Chapter 2437 Cruiser Planning II
Moreover, some of these countries have already started to build heavy cruisers, so they must at least ensure that you have them and I have them. Once this precedent is set, it is impossible to completely stop it, because most maritime powers have this. idea! Therefore, there is no doubt that all Germany can do is to join this competition. After all, you can't use light cruisers to harden the opponent's heavy cruisers, right?
"If the tonnage of the warship is expanded to around 20,000 tons, then the design of the warship will be very difficult, because we can hardly design a balanced warship. There must be a trade-off between speed, firepower and defense, especially firepower and defense. We You can't expect that the defensive power of a 20,000-ton warship can block the firepower of a warship of the same level!" Hipper said.
"Well, yes, that's a good point!" the crown prince said in his heart. In the past, Germany paid attention to balance when designing capital ships. One of the most important points is that the armor defense of capital ships can effectively resist its own firepower. Within 7 kilometers. In fact, let alone Bavaria deal with its own defense, it is difficult to fight revenge.
During World War II, the attack and defense of the real capital ships were relatively balanced. For example, the vertical defense of Veneto can effectively resist the attacks of other battleships except Yamato, and the horizontal defense of battleships such as Richelieu can actually deal with it. In most cases, the ultra-long-range lobbing of American naval guns can only be said to be too BT. In addition, Richelieu's horizontal defense design also has some problems. Therefore, as far as World War II technology is concerned, it is possible to create a fast battleship with a balanced offense and defense.
However, this is limited to capital ships with a tonnage of more than 38,000 tons. For warships of the 20,000-ton class, this is almost impossible! A large part of this is because the engagement distance of heavy cruisers is closer, and after a warship of this tonnage maintains a higher speed than a battleship, there is really less tonnage left for defense.
Using history as an example, the treaty cruisers with the best integrated vertical defense are Zara and Algiers. The 150MM vertical armor on the side strings is actually not enough to resist the attack of 8-inch armor-piercing projectiles. As for the defense of the ammunition depot of Japan's top heavy cruiser, is this defense standard high enough? (Actually, the M of the Italian light cruiser Duke of Abruzzi may have a higher level of side string protection.) However, it is still very difficult to face 8-inch artillery attacks.
And don't forget, the premise of armor design for the purpose of defending against 8-inch guns is that everyone only equips 8-inch guns on this level of warships, and will not equip larger guns such as 10-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch guns... … But how is it actually possible that when the treaty ends, everyone abides by the treaty?
In this plane, the German Empire set a very bad precedent. The Germans replaced the triple-mounted 12-inch artillery of the first generation of Dreadnoughts with twin-mounted 14-inch artillery... There has been a precedent, and there is no future? Therefore, other countries can follow suit. During the war, the 8-inch guns on the battleships were replaced with larger caliber guns! You know, this is how the top Japanese cruisers in history changed from light cruisers to heavy cruisers. And considering the triple 11-inch artillery on the German-class pocket battleship! As for the possible weight increase caused by changing the gun? Let's put it this way, the weight of the triple 11-inch turrets on the German pocket battleships in history was 600 tons. The weight of the triple-mounted 8-inch turret on the last American heavy cruiser USS Des Moines is 450 tons... So if you switch to a double-link 12-inch, the weight change may be very small! Therefore, there is no problem at all with installing 12-inch basic artillery on a 20,000-ton warship!
And now the problem comes,
How high is the defense standard required to block 12-inch armor-piercing bullets? Taking the 1-inch artillery in American history as an example, the vertical penetration at 27 kilometers is about 231MM.... Even considering the course angle and the inclination angle of the main armor, do you want to block such a high-penetrating artillery at a normal engagement distance on a 20,000-ton warship? This difficulty is really too great!
Thus, the most disliked situation in the design of the German Navy appeared, the firepower was much higher than the defense strength! A 20,000-ton battleship can at most guarantee that the core cabin is immune to 8-inch guns at normal combat distances, 10-inch guns can't stop it, and 12-inch guns can go to sleep... .
"If the emergence of heavy cruisers is inevitable, then I think we should strictly limit the tonnage of heavy cruisers, so that the cost of changing the guns of heavy cruisers in the future is too high and difficult to achieve. For example, if we limit the tonnage of heavy cruisers If it is between 12,000 tons and 15,000 tons, then if the opponent wants to use 12-inch guns, it will be very difficult. Using 10-inch guns requires a trade-off between the number of artillery pieces and the power of ammunition. In this case, our defense The design will be more effective." Hipper thought for a while and said.
It is still difficult for a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser to block 8-inch guns. Zara and Algiers in history are only good at defense, but they may not be able to defend... The side string defense of Duke Abziru's M also depends on the situation. After all, the crown prince vaguely remembers that in history, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen could penetrate 9-inch armor at a distance of about 10 kilometers... Therefore, what Hipper means is to forcibly limit the offense and defense between each other to a relatively balanced range. At the same time, the cost of the battleship will not be particularly high!
As for the 15,000-ton warship, would you like to mount a 10-inch cannon? If you insist on it, you can definitely do it, but the performance will be reduced, such as defense and speed. You know, in history, the tonnage of heavy cruisers in the later period of the United States, such as Baltimore and Des Moines, was at this level, or even higher, but they still chose 8-inch guns as the main guns. This is for a reason. After all, the later Heavy cruisers are not just for sea bombardment, but also for air defense missions.... At this time, the weight of a large number of secondary guns and ammunition must be considered.
"I think this suggestion is very reasonable. The tonnage of the heavy cruiser is limited to less than 15,000 tons, the artillery is set to 8 inches, and the offense and defense are relatively balanced. Most countries can accept it. And the cost will not be too high." Marshal Scheer Agreed with Hipper's suggestion.
According to Marshal Scheer, in terms of gunboats in the future, all battleships below Bavaria should be decommissioned. If the war breaks out after 20 years, then some Bavarian-class battleships should also be decommissioned, and then keep a large number of new first-line battleships 16-inch or larger caliber naval guns. Although the German Navy has gone to the ocean, Scheer still adheres to the idea of elite soldiers in terms of capital ships.
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