Iron Sonata of World War II

Since the German government began to take strict control measures on gold and foreign exchange reserves, the overseas investment managed by the Peace Fund account has essentially transformed into a component of the German sovereign wealth fund.Considering that the German government’s annual financial expenditure last year was only more than 50 billion U.S. dollars converted according to the exchange rate, the value of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars profited by shorting the Italian lira this time is still very impressive.According to the estimation of Germany’s imports for the whole of last year, this part of the funds is enough to cover Germany’s import needs for five years. Of course, this is also based on the fact that Germany’s total imports have dropped from nearly 6 million US dollars before the crisis to about 2 million US dollars last year. Up.

Even if calculated purely from the perspective of economic interests, Germany’s assistance to Ethiopia in the Italian-Egyptian war can definitely be regarded as a small business with huge profits, but Helena believes that Germany’s most important gain in this incident is not These economic interests that can be directly quantified and calculated are hidden assets that are invisible and intangible in the military, political and diplomatic fields. It is important to know that the value of these hidden assets in the future cannot be simply measured by a string of money symbols of.

In terms of military affairs, by sending an aviation volunteer team to Ethiopia, Germany not only acquired hundreds of fighter and dive bomber pilots with initial combat experience, but also allowed many tactical theories and military ideas that were only on paper to be used in war for the first time. Practice proves its value or exposes remaining problems.The air-ground coordination tactic in the Battle of Tempion is a good example. The precise removal of the fortifications of the besieged Italian army and the successful interception of the Italian reinforcements proved the effectiveness of this tactic. However, due to lack of experience, the air-ground coordination Problems such as poor coordination and out-of-coordination between escort fighters and bombers are also common.However, what is certain is that whether it is a successful experience or a lesson from mistakes, it will effectively promote the improvement of the Luftwaffe's combat effectiveness in the future.

In terms of politics, Germany, through all-round assistance to Ethiopia, made its previous high-profile political declaration against colonialism no longer remain in empty diplomatic rhetoric, but instantly acquired a vivid image in practice. It is undoubtedly very beneficial to seize the inevitable outlet of the world's national liberation wave.In this era when the consciousness of national liberation in the colonies and semi-colonies is constantly awakening, as long as Germany can continue to hold firmly the banner of opposing colonialism in the future, it will be able to take anti-colonialism as its own unique ecological niche, and then continue to flow from the colonies and semi-colonies. The semi-colonial national liberation wave draws strength, and this national liberation force is precisely the existence that all colonial countries will never be able to overcome. Therefore, as long as Germany stands firmly in the political ecological niche of national liberation, it is tantamount to standing on its own when confronting Britain, France and other countries. Invincible.

In addition to bringing economic, military and political benefits to Germany, the Italian-Egyptian war in this plane actually improved the surrounding diplomatic environment of Poland. Although France may not have caused such a result, Helena did It is believed that it was the alliance between France and Italy that objectively caused such a result.It is very interesting that both France and Germany believe that this will lead to the future development of the European political structure in a direction that is beneficial to them in the matter of the French-Italian alliance. Gave yourself this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Chapter 324 New Diplomatic Strategies

"The Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Stoyadinovich, has just contacted us through private channels. He said that Yugoslavia hopes to implement a more independent foreign policy in the future, and change the tendency of the Eastern European Small Entente Group to follow the lead of France. It seems that France will make Italy Pulling into the alliance system really shocked Yugoslavia.” At this time, Hitler was beaming with joy as he described Germany’s new diplomatic situation after the Italian-Egyptian War to Helena: “Although Romania did not directly express its estrangement from France, it also expressed that it would strengthen its relationship with France.” The diplomatic willingness to cooperate with us, the development of events as Miss Helena predicted, the French move to win over Italy will inevitably create an irreparable rift between France and its Eastern European allies."

"Your Excellency, the head of state, has seen the crux of the problem. It is well known that Italy covets the territory of Yugoslavia on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea. Although I deeply doubt whether Italy can defeat Yugoslavia if it is singled out, but it can What is certain is that from the moment France and Italy formed an alliance, France has become less reliable in the eyes of the Little Entente in Eastern Europe. After all, for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, France rashly made peace with them without exchanging views Italy's alliance is a blatant betrayal." Helena responded with a serious face.

Helena jokingly said that Italy might not be able to defeat Yugoslavia in a one-on-one match. In fact, it is not entirely a lie. In the battle of Yugoslavia in the historical plane, the German army in charge of the main attack on the northern front cost a small price of more than 500 casualties in the first four days of the war. It defeated the main force of Yugoslavia and captured Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.However, under the background that Yugoslavia had already been defeated, the more than 20 Italian troops on the southern front, who served as auxiliary offensive tasks, not only failed to pinch the Southern Army as planned, but were pierced by more than 4 Yugoslav miscellaneous troops that had just been mobilized. The line of defense was broken and more than 3000 people were killed or injured.

Regarding this, Helena couldn't help but muttered in her heart full of malice: Fortunately, the German army's blitzkrieg action against Yugoslavia in the historical plane was fast enough, causing the Yugoslav government to surrender on the No. 11 day when the war broke out. It was deployed on the southern front to deal with Italy, otherwise the more than 20 Italian troops on the southern front would be really unpredictable.Although the various ethnic groups in Yugoslavia often fight among themselves, each of them is a guy with abundant martial arts in the historical plane.

"The main purpose of France's recruitment of the Little Entente in Eastern Europe was to ensure its authority in the European continent. Therefore, in the eyes of France, the primary goal of the existence of the Little Entente is to contain Germany, and the secondary goal is to prevent the Soviet Union in the future. However, the Little Entente In fact, the member states do not all want to be the pawns of France to restrict Germany and the Soviet Union. They also have their own independent demands in terms of national security. Except for Slovakia, the rest of Romania and Yugoslavia do not border Germany; except for Romania, the rest of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia do not directly border the Soviet Union. Compared with fighting against behemoths like Germany and the Soviet Union, guarding against Hungary and Bulgaria The revenge of the small powers in the region is the common security appeal of the three countries." Helena continued.

