Iron Sonata of World War II

"The Labor Front plays the role of a unified investor here, and what it gets is the share of the company's expansion, but these shares are actually held on behalf of the workers. The benefits brought by the shareholding held by the Labor Front The annual dividends will be distributed to workers in proportion to their wages."

"After the workers reach retirement age, the company has the right to redeem the shares held by the Labor Front at the average market price for a period of time, and the money for the redeemed shares will be paid to the workers as a one-time income." Helena explain.

"So what if the company is unwilling to redeem the shares?" Mustache asked.

"If the company is unwilling to redeem the shares, the labor front can sell these shares on the secondary market on behalf of the workers, and the proceeds will still be distributed to the workers. Of course, if the workers are more optimistic about the future direction of the company, they can also choose not to rush to sell. Instead, just take away your part of the equity and sell it when the stock reaches your psychological price." Helena had thought about this problem a long time ago, so she said calmly.

"Through this mechanism, what workers get from working overtime is no longer salary income, but property income. The sum of these property properties will generally greatly exceed the wage income of the same working hours, because it is equivalent to workers using The overtime hours in the future are invested in the company’s stock. Under normal circumstances, in addition to getting back the principal of the stock purchase, workers can also get the stock’s annual dividends and the stock’s value-added part of the company’s performance growth.” Helena said.

At this time, Hitler had roughly figured out Helena's train of thought, but it seemed that he hadn't completely dispelled his doubts: "Miss Helena, your distribution plan sounds like it is very beneficial to the workers, and I also believe that the workers will actively work overtime for this. hours, but will entrepreneurs agree that workers can take so many things for two hours of overtime every day?"

"They will agree, Your Excellency the Head of State." Helena's tone is very confident: "Why do capitalists generally hope that the introduction of new investors will reduce their shareholding ratio? Many companies are in an advantageous position in the competition with their peers, if the company loses in the market competition, what is the use of capitalists even if they have all the shares in the company?"

"Accepting the capital increase and share expansion of the Labor Front, although the proportion of equity in the hands of capitalists will decrease, it also means that the labor cost of the company will drop significantly in the future. If one of the two companies in the market accepts the expansion of the Labor Front The share plan means that the average hourly labor cost will be reduced by 20% immediately. If another company does nothing about it, it will be at a huge disadvantage in the competition. It may not even be able to guarantee its survival!"

"Führer, how do the capitalists allow this to happen? In this transaction, the workers paid the price of working overtime for two hours a day and took away the newly expanded shares and their dividends and value-added parts; It was diluted at the cost of lower labor costs and stronger domestic and foreign market competitiveness. I think this should be a very fair deal, and workers and entrepreneurs will cheer for this policy." Helena He pursed his lips and smiled.

Chapter 215 Reform Plan

In the hours-long conversation that followed, Helena explained her reform plan to Mustache in more detail.Even details such as how to reduce the risk of loss of income for workers if the business goes bankrupt due to poor management, Helena also made a concise statement.There are roughly two specific measures:

The first is to stipulate in advance in the investment agreement that once the enterprise goes bankrupt, the labor front has the highest priority among all investors to dispose of the remaining assets of the bankrupt enterprise.The second is to take part of the labor front dues paid by the workers as insurance money. If a bankrupt enterprise still suffers serious losses in overtime income after the remaining assets are disposed of, this part of the insurance money will be used to guarantee workers Be able to get at least 85% of the investment amount converted into overtime hours.

These measures of Helena are mainly to reduce the labor investment risk of workers and relieve workers' worries.That is to say, if workers are willing to use overtime labor as the investment capital of their own enterprises.If the company develops and makes a profit, in addition to paying a small amount of membership dues to the labor front, the workers' stock dividends and stock gains are their own investment dividends.

Even in the unfortunate event of a company going bankrupt, workers can get back all or most of their labor investment capital by virtue of their priority right to dispose of the remaining assets of the company.Even if your luck is extremely bad, and you encounter the extreme situation where the remaining assets of the enterprise are insufficient and all the sales are not enough to make up for the investment losses of the workers, the membership dues you pay to the labor front can provide you with the last insurance, allowing you to invest in labor The loss ratio will not exceed 15%.

Therefore, in Helena's reform plan, workers collectively use overtime labor to invest in their own enterprises, with high potential returns and relatively low potential risks.This may sound unbelievable, but this is by no means a publicity trick commonly used by liars. There are two main reasons why Helena can do this.

First of all, although the bargaining power of individual workers over their overtime income is very weak, when the Labor Front consolidated the overtime hours of workers across the country and packaged them into a huge asset, it immediately became the largest single investor in Germany. Obtain priority over all investors in the investment agreement.

The second is that although the membership dues paid by the workers to the Labor Front accounted for only 1.5% of their income, the total annual dues paid by tens of millions of workers across the country amounted to hundreds of millions of marks.After deducting the operating costs of the Labor Front itself, as well as the construction of workers’ stadiums, workers’ amusement parks, and organizing workers’ collective tourism activities, the remaining money is enough for investment insurance to help workers hedge against unsystematic risks.

