Chapter 205: The Epoch-Making Dreadnought

Just as Arthur expected, the establishment of the Kingdom of Australasia did not cause any opposition in Europe.

Even with the strong support of the two current monarchies, including the German Empire and the Russian Empire, most of the monarchies in Europe congratulated the newly established Kingdom of Australasia.

The attitude of the United Kingdom is more complicated. The British people congratulated and blessed the establishment of Australasia, while the government had some opinions. After all, after the establishment of the Kingdom of Australasia, it will replace the British Empire and become a legal country in the Oceania region.

However, it was Edward VII who expressed his opinion in the end, and the British government also congratulated the establishment of the Kingdom of Australasia.

Of course, although ambassadors were sent to each other with major countries, it was obvious that the establishment of Australasia was not the mainstream news in Europe at present.

The reason is that during this period, the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard of the British Empire built a battleship that was enough to change the world's battleship system in just four months, which caused a sensation throughout Europe and even the world.

Although Britain did a good job of keeping the Dreadnought battleship secret during its construction, spies from other countries eventually discovered clues since the cruise test began.

With the efforts of spies from other countries, especially German spies, the true data of the Dreadnought battleship was also known by major European countries.

"This is a completely epoch-making great battleship!"

This is the feeling of rulers and naval experts of all countries after seeing the design of this battleship.

Because new technologies are widely used in all aspects, the Dreadnought battleship subverted the design concept of previous battleships and achieved a comprehensive crushing of existing battleships.

What does it mean? Previous battleships had their own advantages in firepower, protection and speed. Either the firepower performance was extremely powerful, or the armor protection was very strong, or they had achievements in speed.

These battleships have their own advantages and can play their own roles in naval battles.

But the Dreadnought is different. The main guns of the Dreadnought battleship use unified ballistic performance, which not only greatly improves the firepower of the battleship, but also allows the commander to more conveniently command all the main guns to aim at the same target, and the concentrated output efficiency of the firepower is also greatly improved, which can also improve the hit rate of the main guns accordingly.

In addition, the Dreadnought battleship uses ten 305mm main guns, twenty-seven 5.4kg guns, and five 457mm underwater torpedo tubes, which greatly increases the firepower of the Dreadnought battleship, giving the Dreadnought battleship an absolute advantage when facing the old battleships before.

At the same time, the total weight of the armor of the Dreadnought battleship is about 5,000 tons, which is an improvement compared to the previous battleships.

More armor also means more comprehensive protection. The armor thickness of key parts such as turrets, engine rooms, ammunition depots and command towers is even more than 280 mm, and the armor completely wraps the hull.

More importantly, the speed of the battleship was greatly improved on the basis of increased firepower and armor.

The design requirement of the battleship was to reach a maximum speed of more than 21 knots and be able to maintain it for a long time.

But you have to know that the fastest battleship before the dreadnought could only reach a maximum speed of about 19 knots, and it could only be maintained for a period of time.

Such a speed is undoubtedly epoch-making, but British shipyards and experts have solved the problem of power requirements by using new steam turbines and steam boilers.

The battleship Dreadnought was equipped with 18 drum-wheel coal-fired steam boilers and four Parsons steam turbine units to provide power.

Its power is as high as 22,500 horsepower, and it even reached 24,700 horsepower during the first sea trial. The theoretical design speed is up to 21 knots, but during the sea trial, it reached a maximum of 22.4 knots.

In summary, the Dreadnought battleship can completely crush all the old battleships before it in terms of firepower, armor protection and speed.

The previous situation of being able to run away if you can't beat them, and being able to fight if you can't run away will not occur. The battleships of other countries will not only be unable to beat the British Empire's Dreadnought, but also unable to run away.

This also means that the current world naval structure will usher in a major reshuffle, and all the old battleships before will be like paper tigers in front of the Dreadnought.

If the number of battleships before represented the strength of the navy, then the number of new dreadnoughts now represents the new naval strength.

It was the British Empire that led the warships into the new era, but it was also the British Empire that had the most headaches at the moment.

The reason is simple. After the birth of the Dreadnought, all the old battleships became scrap metal. Although Britain will gain some advantages in the construction of the Dreadnought, this also means that most of the warships of the Royal Fleet will become products of the backward era.

Like the British Empire and France, which had the most old warships before, they have become the victims of this major naval change.

But this is also a good opportunity for some emerging countries, such as the German Empire, which has always wanted to surpass Britain in terms of navy.

According to the previous battleship system, it is basically impossible for the German Navy to surpass the British Navy.