"Originally there was always a gap between France and the Little Entente in terms of security demands, but this internal contradiction was not exposed because of France's security guarantees for these Eastern European countries. In addition to common security demands, there are also unique security demands: Czechoslovakia also needs to guard against Germany, Romania also needs to guard against the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia also needs to guard against Italy. The relationship between France and the Soviet Union and Italy was not close before. I believe in France's security guarantee, but now France has been dazzled in order to contain Germany's resurgence. At the beginning of this year, the French Parliament formally approved the "French-Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty" and Romania, which has the need to guard against the Soviet Union, began to question whether France could survive the Soviet Union. Whether they can guarantee their safety when attacking, and this time France's direct alliance with Yugoslavia's potential enemy, Italy, makes Yugoslavia feel chilling. You must know that for Romania and Yugoslavia, which do not directly border Germany, the need to guard against the Soviet Union and Italy But it is far more urgent than the need to guard against Germany, and now France, which they regard as their big brother, has reconciled and even formed an alliance with their potential enemies in order to contain Germany, how can the three Eastern European countries trust France's security guarantee in the future?" Helena curled her lips in disdain as she spoke: "So although France is still the leader of the small Eastern European Entente on the surface, it is actually like a dilapidated house that will collapse if you kick it. "

Hitler nodded approvingly after hearing Helena's words. He has been in power all these years and Germany has been committed to burying various nails in the Eastern European Union of France.For example, Germany first signed a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1934, which led to a rapid increase in the export of raw materials from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Germany, especially the export trade of antimony ore and lead-zinc ore to Germany, which brought the Yugoslav economy out of the lowest point after the economic crisis.Less than three weeks after Germany and Yugoslavia reached a trade agreement, Romania, another resource exporter in the Small Entente, conveyed to Germany its willingness to promote trade between the two countries, but Germany at the time said "only for countries that have not politically supported our opponents." Sacrifice, Romania does not belong to this list" reason rejected Romania's request, which prompted Romania to begin to change its unilateral political support for France.Therefore, Germany also signed a trade agreement with Romania in 1935, importing wheat to Romania at a price slightly higher than that of the international market at the same time. Although Romania still restricted its share of oil exports to Germany under the pressure of France, this did not hinder Romania Growth of pro-German influence.

Later, Germany came forward to improve the relationship between Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary, which not only further undermined the foundation of the internal unity of the Little Entente, but also further reduced France's control over the Little Entente.The Kingdom of Yugoslavia even stated that if Germany could help improve the relationship between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and help Yugoslavia resist military threats from Italy, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia could even consider withdrawing from the alliance with France.The improvement of relations between Yugoslavia and Romania and Germany directly led to greater differences between France and the Little Entente, while Czechoslovakia, the only one of the Little Entente that had a real need to defend against Germany, fell into isolation.But Czechoslovakia is actually very entangled in its stance on Germany. After all, Czechoslovakia and Germany are too close geographically, have too far-reaching historical ties, and have too close economic ties.Therefore, although the small Eastern European Entente is still the younger brother of France in name, it has actually lost the ability to restrain Germany.With the alliance of France and Italy this time, the centrifugal tendency of the small Eastern European Entente and France became more serious.

"However, Germany still can't let Britain see that France's huge alliance system is actually strong from the outside, so even if the alliance between France and the three Eastern European countries is already a dilapidated house that can be easily kicked down, Germany now needs to make this dilapidated house It will continue to exist for a period of time. Therefore, we can accept the recent overt and covert gestures of Yugoslavia and Romania, but for the time being, we cannot directly dismember the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, because we will need to use the French system in the future. The alliance system that has already been riddled with holes continues to cover us in front of the suspicious British. France’s inclusion of Italy in the alliance system has violated the bottom line of Britain’s maintenance of the balance of power in the European continent.” Helena said: “So now although we We are as stable as an old dog in our hearts, but we must pretend to be panicked by the stimulation of the French-Italian alliance on the outside, and this stimulated appearance is mainly for the British on the island. The real purpose of our pretending It was actually to stimulate the British on the island."

"So from Miss Helena's point of view, how can we pretend to be irritated to irritate the British?" Hitler asked intentionally, although he almost had the answer in his heart at this time.

"We just need to create that Germany is seeking strategic contact with the Soviet Union because it is oppressed by the French-Italian alliance." Helena replied without thinking, and then she added: "This is not to say that we want to really form an alliance with the Soviet Union. Instead, it is necessary to create a situation in which the Soviet Union and Germany are approaching strategically. Because whether France reproduces the glory of dominating the European continent in the Napoleonic era, or Germany and the Soviet Union truly form an alliance, these are absolutely unacceptable options for the world hegemony of the United Kingdom. There is no need for these scenarios to become real, just to make them possible is enough to keep Britain up at night. In order to prevent France from dominating the continent or Germany from an alliance with the Soviet Union, the only option for the UK is to secretly help us share the French burden. Therefore, we don’t need to seek an alliance with any country at this stage, because non-alignment means keeping all possible changes. In the international political game, possibility itself can be used as a bargaining chip. Your Excellency the Head of State believes that we will use it in the future. How about the possibility of an alliance with the Soviet Union in exchange for a tacit approval of your homecoming from Great Britain?"

What Helena said made Hitler's eyes shine, but he still asked cautiously: "Miss Helena is not afraid that France and Italy will obstruct us?" At this time, Helena could even hear Hitler's words. He made the vibrato that he brought because he was too excited.

"When we complete the army expansion plan for this year and next year, will the French dare to go to war against us without the support of the British? The current economic situation in Italy cannot be eased in a few years. Can they start a war against us before they recover? I doubt that Italy will have the ability to launch a foreign war in the next few years. After all, if they force a war, it is tantamount to sending Italy to power. We can’t go to war, and it’s impossible for the Eastern European Allied Powers to help France get out of the fire, so why are we afraid of France? We won’t lose to the French.” Helena said confidently, and Hitler became excited after hearing this I had to stand up and pace the office nervously.

Chapter 325 The Death of the Airship

Hitler's excitement didn't show any signs of fading until dinner time. If Helena hadn't politely declined Hitler's invitation to stay in the Führer's Palace for dinner, Hitler might have pulled her to continue today's topic forever. Compared to listening to Hitler preaching the superiority of vegetarian food, Helena obviously prefers the warm dining table in her home, so after explaining to Hitler in detail her vision for the future German diplomatic strategy, Helena hurriedly left Hitler with a little tiredness. Tonight, she needs to take good care of herself, because tomorrow she will be invited to attend the first flight ceremony of the "Hindenburg" super airship. Naturally, Helena is not satisfied with such a famous spectacle of the times in the historical plane. Would have missed the chance to witness its birth.

The "Hindenburg" super airship in the historical plane was the largest aircraft in the atmosphere ever built by humans until Helena crossed over.We might as well use the simplest line drawing to outline the majestic body of this behemoth: the total length of this type of super airship is 245 meters, which is very close to the super cruise ship "Titanic"; and the maximum diameter of 41.4 meters is higher than a 13-story building.The 16 bags on the boat contain a total of 20 cubic meters of hydrogen, which is basically equivalent to the sum of the volumes of 100 standard swimming pools, and the total volume of up to 230 tons exceeds that of the later American B-52 strategic bombers. Maximum takeoff weight. The astonishingly huge size of the "Hindenburg" super airship made it a spectacle of the times when it was born. People who rejoiced for this airship at that time might hardly have imagined that it was this super airship that became the foundation of large commercial airships. The era has come to a painful end.

