My Italy

"charge!"

The Italian officer wearing the rank of captain roared and led his soldiers towards the forward position.

"Push them back."

On the other side of the position, the defending German officers and soldiers, led by their officers, were also desperately resisting relying on the incomplete fortifications. This is not an isolated case. We expand our perspective to a larger area. The Italian army is launching a fierce attack on the defending German army. However, after all, the defenders had the better terrain advantage, and the Italian army's onslaught was slowly pushed back.

Farther away, a group of people wearing military uniforms from both countries were watching the performances of the two sides. Of course, among these star-studded generals, two figures who looked too young were surrounded.

"William, your country's army is quite elite, but our army is indeed not yet ready."

Carlo put down the high-powered telescope in front of him and commented to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was also observing the exercise.

Faced with Carlo's comments, the generals on the Italian side blushed. Although they also knew that their army was indeed somewhat different from the German army, how could they remain indifferent when the monarch pointed it out so ruthlessly.

As the party being evaluated, the German generals were also somewhat proud after being evaluated by a country's monarch. After all, the Italian king rarely evaluated foreign armies.

Faced with Carlo's comments, Wilhelm II, as the Kaiser, said after leaving the high-powered telescope. "We have all seen the progress of your army. I believe that your army will perform even better before long."

Well, Emperor William can do business with each other. Of course, the performance of the Italian Army has improved a lot. In recent years, Italy no longer sends its most elite Guards, but instead sends troops with average ratings in the army.

Of course, because of this change in the army, Italy has performed poorly in military exercises between Germany and Italy in recent years. But this performance of the Army, including Carlo, can be seen in its efforts to change. Instead of trying to cover up your shortcomings, you should try to identify problems and rectify them.

However, in this army exercise, there were a few people who seemed a bit conspicuous. No way, among a group of army generals, several navy generals do feel a little strange.

Of course, two of these naval generals look a little different, because anyone who knows them will be surprised. These two leaders of the German and Italian navies are having a debate that has nothing to do with the exercise.

"Rear Admiral Tirpitz, I do not agree with your views. The navy is an offensive service. Although it can preserve its strength by staying in the port, it will lose strategic initiative. This will also lead to the disadvantage in the contest with the enemy. If you are at a disadvantage, the difficulty of regaining the strategic initiative will increase exponentially.”

Admiral Yagier, the Italian Navy Minister, is refuting Rear Admiral Tirpitz's remarks.

Although one of them is a rear admiral and the other an admiral, they both have similar statuses and are both heads of the navy of various countries. Therefore, the conversation between the two can also be seen as the development policies of the two navies.

"Admiral Yagir, I can only partially agree with your point of view. The navy is indeed an offensive service. Since the British Nelson Spirit was proposed, navies of all countries have been learning from its concepts. But I think that the navy cannot only have an offensive concept. Among them The actual situation also needs to be considered. For example, the total tonnage of our navy is only 300,000, and the enemy who has declared war on our country has a total naval tonnage of 700,000. In this case, it is very difficult for the navy to preserve its strength and rely on coastal defenses to resist enemy harassment. Reasonable.”

Well, at this time Rear Admiral Tirpitz's fleet theory has not yet taken shape, but it has begun to take shape. When it is at a disadvantage, its idea of ​​​​preserving the strength of the fleet can already be seen.

However, after communicating with Admiral Yagier, his idea obviously failed to be recognized by his Italian counterparts.

Even after Major General Tirpitz explained, Admiral Yagir still did not agree.

Of course, the concepts between the two are different, and there are also reasons for national defense needs.

For example, the German navy has a short coastline due to its geographical location, so the theory of fleet preservation has a basis. Your own fleet is weak. In order to contain your opponent, you need to avoid fighting with it and allow the enemy to use more naval tonnage on your own fleet to avoid the enemy navy from harassing your country's coast.

However, this theory may be suitable for Germany, but it is definitely not suitable for Italy. Italy's land is like a boot stretching towards the Mediterranean Sea, which also results in its long coastline. If Italy adopts the idea of ​​​​defending ships, it will cost Italy too much to build coastal defense fortifications, which Italy cannot afford. defense main battery).

In view of the high cost of building forts, Italy took another path, that is, except for a few important port cities, the Italian Navy's funding was biased towards shipbuilding, hoping to use its own naval warships to delay the enemy.

In addition, in terms of shipbuilding concepts, compared with the German Navy, which focuses on armor protection, Italian shipbuilding focuses more on the speed of warships. From the perspective of the Italian Navy, the speed of battleships is a crucial factor. With the advantage of speed, the navy has more tactics available. Regardless of whether it is an advantage or a disadvantage, speed is the priority goal among the three elements of a battleship.

As for the German and Italian navies, perhaps it is precisely due to various differences that the two navies have different concepts.

The leaders in charge of the two navies also gradually lost their voices due to ideological reasons, which also attracted the attention of others.

"Two generals have different naval concepts, which can actually change over time. For example, after their strength exceeds that of potential opponents, can their ideas remain the same as before?"

Carlo came forward to smooth things over, and Kaiser Wilhelm naturally took over. "Carlo, you are right. The Navy also changes its philosophy according to its own changes. Of course, how to measure this also needs to be carefully considered."

Well, the words of the two monarchs immediately put an end to the dispute between the two, and of course, the more important thing was to make them remember the reason for coming here.

They did not come here to learn from the experience of army exercises, and no one had the time or leisure. It is the navies of the two countries seeking cooperation. To be fair, it is more the German navy seeking help.

Yes, although Germany has not yet come up with its first naval construction bill, the German navy is expanding. The four Brandenburg-class battleships can be regarded as the beginning of Germany's development of the navy. Although the performance of this battleship is not comparable to that of the Turin-class that created the pre-dreadnought era, it is still a good start.

After the four Brandenburg-class battleships were outdated after being built, the German Navy came up with the Caesar Friedrich III-class battleship plan. Although this class of battleships is much better than the Brandenburg class, not to mention the new Italian battleships, even the Turin class is superior. If this German battleship had any redeeming qualities, it was the large number of rapid-firing guns.

In addition, compared with the previous Frederick III-class water rapid-fire cannon (the main gun was also the largest caliber rapid-fire gun at the time, 240 mm), the current Frederick III-class has four main guns with a caliber of 350 mm. gun. This was also affected by the naval battle between China, Italy and Japan in Sino-Japanese War. Large-caliber main guns still have enough deterrence, so Germany is also taking the path of ensuring caliber.

This time, Kaiser Wilhelm II personally invited Carlo. Naturally, he was still dissatisfied with his own naval warships and wanted to learn from the experienced Italian Navy.

As for the naval cooperation that Germany is seeking, Carlo certainly has his own ideas, but how to cooperate will have to wait until he talks about it.