My Italy

Venice is a famous city in northern Italy, but its economic development has obviously lagged behind the three northern cities in recent years. (Those who have good intentions refer to Turin, Milan and Genoa as the three most prosperous big cities in the north)

In fact, Venice is developing well. The light industry is famous for the production of jewelry, jade crafts, lace, embroidery, etc., while the heavy industry is famous for chemistry, coking, fertilizers, steel, etc.

However, although Venice is developing well, its development speed is not fast enough compared with the three northern cities, so in these years, Venice has gradually fallen behind (the Doge of Venice is not allowed to be hanged).

Of course, no matter how behind it is, Venice's shipbuilding industry still has a high status in Italy. Because the Venice Naval Shipyard is still the most technologically advanced shipyard in Italy and one of the navy's main ship suppliers.

For example, the Venice Naval Shipyard is very busy right now. Three Garibaldi-class ships are being built in three docks and are being built overtime. In addition, there are still two patrol ships sold to the United States that need to be completed. In addition, the Venice Shipyard is also building other warships for the navy. In addition to warships, the Venice Shipyard also undertakes the construction of civilian ships. Taking advantage of the Italian shipbuilding industry's trend of undertaking civilian ships, the Venice Naval Shipyard is not bad at all and has received many orders for commercial ships.

This kind of piling up orders has made the Venice Shipyard extremely busy.

Of course, the busyness of the Venice Shipyard is not important to Vittorio Cuniberti, the shipyard’s chief ship designer. Sorry, I should add the chief ship designer of the navy. Since Vittorio Cuniberti is so good, the Italian Navy is worried that someone will poach its treasure, so it has set up such a very bluffing title. For this person On a talented designer. (What are you looking at? I’m talking about you, Wilhelm II and General Tirpitz.)

After Cuniberti obtained the title of Chief Designer of the Navy, apart from a larger office, there were not many benefits to speak of. It's not without its benefits. For example, now, Cuniberti is taking advantage of the benefits to create his own designs.

"New battleships need to consider new types of artillery. The 305 mm 45-times rapid-fire naval gun currently under development should meet the battleship's war needs."

Cuniberti wrote here and added that perhaps a new cruiser in the future will also need to use a 305mm main gun. The reason why Cuniberti added this sentence was the Spanish-American War last year.

Although the Garibaldi-class patrols performed perfectly in this war, Cuniberti noticed that the two Garibaldi-class patrols did not perform well in the pursuit. Because they encountered the retreating USS Massachusetts battleship, the two cruisers were overjoyed and wanted to take the opportunity to shoot down the drowned dog and eliminate each other.

Unfortunately, even after the two cruise ships fired the remaining 254mm main gun shells, they could not sink the Massachusetts. On the contrary, the Columbus suffered a 330mm artillery shell from the opponent, causing medium damage.

Faced with this result, Cuniberti considered continuing to increase the caliber of the cruise ship so that it could carry the same caliber as the battleship. However, there is also a worry in doing so, that is, after installing the firepower of a patrol-carrying battleship, what is the difference between it and a battleship. Moreover, this will also cause the armored cruiser to be more expensive than the battleship, which will make the armored cruiser a very expensive type of battleship. Has this changed the original intention of the armored cruiser?

You must know that the armored cruiser originally appeared to solve the problem of cash-strapped countries. They wanted both armored ships for decisive battles and cruisers that could carry out raids. In addition, they did not have enough money to purchase these two warships at the same time. As a result, this kind of battleship has developed to the point where it has become a type of battleship that is more expensive than a battleship. Is this still worth it?

Cuniberti has no answer to this question, and I believe that the navies of various countries have not agreed.

However, although I don't know the answer to this question, it still does not affect Cuniberti's design of the battleship.

"Should the warship adopt a twin-mounted four-turret design with two in the front and two in the back considering accuracy, or a triple-mounted layout with two in the front and one in the back that considers firepower projection?"

Don't be surprised, Italy has developed a triple artillery. The Italian Navy has always attached great importance to the issue of artillery mounting, and the triple mounting developed by Italy is actually very simple. That is, the two main guns on the left and right fire first, while the main gun in the middle will delay firing for half a second. .

Such a design can reduce the recoil of the triple unit and reduce the pressure on the battleship. Of course, the accuracy of firing in half a second this night is not as good as that of a two-unit. But with one more main gun, its shell delivery will be half that of a two-gun unit. Few navies can resist this temptation.