On the afternoon of May 1937, 5 in the historical plane, the "Hindenburg" airship that set sail from Frankfurt, Germany three days ago finally arrived at the destination of the trip - the Naval Air Terminal on Lake Lake, New Jersey, USA.Because the airship encountered a strong storm in the Atlantic Ocean before, and the sky over Lake Lake was in a thunderstorm when it approached its destination. Now the airship’s arrival time is more than ten hours later than the expected arrival time, and finally waited until the wind weakened enough to allow landing. level, the captain began to order the airship to descend in a headwind attitude, which is also the safest landing attitude for the airship. The "Hindenburg" has experienced 6 round-trip safe cross-ocean flights in the Atlantic Ocean before, and Zeppelin, which is in charge of operating the "Hindenburg", has maintained a record of zero casualties for more than 17 years, so passengers Although anxious because of the delay, no one worried about the safety of the airship.

However, what is unpredictable is that the wind direction suddenly changes during the landing process. At this time, the captain has two choices: either choose to delay more time to go around the field to align with the wind direction, or choose to make an emergency turn on the spot to the opposite direction. According to the wind direction, the experienced captain chose the latter. He first ordered the airship to make an emergency left turn to align with the wind direction, and then ordered the airship to make an emergency right turn to align with the mooring tower.However, at this time the airship tilted top-heavy again. In order to prevent the tail of the airship from rubbing the ground, the captain ordered to pour 1 ton of ballast water and ordered the 6 crew members in the restaurant at the tail to move forward. The attitude balance of the airship was restored, and the airship was able to continue to descend to a height of about 60 meters. At this time, the staff dropped two anchor cables from the rear of the airship.According to the usual practice, the ground personnel should first control the anchor cable to prevent the airship from drifting left and right, then the airship will drop the front main mooring cable and two anchor cables to form a triangular stay rope, and finally the ground personnel will tighten the triangular stay rope through the winch to lift the airship Just locate.

However, at this moment, an accident happened suddenly.Just when the two anchor cables landed on the ground, a bright flame burst out from the rear of the airship near the tail, and then the violent sinking of the tail of the airship caused the airship to stand upright and fall sharply. At the same time, the hydrogen burning flames It spread to the front of the airship at an astonishing speed, and it took only 34 seconds to burn the 200-meter-long giant airship into a skeleton.Although 91 of the 64 crew members on board escaped from death due to the low altitude of the airship from the ground and the timely rescue on the ground, the tragedy that happened in full view of the public severely damaged the public's trust in the airship as a means of transportation. Since then, the commercial airships in service have been withdrawn from active service one after another. Coupled with the rapid advancement of aircraft technology in the 30s, the dominance of giant airships in long-range commercial aviation quickly fell, while airplanes took over the crown dropped by airships and have since become civil aviation. ruler of the field.

Later generations have different opinions on the cause of the accident of the "Hindenburg" super airship, but Helena believes that the more credible statement is that the emergency left and right turns of the airship formed a large lateral force at the tail, and the stress concentration caused the accident there. A support cable was broken, and the broken steel cable slammed on the airbag like a whip, causing the airbag at the rear to rupture and hydrogen gas leaked out. The tail tilt that occurred after the airship made an emergency turn may be related to the hydrogen gas leak.At this time, the body of the airship has accumulated a lot of static electricity during the flight, and when the anchor cable dropped from the airship is grounded, the charge on the metal frame of the airship is quickly neutralized by the ground, but the Mongolian with poor conductivity The charge on the skin is not so easy to be neutralized, so the potential difference between the airship's skeleton and the skin produces an electric spark and ignites the hydrogen leaking from the tail, thus the tragedy of the "Hindenburg" super airship happened like this up.

The author has something to say: I recommend "Elegy to the Traveler" written by the immortal salted fish. The traveler spent eight generations laying a foundation for civilization with a soul.

Chapter 326 Building Wonders

Of course, Helena knew that even without the serious safety accident of the "Hindenburg" super airship in the historical plane, with the rapid advancement of aircraft in terms of technical performance and reliability in the future, large airships will become their own in the field of long-distance civil aviation. It will also be an inevitable trend to gradually relinquish the dominant position of China to aircraft.But Helena is still willing to witness the final glory of these giant beasts before the end of the airship era, and hopes that her butterfly effect can push this glory to a higher height, so that the airship, the former overlord of the sky, will abdicate No regrets left at that time.Therefore, Helena not only gave Zeppelin some financial support when it faced difficulties, but also worked with scientific researchers to improve the performance of the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane, especially improving the safety of the airship. Many unprecedented attempts.

The easiest way to prevent the "Hindenburg" super airship fire accident in the historical plane is, of course, to replace the gas filled in the airship airbag from flammable hydrogen to safe helium.Helium is not only the gas with the lightest specific gravity except hydrogen in nature, but also a chemically inert gas that is difficult to react with other substances. Therefore, although the lift force per unit volume of helium is slightly lower than that of hydrogen, helium basically does not Catastrophic combustion accidents like hydrogen can occur.However, the seemingly simple option of helium airship faces many difficulties in actual implementation. This is not only because the price per unit volume of helium is much higher than that of hydrogen, but also because the large-scale use of helium in airships still needs to face many problems. political obstacles.

We know that helium is an inert gas with extremely rare content in the atmosphere, and its volume fraction in the dry atmosphere is only a negligible [-] parts per million, which makes it basically uneconomical to obtain helium by conventional air separation methods on the feasibility.However, the content of helium in the earth's atmosphere has not been so small since ancient times.As the most abundant element in the solar system except hydrogen, helium was not actually scarce in the early formation of the earth.But the weak gravitational field of the earth is not enough to bind the helium with such a light specific gravity, so in the past billions of years, the helium on the earth has been slowly escaping into space through the outer atmosphere, so that the helium gas The content in the atmosphere becomes extremely scarce.Therefore, the most practical way to obtain helium now is to look for traces of helium in those ancient strata, such as separating helium from natural gas formed before the Mesozoic. After all, the helium content in the earth’s atmosphere at that time was lower than Much higher than it is now, helium produced by the decay of heavy elements in the Earth's crust and helium escaped from the mantle will also accumulate there.

The problem is that most of the natural gas fields with high helium content in the world are located in the central and eastern regions of the United States, so even before Helena crossed, the United States still accounted for more than half of the world's total helium production.And now that the United States has implemented strict control measures on the export of helium through the "Helium Control Act" promulgated in 1927, it is not easy for the German Zeppelin company to obtain an export license from the United States.And even if you can obtain a helium export license from the United States or obtain helium from other countries, it is not easy to operate the Atlantic route, because the U.S. government also requires that airships using helium must protect the helium in the cabin at all costs. Leakage, this obviously overpowering regulation has caused the helium airship companies in the United States to complain.So even with the accident in the historical plane, Helena can only accept that the "Hindenburg" airship in this plane will continue to use hydrogen.Fortunately, hydrogen also has the advantages of low price and greater unit buoyancy. As long as the safety problem is solved, it is still an attractive technical solution.

