements?" Brooklyn trembled, holding the corner of his desk, trembling lips and said with all his strength: "For example, tonnage, firepower, speed, cost and endurance?"

"Gentlemen, the sky will be its limit!" Devil Sileme, oh no, the undefeated Ares returned with a calm expression on his face.

After waiting for a number of naval tycoons to leave, the designers were excited and a super-dreadnought that was designated as a Saxon-class by the Navy's design department was put on the agenda.

Of course, I was not dizzy by the money spent by the Admiralty. I still have many doubts, such as how did the Admiralty convince the Supreme Military Command to agree to build the ultimate battleship instead of a more powerful battleship than the Markensen-class? Can we complete these two super-dreadnought projects in short supply? If not, wouldn’t that be the biggest waste of resources?”
Chapter completed!