Of course, this kind of insurance system can only deal with the partial bankruptcy of enterprises that occur in the normal metabolism of the market. If there is a very serious systemic risk, such as large-scale bankruptcy and losses of enterprises during the economic crisis, it cannot rely solely on the labor front. The insurance funds resisted, and it was necessary to rely on the country to introduce decisive and strong measures to save the economy.

In addition to adopting a series of institutional arrangements to enable workers to obtain low-risk and high-return property income channels through eight-hour labor, Helena has not forgotten to give reassurance to business owners who accept capital increase and share expansion.The shares in the hands of the Labor Front will not only obtain the priority right to dispose of the remaining assets when the company goes bankrupt, but in exchange for the rights and interests of other investors, it will also ensure that under normal circumstances, the voting rights of these shares in the general meeting of shareholders will be in a dormant state .

That is to say, companies that accept the Labor Front’s capital increase and share expansion plan, although the original investors’ equity has been diluted, their control over the company has not been diluted.Although the Labor Front is considered an affiliated organization of the Nazi Party, most of the time it will only play the role of a silent investment partner and will not interfere with the specific operations of the company.That is to say, capitalists do not have to worry about losing control of the company after accepting the capital increase and share expansion of the Labor Front.

Of course, all of the above mentioned are normal situations. Since there are normal situations, there will also be abnormal situations.In Helena's planning document, the voting rights of the shares held by the Labor Front can be activated in emergency situations, and once these voting rights are activated, they can exercise the excess voting rights equivalent to 100 times of ordinary stocks.

Since the Labor Front is an official trade union organization, this emergency exercise of excess voting power allows the state to directly establish control over business.However, the conditions for activating excess voting rights are relatively harsh.Excess voting rights can only be activated when the country encounters a serious crisis. The serious crisis mentioned here mainly refers to major economic crises, serious disasters, and all-out wars.And when the crisis is over, excess voting rights should be restored to dormancy.

The main purpose of Helena setting up this mechanism is to greatly improve the government's ability to allocate resources when the country is facing a major crisis while ensuring the economic vitality of the German economy in peacetime.In this way, if there is an emergency that the market mechanism cannot cope with, the German government can bypass the failed market mechanism and directly use short-circuit measures such as government orders to organize enterprise production, thereby bringing some or all of the national economic sectors into the planned track.

If Helena's reform plan can be successfully completed, the German economy will evolve into a mixed-ownership economy characterized by widespread employee stock ownership in terms of ownership; and in terms of the allocation of production factors, the government will In addition to the market economy model of macro-control, a shortcut key for quickly switching to a command-planned economy in an emergency is retained.It can be said that under the current level of productivity, efficiency and fairness are balanced to the greatest extent, and both peacetime and wartime are taken into account.

"It is estimated that from the end of this year, our overseas investment will gradually return." Helena said suddenly after introducing her reform plan: "Germany's investment in the United States over the years, both official and unofficial, is quite a lot. There are as many as tens of billions of dollars. If the withdrawal is too fast, the U.S. capital market will collapse directly, and it will be difficult for us to get out. Fortunately, the Fed is still printing money non-stop to buy treasury bonds, and there is no need to worry about finding money in the market. Our capital can be safely withdrawn in batches and in a planned way without fools coming to take over the order.”

"Once these overseas funds flow back to the country, they will be turned into new machinery and equipment and factories, which will greatly promote the formation of fixed capital. If we start the labor market reform process this year, then this wave of fixed capital formation will have nothing to do with our The process of releasing labor to the market will be largely in sync."

"And this process of combining new means of production and new labor force will strongly support the rapid growth of my country's industrial production in the next few years. At the same time, the newly increased wealth will also reduce the resistance to our reform, so the best time for reform It’s this year.” Helena finally said to Mustache that in Helena’s eyes, planning the reform route requires not only careful consideration of specific measures, but also precise coordination on the timeline, in order to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

"Please leave your plan outline, Miss Helena, let me think about it again." Helena's plan obviously made Mustache quite tempted, and he was not willing to be obediently as an ambitious man. As a puppet of monopoly capital, Hitler had a strong interest in various reform programs that could improve the government's control over the economy.Because he didn't want to look at the faces of the directors of the central bank's board of directors in terms of currency issuance, the mustache at this time was even planning to nationalize the central bank.

Helena saw that it was getting late, so she got up and said goodbye to Mustache.Before going out, Helena turned around suddenly and said to Mustache who stood up to see him off: "By the way, I have invested in many domestic companies through various technical patents over the years. If the head of state is determined to carry out this reform, I will Two-thirds of these shares can be donated to the Labor Front as part of the start-up capital for this reform. So Your Excellency, Helena looks forward to your final decision."