In fact, before the construction of the "Hindenburg" airship on this plane started, Helena had already noticed the safety issue of the hydrogen airship.Dr. Hugo Ekner, Earl Zeppelin’s close friend before his death, decided to design a new type of commercial airship in the name of his dead friend after the Allied Powers lifted restrictions on German airship manufacturing.However, the cost of the airship in the plan is as high as 400 million marks, but Zeppelin's account only has 150 million marks available, and the remaining 250 marks must be funded by social crowdfunding and government appropriation, and Helena contributed on a whim. Among them, the 200 million mark was regarded as a savior by the Zeppelin Company, although the main reason why Helena was willing to pay was actually the reputation of the "Earl Zeppelin" airship in the aviation history of the previous plane: after all, the "Earl Zeppelin" was in In the historical plane, there is a star airship that has set a record of 200 hours of continuous flight and a total mileage of 49618 kilometers around the world. It may also be one of the most famous airships in history. Helena believes that such an airship should not be troubled by financial problems Yes, so I very readily helped Dr. Ekner solve the funding problem for the airship construction, making the "Earl Zeppelin" in this plane successfully make its first flight on July 1928, the birthday of Earl Zeppelin in 7.

However, according to Helena's long-term investment virtues, since she decided to invest money, she must make things better than the historical plane, so Helena conveniently proposed some safety concerns for Dr. Hugo Ekner's original design. It is suggested that Dr. Hugo Eckner himself attaches great importance to the safety of airships. In fact, in the historical plane, this gentleman insisted on using helium instead of hydrogen on the later "Hindenburg" super airship. Of course, Eckner In the end, Dr. Na's proposition was forced to give up due to the political obstacles in the United States.Helena's safety suggestions for the "Earl Zeppelin" airship on this plane include: blending stainless steel wires with a diameter of 0.06 mm into the skin of the airship to improve electrical conductivity and prevent large gaps between the skin of the airship and the metal frame. In addition, the discharge brush is set on the tail of the airship, and the tip effect of the charge distribution is used to let the static charge on the airship concentrate on the needle tip of the discharge brush and then release it in advance, so as to prevent the excessive accumulation of positive charges on the surface of the airship and generate electricity. Sparks, this is also a commonly used anti-static method for later generations of aircraft, and all of Helena's suggestions were adopted by Dr. Ekner.

Although the "Earl Zeppelin" in the historical plane has never had any fatal safety accidents during its operation, Helena knows the truth of being prepared, even if these measures did not work on the "Earl Zeppelin", It can also prevent the "Hindenburg" super airship built later from repeating the mistakes of history. When Dr. Ekner designed the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane, he did inherit these elements from the "Earl Zeppelin". safety design.But the "Hindenburg" is not a simple magnification of the "Earl Zeppelin" after all, because both Helena and Dr. Ekner hope to make the "Hindenburg" on this plane into an industrial masterpiece worthy of history, so Naturally, the design needs to be higher than the "Earl Zeppelin", so whether it is in terms of structure or materials, the "Hindenburg" of this plane is more advanced than any previous airship, so Helena said its Being a super airship isn't just about size.

Chapter 327 Sky Veil Giant Beast

Although I have seen the majestic figure of the "Hindenburg" super airship in the historical plane countless times in photos before the time travel, although the "Hindenburg" super airship in this plane was built before the start of construction. Having read his design sketches, Helena still found it difficult to suppress the shock in her heart when facing the huge monster in front of her eyes. When Helena arrived by car, the airship had been moved from the dedicated boat garage to the empty space by Zeppelin employees. From the mooring position on the ground, through the car window, you can see from a distance the figure of the sky-curtain monster lying quietly in the open space, gradually becoming clearer as the distance approaches.

When Helena, who was invited by the Zeppelin Company to attend the first flight ceremony, stepped out of the car door at the edge of the airship mooring, the streamlined silver-white artificial creation almost occupied most of the width of her field of vision. The big guy with fear of dead giants is the "Hindenburg" super airship of this plane.Just as Helena was dazzled by the majestic body of the super airship, the 68-year-old Dr. Hugo Ekner, the chairman of the Zeppelin Company and the chief designer of the "Hindenburg" airship, came to greet Helena in person. Dr. Ekner's enthusiasm for Na's arrival is certainly because Helena has helped Zeppelin Company relieve financial difficulties many times, but the more important reason is that both he and Helena have extraordinary enthusiasm for technology itself.

This Dr. Hugo Ekner is not so much the boss of the Zeppelin Company, but rather a technology geek who inherited the aviation dream of his friend Earl Zeppelin. He and Helena have a lot in promoting technological progress. common language.And this kind of technology geek thinking is reflected in the process of designing the "Hindenburg" airship this time, which is to make this super airship completely become the hero of this era after receiving the budget support from Helena who basically does not set an upper limit. A stage for various high-tech displays.And this is actually Helena's main purpose. Using the super airship, a huge project that can be called a man-made spectacle, to carry out a technical mobilization in Germany. Using this leading project to provide traction for the development of new technologies is actually a very economical approach.

Although the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane still uses flammable hydrogen as the buoyant gas, Zeppelin innovatively adopted an isolation layer structure on its airbags in order to improve the safety performance of the airship. .That is, the airbag of the airship is made into a double-layer structure. The space of the inner airbag is still filled with hydrogen as the buoyant gas, and the space between the two layers of airbags is filled with nitrogen as the isolation gas. The hydrogen pressure is close to the atmospheric pressure outside, while the nitrogen pressure in the isolation layer is slightly higher than the hydrogen pressure in the inner layer.

Although the specific gravity of nitrogen is only slightly lighter than that of air so that the buoyancy produced is almost negligible, this nitrogen isolation layer has important functions: one is to detect the damage of the airbag in advance, and the designers set up a The resistance gas sensor is used to detect the concentration of hydrogen and oxygen in the isolation layer, so that when the inner airbag or the outer airbag is damaged, it can be detected earlier and measures taken in advance; the second is to greatly improve the safety margin, Because whether it is the inner airbag or the outer airbag, as long as they are not broken at the same time, the hydrogen can be guaranteed not to leak. Even if the inner and outer airbags are damaged at the same time, the hydrogen will not directly contact the outside air before the nitrogen in the isolation layer is completely decompressed; The third is that it can reduce the leakage rate of hydrogen gas. Even if the airbag of the airship is not damaged at all, hydrogen gas with a lower molecular weight will escape and leak from the gaps between the airbag molecules. Anyone who has played with hydrogen balloons should have experience of this, and the isolation layer The slightly higher pressure of the medium nitrogen can reduce the hydrogen leakage rate.

Although the airbag design with a nitrogen barrier layer greatly improves the safety of the airship, it also makes the airship lose part of its buoyancy compared to the traditional all-hydrogen airbag, and the double-layer airbag will also add a little weight to the airship.In order to make the load of the airship reach the original target, Dr. Ekner could only further expand the size of the airship and the total volume of the airbag.This makes the diameter of the zeppelin airship on this plane reach 43.5 meters, and the length increases to an astonishing 272 meters compared with the historical plane. Now the "Hindenburg" airship on this plane finally surpassed the "Titan" in total length. The Nickelodeon luxury cruise liner can be called a real sky-curtain behemoth.

