Does speed really matter? Let's peel back the fog of history and see what role such things played in the wars of the pre-dreadnought to dreadnought eras. As the first large-scale naval battle of steam warships, the fast fleet led by Yoshino in the Battle of the Yellow Sea cleanly beat the flanks of the North Ocean, which can be described as majestic, and the fast fleet is refreshing, but after the excitement has passed. After careful analysis, in fact, it's nothing, 4 cutting-edge fast cruisers fight two super brave and mighty with basically no protection, and the attack of dozens of rapid-fire guns of various calibers is complete! This has nothing to do with speed at all, and Yoshino can't play a speed of up to 23 knots at all, the reason is very simple, there is a slower master in it, and you have to take into account the slow warship, so to some extent, the money Yoshino spent on the boiler was spent in vain!

Then, you can look at the performance in the second half of the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, a group of Japanese cruisers surrounded Dingzhen and knocked violently, what was the result? After a few hours of fighting, Dingzhen still went back safely, to know that Dingzhen at this time has been in service for 10 years, there is not a single medium-caliber rapid-fire gun on the whole ship, and there is a serious shortage of shells, if Dingzhen even slightly changes, install some rapid-fire guns, if you change it again, replace the 12-inch short gun with a 240MM tube of turret structure and withdraw the gun, with enough shells, it is estimated that the end is the Japanese fleet!

So judging from the above records, if you want to completely annihilate the opponent, you can't do it simply with high speed, if you can't effectively destroy the opponent and can't withstand the opponent's blow, then what's the use of catching up? Go up and die? To a certain extent, the Battle of the Yellow Sea was the result of Japan's absolute technical and economic superiority. And does not say anything about the value of a high-speed cruiser. From an economic point of view, it makes little sense to equip high-speed warships.

Then someone should say again, in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Didn't the two battle cruisers, Dreadnought and Indomitable, rely on high speed to destroy Scharnhorst and Gneisenau? This is indeed the case, but at the same time, it must be noted that the two cutting-edge battle cruisers have an advantage in terms of tonnage firepower and protection! The cost is much higher than that of the two old armored cruisers, so the Dreadnought and the Indomitable are also crushing attacks carried out by relying entirely on the advantages of skill, which is something that the Germans can't do, no matter how powerful a mouse is, it can't beat a tiger.

So the slower side has no chance to get rid of the opponent in the engagement? The answer is definitely wrong, let's take the Jutland War as an example. When Hipper's command of the German avant-garde fleet to beat the Betty fleet to the blister, Thomas's four Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleships descended on the battlefield like angels, and the Hipper's fleet with powerful 15-inch naval guns scurried! But what Thomas didn't expect at this time was. Not far in front of him, 16 dreadnoughts of the German High Seas Fleet had already arrived on the battlefield!

And Betty, who rushed to the front, had already spotted the high seas fleet appearing in front of her, and turned around and left, while walking. It also makes people play the signal! As a result, at this time. Betty's flag bearer (who is in charge of the signal flag) delivered an inaccurate message. And Betty didn't re-signal in time. (This is the legendary pig teammate!) Sell your teammates properly! Then the four Queen-class battleships led by Thomas collided with the High Seas Fleet!

Then the 16 Dreadnought battleships and the 5 Dreadnought battlecruisers that turned back against the 4 Queen-class battleships were a violent blow! The War Weary was hit by more than a dozen shells, and the Malaya actually dropped the chain at this critical moment, and there was a problem with the rudder! And then the Malayan queen was left behind the most of the fleet! But that's it, the 4 Queen-class battleships still managed to move in. The Great Escape of Victory. But is this because of the advantages of high speed? It can only be said that this is one of the aspects, even if the queens can only run at a speed of 22 knots, the German high seas fleet still cannot catch up with the target, the reason is simple, the German dreadnoughts still have a vote of dreadnoughts behind them. The speed of the German high seas fleet was not even 20 knots at all.

Hipper's fleet is indeed fast! But how about you put 4 rough-skinned and thick-skinned queens with fierce firepower? Rush up and don't want to live anymore? Therefore, Xu Jie believes that the reason why the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships can escape from Ascension. Largely because of protection and firepower, and not because of speed. Just imagine, if the German battleships were equipped with 14-inch naval guns in batches, then it is estimated that the war-weariness and the Malaya would be beaten to slag.

Some people may think that this kind of example is not enough, so let's move on, the same Battle of Jutland, when the two brothers Betty and Thomas were beaten by the German High Seas Fleet, the most powerful maritime force on the planet finally appeared! The 2 dozen dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts commanded by Jericho's classmates finally appeared, and God forbid, a thick fog hid Jericho's fleet! And the German High Seas Fleet led by Scheer didn't know what was happening in front of him! Then, like Thomas, he crashed headlong into the huge T-sign of Jericho's fleet!

