In fact, France is not as miserable as Roque said. After all, it was once the "world's number one army." In terms of navy, the French actually have ambitions.
It's a pity that the ambitions of the French do not match France's strength.
Due to the long-term influence of the "new school" thought that emphasized torpedo boat and cruiser combat, the French Navy was vacillating in strategy. By 1909, the French government realized that the French Navy had fallen to fifth place in the world, not only far behind
Britain, Germany, and lagged behind the United States and Italy, so France began to build dreadnoughts.
In 1909, the French Navy began construction of France's first-class dreadnought battleship, the Kolbe-class battleship.
The fate of this class of battleships was ill-fated. The design itself had problems, and France lacked experience in building dreadnoughts. As a result, after the Kolbe-class battleships were completed, they were already far behind the battleships of other countries.
What to do if you fall behind? Just keep building, so you have the Brittany-class battleship.
Strictly speaking, the Breton-class battleship is an upgraded version of the Kolbe-class battleship. The hull and power are similar, but the main gun caliber is upgraded from the 305 mm of the Kolbe-class battleship to 340 mm.
The weight of the 340mm main gun is much greater than that of the 305. Even so, the displacement of the Breton-class battleship is almost the same as that of the Kolbe-class battleship. The French are also amazing.
After the Breton-class battleships were completed, the French government was surprised to find that after building so many battleships, the French navy was still ranked fifth in the world.
A total of four Kolbet-class battleships were built, namely Kolbet, Ocean (original name: Jean Bart), Paris, and France.
A total of three Breton-class battleships were built, namely Brittany, Lorraine, and Provence.
Seven dreadnoughts have been built, still ranking fifth in the world. The cruelty of the arms race is evident.
In order to cope with the increasingly fierce arms race, the French government had to launch a new shipbuilding plan, which is the Normandy-class battleship.
A total of five Normandy-class battleships were built. The first ship "Normandy" was laid down in Saint-Zenard in 1913. In the same year, "Languedoc", "Flanders" and "Gascony" were laid in Bordeaux and Bresse respectively.
The keel was laid in Lorient, and the keel of the fifth sister ship "Béarne" was laid in La Seine the following year.
When the keel of the Normandy-class battleship was laid, the World War had not yet broken out. Just after the first ship "Normandy" was launched, the World War broke out, and the construction of the Normandy-class battleship was stopped.
During the World War, France tried many times to restart the Normandy-class battleships, but it has been unable to do so. Even the main guns prepared for the Normandy-class battleships were affected.
During the World War, some of the artillery prepared by the French government for the Normandy-class battleships were requisitioned by the army, and some of them could not be restored due to enlargement and boring. Some were looted by the Germans and their whereabouts are unknown. If they want to continue construction, the entire project
All must be planned again.
After the end of the World War, the French government once again prepared to restart the Normandy-class battleships. Only then did they discover that if restarted, the project might last as long as six to seven years.
The Normandy-class battleship was a project established in 1912. According to the French government's plan, the Normandy-class battleship will have a displacement of about 25,000 tons after completion.
During the same period, the British "Queen Elizabeth" class battleship weighed 27,500 tons, the German "Bern" class battleship weighed 28,500 tons, the American "Pennsylvania" class weighed 31,500 tons, and the Italian "Callagiano" class weighed 33,300 tons (not yet built, purely oral).
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The comparison clearly shows that the Normandy-class battleship was actually lagging behind again when the project was established——
The Normandy-class battleship has not yet been completed, and there is no need to wait for another six to seven years. The British "Hood" is now 41,200 tons, the American "Maryland" is 32,600 tons, and the Japanese "Mutsu" and "Nagato" are 33,800 tons.
, even if the French government puts all its efforts into building the Normandy-class battleship, it is already far behind the navies of mainstream countries.
At this point, the French Navy still refuses to admit defeat and is determined to strive for the same tonnage of battleships as Japan. Roque doesn't even know what the point is.
France is different from Japan. Japan really wants it, but unfortunately the United States and Britain do not agree.
France wants it for the so-called "dignity". Even if France is given a quota of 300,000 tons of battleships, the French government does not have enough strength to build 300,000 tons. By then, it will seem even more embarrassing.
"Lord, if Britain supports France in getting more capital ship tonnage, then France will support Britain in getting more aircraft carrier tonnage -" Albert Salau was still very smart, and he knew what Roque wanted.
Rock never cared about the tonnage of the capital ship, so in previous meetings, Rock almost never spoke.
Aircraft carriers are Rock's goal. Although the next world war will not break out until 20 years later, Rock is still happy if this time can be used to train more naval pilots.
"Okay -" Rock agreed readily. No matter how much battleship tonnage was given to France, it would not have much impact on British interests.
