"Let's click". The pen in Count Spee's hand fell to the ground. "The Europa's standard displacement of nearly 35,000 tons or more is not enough?" The Count muttered to himself with some annoyance. He even felt that the decision to support the twin-engine aircraft on the ship was reasonable. Although during the exercises, the advantages brought by twin-engine aircraft and high-speed attack aircraft groups were fully demonstrated. But as an overarching leader, the head of the German Navy. The Count needs to consider not only the question of combat effectiveness, but also the question of whether the Empire's wallet and time are enough! The Moltke-class aircraft carriers that I looked for first cost more than 120 million marks. And that's not even counting the planes above. The construction period was about 28 months. If you want to build a larger aircraft carrier, let's say a 40,000-ton aircraft carrier. Then the cost is conservatively estimated to exceed 200 million US dollars, and the construction period will be at least about 3 years! Once the war breaks out, then the consideration is not how elite the single battleship in the hand is, but how to save the strongest fleet with limited money and time, and the construction cycle of more than 3 years is indeed a bit long for the war period. And if it is built in peacetime, the high cost of building ships is another problem that is difficult to solve.

So Count Spee had to dance on two eggs, one of which was a question of the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers, and the other a question of the total budget. As a high-ranking officer, Count Spee knew many secrets that no one knew. For example, Germany will take the initiative to provoke World War II within three years. Three years is a time node, and many plans have to be carried out around this point, especially the Navy armament renewal plan with a long construction period. In the budget war, Count Spee led the heads of the Admiralty to obtain a large budget for the Navy, and in general, in the next three years, the German Navy will be able to start construction of six fleet aircraft carriers, of which three are Moltke-class armored aircraft carriers, and the other three are Europa-class aircraft carriers. This was originally planned, and all the designs were ready-made, so there was no need to waste time redrawing the drawings. The navy also passed it, and it was almost paid to start construction. In the end, such a thing suddenly happened.

And what made the Count even more depressed was that when he sorted out the relevant documents of Raeder and sent them to his good student Count Luknar, the latter actually expressed his support and appreciation for this, and actively persuaded himself to change his original plan. Seeing his student's reply, the Earl wondered, when did the Hipper family and the Count of Luknal get so close? Earl Spee's skill tree is not based on aircraft carrier tactical specialization, but he knows that once the war starts, I am afraid that the aircraft carrier that the German Navy can build in large quantities can only be the Moltke class, for the simple reason that it is a problem of man-hours! An aircraft carrier is better in your hands than on a slipway! Even by the most optimistic estimates, it will take at least 2 years for Germany to complete a Moltke-class aircraft carrier, 2 years! This naval confrontation is a confrontation with 2 powerful countries and 2 super-first-class powers! The rate of loss of battleships will certainly be high. Count Spee had to take into account the issue of the speed of replenishment of the fleet. The supercarrier is really easy to use, but if it comes out too late, the daylily will be really cold.

In the German strategy, they attach great importance to the first-mover advantage, because the Germans have always been fighting against opponents whose national strength is stronger than their own, and if they can't get a big advantage at the beginning, then Germany will be quite passive. The Germans knew very well that the Allies won the 1st World War a bit of a fluke, if it weren't for the fact that the Italian Navy had inflicted heavy losses on the French Navy and gained sea supremacy in the Mediterranean, and then successfully established contact with China, if it weren't for the German ** regiment to beat Russia down first, if it weren't for the fact that the Americans were relatively late in the war, the Germans would not have won the 1st World War at all! Therefore, the top level of the German ** circles demanded that in the next 3 years, the German Navy must accumulate as many capital ships as possible! And in wartime, the German Navy had to ensure the stability of the number of carrier-based aircraft in the Navy. This is not so much that the Germans did not have enough aircraft, but that the number of German aircraft carriers had to be stable and rise as the war developed!

