Chapter 964
Archduke Ferdinand and Tirpitz had a great time chatting. After all, birds of a feather flock together, and they both share many common topics in the navy.
“By using a large number of submarines to attack the enemy’s sea transportation channels, the stealth performance of submarines can perfectly achieve similar effects, and they can quietly break through closed sea areas...” Tirpitz told Fei Archduke Dinant described his prospects for submarines in future wars.
"Submarine! If it does have a certain effect according to what you said, but our submarine force discovered many problems during training, such as the inability to clearly distinguish ship types, resulting in misjudgment, but in the war At the last moment, I am afraid that no one will pay attention to international morality. In this case, submarines may play a huge role," Archduke Ferdinand said.
Archduke Ferdinand’s prediction is quite reasonable. The reason why Germany failed to achieve results in unrestricted submarine warfare in the previous life was largely due to too many “accidental injuries”.
However, it is undeniable that German submarines dealt a heavy blow to the Allies during the war and achieved results that other ship types could not achieve.
As a more traditional naval general, Archduke Ferdinand was not interested in submarines. Of course, this did not affect Ernst's emphasis on submarines. Therefore, the East African Navy submarine force was not only established, but also received vigorous support. With support, it may even become the main combat force in the East African navy in the future.
This is Ferdinand's view, but Ernst will definitely complain. Ernst attaches great importance to submarines, and there is no problem that the East African Navy's submarine force will receive the greatest support in the next few years.
But this is a special solution under the current financial constraints in East Africa. After all, battleships are too expensive. Ernst's point of view is actually a "whole-system" naval thinking. No matter battleships, submarines, or future aircraft carriers, they cannot conquer the world.
However, under Ernst's thinking of "no war in the next ten years", East Africa's current primary goal is to develop the economy, so the resources available to the military are relatively limited.
"Your thinking always makes sense. At least it is a good choice for the German Navy. However, our national conditions in East Africa and Germany are different. The two countries have completely different external environments in terms of oceans." Archduke Ferdinand said.
East Africa faces two oceans, so the East African navy will basically not encounter a blockade. Unless the British Royal Navy is dispatched, I am afraid that this effect can be achieved, and this situation is simply impossible to happen.
So in Archduke Ferdinand’s view, the development of a large surface fleet is the future goal of the East African Navy. Also due to geographical reasons, the East African Navy is not easily blocked, which also means that the East African coastline is vulnerable to attack. There is a lack of natural protection such as islands and island chains near East Africa.
The most typical one is the Seychelles Island, which is regarded as a thorn in the eyes and flesh of the East African navy. This island is to East Africa what the Hawaiian Islands are to the United States.
Of course, these assumptions also depend on the specific strength of the country’s navy. For example, the Far Eastern Empire’s original sea conditions are very good. There are Hainan Island in the south, Ryukyu Islands in the east, and natural refuges such as North Korea in the north. Barriers, but they did not work because of the neglect of coastal defense in modern times.
Tirpitz sighed and said: "The sea conditions in East Africa are also quite excellent in the world. In comparison, the sea conditions in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are quite bad. It can even be said that they are surrounded by wolves. The Baltic Sea, Even if the Mediterranean is a small country, its naval strength is not much different, while East Africa can be said to be the only one in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic."
Ferdinand waved his hand and said: "It's too exaggerated. Although there are many countries around East Africa. It is an uncivilized country, but the forces of all parties cannot be ignored. Take the Indian Ocean region as an example, from Egypt to British Somaliland, then Yemen, Oman, the Persian Gulf, India, and the Strait of Malacca. There are British warships everywhere. We in East Africa are also We can only show off our prestige at home, and West Africa is now also the main hunting ground for various countries. It is impossible for us in East Africa to play a role, and the British are even more powerful in South America.”
The situation of the East African navy is not too bad. Well, at least until the decline of the British navy, East African navies are unlikely to play much of a role in the surrounding area.
Tirpitz said with a smile: "Because of this, Germany and East Africa should cooperate sincerely, especially in the naval field. Our German industry and technology are the best in the world, and East Africa has huge potential and geographical advantages, and only through cooperation between the two navies can we realize the global hegemony of the German nation."
Archduke Ferdinand was quite moved by the beautiful vision described by Tirpitz, but he also Just think about it. "Cooperation between the navies of the two countries is an inevitable trend. After all, it will benefit both us in East Africa and Germany. However, I am not too busy now, so you still have to communicate with Ernst to achieve your goal. If you had come a few months earlier, Maybe there is no need to go to such trouble. At that time, the capital of East Africa had not been moved, and it was very convenient to get to the first town. However, the new capital, Rhine City, was located in the hinterland, so just taking the train would probably waste a lot of time.”
“This is not a trouble for me. After all, it took a long time to travel by sea for this cooperation. Many domestic affairs have no way to deal with it. I’m afraid I won’t be able to get rid of it when I go back. Body." Tirpitz said with a smile.
This also reflects the importance that Tirpitz and Germany attach to this trip to East Africa. If cooperation with East Africa can be achieved, it will have a huge promotion effect on Germany’s maritime industry. In this case, spend more The time is also worth it.
To be honest, Germany is actually very envious of East Africa's geographical location and conditions. It would even be better if the two countries could be one country. To put it bluntly, if the two countries could merge, their momentum would be huge. No worse than today's British Empire.
Under the governance of the Hechingen royal family, the potential shown in East Africa is no worse than that of the United States. Of course, it is limited to potential. Whether it can become the next United States remains to be seen. After all, there is still a negative example of Brazil. .
This is the outside world's "conservative" estimate of East Africa. If the true situation in East Africa is exposed, many people may not be able to sleep well.
The population data of East Africa alone has reached the standard of a world power, but the population data of East Africa has never been made public. In this case, other countries optimistically speculate that the population of East Africa may only be four to five thousand. Around 10,000.
The main reason is that the coastal areas of East Africa cannot reflect the real situation in East Africa. Compared with Europe, the United States, and even the Far Eastern Empire, the coastal areas of East Africa are still relatively "desolate". Although there are Dar es Salaam and Mombasa Such big cities cannot be underestimated even in the world.
But who knows what the situation is like in the interior of East Africa. Maybe like Brazil, the population is mainly concentrated on the coast.
This is an unobjective conclusion drawn by various countries based on personal experience in West Africa. West Africa is now in a mess, but there is no doubt that the colonial activities of various countries are mainly concentrated in coastal areas. Although the inland area is vast, Countries also invest less.
So if you think about it from another perspective, many people do not believe that the situation in the interior of East Africa will be better than that of the coastal areas. The actual situation is that the interior of East Africa is more livable and the total population far exceeds that of the coastal areas.
Although the coastline of East Africa is long, the population is mainly distributed in clumps in 20 to 30 major cities and their surrounding areas.
Moreover, the climate in coastal areas is more humid and hotter, which is more likely to cause diseases such as malaria. This is also the main reason why Europeans' early colonial activities in Africa were hindered.
European colonial activities mainly started along the coast, but the African coast was not very livable, and the East African coast lacked gold and other minerals compared to the West African coast, so early African colonial activities were not active.
An important criterion for the earliest Spanish and Portuguese colonial activities was to determine whether there were gold mines in the local area through trade and exchanges with the local people. The presence of gold mines was also an important criterion for the colonists to judge whether the local area had colonial value.
This is mostly the case in India, the United States, and South America, while gold mines in East Africa are mostly distributed in inland areas. The closest to the coast is probably Hechingen Province (Republic of Transvaal), but it is blocked by the Drakensberg Mountains. And there are almost no people around.
(End of this chapter)