Chapter 513 The Dreadnought Plan of the Austro-Hungarian Navy
If Cuniberti faces a problem in selection, then for the current Count Montecuccoli, how to let the Austro-Hungarian Empire possess dreadnoughts is a crucial problem at the moment.
Speaking of which, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is simply a stepmother within the empire. The military expenditures it requires are managed by the Ministry of War, and this ministry is largely influenced and controlled by the Army. Therefore, the life of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is
Things were never going as planned, so the War Department got by with just three melons and two dates.
This is still closely related to the tradition of Austria-Hungary not paying attention to the navy. In the Austrian era, there was no navy at all for a long time. It was not until the 19th century that Austria-Hungary established its own navy in Venice.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Navy was established late, its combat effectiveness is still guaranteed. (The Italians agree very much with this)
However, due to the location of Austria-Hungary, the navy has not always been the focus of Austria-Hungary's attention, so the Austro-Hungarian navy has always been ignored.
Of course, it is not ignored at all times. If it gets the care of the royal family, the life of the navy will be much easier. For example, under Archduke Friedrich (commander-in-chief of the navy from 1844 to 1847), Ferdinand Maximilian
During the period of Archduke Lien (commander-in-chief of the navy from 1854 to 1864), the Austro-Hungarian navy had developed very well.
But unfortunately, Archduke Friedrich died young at the age of 26, and Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian left Austria to become emperor in Mexico (died in Mexico three years later), causing the Austro-Hungarian navy to lose its
Strong supporter.
Also in view of the prosperity of the previous two archdukes (relatively speaking), if the Austro-Hungarian Navy wants to obtain more funds and government-level support, then a member of the royal family can become the head of the navy, which is simply the best choice.
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Of course, as the director of the Naval Department of the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry, Count Montecuccoli already had a suitable candidate.
Speaking of which, Austria-Hungary is definitely a strange entity in terms of its military management department. The Imperial War Department is nominally in charge of all the Austro-Hungarian armies, such as the Imperial Wehrmacht, the Royal and Royal Local Defense Forces, etc. (The composition of the Austro-Hungarian Army is very complex.
, I won’t go into details due to space limitations. If you are interested, you can look it up yourself.)
Among the major countries, Austria-Hungary is the only one that places the navy under the influence of the army, so the Austro-Hungarian navy has a very difficult life.
However, although the Austro-Hungarian Navy is having a hard time, it still has ambitions. When various countries are launching dreadnoughts, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also has its own ideas.
"Your Majesty the Crown Prince, this is the dreadnought ship plan prepared by our navy."
As the head of the navy, Admiral Montecuccoli approached Archduke Ferdinand as the Crown Prince with the plan that the Austro-Hungarian Navy had studied so hard. In addition to the plan, he also presented a carefully carved model of the plan. This
This is a little trick from Montecuccoli. Taking out the battleship model will help the crown prince feel the new battleship more intuitively.
As for Admiral Montecuccoli's gift, Archduke Ferdinand nodded with satisfaction.
Archduke Ferdinand is very famous. I believe that no one in future generations will not know him. In this era, he is also very famous. In addition to his status as the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, his love story with the Czech girl Sofia is equally talked about.
Ledao. For this reason, he also paid the price of letting his children give up their inheritance rights, so that the royal family reluctantly agreed to this marriage.
Archduke Ferdinand loved hunting and was relatively moderate in his ethnic policies. This made the Austro-Hungarian minority have high expectations for him. But these are not worth paying attention to the Austro-Hungarian navy. Really What is noteworthy is that the crown prince is a supporter of the sea power theory and attaches great importance to the role of the navy.
This is precisely the case, so everyone in the navy has high hopes for the crown prince. If it were not for the identity of his heir and the attitude of the army, making Archduke Ferdinand the head of the navy would be a brilliant idea.
Although Ferdinand did not have the opportunity to become the head of the navy, it did not affect his relationship with the navy.
So after receiving the plan from the navy, Archduke Ferdinand read it with relish.
"Why does your plan look so similar to the Italian Dante-class?"
Gu Qian
Archduke Ferdinand looked at the model in front of him, then compared it with the drawings and asked.
Faced with the Crown Prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli did not hide it at all. "Your Royal Highness, our dreadnought is indeed based on the Italian Dante class, but we have still made quite a few changes, such as On the basis of only increasing the displacement by a thousand tons, we have the firepower of a Dante-class ship and a half, and the shipbuilding cost will not be much higher than that of the Italians."
Admiral Montecuccoli's words made Archduke Ferdinand's eyes light up, and then he asked, "Tell me, how did your navy surpass the Italians?"
Facing the Crown Prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli then discussed how the Austro-Hungarian Navy had made a series of modifications based on the Dante class as a template, such as reducing the length, lowering the freeboard, increasing the main gun, etc.
In fact, the changes to the Austro-Hungarian Navy were more at the expense of reducing the seaworthiness of the Dante class, because when Italy designed this class, it not only considered the calm Mediterranean Sea, but also needed to consider the use of the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, etc. with complex sea conditions. .So in order to ensure the seaworthiness of this class of warships, high freeboard, V-shaped bow and other designs to increase displacement are used.
The usage situation of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is different from that of Italy. Its main sea area is the Mediterranean, so it does not need to consider high sea conditions. Then those measures to increase displacement and seaworthiness are no longer needed, so this naturally reduces the displacement and Cost.
In addition, Italy's configuration of 8 main guns is too few for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy is considering equipping triple main guns. Without reducing the number of forts, Austria-Hungary is equipped with 12 main guns. This is how the dreadnought was achieved. It has half the firepower of the Italian Dante class.
It is certainly a good idea that the Austro-Hungarian Navy has considered such careful calculations, but only God knows how it will perform.
Facing the plan submitted by the navy, Archduke Ferdinand also understood it. But to put it well, Austria-Hungary has its own national conditions here.
"This plan looks good, but we still have to wait to get funding from the parliament."
Regarding the Crown Prince's words, Admiral Montecuccoli's statement that he didn't mind at all was a lie. But he also knew that it was not that easy to get the parliament to spend money on shipbuilding. Just to deal with the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments would be enough. It's not a simple matter, let alone the army that is eyeing it.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, our navy is not in a hurry. We can wait. In addition, our navy can raise part of its own funds."
On behalf of the Navy, Admiral Montecuccoli proved to the Crown Prince that it not only asked for funds, but also raised funds on its own. The Austro-Hungarian Navy raised funds by raising funds from outside and looking inside, and raising funds from all walks of life meant raising donations from all walks of life.
, introspection, of course, means that the navy tightens its belt, sells some unimportant warships, or saves funds from other places.
The navy was so sensible that Ferdinand naturally valued it more.
"That's good, it can also reduce the difficulty of funding."
Count Montecuccoli certainly knew that what the Crown Prince said was not a joke. The Navy also considered the difficulty of appropriation, so it needed to raise funds on its own to reduce the difficulty of getting parliament to appropriate funds.
"Your Majesty the Crown Prince, we actually have another idea, which is to use funds to build it first, and then continue the construction with funding from the parliament."
Well, the Austro-Hungarian navy fought hard for the dreadnoughts, even killing them first and then showing them off.
"Let's wait until I come back from Berlin next month."
As for the Navy's plan to use risk, Ferdinand asked him to wait. As for appropriating funds from the motion, he still had no idea and needed to think about it for a while.
After all, Austria-Hungary is a country with a dual system. It not only needs to consider the attitude of the Austrian Parliament, but also the Hungarian Parliament. This makes Ferdinand need to make a good plan.