Faced with such a predicament, Count Spee even planned to build 18,000 tons of light protection aircraft carriers in wartime for a while to ensure the size of the aircraft carrier fleet, not to mention the release of twin-engine aircraft, it would be good to be able to make do with FW190 and JU90! The defense of such an aircraft carrier is quite poor, maybe a 500KG bomb can be dropped in seconds, the only advantage is that it is cheap and fast to build! The Germans expect to finish one in 16 months! And the requirements for the slipway are low. Even though it was later decided to use the Moltke-class aircraft carriers as the main force in wartime, the Admiralty still recommended the construction of a certain number of lightly protected aircraft carriers as a supplement.

Now, a considerable part of the navy insists on building larger and more complex aircraft carriers, which makes the count feel very embarrassed. The first is the issue of funding, and the second is the issue of strategy. This determination was so difficult to make that the Count found himself in the same predicament that Tirpitz had historically found himself in with the construction of Bavaria-class battleships. HISTORICALLY, THERE WERE TWO PLANS FOR THE NEWLY STARTED FIRST CLASS BATTLESHIPS, ONE OF WHICH WAS TO ADOPT 10 350MM GUNS. ONE PLAN WAS TO ADOPT 8 400MM GUNS. Tirpitz, unable to make up his mind, gave the question to the Kaiser, who made a counter-proposal and chose the most suitable plan directly between the two, taking into account both firepower and cost. In the end, the Bavaria-class battleships equipped with 8 15-inch guns were more firepower than the first option, and at the same time more economical than the second option, becoming one of the representatives of the excellent battleships of the First World War. (It can be seen that Wilhelm II was still more discerning in the choice of battleships.) And this time, what choice will the Kaiser make? Count Spee will wait and see!

Unlike the Kaiser's decision to build Bavaria, which was equipped with 15-inch guns, the Kaiser's head was not so crisp this time. Because in the German strategic system, the position of the navy has risen significantly, and even the army and air force admit that if the navy is not strong, then Germany will have no chance of winning in the future Middle East plan. Look at the fragile supply capacity of the German army during the Iran War, and land transportation alone was simply not enough for the German army and air forces. Of course, the Kaiser would certainly not ask the generals of the army and air force whether it was necessary to build this new class of aircraft carriers, but speculated on the basis of the battle plan when the navy would make a large-scale attack and whether the newly started warships could catch up with the battle plan. If you can't catch up, can you make up for it with other ways first? In this regard, the Germans had a very clear plan, that is, to get France first! And at this stage, in fact, the Navy does not need to fight to the death with the other party at the beginning.

When the two land power countries were at war, they fought for the air force and the army, and the role of the navy was actually relatively low. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Spain formed a semi-encirclement of France. The battle on land had nothing to do with the navy, the only thing the navy needed to do was to cover the landing of the army in the south of France, the French air force was relatively poor, and the Allies occupied the geographical factor. From this point of view, German naval aviation was nothing more than a supplement to the Air Force. The landing of the covering forces in the south of France was the first stage, and the task was easy.

The second stage was the intervention of the United States and Britain in the French battlefield as the campaign unfolded. The German Navy needed to strike at the right time. At this stage, there was finally a large-scale naval battle, but the task of the German Navy was still not very heavy, because at this stage, the combat effectiveness of the American and British navies was actually relatively limited. The main force of the British Navy is divided into two parts, one part is on the mainland and one part is in India, while the main force of the US Navy is divided into three parts, one part in the Atlantic, one part in the Indian Ocean, and some in the Pacific Ocean. The concentrated Allied navy had an advantage over the scattered Allied navy. If the Entente were sensible, then they should wait for the main forces to be assembled before engaging the German navy.

The real challenge was the third stage, in which if Germany had not yet defeated France, then the war would turn into a protracted war of attrition. The Allies will go straight to the disadvantage and may even choose to negotiate to end the war. If the defeat of France would still be a dire situation, they would face a assembled American and British fleet, and the German navy would be forced to fight in two ways, one way in the Atlantic, to blockade and confine Britain and ensure the safety of its own coastline. The other road will operate in the Indian Ocean, directly helping the army and air force to carry out the Indian Ocean strategy. And as time goes by, China will definitely enter the war, and then the Allies will face three powers! Its naval forces are bound to be stretched!

