African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1030 Joining the Naval Competition
While East Africa was evaluating the results of the First Five-Year Plan and preparing for the Second Five-Year Plan, in the distant waters of the Far East, the Japanese and Russian navies were also facing off in their final showdown.

Although the Russian Navy, with a certain degree of help from East Africa, was much stronger in spirit than in the previous life, it fell into a dangerous situation after actually fighting with the Japanese Navy, especially the mistakes of command and decision-makers, which led to the Russian Navy repeating the same mistakes. The Russo-Japanese naval war began to develop in the direction that Ernst hoped for, or in the direction that all countries in the world except the belligerent countries hoped for. However, the benefits that East Africa could gain from the Russo-Japanese War were ultimately too little, far less than the Spanish-American War.

……

Bagamoyo Port.

As the earliest shipbuilding center in East Africa, the Port of Bagamoyo undertakes the main task of the current East African Navy, especially the construction of battleships.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, more and more details were mastered by the East African Military Shipyard, and the original battleship construction plan was also revised.

Laura Reina, chief engineer of the Bagamoyo No. 1 Shipyard, is re-evaluating the battleship design that has tended to be conservative in the past.

Loralena: "According to the war reports from the Far East, it has once again been proven that only large-caliber naval guns of more than 300 mm can be the key to determining the outcome of a naval battle. The future is still the era of large ships and large guns."

"So for the construction of new battleships, I mainly promote increasing the displacement from the original 18,000 tons to at least 20,000 tons, and removing some secondary guns. Although most of these naval guns are rapid-fire guns with a faster firing rate, their range and power are not as good as the main guns."

"These secondary guns may be used to engage small and medium-sized ships such as cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats, but they are a huge waste of firepower resources and space on board when dealing with sea monsters such as battleships."

"At the same time, the secondary guns made the battleships' guns have a variety of calibers and different ballistic performances, making it difficult to centrally command the firing. Most of the guns had to aim and fire independently. This shortcoming was even more obvious during the Russo-Japanese naval battle."

"So I advocate that all the main guns of the next battleship be unified as heavy main guns of the same model and caliber, adopting the concept of 'full heavy artillery'. Such a battleship should have at least six or more guns with a caliber of more than 300 mm that can be fired in a unified manner."

"The main guns on the ship should have a longer range and a consistent caliber to facilitate the correction of the impact point. There should be a large number of them so that they can concentrate fire on the enemy's vital parts. They must be powerful and have a high speed to facilitate the seizure of advantageous positions. The armor must be strong and able to withstand the enemy's attacks."

The new design proposed by Loralena was actually completely the same as the "dreadnought" of the previous life, and his proposal was supported by the majority of people.

Soon, the design plan for the new battleship was handed to Ernst. Although Ernst knew nothing about warships, he decided to immediately implement the construction plan of the East African version of the "Dreadnought".

Ernst told the Navy: "We should complete the construction of new battleships before the end of 1906, and refer to the latest warship construction in other countries, especially the battleship construction in Britain. After evaluating the overall performance of the new battleships, we will start our shipbuilding plan in the new era."

"Before that, my country's shipbuilding industry should also be given priority. During the Second Five-Year Plan, shipbuilding will receive more support to support the development of my country's marine industry."

Ernst's remarks surprised the East African Navy. After nearly ten years of silence, the East African Navy's major development stage is finally about to begin.

Before this, the East African Navy could only envy and hate its counterparts in other countries who were expanding their navies, while the East African Navy had to give way to economic development. Although the East African Navy was not weak, compared with other major powers, it had fallen into a stretched situation.

Ten years is just a blink of an eye for other navies, but it is extremely long for the East African Navy. At that time, the tonnage of the Japanese Navy increased from about 1895 tons in to more than tons, which was nearly five times that of ten years ago. The German Navy built more than a dozen new battleships, and the British built more than battleships. At that time, among the navies of the world's major powers, France, Austria-Hungary, Spain and East Africa could only stare blankly at the naval competition.

France was mainly influenced by the Green Water School, so it did not keep up with the craze for battleship construction in the early days. The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not attach importance to the navy, and Spain was completely limited by its national strength.

The East African Navy, like the Austro-Hungarian Navy, did not participate in the previous naval competition, but the East African Navy was obviously much more valued than the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is also currently promoting a new round of shipbuilding plans in its own country, and it is said that it has received the support of Franz. Under this circumstance, the East African Navy is naturally more urgent. However, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and the rehearsal of the Russo-Japanese naval battle, the dawn that the East African Navy has been waiting for seems to be coming.

Ernst said: "Don't be too happy. Although naval construction is an important strategy for our country in the next ten years, naval investment is quite resource-intensive, so the research and development of new battleships must be down-to-earth. If we can't even pass this level, it will inevitably affect my idea of ​​naval expansion."

Ernst would certainly pour cold water on the navy department. After all, once the navy goes astray, it would waste a lot of resources and time to get back on track.

"During the Second and Third Five-Year Plans, my expectation is that my country will build one battleship every year, that is, ten battleships, and strive to reach at least fifteen battleships by 1915. Together with the existing battleships, there will be nearly twenty battleships. At the same time, a number of cruisers, submarines, torpedo boats and other types of ships will be built."

"These ten new battleships need to be designed at any time because of the rapid pace of naval ship updates and iterations, and are not based on current battleship technology."

In the past, after the dreadnoughts, there were super dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, etc. Therefore, the construction of naval ships must not remain unchanged, but must be adjusted at any time with the development of the times. When the East African aircraft manufacturing industry matures, Ernst will definitely take advantage of the situation to promote the aircraft carrier construction plan.

Regardless of Ernst's emphasis, the navy department has already made up its mind to build at least ten battleships in ten years. Although this pie is not as big as the previous large-scale projects of Britain, Germany and other countries, it is enough for the current East African navy.

As a country with two or even three oceans (plus overseas territories in the Pacific), East Africa's current naval size is obviously far from meeting its own needs. It may be sufficient for domestic deterrence, but it is almost impossible for it to carry out activities overseas. The new shipbuilding plan will greatly ease the pressure on the East African navy.

Of course, Ernst’s ideas were somewhat different from those of the Navy Department. Ernst mainly considered the East African Navy warship construction plan from the perspective of World War I in the previous life.

Whoever could profit from World War I also needed the support of a huge navy. The reason why the United States dared to have the best of both worlds in the past was naturally because the strength of the U.S. Navy was worthy of the "respect" of the Allies and the Entente. On the contrary, if the U.S. Navy was not strong enough, it would not be able to support the United States in World War I to reap huge benefits as a "neutral country."

Therefore, before the outbreak of World War I, the East African Navy must have reached a certain scale, not only to undertake wartime escort or deterrence missions, but also to seize a large number of overseas markets during World War I.

If a European war broke out at that time, the control of Britain, France and other countries over their overseas colonies and subordinate forces outside their own countries would be weakened.

If East African industrial products want to occupy these vacant overseas markets more quickly, they naturally need "naval gun diplomacy" to open the doors of other countries in the world. Therefore, before World War I, the East African Navy must become one of the important dominant forces in the international order in terms of overall scale.

(End of this chapter)