Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 806 Metropolis-class battleship

  Early May 1901

It was a sunny day, the blue Sydney Bay was calm, the sky was hovering with flocks of white seagulls, and the Sydney Bay Bridge across the strait in the distance was like a rainbow, connecting Beilun and Sydney on the Kangsby Plateau. Metropolis.

  After 9 years of arduous construction, more than two years of pavement paving, signal lights, and cable tram track placement, the majestic Sydney Bay Bridge was finally completed and passed and became a landmark building across the strait.

  After the Sydney Bay Bridge was completed and opened to traffic, it was widely reported by mainstream newspapers such as the World Journal, The Times, and the New York Times. The newspapers issued majestic pictures of the Bay Bridge and were hailed as the “eighth wonder of the world”.

  Beilun and Sydney are two Australian twin cities, so they are famous at home and abroad.

  Beilun Port

   On the wide reinforced concrete pier, many empire’s blue, yellow and red tricolor flags are flying, hunting and fluttering in the wind.

  The blue at the bottom means that the Ocean Kingdom is built on the vast ocean. The yellow in the middle is the color of the earth and the skin color of the mainstream ethnic group Tang, representing the backbone of the empire.

  The red at the top is the color of enthusiasm. It is also the color that inherits the blood of hunting and hunting in the ancient Han and Tang dynasties. It symbolizes the backbone of the empire's steel, which will last forever in blood and fire.

  There are countless large and small cargo ships in Beilun Port, showing the ocean empire's strong ocean transportation power. The number of large ocean-going fleets ranks third in the world after the United Kingdom and the United States. Maintaining maritime rights is the lifeblood of the empire.

  There is a huge steel ship with a full flag berthing at the dock. This is the eighth of the Metropolitan-class battleship and the last battleship "Qingdao" with a displacement of 16,255 tons. It is preparing for the naval entry ceremony.

So far, the eight main battleships of the Imperial Navy are the "Red River Valley", "Brisbane", "Songjiang", "Melbourne", "Beilun", "Tianquan", and "Samarinda". The number and the "Qingdao" number are all in place.

from now on

These 8 cutting-edge battleships will assume the responsibility of the Royal Navy to maintain national security. The azure ocean is their battlefield, from the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii in the east, the East Sea near the Kingdom of Ryukyu in the north, and the Arabian Sea in the Horn of Africa in the west. The Indian Ocean is a vast ocean patrolled by the Royal Navy.

The Metropolis-class battleship plan lasted for more than 6 years. The first two "Red River Valley" and "Brisbane" are the first type with a displacement of more than 13,600 tons. The bulletproof armor belt is made of British Harvey steel and equipped with three blue weapons. The wedge-type twin-mounted 40-times diameter 305mm main ship gun developed and produced by the company uses a new type of yellow ammunition package.

The level of this class of battleship is on the same level as that of the battleship "Shikishima", which was started by the Fusang Kingdom on March 29, 1897 at the Thames Iron Works in the United Kingdom. It also uses the British Harvey armored steel, and the thickness of the armor is not much different. , The latter's defense is slightly stronger than the former.

  However, the battleship "Shikishima" of the Kingdom of Fuso is equipped with a 305mm twin-mounted naval gun of the British Armstrong Company. There are four guns in total, one on the bow and one on the stern. The gun firepower of the main ship is inferior to that of the "Red River Valley".

  "Shikishima" battleship is equipped with 14 152mm secondary guns, and "Red River Valley" is equipped with ten 152mm secondary guns. The battleship "Shikishima" wins in the firepower of the secondary artillery.

Similar to the "Red River Valley" battleship, there are also the German High Seas Fleet Type II former dreadnought battleship, which are five "Wittersbach" class battleships and the later launched "Braunschweig" class battleships. 5 ships.

  As of 1901, the German High Seas Fleet has built a large fleet consisting of 19 battleships, 8 shore defense armored ships, 12 heavy cruisers and 30 light cruisers.

  In terms of battleships, there are 4 Saxon-class battleships, "Oldenburg"-class armored ships, 4 Brandenburg-class battleships, 5 New Great-class battleships, and 5 Wittesbach-class battleships.

at the same time

  Five Deutsche-class battleships are being built on the German berth, which will further expand the size of the German High Seas Fleet and put greater pressure on the Royal Navy.

  In German shipyards, the scale of armored cruisers was increased to 14, the light cruisers to 28, and torpedo boats increased to 96.

  In order to realize the maritime dream of the German Empire, all German shipyards are working hard, working overtime day and night to build the high seas fleet, and rendering the atmosphere of fear to the entire European continent.