At this time, Dr. Ekner was obviously a little over-excited. When Helena followed him to the viewing area, she could even see the cane held in Dr. Ekner's usually steady and powerful hands trembling slightly. , Helena couldn't help thinking that if Dr. Ekner's friend Count Zeppelin could also see this scene, would he be as excited as him?At this time, the side of the "Hindenburg" super airship has been painted with a huge Olympic ring logo. Dr. Ekner plans to make this super airship appear as a mascot in the upcoming Berlin Olympic Games. The airship was also of interest as a giant Olympic billboard, as it could serve as a display of the country's industrial might while entertaining audiences.

However, what surprised Helena was that the "Hindenburg" super airship in this plane did not paint the swastika flag representing the National Socialist Party on the tail of the airship like in the historical plane, but adopted the current German flag. Black, white and red three-color painting.This is because the Zeppelin Company in the historical plane had to seek sponsorship from the National Socialist government when it had financial difficulties. In return for the sponsorship, it could only help the National Socialist Party to do propaganda according to Goebbels' request.And the biggest sponsor of the Zeppelin Company on the original plane has become Helena, so Dr. Ekner naturally has no constraints in this regard.In other words, if Helena asked to have her own face printed on the airship, maybe Dr. Ekner would agree. Of course, Helena would definitely not be able to do such a shameless thing.

Chapter 328 Material is King

In addition to adopting a double-layer design with a nitrogen isolation layer for the first time in terms of airbag structure, Helena believes that the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane is the most advanced in terms of technology compared to the old models of airships previously built by Zeppelin. The important progress also lies in the fact that the designers have applied the most advanced synthetic material technology in the world so extensively for the first time in the airship.

You must know that the large airships built by the Zeppelin Company before were made of aluminum except for the metal skeleton, and other parts such as skins and airbags were all made of pure natural materials: the outer skin covering the skeleton is usually made of canvas, while The inner airbag material is made of cotton yarn covered with animal intestines.Of course, this is not because Zeppelin pursues the design concept of natural and environmental protection in material selection, but because there is no synthetic material that can replace these natural materials at that time. However, with the blowout development of polymer synthetic materials in recent years, countless properties Materials that are superior to natural materials have been synthesized, and the construction of the super airship just gave these new synthetic materials a stage to shine.

For example, the internal airbag of the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane uses polyamide fabric coated with neoprene instead of the cotton cloth covered with cow intestine membrane that was commonly used on airships before. The production technology of neoprene is Helena. When the economic crisis was at its worst, it was purchased overseas from DuPont in the United States through technology exchange negotiations, and polyamide was a new product synthesized by Farben on this plane under the guidance of Helena. The polyamide in the surface is also the first product developed by DuPont. The more common name of polyamide fiber in later China is nylon or nylon.

Every time Helena thinks of this, she feels sorry for DuPont. After all, she not only used the asymmetry of information to defraud the production process of neoprene rubber at a very low price during the negotiation, but also stole the polyamide ( Nylon), the hen that can help DuPont lay countless golden eggs in the future, and even polytetrafluoroethylene, which was supposed to be discovered by DuPont in 1938 in the historical plane, is also the coating material for the "non-stick pan" of later generations. He didn't escape Helena's poisonous hands, and what's even more sad is that the DuPont company in this plane may never know where he was tricked by Helena.

Because Helena's last bit of conscience made her feel ashamed to always entrap DuPont, so when she intercepted DuPont's polyamide patent halfway, Helena began to change her target. This time, her object of interception was a historical position An important achievement in the field of chemistry in the United Kingdom - polyethylene terephthalate, which should have been synthesized for the first time in 1941.Seeing this, readers may feel that the previous chemical term is too gibberish, but in fact, the common name of the fiber made of polyester in later generations of China must be familiar to everyone, that is "polyester" or "polyester" The "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane uses polyester fabric as the load-bearing layer of its outer skin, and the aforementioned polytetrafluoroethylene is covered in the form of a film as a weather-resistant layer on the polyester load-bearing layer. The surface of the bearing layer is used to help the bearing layer resist the attack of high-altitude ultraviolet rays and water vapor.

Of course, this is Helena's behind-the-scenes at work. In fact, scientists have successfully synthesized polyesters as early as the end of the 19th century. There is no potential for making textile fibers.After nearly half a century, scientists have carried out countless explorations and trial and error, and finally British chemists Winfield and Dixon discovered the way to synthesize polyester raw materials: using ethylene phthalate and ethylene glycol Bishydroxyethyl terephthalate was first synthesized, and then polyethylene terephthalate was obtained through polycondensation reaction. What Helena did in this plane was to let chemists advance in this 40-year trial and error process. Find your way ahead of time.

Now there are still many technical obstacles to the large-scale production of polyester, but Farben still set up a trial production line to explore the mass production process under Helena's suggestion. Although Farben has not completely broken through the mass production technology so far, but It is no problem to use the trial production line to provide skin materials for two "Hindenburg-class" super airships.

In addition to being used for airbags and skins of airships, new polymer materials are also used to improve the living conditions of passengers. Although the "Hindenburg" airship in the historical plane is known as luxurious, due to the requirements for cabin weight reduction It is very harsh, so the walls and door panels of passengers' bedrooms are made of foam fiber. The sound insulation effect of this material is not ideal, so passengers can even hear the voices of the next door when lying on the bed.However, the "Hindenburg" airship on this plane applied the newly developed polyurethane foam sponge to the sound insulation of the passenger bedroom. Although the sound insulation effect of the polyurethane foam is still not perfect, at least it is relatively improved compared to the historical plane. obviously.After all, although polyurethane in the historical plane was also invented by Otto Bayer of Farben, it was already after 1937, so the "Hindenburg" super airship that first flew in 1936 was naturally useless. up.

In general, the "Hindenburg" airship in this plane was invented in the application of new materials, and almost wiped out all the important inventions in the historical plane, China, Germany, Britain and other chemical industrial powers in the 40s and 1936s.Although chemical products such as nylon, polyester, neoprene, artificial sponge, and polytetrafluoroethylene were all common daily necessities before Helena's time travel, but at this time point in [-], they were all shocking black technologies.And the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane is undoubtedly a dreamy spectacle built by Helena with countless such black technologies regardless of cost.So much so that even Carl Bosch, chairman of the Farben board of directors, who was also invited to participate in the first flight ceremony of the "Hindenburg", complained to Helena how much less stockings and stockings were produced in order to make up the polyamide and polyurethane raw materials used in this airship. Bras, two products that Farben has been raking in lately.

"Dear Uncle Karl, can we have a little dream? Isn't a super airship more important than stockings and bras?" Helena rebutted Karl Bosch very unconvinced, although she also knew Farben's polyamide and polyurethane It is true that the output cannot meet the market demand, and it is indeed a bit of a luxury to use these capacities to produce super airships.