As for why it is a three-unit installation instead of a four-unit installation, it is very simple. The four-unit shell dispersion rate is too high and will widen the width of the battleship, which is not conducive to the high-speed travel of the battleship.

Of course, some people must want to ask, since in order to pursue the throwing volume, why not use four triple installations, two in the front and two in the back? 12 main guns, now there is enough throwing volume.

This question shows your level of proficiency. Those who don’t know enough about battleship design may actually be asked.

With four triple mounts and 12 main guns, the recoil during salvo firing has been considered, and whether the battleship's structure can withstand it.

Yes, if you want to install 12 main guns, you must strengthen the structure of the battleship, and you must also consider the anti-sinkability of the battleship, as well as other issues. The ensuing problems represent the displacement of the battleship. of growing upward. The increase in shipbuilding costs will definitely be higher than the increase in firepower.

It can be summed up in one sentence that is impractical, at least not in this day and age.

In fact, warship designers from various countries are like chefs. They need to go to the vegetable market to select ingredients and make the most delicious dishes. In addition, all cooks can enter this wet market, so there is not much difference in the ingredients. This requires considering the chefs' skills and selection of ingredients. (In the current era, countries can purchase various equipment, even hostile countries. Krupp sold artillery self-tensioning technology to the Allies, and the British Empire sold steam turbines to Germany, which are all examples of this era)

Excellent designers must not only consider the performance of the battleship, but also need to consider coming up with the best products within the specified budget. The kind of designer who piles up various excellent performance indicators on a battleship without considering the construction cost will not be recognized at all.

Of course, this has to exclude some talented designers. Although they do not necessarily have to comply with the shipbuilding budget, they can definitely come up with warships with the best performance indicators within the budget. Being able to achieve the best design in terms of budget and performance is the difference between genius and ordinary designers.

"Let's leave this issue aside for now. We will make modifications later based on the needs of the Navy Department."

Cuniberti is still undecided, so let’s keep it like this for now.

"The firepower of warships can be unified to provide sufficient hit rate, but it must be considered that the opponent's warships also have the same shooting method. Therefore, in the future, after the accuracy of firepower of warships from various countries is effectively improved, their anti-attack capabilities must also be fully improved. Consideration. So can the design of full armor protection be realized? ”

Cuniberti considered the issue of battleship protection. Yes, a battleship has three major indicators: firepower, protection, and speed. Protection is a very important thing, which is related to the survivability of the warship on the battlefield. At present, no battleships from various countries, including Italy, have considered equipping battleships with fully protective armor.

On the one hand, the full protective armor is too heavy, requiring the battleship to have more horsepower to maintain sufficient speed. I don’t need to mention the importance of this speed. For battleships that are not fast enough, just look at the performance of American battleships in the Spanish-American War, it is enough to explain everything.

On the other hand, there is the price. In order to take into account the increased displacement of the battleship due to full protection, more boilers and larger reciprocating steam engines were added to increase the speed. Isn’t this the case of adding more water to the surface, and adding more water to the surface?

Can this increased cost demonstrate combat effectiveness consistent with the increased cost?

Well, it’s still the same question, is it worth it. In the past, such an approach was not worthwhile, because countries generally only had four first-level main guns, and the penetration depth of the main gun shells was not high, so full protection was not needed at all, and only the most important anti-sinking function of the ship was needed. Just think of a solution in terms of performance. This is why battleships from various countries have only three meters of armor installed above the waterline.

This is enough. There is no need to install so much armor, increase the displacement, and increase its cost. You must know that armor is very expensive, with a price of up to 200 pounds per ton, so all countries need to consider the use of armor.

(This price is jointly customized by two major armor steel manufacturers, Harvey from the United States and Krupp from Germany. In the face of these two major armor steel manufacturers, we can only say that in addition to Italy’s own warships, other warships sold to the outside world Armor steel must be purchased from them. Yes, except for Italy’s own use, Italy cannot interfere with the armor steel. This is also the harsh condition that Italy must accept to obtain Krupp armor steel technology.)

As for why we need to consider full protection now, it has to do with the contribution of rapid-fire cannons and shooting instruments. Warships that were not easy to be hit in the first place are now much more likely to be hit by artillery shells. At this time, if we continue to use the original protection method near the waterline design, then it will definitely be sieved. Although this does not necessarily require sinking the opponent, setting fire and washing the deck can still be done.