  The maritime arms race over the English Channel is overcast. British and German shipyards are building warships at full capacity. In fact, the arms race is in full swing and is unfolding fiercely.

The maritime arms race between Britain and Germany has made the situation on the European continent even more tense. The traditional naval powers of France and Italy, for their own geostrategic interests, had to drive ducks to the shelves and participate in this round of navy. In the shipbuilding boom.

  After the dawn of the 20th century

  The whole world ushered in a new round of warship building boom. Needless to say, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Austria, Fusang, Tsarist Russia and even the distant North American continent and Australia are all involved in this round of arms race.

  The Metropolitan-class battleships of the Ocean Empire expanded from the two originally planned battleships to four of the two types, and then added to six, until the last eight battleships are the direct products of the international situation.

  The initiator of this round of arms race in the early 20th century has to mention Kaiser Wilhelm II and his fanatical follower Admiral Tirpitz.

  In 1888, the German emperor Wilhelm II of British descent came to the throne. William was very keen on the sea in his youth, and even personally sailed out and hand-painted battleship sketches.

  He admired Britain’s supremacy in the oceans and was deeply influenced by Mahan’s thoughts on sea power. He believed that only by developing overseas could he be among the world’s powers. After he assumed the throne, he made the establishment of a powerful navy an important goal.

  The fanatical follower who helped fuel the flames was Admiral Tirbitz, who served as chief of staff of the Navy in 1892. He staged a two-person turn that affected the nerves of the world.

After Tilbitz became Minister of the Navy in June 1897, he persuaded the government to establish a battle fleet with Britain as an imaginary enemy to ensure Germany's overseas interests and increase its international influence.

  According to the construction plan of the German Empire High Seas Fleet;

  As of 1915 at the latest, the German Navy should have 41 battleships, 20 battlecruisers, and 40 light cruisers. The service life of large ships is reduced to 20 years in order to maintain strong combat effectiveness.

  Germany’s ambition to challenge the British Royal Navy’s world hegemony made London extremely vigilant and launched the “double strategy” tit-for-tat, which has evolved into the most important contradiction in the world today.

  As a member of the Commonwealth, the Ocean Empire stood firmly by London in the Second South Africa Angbo War. Prime Minister Fan Zhongzhai’s visit to London has brought closer bilateral relations and is considered to be one of the reliable allies.

  Under the current international situation

  London asked the Ocean Empire to make greater contributions. Canada was assigned to build 4 armored cruisers, even the small New Zealand, requiring at least a few destroyers to be built.

  As for the most powerful Ocean Empire, London requires at least four more battleships to be built, and six better, to share the pressure of the Royal Navy of the British Empire in the current arms race.

  London’s pressure is not too big, you can figure it out with your fingers.

  The German High Seas Fleet plans to complete a super-large shipbuilding plan of 41 battleships and 20 battlecruisers by 1915.

  According to the tit-for-tat "double strategy" of the Royal Navy, it is necessary to complete more than 120 main battleships. Even with the wealth of Britain, it feels very difficult.

The division between battleships and battlecruisers in today’s world is very vague. According to German standards, heavy cruisers had a displacement of about 5,000 to 6,000 tons 10 years ago. With the development of science and technology in the current era, this has become an old calendar. The displacement of the battlecruiser has exceeded 10,000 tons.

In 1897, the German heavy cruiser "Bismarck Grand Duke" was underwater at the Kiel Royal Shipyard. It had a displacement of 10,690 tons and a length of 127 meters. It was armed with 4 main 240 mm guns, 12 150 mm guns, and 10 88 mm rapid-fire guns. Door and 3 torpedo tubes. The main engine is 3 steam engines, dual chimneys, and a speed of 18.7 knots.

  This class of ships can be classified as a battlecruiser category.

  After entering the 20th century, the size and armament of battlecruisers tended to increase rapidly.

According to the high seas fleet construction plan, the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" contracted by the German B&V have a displacement of 11,616 tons, a speed of 23.5 knots, and 8 210mm main guns, 6 150mm, 16 88mm secondary guns and 4 torpedo tubes.

  Following these two types of ships

The battlecruiser "Blucher" planned to be built by the Royal Shipyard in Kiel, Germany, has a displacement of 15842 tons, a length of 161.8 meters, a speed of close to 26 knots, and a armament of 10 210mm main guns. The configuration is completely comparable. Nassau-class battleship.