Under Mustache's stunned eyes, Helena squinted one eye, made a cute grimace at Mustache, and left the Fuhrer's Palace.For the money she earned on this plane, Helena has basically been using it as the game currency in the P company game. As long as she can achieve the game goal she wants, she doesn't care about the increase or decrease of that number at all, so that The people around her are often either unable to keep up with her rhythm, or are frightened and trembling.

Chapter 216 The British Dilemma

While Helena was still making suggestions for Germany's next economic reform, the naval negotiations between Germany and the United Kingdom were also proceeding smoothly.Although the representatives of the two sides still have a lot of detailed issues to wrangle before the final signing of the treaty, it is more of an internal than external political gesture.Its main purpose is to convey such a signal to the public: at the negotiating table, the government representatives are all penny-pinching, and the head of the government is always deliberating before signing an agreement.

In fact, as early as November 11 last year, when Hitler met with the British ambassador to Germany Phipps, he proposed to sign an equal treaty with the United Kingdom, limiting the future construction scale of German battleships to 28% of the British level. , and the British Foreign Office and the Admiralty immediately responded very positively to this proposal.

So on January 1935, 1, the British Foreign Office and the Armed Forces Staff jointly drafted a memorandum for the cabinet, advocating that "it is extremely important to discuss with Germany as early as possible."The memorandum also required Germany to submit a six-year shipbuilding plan to the United Kingdom, and decided in principle to allow Germany to have a main fleet with a gross tonnage of no more than 25 tons.This figure happens to be 178000% of the tonnage of the British Royal Navy's battleships, which means that the British have basically fully approved Mustache's proposal at this time.

Therefore, in the next few months, the diplomats shuttled across the English Channel and argued over the details of the negotiations, to a large extent, just to explain to the public and prevent the public from feeling that the government is too hasty in international relations. That's all.In the end, the ratio of signing the agreement will not change any more.The reason why the British eagerly took the olive branch handed by the mustache, although they clearly knew that this olive branch does not really symbolize peace, is because the British are now facing the most serious predicament in history.

Although judging from some book indicators, the current UK is far from the point where the sun is fading away. For example, the UK still controls colonies with a total area of ​​more than 3400 million square kilometers, still controls the global maritime traffic routes, and still owns the world's The largest naval fleet.At this time, the size of British battleships, aircraft carriers, and heavy cruisers is comparable to that of the United States, but the size of the British light cruiser fleet is larger than that of the United States, so the Royal Navy can still comfort itself.

Even the US dollar’s ​​previous challenge to the world’s leading currency of the British pound was repelled because of the severe economic crisis in the United States, which led to the decline of the US dollar’s ​​status. The so-called "Empire System of Preferences" ensured the flow of sterling within the colonial system of the United States, so the hegemony of sterling as the world's payment currency still looks secure.However, there is a terrifying fact hidden behind these glamorous glamor, that is, the creative ability of material wealth and spiritual wealth in the British Empire is irretrievably exhausted.

From the perspective of the creation of material wealth, the British Empire, which had been firmly seated as the world's most powerful industrial country for a long time, had already lost its industrial output value to the rising United States and Germany long before World War I.But now Britain's industrial output value accounted for less than 10% of the world's share, and was once again surpassed by the Soviet Union, a rookie in industrialization, and fell helplessly to fourth place in the world.

The weakening of the creative power of the material wealth of the British Empire is already a lice on a bald man's head--obviously.The creative ability in the field of spiritual wealth is also not optimistic.To give an intuitive example, in the 1910 years from 1930 to 20, the Germans won a total of 19 Nobel Prizes, while the British only won 9 Nobel Prizes.Although Americans are still juniors compared to Europe in terms of science and culture at this time, they have also won 6 Nobel Prizes (the above do not include the Nobel Peace Prize).

We know that the fundamental driving force supporting the long-term maintenance and development of any empire is always the ability to create real wealth, which includes not only material industrial and agricultural production, but also spiritual science and artistic creation.All the predicaments that the British Empire, the world hegemon, is currently facing are rooted in the weakening ability to create material and spiritual wealth. status.

Netizens in later generations often like to laugh at Britain in this period, saying that Britain will sign a naval restriction treaty with this country today, and it will sign a naval restriction treaty with that country tomorrow, and finally find that the restrictions are restricting the British themselves.But from Helena's point of view, this kind of ridicule about standing up and talking without back pain is completely ignorant of Niu Niu's difficulties at the time.Before Helena crossed over, the United States maintained world hegemony with about 17% of the world’s industrial output value and 24% of GDP, and felt increasingly powerless, so that politicians shouted for the return of manufacturing.

But now Britain is using 9% of the world's industrial output value to support a hegemony plate that is bigger than the United States in later generations. The cost of maintaining the colonial system alone is much higher than the soft control of the alliance system in the United States in later generations. up.What's more, the United States before Helena crossed over was still leading the world in terms of scientific research output, and now Britain would have lost its status as a research center in the world's natural science field long ago even without the interference of Helena's external factors.