Although it is only in the third stage that the navy really wields its might, the strategic role of the navy is enormous! Firstly, only the Navy could effectively block the British sea transport lines, and secondly, only the Navy could launch attacks off the coast of India at will. Third, the Navy will take on the important task of ensuring the security of the supply lines of the army and air force and cutting off the supply lines of the other side in South Asia. If the navy collapses, then the German army can only retreat to Europe and Turkey, and will not be able to launch a South Asian offensive at all, and the mainland will be subjected to strategic bombing from Britain and the United States, and the Americans' supplies and troops will continue to sail to Britain, and then there will be a time when the Germans will be uncomfortable, although the air force has made a lot of preparations to counter strategic bombing, but after all, this is only a passive defense, and if you want to completely contain the strategic bombing of the other side, you can only rely on the navy to blockade Britain as much as possible. Keep it starving. At the same time, the U.S. Navy and the Chinese Navy were constantly depleted, making them realize that the cost of war was too high and choose to compromise.

This was the strategy of the German Navy in World War 2! From this strategic point of view, the pressure on the Navy in the first year of the war was not very great. Even if the original construction scale of the original three Moltke-class aircraft carriers and three Europa-class aircraft carriers is reduced, the smooth progress of the campaign can still be guaranteed. Therefore, the time when the naval aircraft carrier force is really needed to play its role will probably be 1 year after the start of the war, which means that in fact, the German Navy still has 4 years to complete this new aircraft carrier!

In the end, the results of the study were that the German military top brass believed that if a large aircraft carrier could be completed within four years, it would not have a negative impact on the situation, and that the new aircraft carrier could play a huge role in the subsequent battle due to its excellent performance. So the advantages of designing this new aircraft carrier outweigh the disadvantages. So the end result was that the German General Staff thought that the construction of these new behemoths could begin.

It is expected that the design work will take between six months and nine months. Then the construction time was about 3 years, which means that the battleship will probably be commissioned about half a year after the start of the war. This is acceptable. Of course, in order to compensate for the possible lack of combat power, the German Navy readjusted the shipbuilding program, and the construction plan of 3 Moltke-class aircraft carriers was reduced to 2. Europa-class aircraft carriers are built 1 units. The remaining three will be built with 18,000 tons of lightly protected aircraft carriers. Used to maintain the number of aircraft carrier fleets. The construction of the four new supercarriers is expected to start within one year.

The budget for this plan is to spend over four years, although the total amount is much higher than the original three-year plan. However, considering that in the event of a war, Germany still needs to start construction of new aircraft carriers, if the original three-year plan is postponed to four years, then the increase is not very much. These shortfalls are to be compensated for by the national debt and the allocation of part of the military spending of the army and air forces. And so the dust settled on this meeting. The program of the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the history of Germany began to be implemented. These 4 aircraft carriers, named after the Kaiser-class battleships of World War 1, became the representative and most powerful force of the German Navy in World War 2! Their achievements even surpassed the historical Bavaria-class battleships and became the brightest stars of the Second German Reich Navy! They were representatives of victory in the eyes of the German Navy. Fabulous existence! And in the eyes of the opponent, it is a demon from the abyss!

Why, one might ask, did the Germans have to build such a massive aircraft carrier? Could it be that the Germans had such confidence in twin-engine aircraft? Think they can make up for the gap in numbers? Where does their confidence come from? "I didn't really agree with the Caesar the Great-class aircraft carrier program at first. I had doubts about his prowess, but then, another piece of information from Raeder strengthened my confidence. In a way, Raeder was the one who created the myth of Caesar! Count Spee once said to his men. And what is surprising is that the report of this test actually came from the land test of the Raeder tactical research group!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976, zsuzm for the reward ~~~~, and the book friend autumn wind and fallen leaves 2014 monthly pass support ~~~~. (To be continued.) )