Although the German Navy is getting bigger and bigger, the size of the British Royal Fleet is expanding faster, and there is still a huge gap between Germany and Britain.

But after the birth of the dreadnought, the strength of the navy turned to depend on the number of dreadnoughts.

For the rising stars of the world pattern, including the German Empire, the United States and even Australasia, it is a great opportunity.

Of course, some people see hope, and some people are disappointed, or even a little desperate.

Some people have the opportunity to catch up, and some people naturally have the crisis of falling behind.

It was difficult enough to maintain the existing naval scale, but after the birth of the dreadnought, the existing battleships are basically all outdated, and will not be the opponent of the country with the dreadnought.

Of course, there is more than one country that is uncomfortable because of this. If you have to say the most uncomfortable country, it may be the island country that has just divided the Far East hegemony with Russia.

The island country obtained part of the Far East rights in the last Russo-Japanese War and occupied the Korean Peninsula in a real sense.

But such benefits are not enough to make up for the losses of the island country in the war, especially when a large number of warships were lost.

The original naval strength could only barely maintain the level of the bottom powers. If the dreadnoughts were not followed up and built, the gap with other powers would gradually widen, and the island country's expansion dream would still be blocked.

In general, the birth of the dreadnought accelerated the situation of European naval competition and made almost all the powerful countries invest in the research and development of dreadnoughts.

Because of no experience, major countries, including Germany, aligned the research and development template of dreadnoughts with the dreadnought battleship.

In fact, this fell into the trap of Britain again. When various countries came up with their own dreadnought designs, the British Empire once again came up with super dreadnoughts, and once again formed a certain leading advantage in the three major designs of warships.

Almost on the day of receiving the intelligence, William II ordered the major shipyards and navies of Germany to come up with the design drawings of the German dreadnoughts as soon as possible and start construction.

This scene also appeared in almost all powerful countries, and the warship designers of the major powers became busy because of this.

It is worth mentioning that because the aid from Germany did not take into account the reason for the birth of the dreadnought, these German shipbuilding experts are still working for Australasia, and they will also become the leaders of Australasia's research on dreadnoughts.

Soon, with the efforts of major powers, the designs of dreadnoughts of various countries were soon released.

It is worth mentioning that the South Carolina-class battleship of the United States is one of the earliest battleships in the world to adopt all-heavy artillery, and its design time is similar to that of the British dreadnought.

However, because the budget was shelved, the construction time of the South Carolina-class battleship was one step later than that of the British dreadnought. The first ship of the South Carolina-class battleship, the South Carolina, was not officially commissioned until March 1910, more than two years later than the official commissioning time of the dreadnought.

As the design of the dreadnought shocked the world, the Americans also determined the design and construction of the South Carolina-class battleship, and the US Navy also urged Congress to quickly allocate funds.

There are many other powerful countries that have taken action at the same time, including Italy's Dante Alighieri, the island country's Hanoi-class battleships, and Germany's Nassau-class battleships.

Among them, except for the British Empire, the United States and the German Empire, which have made up their minds in the navy, Italy and the island country, which currently have plans to build dreadnoughts, have not invested much.

Italy has only one Dante Alighieri battleship, and there are only signs of design. It will take a year for the real construction to start.

The Hanoi-class battleships of the island country are similar. Although they have designs, the island country's financial situation does not allow them to start construction immediately. At least they have to wait for a year, and there will be no more than two ships at most.

Of course, these two countries at the end of the powers are actually good. At least they have plans to build dreadnoughts in their countries. It's just a matter of waiting longer.

There are two other countries that are well-known compared to the island countries and Italy, but they currently have no plans to build dreadnoughts. These two countries are the former European continental hegemon France and the European bulldozer Tsarist Russia.

The Tsarist Russia did not have plans to build dreadnoughts, but the Tsarist Russia's research and development and design capabilities were not strong, and there is no perfect battleship design plan yet.

The first dreadnought of the Tsarist Russia in history was built after the Italian Dante Alighieri was born, under the guidance of the British shipyard, and roughly referred to the Dante Alighieri.

The first dreadnought of the Tsarist Russia was the Gangut-class battleship, and there were two important factors for its birth.

One is that the Italian Dante Alighieri was completed, and the other is that after the Anglo-Russian relations were eased, Russia built it under the guidance of the British shipyard.

At present, the Italian Dante Alighieri battleship is only a design sketch, and the Anglo-Russian relations have not eased, so whether the Russian Gangut-class battleship can be successfully born is a question.

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