1825 My New Daming

Chapter 176 What! 200 aircraft carriers? (ask for subscription, ask for monthly pass)

When George Elliot mentioned the airship, Prime Minister Robinson immediately became interested and asked, "George, the airship is actually the Royal Navy's real trump card, right?"

"Yes, but not all," said George Elliot. "The Admiralty believes that airships are only part of the Royal Navy's real trump card in future wars. The other part of this trump card is the British Empire's number one in the world." merchant fleet!"

"Merchant?" Robinson was stunned. "George, does the Admiralty want to build an armed merchant fleet and use privateers to deal with the Ming Empire?"

"Prime Minister," said George Elliott, "Of course we should equip a large number of armed assault ships. The four camouflaged assault ships that caused the Battle of Kii Waterway are excellent weapons!"

Robinson interjected: "Who the hell do they belong to?"

"It should be Japan," George Elliot replied. "To be more precise, it should be Japan's Satsuma clan. opponents, and may even become a thorn in the side of the Tokugawa shogunate prematurely. But they did pose a threat to a behemoth like the Ming Empire by building camouflaged assault ships. In fact, the Ming Navy still has not captured those few camouflaged ships. Assault ship!

It can be seen that Satsuma's disguised attack ship tactics are quite effective.So of course we should follow suit, and the Admiralty should secretly build and refit a batch of assault ships that can go deep into the Pacific Ocean and the Nanyang Islands to break diplomatic relations.

However, these assault ships can only play the role of harassment and containment, and it is still unlikely to be the key to determining the outcome of the war.Since they had no way of attacking convoys escorted by cruisers, they could not cut off the logistics of Ming forces invading India or Australia. "

"Oh, how is merchant shipping supposed to be part of the Royal Navy's cards?" Robinson asked.

"Prime Minister," George Elliot replied, "The Admiralty believes that we can convert some of the 160-ton merchant ships powered by coal-fired steam into airship motherships that can take off and land airships! The British Empire owns and maintains the largest ship in the world." The huge merchant fleet, some of which are over 15 meters in length, are equipped with steam engines that can generate thousands of horsepower, and the highest speed can reach [-] knots.

If we can design a 100-ton merchant ship with both the chimney and the bridge placed on the bow or stern, we can reserve a huge space of 140 meters to 20 meters where the airship deck can be laid.At the same time, we will equip these merchant ships with more powerful steam engines so that they can reach a speed of more than [-] knots, so that they can keep up with the naval fleet during wartime.

In peacetime, these [-]-ton merchant ships were merely peaceful freighters, carrying grain, coal, iron ore, or cotton.In wartime, we only need to lay a wooden deck on the cabin used to store food, coal, iron ore or cotton, and at the same time make a little modification, it is an airship mothership that can take off and land a large airship ! "

It turns out that the British Admiralty also thought of building an aircraft carrier!However, their aircraft carriers are not used to take off and land aircraft, but to take off and land airships.And it's not a small airship, but a giant airship larger than the Wyvern III!
Obviously, the burning of Nagasaki greatly stimulated the British Admiralty, so they decided to follow up with all their strength-the effect of using airships to blow up ships before was actually not satisfactory, and it could also be used for effective defense.But the power of using an airship to drop napalm bombs into the city is a bit scary.

Such a terrifying weapon, the British Empire must have!

Not only must there be, but also a carrier-based airship that can be carried by the airship mothership to follow the main fleet.In the eyes of experts from the British Admiralty, Britain has an advantage that no other country has in developing carrier-based airships.

Britain is currently the number one shipping power in the world!

George Elliot said proudly: "Because our colonies are all over the world, countless bulk materials are shipped to our homeland every year, so we can maintain more than 1000 large cargo ships with tons of tons or larger. We can definitely 'Hide' our airship motherships among these civilian ships so that we can easily have 100, or even 200 airship motherships in wartime!

Moreover, these airship motherships 'hidden' among civilian ships do not occupy the tonnage of warships at all. If the naval armament treaty reached in Versailles will limit the total tonnage of the navy, the British Empire will increase by 100 million to 200 million out of thin air. [-] million tons of paramilitary ships! "

This is great!
Because the current total tonnage of the navy of the British Empire is just over 100 million tons, and if a cap of 200 million to 300 million tons can be signed at the future naval armament conference, the Admiralty will hold a party to celebrate.

And the airship mothership plan proposed by Elliott on behalf of the Ministry of the Navy immediately gave the Royal Navy an extra 200 million tons of quasi-warships!Moreover, most of the cost of the 200 million-ton quasi-warship can be borne by commercial companies. The British government will give a little shipbuilding subsidy at most.

This is really wonderful!

"Good! This method is very good!" British Prime Minister Robinson thought about it, and then said, "Can I understand that the capital ship of the navy in the future will be an armored cruiser of about 200 tons. The warship is hidden among the civilian ships, as our trump card?"

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Then do we still need to build larger, stronger and more powerful battleships?" the British Prime Minister asked again.

"Of course!" George Elliot said, "Mr. Prime Minister, we also need a heavy battleship with a displacement of 2.5 to 3 tons, six to nine 6-inch or even 9-inch main guns, and a speed of over 14 knots! "

"What? We really want to build such a large battleship?" Robinson was taken aback. "George, didn't you say that our main force should be a [-]-ton armored cruiser?"

"Mr. Prime Minister," George Elliot said with a smile, "Our main force is indeed [-]-ton battlecruisers, but... we still need some large-tonnage battleships to show the glory of the Royal Navy. At the same time, these large-tonnage battleships can also be used To mislead Ming, let them allocate the main financial resources and total tonnage to large battleships, thus ignoring the construction of [-]-ton cruisers and airship motherships.

When war really breaks out, our fast patrols and airships will, like the ancient light cavalry, firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield, and surround and annihilate their small and medium-sized troops by sneak attacking, luring the enemy, laying ambushes, attacking the logistics line, and concentrating the main force. Formation and other methods continue to destroy their huge, clumsy, expensive capital ships. "

Robinson frowned: "How many huge, clumsy, expensive capital ships do we need to build for this?"

"Prime Minister, the big, clumsy, expensive capital ships of the British Empire will only exist on paper!" George Elliot said. "What we really need to build are big, fast battleships! But we will build big, slow The name of the battleship, using wrong paper data to mislead Ming, let them follow up to build such a battleship."

Robinson thought for a while, and seemed unreliable, so he asked Earl Nelson: "Your Excellency, Admiral, can we really defeat the Ming Empire with a small number of large and high-speed battleships, a large number of armored cruisers, and 200 airship motherships?" ?”

Earl Nelson said with a smile: "Prime Minister, it depends on how you define defeat? If you want the Royal Navy to go straight to the mainland of Ming Dynasty, land in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, occupy and destroy their most prosperous cities. Then, the Royal Navy can do nothing .

If you want to defeat enemies from far away on the soil of India, Australia or North America, you must rely on long sea supply lines to maintain the war.Then, we will be able to win the British Empire with a small number of large and fast battleships, a large number of armored cruisers and 200 airship motherships! "

(End of this chapter)