Carl Bosch smiled and replied to Helena: "This may just be your exclusive opinion, Miss Helena. If Miss Helena doesn't believe it, you can do a random questionnaire among women friends across the country to see what women friends think about gathering together. Should amides and polyurethanes be used first in the production of super blimps, or in stockings and bra inserts. If the ladies who waited in line for hours in front of the store only to know: the stockings and bra inserts of their dreams The bras have been embezzled by Miss Helena to produce airbag airbags and wall sound insulation materials, so although I am not sure whether the construction of the spectacle will harm the country, it is true that it will delay the development of the company's female market..."

Chapter 329 Soaring into the Sky

Let's not discuss whether it is economically reasonable for Helena to use a large number of new synthetic materials on the super airship "Hindenburg" in this plane. The one-way ticket price is as high as 1000 marks, which is basically equivalent to the pre-sale price of the Beetle car designed by Dr. Porsche at the same time. However, due to the limited number of one-way passengers of the super airship, the number of super airships that want to be fully recovered is as high as one million marks. The cost still needs a very long cycle.

However, when Helena sponsored the Zeppelin Company, she didn't consider the issue of cost recovery at all. After all, Helena came here with the mentality of playing tickets. The real investment motivation is to build an unprecedented industrial wonder for future military fans to suck on their fingers. Aftertaste.As if to verify Helena's local tycoon index from various angles, the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane is even hard to be noticed at ordinary times, and the protective coating is selected with a very high-end temperament.

The "Hindenburg" super airship in the historical plane was painted on the iron oxide primer on the upper half of the airship to prevent the high-altitude sunlight exposure from causing the internal temperature of the airship to rise, which in turn caused the excessive expansion of the hydrogen volume in the airbag. Coated with aluminum powder to reflect sunlight.While this does achieve good reflectivity, the combination of aluminum powder coat and iron oxide primer itself would be the most common thermite combination, which would be a very serious safety hazard for a hydrogen-filled airship.

Although Helena did not dare to say that the accident of the "Hindenburg" super airship in the historical plane must be related to this kind of paint, but in line with the principle of safety, she still asked the Zeppelin company to make the "Hindenburg" on the plane "Hindenburg" The reflective paint used in the historical plane was replaced by titanium dioxide, commonly known as titanium dioxide.The reflectance ratio of the paint to visible light and near-infrared rays can reach more than [-]%, so it has the best whiteness and opacity, and the titanium dioxide paint does not have the same safety problem as aluminum powder.

Although the high cost of titanium dioxide paint made the construction cost of the super airship exceed the standard again, so that Dr. Ekner was a little trembling when he informed Helena of the new construction budget, because he was also afraid that the biggest patron of the Zeppelin Company was in front of him. After seeing a new high budget, I will choose to leave halfway.

However, instead of being intimidated by this new construction budget, Helena said on the spot that she would bear all the increase in the cost of the airship.According to Helena's original words at the time: "I don't need the new budget figures provided by your company, I just need to see the wonders of the world you built." This bottomless commitment of Helena also made Dr. Ekner This ambitious technology geek was grateful, and devoted himself more fully to the design and construction of the super airship.

In terms of power, the "Hindenburg" super airship in this plane has also improved compared with the previous plane. Although the engine model used is still the DB-602 16-cylinder diesel engine developed by Mercedes-Benz, the number has changed from the historical plane. The number of engines has been increased from four to six, and a supercharger has been added compared to the historical plane. This measure not only increases the maximum output power of the engine from 1350 horsepower to 1750 horsepower at sea level, but also reduces the power as the altitude increases. also decreased in magnitude.

Each of these diesel engines is installed in the power pods on both sides of the airship, and drives a huge four-blade thrust propeller through a reduction gear, but unlike the exposed fixed-pitch propellers used in the historical plane, the original plane The propeller of the "Hindenburg" super airship adopts a variable moment design and is wrapped by a duct made of aluminum alloy. Although this will add some structural weight to the engine pod, compared to the airship's hundreds of tons In terms of lifting capacity, it is not an unbearable burden.

Setting ducts outside the propellers can not only protect the propellers, but also increase the propulsion efficiency of the propellers by several percentage points. It is important to know that even a negligible improvement in propeller efficiency can Fuel savings are also considerable.The increase of total propulsion power and the improvement of paddle efficiency have increased the maximum flight speed of the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane from 135 kilometers per hour on the previous plane to 170 kilometers per hour, although it is far from being comparable to the ever-changing aircraft , but this is already quite fast in an airship.

In addition, the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane also has two large air rudders behind each propeller, so that the airflow deflection behind the propellers can be used to provide the airship with an additional vertical rudder. The lateral control force is very valuable to the airship's low-speed maneuverability and cross-wind resistance.

Although the design of the airbag isolation layer and the increased weight of the power system caused the "Hindenburg" super airship on this plane to lose part of the available lift, the increased total volume of the airbag and the weight reduction benefits brought by new materials still made the plane The maximum usable lift of the Hindenburg superairship has been increased from 112 tons in the historical plane to 136 tons.This makes the maximum ceiling of this type of airship even directly reach the stratosphere in the light load state, which allows the airship to climb to the stratosphere to avoid the storm attack, which significantly increases the safety of transoceanic flights .

While Helena was still chatting with the guests in the stands, the airship had already completed all the preparations before its first flight, and the wind speed on the scene was only a little over three meters per second. advantageous.At this time, the engine on the airship began to run at idle speed after spouting a few puffs of smoke. When the ground staff untied several anchor cables that fixed the airship, the crew also quickly retracted the anchor cables with the winch on the airship.Following the take-off order of the captain of the airship, nearly [-] kilograms of ballast water poured out from the ballast water tanks at the front and rear of the airship, so the huge hull of the super airship "Hindenburg" seemed to be surrounded by double invisible The big hand gently lifts off the ground and rises steadily.

At this time, the titanium dioxide paint on the skin of the airship is bathed in the spring sunshine so pure that it makes people ecstatic. Under the excited gaze of countless people on the ground, the entire airship seems to be a mass of white and flawless clouds. Rising to the sky, while casting huge drop-shaped shadows on the ground, the beauty of human industry is fully reflected at this moment.Then, under the joint propulsion of the six ducted propellers, the super airship continued to climb and flew to the distance. The staff on the ground and all the people invited to visit burst out with huge cheers and applause almost at the same time. Many people They even threw their hats into the sky with excitement, including Dr. Ekner with a red face, and even Helena couldn't help cheering loudly for this historic moment.

3 Thirty Chapters London Conference

While the "Hindenburg" super airship built by the Zeppelin company was eyeing the successful maiden flight, the German navy, which was busy restoring its strength, was also beaming to welcome their new toy.That is, the two battleships that started construction in early 1934, after more than two years of construction, finally ushered in their launching and naming ceremonies in the warm spring of May.