After understanding the above, we can know how much pressure the United Kingdom, the world hegemony, is under at this time. The current United Kingdom is only about half of the material and spiritual wealth creation ability of the United States in later generations, and it is desperately supporting the maintenance cost of the United States in later generations. Higher world hegemony system.At this time, it is very natural for the British to rely on a series of treaties to tie the hands and feet of potential competitors, although this idea is unlikely to succeed from the beginning.

Therefore, in a document drafted by the Central European Department of the British Foreign Office on March 1934, 3, the British Foreign Office even declared: "The military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles are technically dead. Bury it as long as you are willing to pay for it."

From these words, we can also get a very clear glimpse of Niu Niu's inner world at that time: Since it is inevitable for Germany to break through the "Treaty of Versailles", it is better to sell the old treaty for a good price while using the new treaty as soon as possible. China's recovery is controlled at a level that does not affect British world hegemony.If the treaty is not finalized now, the price may be further increased after Germany's economic strength is further strengthened.

So the brand new "British-German Naval Agreement" was finalized little by little driven by the mentality of the British.But the strange thing is that both the UK and Germany feel that they have made a lot of money this time.

The British felt that they had finally stuffed the Germans into the cage of the naval treaty before Germany's economic strength swelled beyond restraint, and they lost a powerful competitor at sea.But the Germans don't care about the specific ratio of 35%. Anyway, this share is inexhaustible before 1942. What really excites the Germans is that with the signing of the "British-German Naval Treaty", they have already suppressed themselves ten percent. The Versailles system for several years has since entered an irreversible process of collapse.

Chapter 217 Two Red Deer

The smooth progress of the Anglo-German naval negotiations made Rear Admiral Hermann Göring very excited, because once the agreement was signed, it meant that Germany could finally build aircraft carriers in a fair manner.Although the German Navy has actually broken through the restrictions of the "Treaty of Versailles" in many aspects before, compared with the inconspicuous gadgets like submarines, the physique of the aircraft carrier is so eye-catching that it is impossible for the British It's dark under the nose of Chen Cang.

Although Germany has not officially built an aircraft carrier, it has never dared to relax in its exploration of aircraft carrier technology.In order to prepare for the construction of aircraft carriers in the future, the German Navy not only built well-equipped land test and training facilities, but also secretly strengthened Japan's technical cooperation, including sending several batches of student pilots to Japan to participate in the take-off and landing training of carrier-based aircraft. They even directly bought back the blueprints of the two light aircraft carriers "Fengxiang" and "Ryujang" for reference.

Don't be surprised why Germany bought back the design drawings of these two classes of aircraft carriers that were seen by later generations as having a lot of problems. As an extremely complex combat system, the design evolution process of warships is just like the evolution process of creatures. When it comes to complex and iterative processes, can you say that the study of intermediate forms of biological evolution is of no value to the study of modern organisms?

For the same reason, although the "Hosho" and "Ryūjō" aircraft carriers designed by Japan during this period were not particularly successful, these two are important links in the evolution history of aircraft carriers in Japan and the world, and their reference value is not significant. It's not something that the traverser can fully make up for with the knowledge of later generations.The more complete large and medium-sized fleet aircraft carriers built by Japan later were the products of further evolution from these imperfect predecessors.

Speaking of this, it is not difficult for us to understand why when the later republics develop aircraft carriers, they must first start by referring to and continuing to build Soviet aircraft carriers, then design and build an improved model by themselves, and finally proceed to the next step on this basis technical iterations.This is not because the experts of the Republic do not know the limitations of the Soviet-style aircraft carrier, but because it is difficult for complex technical equipment to reach a perfect state without drawing on the experience of the predecessors.Just as biological evolution is full of alternations of gradual changes and mutations, it must also follow the basic context.

Under Helena's planning in recent years, Germany's surface warships have ranged from the 6800-ton "Emden"-class light cruiser to the 9600-ton "Konigsberg"-class light cruiser, and then to the 15200-ton "Deutschland" Class armored ship, and finally to the 36500-ton high-speed battleship under construction.The displacement is from small to large, and the technology is from easy to difficult. Each model has inheritance and improvement compared with the previous model, and the evolution context is very clear.So although each new model will encounter some new technical difficulties, there has never been an irreparable technical defect.

From this point of view, Helena did not forcibly break the context of technological evolution. She just took advantage of the knowledge from later generations to make Germany's iteration speed faster, trial and error costs lower, and the direction clearer in the process of technological progress. Just clear.In the development of aircraft carriers, she is still prepared to follow this strategy.

It's just that time does not allow Germany to carry out as many development iterations on the aircraft carrier as Britain, the United States and Japan, so she is going to let Germany start by studying the design gains and losses of the two "problem children" "Fengxiang" and "Longxiang". Combining Germany's own research results and her design experience from later generations, she first developed a medium-sized protective aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 20000 tons, and then developed and built a larger armored aircraft carrier.

