Chapter 530 Brother, the road has gone astray
As Minister of the Navy, George’s opponent should not be Hindenburg, but the German Navy Minister Alfred von Tirpitz.
The 60-year-old Tirpitz joined the German Navy at the age of 16 and initially served in the destroyer fleet. Later, he developed a strong interest in submarines and through hard study, became a torpedo expert.
In 1897, Tirpitz served as Minister of the Navy. At that time, the German navy was very weak and could only conduct offshore defense. It was completely incapable of conducting ocean warfare and was unable to protect Germany's overseas interests.
In order to change the predicament of the German Navy, Tirpitz pushed for the passage of the Naval Law to drastically upgrade the German Navy.
In the second year after Tirpitz became Minister of the Navy, the German government allocated 408 million marks to the navy, determined to have 17 battleships, 9 large and 26 small cruisers and other small ships by 1905.
In 1900, Tirpitz revised the Naval Law and increased the size of the German Navy to 2 flagships, 36 battleships, 11 large and 34 small cruisers.
After the plan was adopted, Tirpitz publicly declared that the purpose of building this large navy was to prevent the greatest sea power countries from challenging it, otherwise their own advantages would be destroyed. danger.
Germany's military expansion attracted British attention, especially after the British built all-heavy artillery battleships. Tirpitz proposed two naval upgrade plans in 1904 and last year.
The latest version of the naval upgrade plan includes 13 Dreadnought-class battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 22 older battleships, 32 cruisers, 114 destroyers and 30 submarines.
Compared with Tirpitz, George did almost nothing after becoming Lord of the Navy, which also led to George being ignored by Tirpitz.
Tirpitz left Berlin to inspect the Baltic Fleet before George arrived in Berlin, and his contemptuous attitude was fully exposed.
George is not angry. The more Germany invests in the navy, the better. It is best to build 100 dreadnoughts in one go, then the pressure on the Russian Empire will be much less.
Unlike Tirpitz, Schlieffen was full of curiosity about George. After the Russo-Japanese War, the German General Staff reviewed the Russo-Japanese War many times, and George's performance was focused on.
“The strength gap between the two sides is too big. No matter who is in charge, the final victory must belong to Russia.”
George had nothing to say, he did almost nothing, ate hot pot with Milyutin every day, and then won.
“The role of a commander is to allow the troops to exert their best combat effectiveness through reasonable allocation. If anyone can easily do this, the Japanese will have no chance of entering Kanto.”
< br>Schlieffen hopes that George can be more honest and not be as hypocritical as the French.
"Although the Empire won the war, it gained nothing except debt. For at least 10 years, the Empire will no longer have the ability to conduct large-scale wars."
George took the initiative to reduce the pressure on the Germans and let them The Germans concentrated their efforts on an arms race with the British.
"Is this why you are carrying out military reforms?"
Schlieffen was very disappointed, no one is stupid.
During the Russo-Japanese War, William II and Nicholas met many times. The two even signed a joint anti-British statement. Nicholas almost boarded William II's pirate ship.
Fortunately, at the last moment, Nicholas woke up in time and was not used as a weapon by William II. This was the great reconciliation of the century between Russia and Britain.
After the reconciliation between Britain and Russia, the pressure has completely shifted to Germany. Tirpitz's latest statement is: Germany has no intention of challenging Britain's maritime supremacy, and only needs half the British navy.
This statement helped to ease tensions between Britain and Germany, but it came too late.
After Germany passed the upgrade plan last year, the British First Minister of the Navy, Baron John Arbuthnot Fisher, said: The German fleet should be wiped out in Copenhagen like the Danish Navy in 1806.
At that time Denmark had the second largest navy in the world. "Is the chariot Carl bought useful?"
George didn't accept the move, and everyone said his own thing.
Tirpitz showed weakness not because he was afraid of Britain, but because Germany's strength was limited and it was unable to cope with the arms race between the Russian Empire and Britain at the same time in both the army and navy.
The British attitude towards the arms race is that if Germany builds one dreadnought, Britain will build two to resolutely maintain its superiority over the German navy.
After the Russian Empire began its military reform, the army was equipped with tanks, the navy established an aviation force, and a large number of Slavic brothers were recruited to form the Balkan Alliance in the Balkans, which put Germany under great pressure.
After the Russian Empire began military reform, Moltke also submitted an equipment upgrade plan for the German Army, hoping to equip more armored fighting vehicles and heavy artillery.
Because the German government invested too many resources in the navy, Moltke's plan was rejected.
Neither the old fox nor the little fox could take advantage of each other. The next day, George visited the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg as planned.
Blohm & Voss was founded in 1877 as a partnership between Hermann Blom and Ernst Voss.
In 1898, Blom Voss undertook the construction of the fifth ship of the "Kaiser Friedrich III" class battleship, the "Kaiser Karl der Grosse", and began to undertake large warships from then on.
By 1909, the Blohm & Voss shipyard had a factory area of 560,000 square meters, a dock length of 3,000 meters, and a floating dock that could build 46,000-ton ships. It was the largest in the world. one of the shipyards.
When George came to Blom Voss, Blom Voss was building the Moltke and Goben for the German Navy, both of which were the latest models of the German Navy. of battlecruisers.
George actually wanted to see the battleship.
It’s a pity that Tirpitz didn’t let him see it.
The Moltke class has a full load displacement of 25,400 tons, a maximum speed of 25.5 knots, and an endurance of 4,120 nautical miles at 14 knots. It is equipped with 5 twin 280 mm 50 times caliber main guns and 12 88 mm secondary guns. , and four 500mm torpedo tubes.
Tirpitz finally returned from the Baltic Sea and took the initiative to express his apology to George.
George sincerely discussed the application of torpedoes in naval battles with Tirpitz, and took the initiative to introduce to Tirpitz the role of the Siberian Fleet submarines in the Battle of Vladivostok.
The implication is: Brother, you are taking the wrong route. Stop building large surface ships and build more submarines. Only in this way can you create a greater threat to the Royal Navy.
“Doesn’t the Russian Empire need more warships to protect its coastline?”
Tirpitz reminded George that the strength of the German Navy has far exceeded that of the Russian Navy.
"Any fleet that dares to threaten St. Petersburg will be dealt a devastating blow by the Baltic Fleet."
George is still confident in protecting St. Petersburg.
As for annihilating the German High Seas Fleet, that is the task of the Royal Navy.
(End of this chapter)