Facing new problems under the new situation, fully protective armor is inevitable on future battleships, and Cuniberti needs to take precautions.

"In terms of armor, if it needs to resist its own 305mm main gun 45 times, then the armor thickness needs to be 280mm."

This is the armor Cuniberti calculated after knowing the performance of the newly developed 305mm main gun. And it goes without saying that the command tower, turret, core engine room, ammunition depot, and main armor all need such thick armor protection.

"In addition, the main deck adopts a dome shape and can be installed with a three-layer armor design, 15 mm, 45 mm, and 15 mm, for a total of 75 mm of protection, which is enough to withstand shrapnel attacks."

Cuniberti is considering the issue of deck armor. The deck is equipped with three layers of armor, which is beneficial to the threat of long-range artillery shells at oblique angles.

Because with the development of the times, the distance of battles at sea will become farther and farther. In the past ten years, the battle distance of warships has been pushed from 3,000 meters to 5,000 meters. In the future, as the accuracy increases, the distance of battles will increase to 7,000 meters and 10,000 meters. Meters are not impossible. At this time, you need to consider that the cannonball strikes at a parabolic angle.

"Now that the ship has new firepower and sufficient protection, it cannot lag behind in terms of speed. A speed of more than 20 knots is very critical for new warships."

Cuniberti wrote this, and then continued writing after thinking for a while. "Then the new battleship needs at least 24,000 horsepower to propel it. This new battleship can maintain the ability to sail at high speed."

But here he couldn't help but want to revise it. Because the reciprocating steam engines currently used in warships can provide the highest speed for a short time. Exceeding this time will be fatal to the reliability and lifespan of the complex reciprocating steam engine. At the same time, the main shaft will overheat and the engine will be overloaded. Even the most experienced engine soldiers will be unable to do anything in the face of these failures.

But he thought of another possibility, which was to use steam turbines as a new power source. Cuniberti knew the steam turbine because King Carlo had always been obsessed with it.

Another thing that is very embarrassing for the Italian Navy is that last year, Mr. Parsons, the inventor of the British steam turbine, used a 10,000-horsepower Parsons steam turbine on the 300-ton torpedo destroyer Viper. reached an astonishing speed of 37 knots. And this speed lasted for more than ten hours, which is really shocking.

In addition, Cuniberti also knew that the Navy was purchasing technology from Mr. Parsons. According to his understanding, the two parties had almost reached an agreement on the technology purchase of steam turbines, and the Navy had paid a considerable fee. The technology has since been purchased from Mr Parsons.

Of course, in order to avoid embarrassing the Admiralty and His Majesty, this matter was done in secret, and Cuniberti only found out about it by chance.

"In addition, considering the research on oil-fired boilers currently promoted by the Ministry of Navy, the choice of fuel for new warships in the future needs to be taken into consideration. If this is the case, then the place for storing fuel cannot be selected on both sides of the ship. side cabin, but need to choose somewhere else.”

Cuniberti was making choices and calculations, and finally he came up with a work that was not yet complete. The new battleship was 160-170 meters long, 25.5-26.3 meters wide, and had a displacement of 18,000 tons-19,000 tons. tons, equipped with 8 (2 × 4 front, two at the back layout) 305 mm main guns with 45 times magnification, or 9 (3 × 3 layout with two at the front and one at the rear) 305 mm main guns with 45 times magnification.

In addition, in view of the excellent performance of the Garibaldi class, it is equipped with 18 twin 105 mm 50-fold guns on the secondary battery, which are mainly used to deal with small and lethal warships such as destroyers and torpedo boats.

In terms of power, 18 oil-fired boilers and two steam turbines are installed, providing 24,000 horsepower. Promote the warship's top speed to more than 20 knots.

In addition, in terms of armor, the maximum thickness is 280 mm on the side, 75 mm on the deck, 280 mm on the gun mount, 280 mm on the front of the turret, and 280 mm on the command tower. The armor of the new warship can reach at least 6,000 tons. This is also a historical breakthrough. .

Finally, after finishing writing, Cuniberti waved his aching arm and closed the notebook in which he recorded. In the notebook, Cuniboti wrote a few letters in a flash, the battleship design plan for the new era.