  Such a powerful battlecruiser, except for its main gun firepower, which is slightly inferior, in terms of speed, armor and displacement, there is almost no difference from the main battleship, and the cost is equally expensive.

  Faced with the aggressive trend of the German High Seas Fleet, the Royal Fleet of the British Empire is gritting its teeth and building ships frantically.

do not forget

  The Boers in southern Africa are continuing to bleed the British Empire. The war has been going on for more than two years, costing a huge military expenditure of 150 million pounds, and the signs of ending the war have yet to be seen.

  The commander of the South African Expeditionary Force, Lord Roberts, left Pretoria on November 29, 1900 and returned home to take over the post of commander-in-chief of the British army.

  He gave the command of the South African army to Lord Kitchenner, and Lord Ian Hamilton took over as the chief of staff, leading more than 400,000 British expeditionary forces to encircle and suppress the Boer guerrillas in an effort to annihilate them.

  The Boer army that had withdrawn from the city had been broken into pieces at this time, forming a number of guerrillas, carrying out flexible and maneuvering strikes, continuing to be active in various battlefields in southern Africa, and igniting flames everywhere.

  In the winter campaign that began in April 1901, the Burundian guerrillas launched several surprise attacks on the British forces in Transvaal and Orange and succeeded repeatedly, capturing large amounts of arms, supplies, and artillery.

Burr generals Smulzi and Herzog once again led a thousand-mile attack and entered the British rear of the Cape colony to fight. The five thousand cavalry was divided into small groups of guerrillas and advanced to the Atlantic coast and the outskirts of Cape Town, forcing Britain declared martial law in the Cape area, greatly losing face.

  This time, Britain lost its adults in front of the whole world, and even the small Boers could not handle it. This allowed other European and American powers to see the weakness of Britain and the glorious Victorian era, which dimmed with the death of a generation of heroes.

The British suffered greatly in South Africa, and the happiest one was Kaiser Wilhelm II. When he was on vacation at Oppenheimer Palace outside of Berlin, he wore the uniform of the Royal Navy Marshal and ate his favorite plum pies, triumphant. Said

   "Look, the British got bloodshed at the Boer peasants. How does this poor performance compare with the mighty German Empire army?"

  Facing the challenge of the German High Seas Fleet is a headache for the Royal Navy.

  For the Ocean Empire, what is most concerned about is the latest developments of Fuso Kingdom’s Shikishima-class battleships.

  So far

The three ships "Shikishima", "Hatsuse" and "Asahi" of the "Shikishima" class battleship have returned to the Fuso Islands and officially joined the combined fleet.

The last "Mikasa" was built on January 24, 1899 at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard of Vickers, UK, and was launched on November 8, 1900. It has been outfitted and is under trial sailing and will return soon. Homeland, join the combined fleet sequence.

The six or six fleets in the Fuso plan with six battleships and six armored cruisers as the core, namely the battleships Fuji, Yashima, Shikishima, Hatsose, Asahi, Mikasa, and armored cruiser Yakumo, have all returned to their positions. Started intense high-intensity training, hoping to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

In terms of the technological level of battleships, the "Mikasa" is higher than the previous three battleships. Its bulletproof armor belt adopts the super-hard alloy carburized steel technology of German Krupp. Under the same weight, its defense force is 30% stronger than that of British Harvey steel. , And adopt the dome armor technology to further strengthen the defense.

in this regard

The "Mikasa" battleship is the same as the six 16200-ton "Metropolis" II battleships after the Ocean Empire. The construction of these six subsequent battleships also adopted the super-hard alloy carburized steel technology imported from the German Krupp company. This is the technology that was originally exchanged with the "Wild Wolf" light tank drawings. It was manufactured by the Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant and has a defense force that is 30% stronger than the British Harvey Steel.

In terms of combat effectiveness, these 6 Metropolis II battleships of the Ocean Empire rank among the top in the world in terms of firepower, defensive power and speed. One amidships and a stern have more powerful firepower.

Compared with the 40-caliber 305mm main ship gun equipped on the "Red River Valley" battleship, the 44-caliber main ship gun independently developed by Azure Weapon Company has a range increased from 14,200 meters to 16,800 meters, and the weight of a single ammunition has increased from 386 kg increased to 422 kg, the power increased by 1/4.

  The ship is powered by three oil-fired boiler steam turbines, which can drive the warship to a speed of 22 knots, which is higher than the maximum speed of the "Mikasa" of 18 knots.

The most commendable is the unmatched defensive power of the "Metropolis" II battleship. pimple."

  (End of this chapter)