The Rise of the Empire

And just as Britain and Japan were getting closer, the German Imperial High Seas Fleet was also preparing for the last class of battleships of the Imperial Navy before the war. This class of battleships named after the Kingdom of Bavaria would be the pinnacle of the German High Seas Fleet in World War I. do. He and his brothers wanted to become the sharpest swords in the German Imperial Navy! For this reason, both Ruprecht and the technical department under the Navy Ministry are doing their best to perfect all the details of this battleship!

"Your Highness, this is the final plan proposed by the Bavarian Ship Design Bureau and the Germania Shipyard in Kiel Port. This plan fully takes into account the performance, risk and cost of the warship. From the current point of view, we can no longer find A more suitable plan." Sir Eden, the battleship's chief designer, sent a document to Ruprecht, while his assistants spread out line drawings on the wall.

"In order to reduce the technical difficulty, we finally chose four twin-mounted 15-inch main guns as the main weapons of the Bavaria-class battleships. This brand-new C1906 turret can ensure that the artillery can reach a theoretical firing rate of 2.5 rounds per minute. In actual combat, this type of turret can also reach a rate of fire of more than 2 rounds per minute. The new 15-inch L45 main gun can fire shells weighing 870kg at a speed of more than 780 meters per minute. Such excellent hardware performance can even be faced with The British warships of the same level also have advantages. According to our intelligence, the British's new twin 15-inch turrets have a maximum rate of fire of only 1.5 rounds per minute. Their shell weight and muzzle velocity are close to ours, but their shell technology is The gap gives our artillery an advantage."

"Our new artillery shell uses a longer body and adds a slender hood in front of the cap, which can optimize the flight performance of the shell and have better speed storage. Moreover, the cap is made of cold-quenched The hardened quilt is more effective against hardened armor. At the same time, our fuze is more stable and uses stable TNT explosives, which can ensure that the shell will explode after penetrating the opponent's armor. And this is just the surface of this shell Attributes." Sir Aiden paused and continued.

"According to the ideas you provided, we specifically studied the movement of cannonballs in the water. And made corresponding improvements based on the data collected from the experiment. The idea of ​​allowing the cannonballs to continue running stably for a certain distance after entering the water and then hit the warship is indeed Very good, and this kind of underwater bomb poses a greater threat to warships than torpedoes to some extent!"

"Look here, this is the entire process after our new artillery shell enters the water. After the artillery shell enters the water at a certain angle, first the hood of the artillery shell will fall off, and then after the correction of the specially processed bottom of the body, this artillery shell will During the sinking process, it will move forward in a relatively stable direction. During the period of time when it drops from the water surface to a depth of 6 meters, the cannonball can stably travel a distance of 80 bullet diameters! In other words, a distance of nearly 30 meters."

"Taken together, when this shell hits an enemy ship, it can completely avoid the underwater armor belt of almost all warships except Germany, and then penetrate the enemy ship's underwater defense system in one go. If you are lucky, the underwater bomb will It can even penetrate a mine protection system with a depth of 3 meters, and then explode in the core cabin behind it. If there is an ammunition cabin or power cabin behind it, just one shell has the chance to severely damage the opponent!"

“Very nice design.

Ruprecht nodded with satisfaction and said, feeling a little proud at the same time. If you want to ask which artillery shell is the most difficult to defend? Then most likely it is a water bomb. This is different from vertical armor or horizontal armor. Facing vertical armor, even if By the time of World War II, the sloped armor using the cap-off theory was enough to deal with most opponents. For example, Veneto's 70mm outer plate and 280mm sloped armor were enough to deal with most naval guns except Yamato's 460 heavy guns. . Of course, if the distance is too close, just pretend I didn’t say anything.

As for horizontal protection? This is a little difficult to do. After all, the American mk6 16-inch L45 naval gun plus the mk8 1225kg super-heavy ammunition is really scary in history. Richelieu's 170mm main horizontal armor and 40mm dome armor were unable to block the 16-inch cannon and artillery shells of the American emperor. You must know that the main horizontal defense of the Richelieu-class battleship is the second in the world. However, although horizontal defense is more difficult to achieve, it is not impossible. One theory is to change the defensive positions of the two, make the thinner 40mm armor a little thicker, and put it on top to peel off the shell caps, and then the lower layer of 170mm thick armor may be better used for hard-resistant projectiles. Some, or two layers of armor are directly stacked together. The defense effect of 210mm thick armor is definitely better than 170mm+40mm. In this case, it is possible to block the long-distance lob of mk6.

But water bombs are definitely the most difficult to defend against, because the strike range of water bombs is too wide. From below the waterline to the bottom of the ship, the range that water bombs can strike is. Even if the battleship has a draft of 9 meters, you can't possibly attack it. Get enough thick armor on such a large height. Imagine, if calculated at 6 meters, plus the part on the waterline, the height of the side armor would be more than 9 meters! This is obviously unacceptable. After all, the battleship with the highest main armor belt in the world is only 7 meters. This is the George V-class battleship built by the British during World War II.

Maybe in World War II, or when there are time travelers, we can think of the underwater defense system similar to the Yamato and South Dakota class battleships that extends obliquely in the countryside of the armored belt. However, other countries in this plane can be behind the underwater defense system. It is very conscientious to get a layer of 30mm to 40mm high elastic steel plate. And this level of underwater defense system can never stop the underwater bombs of large-caliber artillery. This is the biggest and most effective trump card of this new 15-inch gun, because almost all warships are undefended when facing it.

Looking at history, those battleships that were hit by water bombs rarely had good results. The Lütsov was hit by a water bomb, which detonated the compressed air in the torpedo room. The Bismarck was hit by water bombs, which consumed a large amount of fuel. During the naval target shooting experiment, the Japanese battleship Tosa was also severely damaged by water bombs. Therefore, based on his own experience, Ruprecht specifically required that the stability of the ballistic trajectory in water must be considered when designing the artillery shells. Let the artillery shell run as long as possible in the book. In fact, the current length of 70 to 80 bullet diameters is not particularly outstanding. Historically, the Japanese's specially improved artillery shells can run 110 bullet diameters in the water. length.......

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