At that time, when he learned that Helena purchased aircraft carrier technical materials from Japan through the "Ship Construction Engineering Bureau", Goering, who had always been concerned about the development of carrier-based aviation, came to ask Helena whether the navy should pay for the money.However, the result of the final development of the situation has refreshed Goering's worldview, because the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau found out during the calculation that Germany actually made money when it conducted aircraft carrier technical exchanges with Japan.

You read that right!The Ship Construction Engineering Bureau took the aircraft carrier technology from Japan, and even made money from the Japanese.The reason is that in 1933, the Japanese Army planned to invite bids to build an "Army Landing Combat Mothership", which required a displacement of between 8000 and 10000 tons, could carry six bombers and six fighters, and be able to carry out soldiers and supplies.

The Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau, who had just received the blueprint of the "Fengxiang" light aircraft carrier from the Japanese Navy, saw that the thing at hand was quite in line with the requirements of the Japanese Army?So I modified the blueprint of the "Fengxiang" aircraft carrier overnight, and went to the Japanese Army to bid. I didn't expect to win the heart of the Japanese Army all at once. You must know that the Japanese Navy has always been strictly guarded against the Army in terms of ship technology. Obstinate.

As a result, the Japanese Army paid a large amount of consulting fees to the Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau for nothing and felt that this time it made a lot of money. Since the Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau made adaptive changes to many details of the warship, including the design of the superstructure, the Japanese Army did not think so at all. Knowing that the design plan that made them excited was based on the navy's "Fengxiang" light aircraft carrier.So a few months later, the transport ship named "Shenzhou Maru" by the Japanese Army started construction.

So after selling the high-strength aluminum alloy technology to the Japanese Navy and Army respectively and earning double the money, the German industry found that the door to a new world was opened to itself.Now the German high-level people know that there are two deer in the far east, one of which is a red deer (meaning a fool in Japanese, because Helena talked too much, now even the mustache knows the meaning of this word), the other is a red deer. Or red deer.

What Helena did next became more and more unscrupulous. For example, through the matchmaking of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau, Helena even sold the German U21 submarine technology during World War I to the Japanese Army at a high price as an underwater transport boat.Don't be surprised why the technology that is 20 years behind can still be sold at a high price. Although the German submarine technology during World War I is of little value to the Japanese navy, it is still more reliable than the "Yu" submarine that the Japanese army made on its own in the previous plane. A lot of.

In the last plane, the Japanese Army has always dreamed of submarine technology, but the Japanese Navy has been defending the Japanese Army like a thief.During World War II, as the offensive of American submarines and aviation broke through, the Japanese Army's sea transportation lines became more and more unsustainable, so the Japanese Army finally made up its mind to bypass the Navy to build submarines.After some tossing, the Japanese Army really worked out a transport submarine called "Yu" class behind the navy's back.

The ecstatic Japanese Army invited the navy to participate in the maiden voyage ceremony of this type of submarine.As a result, due to lack of technical experience, the submarine could not dive forward and backward in the water.Finally, the submarine sank, and the army officers on the shore cheered that the submarine had successfully dived. Only the navy who was invited to watch realized that it was not a successful dive at all, but really sank!

The submarine was fished up in a hurry, and the navy, which couldn't stand it, finally decided to make an exception and give the poor army a hand.After some technical improvements, the first three "Yu" class submarines of the Japanese Army were finally barely usable.However, the fate of these three submarines was not very good. Two were sunk by the Americans and one was frightened and sunk.You read that right, one of the Japanese Army was frightened and sunk. This submarine, which had been suffering from constant problems, dived in an emergency to avoid American aircraft, but it could no longer float up...

Chapter 218 It's All About You

The Shipbuilding and Engineering Bureau sold the same technology to the Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy, and sold the technology back and forth between the Japanese Army and the Navy to make money. Now the German political and business circles regard this pair of live treasures as a joke after dinner. .But the Japanese themselves do not seem to realize this.This is because every time Helena conducts such technology trading activities, she carries out reprocessing and repackaging under the banner of "increasing added value".

For example, when bidding for the Japanese Army's "Army Landing Combat Mother Ship", the Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau designed a large island and dock for it.In this way, it is difficult to find any connection between this ship and the "Fengxiang" just by looking at it.Therefore, when the technical exchange between the army and the navy is about zero, it is impossible for the Japanese army to find out that the "army land combat mother ship" plan provided by the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau is actually the "Fengxiang" light aircraft carrier of the navy next door. product of.

In short, in this transaction, Helena can be described as a big win.It not only obtained the Japanese Navy’s aircraft carrier technical reserve, but also earned the Japanese Army’s technical consulting fees. While letting the Japanese Army act as a guinea pig, it also trained Germany’s own aircraft carrier technical team. It can be said that it was spent on other people’s money. Is my own dream.

Of course, the Japanese army is not completely useless. Compared with the "Shenzhou Maru" in the previous plane, which is a pure transport ship, it only has the transportation capacity of small boats and aircraft and basically has no aviation operation capability.Although the "Shenzhou Maru" on this plane has a standard displacement of only 8700 tons, at least it can already realize the most basic deck aviation operations.It's just that the length of the deck is too cramped, and under normal circumstances the plane can only take off but not land.