According to the classic theory, the unsuspecting Scheer fleet should be dead after crashing into Jericho's T-shape, but is that the result? The battlecruiser formation led by Hipper launched a death dash against the Jericho fleet! And Scheer completed the fleet adjustment in a very short time, and rushed out of the battlefield right after him! Although Hipper's flagship, the Lytsov, could not be saved due to the detonation of the bow torpedo compartment, the German battlecruiser formation managed the Invincible during this sprint! The average speed of the German High Seas Fleet was certainly not comparable to that of the British Fleet, but with good protection and decent firepower, the German High Seas Fleet escaped and ascended to the sky! British battle cruisers and fast battleships were indeed fast, but did you dare to chase? The two unexpected encounters in the Battle of Jutland show that as long as the firepower and protection are reasonable, it is not a big problem to slow down, after all, you still have enough auxiliary ships to provide cover.

Some people may say that if the battlecruiser in the hands of the British is a German-style battlecruiser, then the battleship will have a great advantage in the face of defeat, after all, the speed is much faster, and the firepower and protection are not weak, but don't forget that if you want to compare, it should be compared with the battleships of the same period under the same technical conditions, the German battlecruiser is really good, but if you fight hard with the battleships of the same period, the result will be very tragic, quite tragic! For example, if 3 De Fllinger faces 2 Bavaria, then Bavaria does not need to think about escaping at all, just turn around and repel the opponent, if you are lucky, it is not impossible for Bavaria's 15-inch 45L main gun to defeat De Vellinger in seconds. If 4 Devlingers fought against 2 Bavarians, the result would be difficult to say, because the lethality of the 12-inch naval guns was too low! And the Bavarian 15-inch main gun can slow down De Fllinger, and if De Everinger retreats a little slower, maybe he will be explained.

And from the point of view of cost, the cost of 1 De Vellinger is higher than that of 1 Bavaria! Too many battle patrols are not only not high in combat effectiveness, but also economically unacceptable! To some extent, if it were not for the fact that high-speed warships could provide sufficient early warning time and act as a mobility force for the fleet, there would be no need for high-speed warships to exist. Therefore, the significance of a simple high-speed battleship is very limited, but a fast battleship with good protection, good firepower, and a certain advantage in speed can join the main fleet to fight when necessary, which is very useful, taking into account both tasks at the same time.

For example, if the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is not overloaded, then this is a very good battleship, with a cost of 2.5 million to 3 million pounds and a 13-inch main armor belt. (Well, because of the overweight problem, most of them are also close to the water, and it would be better if it was lighter.) The powerful 15-inch naval gun, (well, you can only use the real power after replacing it with a green hat armor-piercing shell.) There was also a speed of 24 knots, which was more than 2 to 3 knots higher than the average battleship. Theoretically, it can be used both as a fleet avant-garde, and at the same time as a standard battleship in battleship operations, well, for various reasons, this excellent idea did not come true, but the idea of a high-speed battleship was accepted by everyone.

Post-Jutland-type battleships. The first 7 battleships equipped with 16-inch guns, in addition to the 3 in the United States, the remaining 4 can reach a speed of more than 24 knots, and more than 20 years later, the new battleships in the world generally have a speed of more than 27 knots, and the European three musketeers (Richelieu, Veneto and Bismarck) generally reached a speed of more than 30 knots, and Richelieu reached 32.6 knots, becoming the fastest battleship in the early stage of World War II!

Therefore, on the whole, fast battleships are the most suitable for the historical conditions of World War I, Germany's battle cruises are very close to fast battleships, but the caliber of artillery is smaller, and since Xu Jie has decided to strengthen the German high seas fleet, then it is enough to strengthen the firepower on the battle cruises that the high seas fleet has been very perfect, as for whether to compress the power and save it to strengthen the protection, it depends on whether the British will change the shells. If even if the shells of the US imperialism were used, the battleships of the De Fllinger class would definitely not be able to withstand the 14-inch soft quilt cap armor-piercing shells of the US imperialists.

If the British Empire's armor-piercing projectiles are more powerful, I am afraid that the German battlecruisers in this plane can only reduce the speed from about 27 to 28 knots to about 25 knots, and then the remaining weight and space will be used to strengthen protection. Otherwise, if the German Navy, which was already short of ships, was smashed by the armor-piercing shells that the British imperialism was quite passable, something would have happened!

Thank you for the support of the book friends who liked, the proportion of praise on the side yesterday has increased by more than 2 times, thank you everyone~~~. (To be continued......)