Chapter 10: The Winter of Preparation (I)

  There might be a hiatus tomorrow, I'll try my best to write as much as I can, depending on the time available...

  "Back in Kiel, I embarrassingly discovered that I had fallen in love with the salty and wet sea, the thick coal smoke and the smell of warship paint, the breath of firewood, rice, oil and salt made me feel like sitting on pins and needles..."

  Wang Haitie almost crawled back to William's port, telling General Hipper as is.

  When Wang Haitie asked for leave from the headquarters of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Scheer gave her ten days off at once. After returning from sweeping the grave in Bavaria, Wang Haitie had a mind to return to Wilhelmshaven, but Wang Haitie, who was known as "reckless" in the naval circles, was not worth mentioning at home and was even inferior to his daughter Eve, so he could only endure and cultivate his body.

  The baptism of fire and twenty years of military career transformed Wang Haitian imperceptibly, like a spring breeze. Wang Haitian suddenly discovered that he was no longer the idle otaku from his previous life. During the difficult period of convalescence, Wang Haitian went crazy, often sneaking into the Kiel Naval Academy and the Kiel Germania Shipyard.

  Under the warm invitation of Lieutenant General Stenzel, the principal of the Kiel Naval Academy, Wang Haitian reluctantly gave a few lectures and sandtable exercises for the students. As the liaison officer of the German Navy at the Kiel Shipyard, Wang Haitian had often visited the shipyard during his tenure as commander of the Heligoland Bight Defense Circle, urging the Germaniawerft to prioritize the construction of his submarines and destroyers. With his identity as a high-ranking naval officer and good relations with the Kiel Shipyard, Wang Haitian was able to move freely among the various shipyards, even receiving an invitation from the captain of the battleship Kronprinz Wilhelm, which was undergoing its final trials in Kiel Fjord, to visit the fourth King-class battleship.

  However, all this still could not calm down the brave heart of a general. At the beginning of December, Wang Haoti hurried back to Weihai Port in a flurry of dust and wind, and the feeling of being like a fish in water made the otaku who had loved peace in his previous life feel mixed emotions.

  After a series of lengthy war councils, the Naval General Staff confirmed that the High Seas Fleet had largely recovered its strength and the navies of Germany and Britain were once again in balance. The aged Hugo von Pohl cancelled plans for the High Seas Fleet to take the initiative in his office as Chief of the Admiralty Staff, waiting instead for the arrival of the new commander-in-chief, the battleship Wilhelm der Gro?e, the battlecruiser Derfflinger, and the stormy year 1915.

  But this does not mean that the North Sea can calm down, and the controversy over the Saxon-class battleship gradually evolved from a corner of the North Sea into a global storm.

  The incident originated from a Dutch newspaper, which quoted reliable intelligence from influential people that Germany had started building a super battleship codenamed "Saxony", with a single-ship cost possibly exceeding ￡5 million, standard displacement possibly surpassing the King and Bayern classes, equipped with 380mm main guns, and speed possibly reaching the level of battlecruisers.

  The news spread and the whole world was amazed at the boldness of the Germans.

  The "Turning Conference in 1914" and subsequent battle analysis meetings and naval summary meetings, Wang Haitian proposed a number of warship improvement plans for the gains and losses of the Dogger Bank Sea Battle.

  First of all, the problem with the underwater torpedo tubes. The main fleet battles usually take place at a distance of over 10,000 meters, and the equipped underwater torpedo tubes not only have no practical value but also occupy the precious space on the main fleet. This issue has been criticized for a long time, to the point where the Navy Department passed this modification proposal without holding a special debate meeting, and the William Shipyard had already started dismantling those useless underwater torpedo tubes when overhauling the main fleet of the Ocean Fleet.

  There were also those almost useless anti-submarine nets. Before the Dogger Bank Sea Battle, during the raid on the coast of England, Admiral von Hipper's raiding fleet had wrapped itself in thick anti-submarine nets to avoid British submarines and Harwich Force destroyers' desperate attacks - the demoralized Harwich Force did attack once, several destroyers desperately charging out of port, only to be instantly routed by a hail of 150mm and 88mm rapid-fire cannon fire, rendering the anti-submarine nets completely useless. When Admiral von Hipper received news that Admiral Beatty's First Battlecruiser Squadron was heading south to intercept him, he had no choice but to get rid of those expensive but cumbersome nets which affected his speed and threatened his propellers.