With the technical assistance of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau, the "Shenzhou Maru" loaded 1934 tons of cargo in November 11, and ran a speed of more than 5600 knots during the trial voyage, and then joined the Japanese Army Ship Command to serve. The success of the "Shenzhou Maru" greatly encouraged the Japanese Army Ship Command, and soon introduced a plan to build a huge ocean-going fleet with a total tonnage of 22 tons.According to the vision of the Japanese Army Ship Command, the plan will enable the Japanese Army to have the ability to operate completely independently, and will no longer need to rely on naval ships for transportation and escort.

The Japanese Army's crazy fleet plan not only immediately attracted strong opposition from the Japanese Navy, but also shocked the Germans in Europe, because the total tonnage of the German Navy's active ships is only about 20 tons.So much so that when Goering reached out to the mustache for money, he always said bitterly: "If Germany does not strengthen the allocation of funds for the construction of the navy, our sea power will soon be inferior to the Japanese army!"

Helena is relatively calm about this, and even a little happy to hear it.The reason for being calm is that the Japanese Army in the previous plane also formulated this grand plan, but due to insufficient technology and resource shortages, the tonnage in the plan has shrunk again and again.As for what I like to hear, it is because if Japan's own war potential is limited, if the Japanese army wastes more resources on competing with the navy, it will undoubtedly be beneficial to Helena's motherland in her previous life.

In the previous plane, since most of Japan's shipbuilding industry resources were controlled by the navy, it was basically impossible for the Japanese army to realize its maritime ambitions.On the other hand, the Japanese Army in this plane can obtain shipbuilding technology from the outside world due to the channel of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau. Naturally, it is more enthusiastic about building an independent shipbuilding capability that bypasses the navy.As a result, the Japanese army and navy's competition for limited military resources became more acute under Helena's intentional or unintentional instigation.

As a result, when the Japanese Army, with the help of the Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau, decided to start construction of two light aircraft carriers with a standard displacement of up to 15000 tons. The Japanese navy, which had robbed their jobs, could no longer sit still.

Based on the principle that if you rob my job, I can also rob yours, the Japanese navy, which believes that the southward strategy it advocates cannot be supported by the army, is now ready to leave the army and go it alone.They naturally set their sights on the army's heavy equipment, and Helena also kindly sent the technical solutions that had been prepared.

This is a plan with a one-piece watertight body and two water-jet propulsion devices. The maximum water speed can reach 12 kilometers per hour. After the Japanese Navy inspected it, it immediately looked down on the one provided by Mitsubishi with a The buoy plan was approved, so Germany made another sum of money from Mitsubishi through technology licensing.This amphibious combat vehicle, which was born a few years earlier than the last plane, still got that weird name - the Special Type [-] Inner Fireboat, because the Japanese Navy felt that the name "amphibious combat vehicle" was an army horse dung. It is a name that can only be used. Naturally, the navy cannot humiliate the lintel in the name.

In any case, in Japan's land-sea dispute, German ship engineers and technicians not only gained part of the design experience of the Japanese Navy, but also honed their skills in the process of helping the Japanese Army formulate a technical plan for a two-stage aircraft carrier.Germany started from the current technology to design a protective aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 20000 tons. Compared with the "Zeppelin" class aircraft carrier designed by Germany with a standard displacement of 24500 tons in the previous plane, the technical span is much smaller. up.

Therefore, although the "Zeppelin" class aircraft carrier designed by Germany in the last plane has shortcomings such as the low efficiency of continuous flight, and the horizontal protection is too weak relative to the tonnage.But this time Helena is not planning to go to the sky in one step. She believes that with better technical reserves and a more stable technical route, combined with her own summary of the gains and losses of future aircraft carrier designs, the possibility of this new aircraft carrier design is very small. It is also predictable that some of the more excellent works under the same tonnage.

Chapter 219 It's So Good

Although as early as when the two super cruise ships "Bremen" and "Europa" were built, Helena considered converting these two behemoths with a standard displacement of more than 4 tons and a maximum speed of more than 36 knots into aircraft carriers in the future. possibility.But at that time, Helena still had a lot of confusion about the basic question of what kind of aircraft carrier Germany needed.However, with the gradual deepening of her thinking over the years, Helena has basically sorted out her thoughts on this issue.

In World War II on the last plane, the development ideas of British aircraft carriers were quite different from those of the United States and Japan. This difference can be roughly summarized into two aspects. The first aspect is the emphasis on the adaptability of aircraft carriers to high sea conditions. Specific manifestations include the widespread use of closed bows, the general use of inboard elevators, the requirement that carrier-based aircraft be stored in hangars instead of deck moorings, etc.; the second aspect is the emphasis on the comprehensive protection capabilities of aircraft carriers, including the use of The thick armored flight deck, from the side wall of the hangar to the core cabin, is usually protected by armored boxes that can shoot 6-inch naval guns at a certain distance.

