GENUINE RUSSIAN NAVY

 

To the formation of a fleet of Stoch started on my own land purely For a person’s General understandable is a situation when the army consists of two parts one of them is in the heavily fortified fortresses, and the other, including cavalry and forming with light weapons, engaged in forays and exploration, continuously disturbing the enemy forces According to Stasa, the role of “fortresses” were to play battleships of coastal defense in conjunction with their bases, while the role of the “cavalry” was a good fit cruisers From the armoured forces had to wait a little while shipbuilding Germany was possible only in small vehicles But intensive enough to build armoured cruisers could start from that German shipyards and engaged, gradually increasing the pace with regard to performance, nothing outstanding United Germany in the beginning did not create the First corvettes much like hopelessly outdated ships defeated France, However, German designers quickly abandoned wooden hulls Actually pure wood became only the first three of the cruiser “Ariadne”, “Louise” and “Freya”, founded immediately after the war francoprussian next two cruisers, by the way, the largest over the next decade, “Sedan” and “Leipzig”, had an iron hull, however, covered with layers of wood and copper — that time traditional anti-fouling With a displacement of slightly more than 4,5 thousand tons, they carried a substantial battery of twelve 170-mm guns and a pair of 380-mm torpedo tubes and those And others had a full sailing rig, but they were sailing equally disgusting. Leipzig seemed to the generals too large and expensive, and the next, already a fairly large series of six ships named after famous military figures, had one and a half times smaller in size More modestly was “the ladies ‘company” “Carol”, “ol”, “Marie”, “Sophie”, “Alexandrina” and joined them “Arkona” Designed in 1875, but began to build almost five years later, they were hopelessly outdated by the time of entry into service (“Alexandrina” and “Arkona” was included in the fleet only 10 years later — at the end of 1886, in this time, Armstrong was already built clones of the famous “Esmeralda”), Although “ladies” carrying externally a formidable battery of ten 150-mm, plus a pair of guns of smaller caliber (88 or 105 mm), all guns remained nizkorentabelnye with very small angles of attack and imperfect shells.

 

Interestingly, for nearly 15 years, the Germans did very little to improve the performance of their cruisers on the Contrary, at the beginning of 1880-x years, they soon deteriorated Single 2000-ton “Nixe” had a speed of just 10 knots and is absolutely not suitable for use as a vehicle (besides his artillery consisted of eight guns absolutely non-standard for Germany 125-mm caliber, which were subsequently dismantled one by one ) it is not Surprising that “nice” immediately relegated to the status of the training ship, although in this role he had a hard time Corvette very badly behaved at sea, particularly under sail was Founded in 1883 year, the “Charlotte” was a virtually enlarged copy built eight years ago, “Bismarck”, of course with full sail “Charlotte” became the absolute champion among his contemporaries by the number loaded on Board (do not dare to say — mounted) guns, eighteen 150-mm and sixteen 88-mm, excluding small calibre, is and all this with a displacement of 3700 t> In the original mechanical installation of the ship two cars worked on one shaft it is not Surprising that soon after entry into service had to replace these machines one twice the capacity and reduce the number of guns To the end of the century artillery original cruisers came into line with the size of the ship, and there were only a couple of 105-mm and twelve 88-mm guns However and “nice” and “Charlotte” will serve as a training, and then the vessels long enough before the First world war in Fact, all of the many cruising economy (and only during the “breeding” Stosh until 1883 was laid on 22 Corvette and messengers ship — memo) at its core was the training quality did not allow to hope for success in the “big” war, by the Way, the General’s command there were no ideas in the question of how we ought to use in this case of the cruiser But in any case they cannot be called useless by contrast, without high costs, Germany has solved several problems at once produced quite a large number of sailors and, most importantly, to the German flag started to get used to the whole world Almost all of the corvettes most of his career spent in long voyages, often in tropical seas, off the coast of Africa and in the Pacific, where a new great power began to gather their own possessions In General, I do not know when in history so bad for its time, warships were so in demand and useful result with the onset of the 1890’s, when the Empire of the Hohenzollern took the last representative of the dynasty, Wilhelm II, an enthusiastic supporter of building a strong fleet and a man who considered himself a connoisseur of Maritime Affairs, to implement its far-reaching plans was available for people and guns, and factories, and docks

 

By the time all the major Maritime powers have practically done away with unarmored cruisers, Dago small ships of this class acquired the armoured decks. Germany, like other States, also started the construction of combat vessels, the first of which were two cruisers of the “Irene” can be considered the founders of the “large cruisers” of the German fleet; development line continued armored “Maiami”, which were replaced by the armored units and, in the end, linear.

