Naval armament is nothing more than the hardware of a country's navy, and if a country's navy is compared to a person, then all kinds of warship officers and crew and port facilities are the body of this person. Naval strategy is like a person's brain, no matter how good the equipment is, the strategic ambiguity and unclear positioning, can not play the role of the navy, if it is a strategic mistake, then the consequences can be described as a tragedy, of course, the navy's strategy and national strategy must be coordinated. Just when the Germans were preparing for the next class of battleships, Germany's national strategy also began to be heavily adjusted, the core of which is, in the future, where will Germany point its sword?!

When the descendants of the Teutonic knights brought down Russia and turned it into their vassals, Germany's strategic environment became very favorable, even more favorable than during the Bismarck period, when Bismarck only engaged in a three-emperor alliance and used the alliance as a guarantee of his security, but now, Germany defeated Russia with its own strength, Britain and France suffered heavy losses, and it was impossible to pose any mortal threat to the Central Powers on land with these two countries alone. Wilhelm II was chasing land in the sun, and since there were still too many lands in the world that could not be brought under his control, the pace of German expansion could not stop. The Germans drew their swords and looked around for the remaining directions where they could get land.

It was absolutely impossible to cross Russia and China to fight, and neither geographically nor in terms of strength, Germany had no idea of fighting China on land. The whole of Scandinavia was already under the control of Germany and its allies, and the British Royal Navy, which was severely underarmed, was unable to complete the blockade of Germany. After the North Sea is the Atlantic, and across the Atlantic is the United States, and no matter how arrogant Germany is, it will never think that it can send an army to land in the United States! To the south, the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East. At this time, the Mediterranean was almost under the control of the German allies, and Spain, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were enough to suppress the French Mediterranean fleet. The British lost their foothold in the Mediterranean. But the whole of North Africa has been carved up. The Germans also had nothing to gain.

Moving further east, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula were of no value to the Germans, after all, most of the Arabian Peninsula had no permanent rivers and only sand in the absence of the discovery of oil. With the exception of Germany's allies, the Ottoman Empire, the only way to go east was to start with Iran and India! At this time, Iran in this plane has discovered some large oil fields. Just for millions of tons of crude oil per year, Germany can't let go! And the South Asian subcontinent is even more coveted by the Germans!

The British colonies in South Asia were not only India, but also Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon! Not only is there an abundance of arable land (more than half of India's arable land is now covered). In terms of area, it is more than China! ）。 At the same time, it has a large population, which is an excellent source of raw materials and a dumping place for products, and of course, it can also provide enough labor! It's no exaggeration to say that South Asia is the most brilliant jewel in the Queen's crown!

The strategic focus of the Germans was to use the Middle East as a springboard to Iran and India, which would inevitably be blocked by the British. India's security is second only to the British in the minds of the British. If this huge source of principle, product market, and labor is lost in this way, then Britain will be completely reduced to a second-rate country! In the eyes of the Germans, the occupation of India was not the goal, and the Germans did not have the ability or the heart to manage Indians who were much larger than the German population! They just need to exclude the influence of the British, and then it would be better to get the benefits from India like the suzerain. It would be nice if it could be broken down into several countries!

In order to achieve this, Germany must guarantee the security of the Mediterranean-Red Sea-Indian Ocean route. As long as the link between Britain and India can be severed, the British government in India, which has lost foreign aid, will inevitably collapse under the combined pressure of German pressure and internal instability. This plan is very feasible, but it will take a long time!

Britain and France were not afraid. What the Germans really feared was the United States, although Wilhelm II was conceited. But the sky-high "trenches" that the Americans were going to start building 12 capital ships at the same time also shook the Germans. And after the First World War, the Germans also realized that the contradictions between the two sides were basically irreconcilable. Germany has a lot of interest in South America because there is a lot of information there. Unlike Africa and Southeast Asia, which have already been carved up, South America still has a lot to offer in the eyes of the Germans! But the most critical issue is that Germany wants to dominate Europe, and the United States cannot allow a European grand alliance to exist, although the United States is not worried about the security of its homeland, but as a big country, it will never tolerate the other side blocking itself at the doorstep! Therefore, for the sake of its sphere of influence and backyard, the United States will absolutely do its best to support Britain and France, and in the German plan, in order to ensure the realization of its eastward strategy to India, it must contain the attack of the American fleet in the Atlantic direction.