The reason for this difference is not difficult to understand, which is determined by the special geographical environment of the United Kingdom.On the one hand, the British aircraft carrier must adapt to the battlefield environment with high winds and high waves in the North Atlantic, otherwise there will be problems in many days even when it is safe to cruise out of the port, let alone take off and land aircraft for combat.Therefore, the closed bow, inboard elevators, and emphasis on the storage of carrier-based aircraft hangars, which are conducive to activities in high sea conditions, have naturally become the iconic features of British aircraft carriers.

On the other hand, Britain needs to face more diverse battlefield threats than the United States and Japan.Both the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are within the combat radius of shore-based aircraft, and the aircraft carrier is always facing raids from any direction.Coupled with the fact that the North Sea is shrouded in sea fog all year round, this low-visibility battlefield environment will weaken the aircraft carrier's attack distance advantage over traditional surface warships.Therefore, the British aircraft carrier has to guard against accidentally crashing into the range of the opponent's naval gun.Therefore, the British aircraft carrier has more comprehensive armor protection at the same tonnage, which has become a logical choice for the bulls.

Take the "Glorious" class aircraft carrier of the British aircraft carrier in World War II as an example. The standard displacement of this type of aircraft carrier is 23000 tons, which is several thousand tons lower than that of the "Shokaku" class and "Essex" class of the United States and Japan. However, 62% of the length of the flight deck is covered with 76 mm thick horizontal armor. The upper end of the 114 mm thick side armor is connected to the flight deck, and the lower end continues below the waterline, protecting the entire aircraft carrier. Library side walls and core compartment.

However, the emphasis on adaptability and protection capabilities to high sea conditions has also brought some negative impacts on British aircraft carriers. Among them, the relatively insufficient number of aircraft is most criticized by military fans in later generations.

Still take the "Glorious" class aircraft carrier mentioned above as an example. Its hangar area without elevators is only 2568 square meters, while the American "Yorktown" class with a standard displacement of more than 3000 tons is smaller than it. However, the area is as high as 2863 square meters, and the height of the 5.2-meter hangar is much higher than the 4.9 meters of the glorious class, so that the United States can often hang some fighters on the top of the hangar to expand the carrying capacity.

The relatively cramped hangar space, coupled with the less use of deck mooring carrier aircraft in the UK, makes the number of carrier aircraft of the "Glorious" class far behind that of the American "Yorktown" class, which has a much smaller displacement than itself.Under normal conditions, the number of brilliant-class carrier aircraft with a standard displacement of 23000 tons is only 33. Even if the carrier aircraft is expanded through deck mooring, it can only carry 57 aircraft. The characteristics of strong defense and weak attack are very obvious.In contrast, the "Yorktown" class with a standard displacement of less than 20000 tons can carry 72 aircraft under normal conditions, and can be expanded to 91 aircraft if necessary. It is hard to believe that this is just a medium-sized fleet aircraft carrier .

Since they belong to the countries surrounding the North Sea, from the perspective of the theater environment, the future German aircraft carrier will actually face many problems similar to the British aircraft carrier, such as the high sea environment in the North Sea where the wind and waves are raging all the year round, such as the enemy's shore base that may arrive unexpectedly at any time. Air and sea forces, and the possibility of close contact with the opponent's conventional combat ships... Logically speaking, Helena can design an aircraft carrier suitable for North Sea operations, but Helena is not prepared to do so.

Although the overall strength of the British Royal Navy will inevitably be stronger than that of the German Navy for a long period of time in the future, the progress of the times has already made the near-shore blockade commonly used in the age of sails impossible, so the Royal Navy must be able to adopt Offshore blockade strategy to besiege Germany.

This has brought about an interesting phenomenon: in order to suppress the German navy, the relatively strong Royal Navy must adopt defensive tactics tactically. It is impossible for Britain to counterattack the European continent by its own strength; However, in terms of tactics, the offensive must be taken instead. If the naval surface ships just stay at home as an existing fleet, then Germany can basically declare that its maritime strategy has failed, and the war cannot be won by relying on submarines alone.

And this difference in offensive and defensive posture will inevitably lead to differences in the design ideas of the British and German aircraft carriers, even if the aircraft carriers of the two sides will meet on the same sea map in the future.It’s like the Japanese and American aircraft carriers in the last plane. Although both focused on the vast Pacific battlefield far away from the mainland, so that there are many similarities in the design ideas, due to the different combat purposes and tactical scenarios of the aircraft carrier, they each present their own unique characteristics. The same distinctive features.

Since the German aircraft carrier is likely to be the offensive side tactically in the future, this gives the Germans natural power, that is, the Germans can choose the battlefield and attack time relatively freely, and the British must respond to this Yes, no one dares to bear the consequences of actually putting the German fleet into the Atlantic Ocean.

In this game process, the two sides have different expectations for the aircraft carrier.

