Chapter 962 Tirpitz
February 1899, Port of Pemba.
In Pemba Port, a group of German naval personnel are communicating with East African naval personnel. They are not very interested in East African warships, but come for East African submarines.
The team was led by German Navy Minister Tirpitz. German Navy Minister Tirpitz's visit to the East African Navy was originally to strengthen cooperation between the two navies. The most important thing is to hope that East Africa can open some ports. Or the colony served as a daily training or foothold for the German navy.
However, Tirpitz in Bagamoyo City learned about the existence of East African submarines from a German businessman, so he made an impromptu trip to Pemba Port to inspect East African submarines.
After obtaining the consent of the East African navy and government, Tirpitz and his party arrived at the southern port of Pemba, which is currently the only home port of the East African submarine force.
Of course, the main reason why East Africa is willing to sell Tirpitz is because of his special status. Otherwise, as the strategic weapon that Ernst likes, it would be impossible to demonstrate it to these outsiders.
Tirpitz, whose full name is Alfred von Tirpitz, was appointed Imperial Navy Minister by Wilhelm II in 1897. He was the father of the German Ocean Navy in his previous life. He once said "No With a powerful navy, Germany’s role in the world is like a mollusk without a shell.”
There is no doubt that Tirpitz was one of the main executors of Wilhelm II’s great naval plan, and now this former Germany. The founder of the Oceanic Navy visited East Africa for the first time after leading the development of the German navy.
It is not surprising that Tirpitz looks at East Africa. As one of the world's naval powers, the East African Navy itself has a certain value in winning over, not to mention that the East African Navy has advantages that the German Navy does not have. , that is the relatively abundant overseas bases and the advantageous geographical location of the East African Navy.
East Africa faces two oceans, especially the Indian Ocean, which has a great deterrent effect on the Asia-Europe shipping lanes. Its strength in the Indian Ocean region is second only to the British Royal Navy.
And East Africa has many colonies in the Pacific region, which are currently lacking in the German Navy. Especially under the world policy of the Wilhelm II government, the German Navy is in an extremely embarrassing situation, even if The new warships cannot change the harsh geopolitical environment of the German Navy.
With the lack of colonies and overseas bases, the German Navy, no matter how many warships it has, can only play a role in the European continent, and cannot form a British, French Such global influence.
Just like a certain big country in the previous life, even if its naval strength reaches the second place in the world, it is impossible to go to the Baltic Sea and slap Lithuania.
Looking around the world, in the eyes of the German Navy, there is no better collaborator than East Africa. This is why Tirpitz focused on East Africa.
"The submarines of the East African Navy look very good. I personally think that the role of submarines in maritime strategy is no less important than surface ships. I just don't know the specific performance of your naval submarines?"
Seeing East African ships for the first time After that, Tirpitz became very interested, because his intuition told him that the big thing in front of him was definitely extraordinary. Just from the part floating on the water, it was estimated that the displacement should be at least hundreds of tons.
The big guys built in East Africa are obviously not used as toys, so Tirpitz initially judged that the East African submarines are likely to have strong combat capabilities.
As early as the Franco-Prussian War, Tirpitz had a keen interest in the potential power of submarines in war. After all, the Prussian navy was weak at the time, so during the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian navy could only stay in the water most of the time. Huddled in the harbor and wary of the French navy passing through the English Channel, this was very embarrassing for the Prussian navy.
Under such an aggrieved environment, Tirpitz naturally asked how the Prussian navy could deal with the powerful French navy when it was at a disadvantage. Submarines could obviously play a certain role. After all, their functions There is obviously a huge difference from surface ships.
"Our country's research and development of submarines began ten years ago. The technology is now relatively mature and uses internal combustion engines as power. Currently, there should be no other country in the world with similar submarines." Clint Manpo, Chief Inspector of the East African Submarine Fleet Said for humility.
In the previous life, Germany only developed a special diesel engine for submarines in 1913, and East Africa has greatly participated in this process. East Africa itself is at the top level in the field of internal combustion engines. Coupled with the early layout and Ernst’s attention, This allowed East Africa to take the lead in the emergence of military submarines and form the world's earliest submarine force. In fact, as early as 1720, the Russian Nikonov built the first military submarine with the support of Peter the Great. However, after the death of Peter the Great, the Russian Navy canceled all support.
In the following two hundred years, some people continued to try to break through submarine technology, but the effect was not great. The suitable power to support submarines' long-distance underwater navigation still had to wait for diesel engines, Only when technologies such as electric motors mature, and East Africa happens to be relatively strong in these fields, can East African submarines be born only when the technology matures.
“The normal depth of the Nautilus in front of us can reach about sixty or seventy meters, with a surface displacement of more than two hundred tons... It can sail long distances, but the failure rate is quite high. Previously, our submarine Crow in East Africa Just disappeared.”
The Crow was not actually equipped with the navy, but was an experimental product of the Solon Lake Submarine Research Institute. During the eighth trial, it sank into Lake Solon due to a malfunction. Due to the depth of Lake Solon, it did not Salvage it.
At present, the East African Navy only has four submarines, and the oldest one has only been in service for three years. Previously, the East African submarine has achieved an iteration. Currently, the Nautilus and three other active submarines are in service. Technically quite mature, but Klintmann did not tell the truth to Tirpitz.
Even if Germany and East Africa have a good relationship, Klintmann cannot be selfless enough to reveal the core data of East African submarines to the Germans. The numbers mentioned before are all relatively conservative, and even mixed with the previous generation of East African numbers. Data on military submarines.
Even so, Tirpitz's eyes lit up. Regardless of the technology of East African submarines, it would be amazing if they could be used in actual combat. What's more, East Africa even formed a special force for submarines.
"Colonel Clintman, if nothing else happens, your submarine should be the most advanced in the world without exaggeration."
The main reason why Tirpitz said this was that East Africa was hidden too deeply. He only knew about this situation now, so other countries might have similar projects.
In fact, the "exposure" of East African submarines is unavoidable, unless the East African submarine forces stay in Pemba Bay all day long. The depth of Pemba Bay is obviously not suitable for submarine training and operations, so it is frequently used in the Indian Ocean. An active submarine will eventually be discovered.
The German businessman who reported the news to Tirpitz was one of them. During a business trip to the port of Beira, he accidentally saw an East African submarine rising from the water on the ship.
Of course, he did not know that the submarine belonged to the East African Navy. After all, except for East Africa, no country currently has a naval submarine force.
When he met Tirpitz in Bagamoyo, he unexpectedly thought of this submarine, so he told Tirpitz the news. After all, it appeared in the offshore waters of East Africa, so this submarine Most likely from East Africa.
If ordinary people got this news, they might not take it seriously and forget about it after hearing it. But Tirpitz is not an ordinary person. His interest in submarines can be said to be unparalleled among the top naval generals in the world. .
In the previous life, Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" was its proud work, but unfortunately, even this did not change the fate of the German navy.
Of course, Tirpitz’s ideas are a bit over-the-top, because currently the only country in the world that values submarine technology is East Africa. However, this is limited to the government level. Private individuals or groups in other countries are not interested in submarine technology. There is also a lot of exploration.
(End of this chapter)