And in order to achieve this, Germany had to station enough fleet and air power in Spain during the war to prevent American intervention. At the very least, it is necessary to prevent the United States from intervening in the fighting on European soil until Germany defeats France. As for Britain, it stands to reason that it should not be a big problem to fight the British Navy alone with the strength of the Allied fleet, but Scheer and others vetoed this idea in very obscure language: "In the future naval battles, it will no longer be the heavy guns of the battleships that will decide the outcome of the battleship, but those eagles soaring in the sky, and several engagements in the middle and late stages of the war have proved that aircraft are capable of posing a great threat to warships at sea, and under the cover of shore-based aircraft with absolute numerical superiority, it will be difficult for us to seize air supremacy in the English Channel." Coupled with the large number of mines and the assistance of shore defense torpedo boats and submarines, even if we had more power than the British Navy, we would not necessarily be able to achieve it, not to mention that given the French and American navies, we could actually use fewer actual forces. ”

The words of Scheer and others are quite presciently pointed out the importance of aviation in the future navy and even in the national defense system. As a result, under the impetus of the top brass of the Navy, the German Navy's land-based aviation has been expanded and expanded, and the sea-based aviation has also been put on the agenda, and how to let aircraft take off and land from warships and design a warship that mainly uses aircraft to do combat has been included in the agenda of the German Navy. This was foreseen by Scheer and others, and what they did not foresee was that the army actually inserted a lever at this critical time, and the army generals also wanted to incorporate more aircraft into their command, after all, in the land war, all kinds of aircraft also had a heavy impact on the occupation on land, especially the scene of the British V1500 four-engine heavy bomber covering the sky and bombing the German position is still a nightmare for many people.

The duty of a soldier is to fight, to fight with the enemy on the battlefield in wartime, to fight with politicians over the budget in peacetime, and to compete for their own interests among the various branches of the military. Thus, at a meeting of the German General Staff, the German Navy and the German Army began to fight, and the two sides engaged in "warm and friendly" discussions about the number and types of aircraft dispositions of the two armies, as well as various related issues.

The German Navy and the Foreign Office have begun to lobby other Allied countries, according to the German government's idea, Germany needs to build a joint maritime force that concentrates Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Spain and Turkey in the next ten years, and if this plan is realized, then this powerful fleet will not be able to be defended by any single country. Austria-Hungary and Turkey, as hardcore brothers of Germany, immediately expressed their support and were willing to provide their own ports as bases for the combined fleet. Spain's attitude is a little vague, but after some temptation, Spain mainly wants to get greater benefits from it, and sooner or later it will join, the reason for this is very simple, Spain joined the Allies in World War 1, and has completely offended the Entente bloc, whether the United States wants Cuba or France's possible retaliation is not something that Spain can afford, so Spain can only choose to stand firmly on the side of the Allies!

To the surprise and concern of the Germans, it seems that the Italians were not enthusiastic about this plan, as the second strongest of the Allied navies, the Italian navy undoubtedly played a pivotal role, and without the Italian navy, the Germans estimated that the Spanish and Austro-Hungarian navies would have drawn with France at best! As for the Turkish fleet? Let's not talk about strength, the Germans are also going to let Turkey play a role in the Indian Ocean! And geographically, Italy is right in the center of the Mediterranean, plus Libya, the entire Mediterranean Sea is divided into east and west halves, and the excellent geographical environment and a certain number of aircraft can definitely lock the Mediterranean. Therefore, the Germans were very worried about the Italian situation, and they were not sure whether the Italians were simply venting their grievances because they had been overshadowed at the time of signing the treaty in order to obtain greater benefits in the future, or whether they were really preparing to part ways with the Central Bloc.

The latter is by no means groundless, Italy is different from Austria-Hungary, he does not have such a close relationship with Germany, Italy and Spain are not the same, after all, the strength of the former is much stronger than Spain, if Italy wants neutrality, neither the Entente nor the Central Powers will be forced too much, and the absence of Italy is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Germany's strategy, and now Wilhelm II is really a little regretful! Because of the momentary recklessness, Germany was in danger of losing an important ally!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. Book lovers who are familiar with history should know about a meeting that affected the development of the Navy after the end of World War 1, right? The war is over, but there will be new battles in each country at the venue, so I hope you will enjoy ~~~~~. (To be continued......)