The British's expectation for the aircraft carrier is: if the local forces have an advantage, as long as the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier can reduce the action capability of the German warships, it will be a victory, and the large fleet behind will naturally swarm up to beat up the German warships that have lost their speed advantage; And if local forces are not dominant, the British need to ensure that the aircraft carrier has sufficient survivability, and being able to deal with the opponent to the large fleet or the shore-based aviation department to come to support is a victory.

And Helena's expectation for the future German aircraft carrier is: if local forces are dominant, the attack capability of the German aircraft carrier must be able to cause irreversible damage to a certain squadron of the opponent before the British support forces arrive; The situation is not good. The German aircraft carrier must have sufficient maneuverability and damage resistance, and must be able to evacuate to a safe sea area under the cover of its own forces if luck is not too bad.

2 Chapter Twenty Core Defense

Although before officially starting to design aircraft carriers for the Navy, German ship designers had thoroughly studied the design of the Japanese Navy's two types of aircraft carriers, and also used the Japanese Army as guinea pigs to design two types of transport ships with full decks.However, Helena's design requirements for the new aircraft carrier still caused the German designers to lose a lot of brain cells.Fortunately, Helena, the traveler, was always on the sidelines, and the designers finally completed the detailed design of the new aircraft carrier in the spring of 1935.

Although the naval negotiations between Germany and the United Kingdom are still ongoing at this time, the German navy has already started preliminary preparations. Rear Admiral Goering, who can't wait, even asked the shipyard to vacate the berth first. As soon as the agreement was signed, the first keel of the aircraft carrier was hoisted immediately.According to the plan formulated by the German Navy, a total of four aircraft carriers of this type will be built. In order to free up construction funds for these aircraft carriers, the Navy even cut off the follow-up construction plan for heavy cruisers.

Due to Helena's high performance requirements for the new aircraft carrier, when the design plan of the new aircraft carrier was finalized, the standard displacement had risen to a level of 22500 tons, which somewhat exceeded Helena's initial expectations.However, because the Navy was unwilling to accept the shrinking performance of the new aircraft carrier, Helena finally reluctantly accepted the fact that the tonnage of the new aircraft carrier increased.

新型航母的动力系统依然沿用了“德意志”级装甲舰的布置。依然是八台圆形炉膛增压锅炉和四台串联/并联反动式蒸汽轮机交错布置的组合。不过蒸汽参数有了很大提高：蒸汽温度从“德意志”级的400摄氏度提高到了480摄氏度，蒸汽压力也从“德意志”级的40千克/平方厘米提高到了60千克/平方厘米。这个参数已经赶上了上个位面德国在“沙恩霍斯特”级战列舰上使用的参数，所以虽然整套动力系统的构架大体保存原样，但总输出功率从136000马力提高到了162000马力。

It is particularly worth mentioning that the steam temperature of 480 degrees Celsius and the steam parameters of 60 kg/cm24 used by the new aircraft carrier have been verified on 450 newly built destroyers.This parameter exceeds the steam parameters of steam temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and steam pressure of [-] kg/cm[-] used by the high-speed battleship under construction, and is also the highest steam parameter used by Helena on large German ships so far.

However, Helena will not continue to increase the steam parameters of the ship's power system for a long period of time in the future. This is because such high steam parameters combined with supercharged boilers and series/parallel reaction steam turbines have approached this era. Technical upper limit of turbine power system.That is to say, Helena's process of increasing the power density of the steam turbine power system on the home plane has come to an end. In the future, Helena's focus on improving the ship's power system will mainly focus on improving lifespan and reliability.

With the support of such a powerful power system, the four double-variable-pitch off-knife five-blade propellers are expected to push the warship to a high speed of more than 36 knots under the rated output power, which ensures that the new aircraft carrier can compete with Germany in the future. A group of high-speed warships in the navy act together.The three semi-balanced rudders, one main and two auxiliary, inherited from the "Deutschland" class armored ship, will enable this type of warship to have a good turning ability. The Pacific War on the last plane has proved that the maneuverability of the warship can avoid diving. Value during bombing and torpedo attacks.

The high speed and good turning performance of the new aircraft carrier give it the most basic survivability. The former makes it easier for the new aircraft carrier to get rid of enemy warships, and the latter allows the warships to have more opportunities to avoid enemy bombs and warships. torpedo.However, warships wander in a big bathtub like the North Sea, and blindly relying on mobility to avoid them cannot completely guarantee survivability, so the hard protection of the battleship itself is also very important.Therefore, Helena also attaches great importance to the protection design of the new warship. However, due to the different positioning of the war, the new German aircraft carrier does not have the same protection as the British "Glory" class aircraft carrier (standard displacement 23000 tons) of similar tonnage. Both the flight deck and the hangar are wrapped in heavy armor to form an oversized armor box.

The new German aircraft carrier pays more attention to the protection of the core cabin. That is to say, the flight deck and hangar of the German aircraft carrier only have relatively thin structural steel plates, which can basically be regarded as unprotected areas.In contrast to the streaking flight deck and hangar, the German aircraft carrier's thoughtful protection of the core area.