The high-level German government attaches great importance to the construction of these two warships, code-named E and F. Hitler personally went to Wilhelmshaven to attend the launching ceremony of the first of the sister ships and awarded the ship the same historical plane as "Shaanne". The name of the ship "Horst", it is said that the first warship of the German Navy that can be personally named by the head of state is the first ship "Deutschland" of the "Deutschland" class pocket battleship.The second ship, which was launched a little later, was also named "Gleisenau" as expected by Helena.

Because Germany and the United Kingdom reached a naval agreement shortly after the start of construction of the "Scharnhorst" class battleship on this plane, the caliber of the main guns of these two warships does not need to continue to be limited to the level of the "Deutschland" class, so According to the flexible plan proposed by Helena back then, the two warships directly adopted the firepower configuration of three triple-mounted 330mm main guns, and the originally ordered 283mm turrets would be used to strengthen coastal fortifications.

In this way, although the firepower of the "Scharnhorst" class in this plane is still at the bottom of the battleships with similar tonnage, at least it will not be as weak as the 283mm toothpick gun in the historical plane. Replace the current triple 420mm turret with a twin 330mm turret.

Although these two battleships with a standard displacement of 3.65 tons are slightly larger than the battleships of the same name in the historical plane, they were launched a few months earlier than in the historical plane. This is mainly because of the construction process of the two ships in this plane. It is relatively smooth, and there is no delay in the construction period caused by repeated design revisions like in the historical plane.Although the battleship needs more than a year of outfitting and trials before it can officially enter service after it is launched, this does not prevent the German Navy from early planning to build a battleship stronger than the "Scharnhorst" class. The Naval Conference in the German Navy caused a lot of controversy.

It is said that since various naval powers signed the "Washington Naval Treaty" in Washington in 1922 to limit the scale of the arms race, the construction of new capital ships of the navies of various countries seemed to be paused suddenly, and many new warship construction plans were cancelled. It also entered a long "Navy Holiday" period.However, the treaty only prevents the escalation of the arms race on the surface, and the navies of various countries have never stopped exploring new technologies and new ideas secretly.Therefore, the seemingly affectionate "naval holiday" period is actually just an interwar period between two rounds of naval arms races. Since the "Washington Naval Treaty" is valid until the end of 1936, as the validity period of the treaty is approaching, the navies of various countries They are gearing up to prepare for the next round of competition, and this new competition first revolves around the renewal of the naval treaty.

The cause of the incident was that the signatories to the "Washington Naval Treaty" accepted the initiative of the British government and sent representatives to London, the capital of the United Kingdom, to attend a naval meeting at the end of 1935. The purpose of the naval meeting was naturally to discuss what countries should do after the original naval treaty expired. How to extend the treaty.Due to the butterfly effect brought by Helena, Germany on this plane successfully obtained the status of an observer country in the "Washington Naval Treaty" that year, so it is also among the invited countries for this London Naval Conference.Of course, with the current strength of the German navy, it can only be a Buddhist soy sauce party in the meeting. Moreover, after signing the "British-German Naval Agreement" with the United Kingdom, the German navy has no extra demands for the time being. The 35% tonnage share of the Royal Navy is estimated to be inexhaustible for the German Navy within three to five years.

However, not everyone at the London Naval Conference was as salty as Germany, and from a certain perspective, the differences among countries at the London Naval Conference were even greater than those at the Washington Conference that year.Among them, the most difficult to reconcile the differences are the contradictions between Japan and the United Kingdom and the United States. Among them, the plenipotentiary representative of Japan Nagano Xiushen asked all countries to formulate a "common maximum". As long as the total tonnage of warships remains within this limit, all countries can freely Build warships without being limited by the tonnage of a single ship.

The core content of Nagano's self-cultivation proposal is actually two points: one is that the combined fleet requires that it be on an equal footing with the British and American navies in terms of total tonnage, and the other is that the new treaty should clear the way for the construction of warships that exceed the treaty standards. After all, Japan at this time In fact, the construction of a super battleship like the "Yamato" class has been secretly planned.However, these propositions of the Japanese representatives are absolutely impossible to be accepted by the United Kingdom and the United States. Although the differences between Britain and the United States are quite obvious at this time, because of the common interest in containing Japan, the two countries coordinated their positions before the meeting was formally held. Jointly oppose the "common maximum" proposal of the representative of Japan.

Helena has not yet figured out what kind of drugs the Japanese decision makers have taken. When all other participating countries expressed their disapproval of the "common maximum" proposed by Japan, the plenipotentiary representative of Japan, Nagano Slim, even said "Nothing happened to Japan." There is nothing left to do but to withdraw from the meeting" and threatened.And when other countries once again expressed their disapproval of the Japanese proposal, this guy Nagano Slim really led the Japanese diplomats out of the London Disarmament Conference angrily.

It is said that since the signing of the "Washington Naval Treaty" that year, there have been voices in Japan who feel that they are only at a disadvantage by only getting 7.6% of the battleship share of Britain and the United States. They never thought that the industrial output value of the United States before the war was 2.4 times that of Japan. , Even the industrial output value of the declining British Empire is [-] times that of Japan.From this point of view, Japan's ability to obtain a share of capital ships equivalent to [-]% of the United Kingdom and the United States at the Washington Conference was not a loss at all, but a blood profit. If it continues to carry out a free arms race without treaty restrictions, the comprehensive industrial strength The relatively weak Japan must be the first to be dragged down!

Therefore, in Helena's view, since Japan is a party with a relatively weak national power, it is actually not qualified to turn the table against Britain and the United States at the meeting. Rather, it protected the Japanese economy from being dragged down by an endless arms race.However, in Japan, if you don’t take the initiative to maintain this system, it’s fine. Now you want to take the initiative to break away from the protection of this system. If you don’t have a cerebral thrombosis for ten years, you may really not be able to make such a decision.However, in any case, the early departure of the Japanese representative cast an ominous shadow on the London Naval Conference. Although the negotiations among other countries are still going on, the disintegration of the world naval treaty system seems to have become inevitable. .

Chapter 331 Shrewd Calculation

Although the Japanese representative chose to withdraw from the Naval Conference midway because his appeal to be on an equal footing with the United Kingdom and the United States did not receive the support of other participating countries, the open and secret struggle between the remaining four parties to the "Washington Naval Conference" between Britain, the United States, France and Italy has actually just begun.But what the representatives didn't know was that in the original historical plane, this was already the second round of the Naval Conference held in London, England, but because of the butterfly effect brought by Helena, all countries had already participated in the Naval Conference in Washington. There are strict restrictions on the total tonnage and specifications of auxiliary ships, so the first London Naval Conference, which should have been held in 1930 in the original historical plane to further determine the restrictions on auxiliary ships, has lost its necessity However, it was not held, so this naval meeting, which was called the second London naval meeting in the original historical plane, directly became the first London naval meeting in this plane.