 

 

 

The first ships of the new type turned out not too successful, their reservation was weaker than in the Armstrong cruisers, and artillery did not correspond to those requirements which at that time was made to the armament of the cruisers. And it looked really bad such specific cruising features, such as the speed and autonomy of Germany did not want to use armstrongism rapid-fire guns — krupovskaya tools had a worldwide a very high reputation, and the transfer of the order to the competitors would be a very unpatriotic thing to Pay for political games had the crews of the cruisers “Irene” On paper they are fourteen 150 mm guns looked very solid, but none of them were rapid-moreover, only four of the guns had a barrel length of 30 calibres and stood in the sponsons in the middle of the hull, the rest was short — only 22 — and could not shoot next three miles, and had a rather narrow sectors of fire to the actual date of entry into operation the first of the German armored cruisers were good enough to fight with the help of this foreign ships They could only be used for the same traditional purposes “cruisers in peacetime” showing the flag worldwide, a small punitive expeditions against tribal leaders, as well as educational sailings. For such purposes they are quite fit, differing in chain good seakeeping and a moderate pitch and rolling in addition, they are well obeyed the helm, the commanders of maneuverability and control has always been purely positive. In General, despite the formidable rows of guns, it was a peaceful time for “Irene” and “Wilhelmina” was a natural state.

 

The weakness of the artillery of the German cruisers were not a mystery for the leadership of the German Navy, so in 1893 they rearmed: 150-mm guns in the sponsons left, the nose 105 of the graph paper were replaced with rapid-fire long gun barrel in 36 caliber, and eight on-Board replaced But six rapid-fire and artillery still remained weak Repeatedly had proposals for additional re-equipment, in which cruisers would have received several more rapid-fire 88-mm guns. However, this option was never implemented, likely due to the small combat value of the ships (already by 1895, the speed of 18 knots was more suitable for gunboats than cruisers)

 

But progress gradually took their Designers and factories to gain experience. The latest “General” cruiser, “Kaiserin Augusta”, was a starship created for quite other grounds. In fact, he became the first application in Germany is quite modern unit class

 

Unlike their predecessors, the idea of buildings which were not fully understood, neither for the designers nor for the management of the fleet, the new cruiser is clearly intended for the war against merchant shipping. The emphasis was on high speed, but at the same time “attack” and “defense” did not remain without attention If the artillery compared to the overloaded predecessors look moderate, the armored deck was quite solid for its time “Kaiserin Augusta” for its idea and incarnation in many ways resembled the Russian “shestidesiatniki” “Varyag”, “Askold” and “Hercules”, which was built a little later, just before the Russo-Japanese war was Supposed the cruiser’s speed will be able to catch up with almost all merchant ships of the enemy and get away from exceeding it by force of warships — the classic formula for the raider and scout

 

High demands on driving performance resulted in a significant increase in length and displacement Outwardly of the first “real” German cruiser were three pipes and a complete lack of mast. A revolutionary feature was the transition to three-shaft power plant. It has become traditional for big cruisers of the German Navy and received fairly wide distribution abroad Instead of cars double extensions were installed machine with triple expansion of the steam, with vertical instead of horizontal arrangement of cylinders However, water-tube boilers have not yet become common and the designers were limited to traditional cylindrical. Body made of steel at progressive longitudinal-transverse diagram of the power set. Because “Augusta” was intended primarily for service abroad, including in the warm seas, its body, like its predecessors, trimmed the tree and buntmetall — alloy replaced copper Interestingly, this “coat” was raised above the waterline by almost 0.7 meters

 

Somewhat disappoint artillery Krupovskaya of skorostrel not yet arrived, so I had to install a temporary weapons you want to replace at the first opportunity. Quick-firing guns appeared, as expected, in 1896, and immediately installed it on the cruiser

 

The first experience of creating large high-speed combat ship was not very smooth. Almost immediately, even on tests, it became clear that the case is not strong enough and requires additional amplification. Besides, even during the trial of cars idling in one of them there is a serious accident. So the cruiser in June, 1893, was sent to the factory Work required to correct identified defects, demanded a lot of time, and return the commissioning of the ship was possible only in may 1895. Thus, he had to serve only several months, after which it took almost two years for its finishing!