Aircraft carriers are different. With one more aircraft carrier, in the future oceans, southern Africa - no, no, no, the British Empire will have greater advantages.
The meeting started again the next day, and Roque unequivocally supported France in acquiring more battleship tonnage.
"The five Normandy-class battleships we are building, plus the four Kolbe-class battleships and three Bretagne-class battleships that have been built before, the total tonnage has reached 289,500 tons. The French Navy also has new ships to build.
plan, so 300,000 tons is a suitable number for us in France." Albert Salau is full of energy. If five Normandy-class battleships are built, it will really be the same as what Albert Salau said.
"Is it still necessary to build a Normandy-class battleship?" Tomosaburo Kato complained directly. There is really no need to build a 25,000-ton toy.
Japan's first "Kongo" class dreadnought had a displacement of 27,500 tons. Later "Ise" and "Fuso" had a displacement of more than 30,000 tons.
"Is it really necessary for the French Navy to maintain the scale of 12 dreadnoughts?" Bainbridge Colby seriously doubted the strength of the French government.
During the World War, France also borrowed a lot of money from the United States.
Now France has money to build warships, but no money to pay off its debts——
You want to be a bad guy, right?
Be careful to limit your high spending, all those specialty stores in Paris are waiting to close.
Carlo Sanze does not complain. Like France, the "Calaggiono" class battleship is an eternal pain in the hearts of Italians.
"Of course the French government has the strength, and we also have plans. As early as 1912, the French government prepared a huge shipbuilding plan to build a brand-new French navy. The French navy will have a battle fleet with super-dreadnoughts as the core. By 1921
The French battle fleet in 2018 will have 28 capital ships, 10 fleet reconnaissance ships, and 52 offshore torpedo ships." Albert Salau is really not bragging, the French government does have this plan.
Torpedo boats are actually large torpedo boats. The names vary from country to country. In the UK, they are called destroyers.
"Oh, 1921, that's next year -" Kato Yusaburo is very arrogant now. If he were replaced by Roque, he would probably ask Albert Sarao: Do you need keys? How many keys?
"Haha, 28 - 28 submarines?" Carlo Sanze finally found an angle to complain about.
Rock immediately turned black.
Damn, what kind of submarine? Who said submarine?
During the World War, the Royal Navy suffered enough from German submarines, so "submarines" were very sensitive to the Royal Navy.
The fleet in Southern Africa is mainly positioned as escort, and its main opponents are also submarines.
Oh, submarines are also within the scope of discussion at the Washington Naval Conference, but we have not yet reached the stage of submarines. We must first deal with the capital ships, then the submarines, and finally the aircraft carriers.
This status ranking is also very interesting.
"Anyway, the French Navy must be more powerful than your Italian Navy!" Albert Salau was indomitable in the face of the British and American forces, but aggressive in the face of Italy. As for Japan——
Forget it, Japan is too far away and there is no conflict of interest with France. As long as Japan does not affect the security of French East Indies, the French government will not target Japan.
This is actually the danger of raising tigers.
"Not one of your Normandy-class battleships has been built—" Carlo Sanze poked at the French's pain points.
"Your Caracciono has not yet been completed -" Arne Sarao jabbed back, wanting to feel pain as well.
"Humph, without our help, your country would have been destroyed during the World War——"
"You guys have the nerve to say 'help', but no one will help you, and you can't even defeat Greece——"
Oops, this hurts too much. The dispute between Italy and Greece has been going on for a long time. There was some friction not long ago. It seems that the Italians did not take any advantage.
Rock and Bainbridge Colby looked at each other in amazement as they watched the rookies pecking each other.
These guys are all important ministers of the empire, can you please stop being so naive?
Kato Yusaburo didn't speak, he held his chin up and dozed off little by little. He was also a man 60 years younger. To be able to persist until now was the appearance of Amaterasu.
"What do you say?" Rock exchanged notes with Bainbridge Colby.
"You two rookies, give them a 50% discount at most -" Bainbridge Colby was very motivated. If this note was seen by Albert Salau and Carlo Sanze, it might appear.
international disputes.
Both France and Italy require the same 300,000 tons as Japan, which is about 150,000 tons at a 50% discount, which is basically in line with the strength of France and Italy.
What Japan requires is not 300,000 tons, but 350,000 tons——
So that's 17.5.
After the completion of Japan's "Mutsu" and "Nagato", the total tonnage of the existing dreadnoughts plus super-dreadnoughts is probably a little more than 300,000. The Americans are very smart in this regard. Forget it if they have already been built again, and no longer
Just start building new warships.
"Actually, it doesn't matter if you give it to them, they can't afford it anyway-" Roque didn't care about the junk of the French Navy and the Italian Navy.