  The final result was the Saxons' loud trumpeting. Tirpitz rejected Admiral von Mackensen's battleship design due to insufficient resources and manpower, making the three Mackensens his top priority. To put his new naval doctrine into practice, Tirpitz proposed designing a completely new class of battleships, the Sachsen class, which Schell and Pohle eagerly accepted.

  After the news spread, American journalists who were eager to fan the flames interviewed a group of bigwigs from the German Navy Department. However, whether it was the old and gloomy naval veterans or the newly promoted generals with sharp edges, they could be contradictory within the navy, but once faced with foreign journalists, their noses pointing to the sky and their tone of voice were surprisingly consistent:

  "There is no such thing."

  The naval personnel did not lie, the Saxon-class battleship was indeed a high-performance but only on paper super battleship. This battleship was deliberately created to practice Wang Haitao's new sea power theory that politics and military are means, economy is the ultimate goal, obviously, the effect is good.

  The Americans were crying, they had just shouted out the standard battleship slogan and built two Nevada-class, two Pennsylvania-class and three New Mexico-class battleships in one breath, but unexpectedly this was already outdated technology. The cowboys hastily terminated the construction plan of the third New Mexico-class battleship, redesigned a new Tennessee-class battleship with a top speed exceeding 26 knots, planned to be commissioned before 1919, and at the same time, the famous Lexington-class battlecruiser also emerged.

  In November 1914, Japan already had one Kongo-class battlecruiser, and three more were on the slipways of Japanese shipyards. The Battle off Dogger Bank proved the value of battlecruisers, and the Japanese were jubilant, but less than a month later a cold shower poured over them, leaving the samurai drawing their swords in dismay. The Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and the Sachsen-class battleships made the Japanese aware of the gap between themselves and the European powers, and designer Fujimoto Kikuo was hastily dispatched to Britain to inspect shipbuilding.

  The Russians, as the weakest link in the chain of imperialism, were economically on the verge of bankruptcy, but their greed for the ocean was unimaginable to outsiders. In 1909, the Russians simultaneously started building four Gangut-class dreadnoughts at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, and in 1911, they simultaneously built three Imperatritsa Mariya-class dreadnoughts at the Nikolayev Shipyard on the Black Sea. After the Dutch exposed Germany's plans to build the Sachsen-class battleships, the Russians announced that they would build a class of fast battleships equipped with three triple 356mm main guns, using American steam engines and boilers, called the Imperator Nikolai I class.

  As for the Gallic rooster, in the mid-to-late 19th century, due to superstition and the "Jeune école" naval doctrine, the French, ranked second in the world, abandoned their military prowess and terminated a large number of first-class ironclad and pre-dreadnought battleship construction plans. By the time the French came to their senses, several years had passed during which the era of rapid naval technological progress had left them without a foothold. The Danton-class battleships, begun in 1909, were far inferior to contemporary German and British main force vessels. The Provence-class battleships, laid down in 1912 with 340mm main guns, used the same hull design and propulsion system as the Dantons, so this super-dreadnought did not have any technical improvements. Due to the war being fought on French soil, the once-great French Empire was financially drained, but the characteristics of a colonial power meant that they could not and dared not abandon their navy. The French managed to scrape together some funds and designed an expensive Normandie-class fast battleship, equipped with 10 x 340mm main guns, with a design speed of 25.5 knots, with plans to build four vessels.

  December 13, 1914, London, England.

  The intelligence brought back by the naval spies spread in the dimly lit office of the Minister of the Navy, and the four naval ministers were stunned. Admiral Jellicoe was speechless, Chief of Staff Frederick Sturdee frowned, while David Beatty flipped through the report over and over again until he had memorized those shocking design parameters, only then did he reluctantly hand the paper back.

  The thin, but every word of which made his heart skip a beat, intelligence report was locked in the supposedly ice-cold safe by the First Lord of the Admiralty. Winston Churchill returned to his desk, pulled out a small wooden box containing cigars, and tapped a Havana cigar into his hand.