It is said that when the Japanese representative asked for the same maximum limit as the United Kingdom and the United States, the representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States once coordinated their positions to jointly oppose the Japanese proposal.However, what is surprising is that when the Japanese representative chose to withdraw from the negotiation, the United Kingdom and the United States, which were standing in the same trench and happily confronting Japan just now, turned into opposing parties at the negotiating table in a blink of an eye.The differences between the United Kingdom and the United States mainly revolved around the two core issues of the caliber limit of the battleship's main guns and the proportion of heavy cruisers and light cruisers among cruisers.

Specifically: on the issue of the caliber of the main guns of the new battleships, the British representative hopes to limit the caliber of the main guns of the new battleships built by various countries in the future to 14 inches (about 356 mm) or even lower. The clause that the caliber of the main guns of new battleships reached at the Washington Conference that year should not exceed 16 inches (about 406 mm) should be continued; in terms of the construction ratio of heavy cruisers and light cruisers, the United Kingdom hopes that all countries will temporarily stop building ships equipped with 203 mm caliber Instead of a 155-ton heavy cruiser with a main gun that does not exceed 8000 mm in diameter and a displacement of no more than [-] tons, the United States is concerned with the suggestion of the British because it needs to deal with the threat of the powerful Japanese heavy cruiser. Have doubts.

The reason why the British would make such a suggestion is actually easy to understand. At this time, the industrial strength of the British Empire has actually been difficult to continue to support its status as the number one naval power in the world, but a powerful naval fleet is crucial to maintaining the global hegemony of the British Empire. is indispensable.The former Lord of the Navy, Earl Selborne, once said: "In my opinion, all the expenses of this country are to maintain its bank credit and its navy." It understands the two important pillars on which Britain's global hegemony depends--the international credit of the British pound and the control of the global ocean by the Royal Navy.

It is said that after the end of the First World War, the absolute core position of the pound in the world monetary system was once challenged by the dollar, but the economic crisis that swept the world in 1929 severely damaged the global ambition of the dollar. The value of gold has been greatly depreciated, but Britain's huge world colonial system has successfully saved the international reputation of the pound. By adopting a preferential system within the empire, the United Kingdom finally guaranteed the international circulation of the pound and shattered the US dollar's attempt to dominate the pound. Rebellious heart.Therefore, after temporarily stabilizing the international credit of the pound, how to continue to maintain the dominant position of the Royal Navy has become the number one issue facing the British Empire.

However, the crux of this problem is that with the decline of its own industrial strength, Britain can no longer shout out the "two ships against one ship" that it shouted during the naval competition with the Second Reich of Germany when facing the new challenger of the United States. "The rhetoric, because it would be the biggest nightmare for the Imperial Treasury if it forcibly entered into a shipbuilding competition with the United States, whose industrial output value was three times its own.Therefore, for the current British Empire, it has become a low-cost option to maintain the superiority of the British navy through the use of political means to restrict the development of the opponent's navy through the vertical alliance among the major naval powers.

Now you know why Britain tends to limit the caliber of the main guns of new battleships in various countries to 14 inches?Because such battleships are cheaper to build, but if only the British battleships use 14-inch calibers, they will inevitably be at a disadvantage in terms of firepower when facing local battleships with 15-inch or even 16-inch main guns in the future. Pull everyone to use 14-inch main guns, so that Britain can build battleships equipped with 14-inch main guns with peace of mind.

As for the British request that other countries not build new heavy cruisers, but instead build light cruisers with a main gun caliber of no more than 155 mm and a displacement of no more than 8000 tons, it is naturally because it is too expensive to use heavy cruisers to perform daily cruise missions in colonies, but If the United Kingdom builds light cruisers on a large scale in the future, it may not be able to beat other people's heavy cruisers, so it is simply passed a treaty to let everyone only build light cruisers, so that the financial pressure on the construction of the British Navy will be much smaller.

Helena had to say that the British were very shrewd in their calculations this time, and the British used various means to win over other participating countries, and finally succeeded in forcing the United States to accept that the main guns of the new battleships did not exceed 14 inches and that no new battleships were built before 1943. The two core conditions of the heavy cruiser, from this perspective, Britain has achieved a complete victory in diplomacy this time.In the end, the representatives of Britain, the United States, France and Italy signed the new "Naval Arms Limitation Treaty" in London on March 1936, 3.In the historical plane, Italy refused to sign the treaty because it was dissatisfied with the sanctions imposed by the international community on its invasion of Ethiopia. However, Italy, which had just lost the war in this plane, did not have the capital to act arrogantly in front of Britain, the United States and France, so the Italian representative also obediently landed his name on the treaty.

Although Germany is still only attending the London Naval Conference as an observer this time, it still expressed its support for the British proposition in the negotiations between the United Kingdom and the United States, and Germany's so-called political circles have a feeling of "this world is still my opinion." It’s worth it” sense of accomplishment.The only thing that makes the British feel uncomfortable now is because the Japanese representative quit halfway, which led the United States to add to the treaty on the grounds of the threat of Japan. If Japan has not joined the treaty in March next year, the tonnage limit of new battleships in various countries should be from 3 tons. Increased to 35000 tons, the main gun caliber limit should also be increased from 45000 inches to 14 inches supplementary clause.However, the United Kingdom feels that when the other four countries have signed, the Japanese representative will eventually return to the signing table. After all, with Japan's weak industrial strength, it is not in its national interest to directly launch an arms race with Britain and the United States.

Of course, Britain at this time did not know that since the September 918th Incident, the brains of Japanese decision-makers have been basically eaten by zombies, so the ink on the new "Naval Armament Limitation Treaty" has not yet dried, and the United Kingdom excitedly approved five articles. The budget for the construction of new battleships equipped with 14-inch naval guns, and plans to start laying the keels of these new ships in the second half of this year.

Chapter 332 A Cocoon

Although the British guy is full of confidence in bringing Japan back to the signing table, Helena knows very well that the British guy's plan is doomed to fail this time.Because the British guy's confidence in Japan's return to the treaty system is entirely based on the fact that Japan's top leaders will make rational decisions based on the overall interests of the country. Points are bargaining chips with the other four countries.

Therefore, the British guy firmly believes that he can put forward such a condition to Japan: on the premise of accepting the tonnage ratio of the existing main battleships of various countries, he will make some concessions to Japan on the tonnage of auxiliary ships and submarines as appropriate , in order to respond to Japan's demands for expanding naval power.The British thought that they would take advantage of it at that time, and the Japanese representatives would definitely return to the negotiating table with satisfaction, and then sign this new naval arms limitation treaty.

It should be said that if the thinking logic of the British is used to predict the behavior of normal countries, there is no problem. The problem is that Japan cannot use the standards of normal countries to explain the logic of its behavior, so the British are full of hope. Japan's high-level leaders will make rational decisions based on the overall interests of the country in their decision-making. In fact, they are just wishful thinking to judge others by themselves.