  "I had to abandon the pride of belonging to the Royal Navy, shamefully acknowledging that the Queen Elizabeth class was not a match for Mackensen-class battlecruisers, nor were they a match for Sachsen-class battleships." After Fisher stepped down, Sir Arthur Wilson, who succeeded him as First Sea Lord, looked at Churchill with a gloomy expression and said: "Whether in terms of armor or speed, the Queen Elizabeth class and Revenge class are inferior to Germany's Mackensen. Perhaps our warships have an advantage in endurance, but in the North Sea, which lacks strategic depth, it is barely enough!"

  "Fortunately, the Germans use metric for their main gun calibers, while we use inches. We can have a one-millimeter advantage in main gun caliber over the Boches!" Winston Churchill sniffed at the cigar smoke and said with self-derision:

  "Gentlemen, the Germans have found a way to deal with our Grand Fleet. They will use their astonishing defensive strength against our battlecruisers and outrun our numerous battleships with their speed advantage. As a result, the Grand Fleet, despite its numerical superiority, will be unable to concentrate its forces and can only watch as the battlecruiser squadron is destroyed. The main fleet, having lost its scouting force, will be split up and surrounded by German fast ships, which will then destroy them one by one."

  Churchill's blunt words caused the fleet commanders present to furrow their brows unintentionally, although these professional soldiers looked down on Churchill, a civilian who didn't understand military affairs, but no one could deny that what the First Lord of the Admiralty said was true.

  The Dogger Bank battle, although the British lost a dreadnought, a new battlecruiser and an old battleship, they could still proudly declare themselves the victors: David Beatty's rashness had ruined the German ambush plan, avoiding a Trafalgar-style decisive battle, and the Grand Fleet's strength had not suffered too much damage. As time passed, the main force ships returned to the fleet after repairs, refurbishment and maintenance at the shipyard, and the two battlecruisers of the Mediterranean Fleet also sailed northwards, easily regaining the strategic advantage for the British.

  Between 1915 and 1917, five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, five Revenge-class battleships, and three Renown-class battlecruisers were commissioned, although these shipbuilding programs had exhausted the British treasury for years to come. However, the sharp blade of the naval arms race and the fat wartime profits made the pirate-like John Bulls reckless, and the Royal Navy felt that everything was going well and the future was bright.

  When the Germans started building Mackensen-class battlecruisers and Sachsen-class battleships, everyone panicked. Three battlecruisers and two battleships wouldn't have caused a stir in the complacent British Empire, but what was frightening was that the British saw an ominous sign: the Germans had shifted from simply competing in shipbuilding to taking a more sinister approach - they might not be able to outrun the British fast battlecruisers, but they must be able to outgun those thin-skinned wrecks; their main gun caliber and number might not match the Grand Fleet's, but they must be able to withstand the poor quality of British battleships' shells, and even annihilate a portion of the Grand Fleet under equal conditions.

  "That's more like it! The British Empire has never been afraid of a shipbuilding race!" Admiral Stuart, the Chief of Naval Staff, waved his hand in a powerful gesture.

  "Where does the money for building ships come from? The estimated cost of the first Queen-class battleship is ￡3 million, and the average cost of the five warships is at least ￡2.7 million; the Revenge class, although a scaled-down version of the Queen class with a displacement reduced by 500 tons, a speed of 23 knots, and a range of only 4,800 nautical miles, still requires ￡2.4 million, while the average cost of the three Renown-class battlecruisers is as high as ￡3.1 million!"

  Admiral Arthur Wilson, the First Sea Lord, banged his fist on the table, exclaiming: "The most frightening thing is that the five Queen-class and five Revenge-class battleships have already been laid down, with little room for improvement! The expensive cost of building the three Renown-class battlecruisers has already made the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Downing Street unhappy. How can we persuade Westminster Palace to build even more luxurious fast capital ships?"

  Arthur Wilson spoke emphatically, Stuart snorted coldly and turned his head away, no longer speaking. The dim office fell into a deathly silence, when the office door was pushed open.

  "Jazz, something's gone wrong! That damned American cowboy has exposed the lies of the Invincible!" Churchill's private secretary, Eddie Marsh, burst in panting, his stumbling footsteps accidentally knocking against the doorframe, and the newspaper he was holding flew out of his hand and landed flat on the carpet.

  That was a London tabloid with a front-page headline featuring the captain of the American Hadley freighter, clad in cowboy gear.

  Note

  The Palace of Westminster: The Parliament of the United Kingdom.