January 1914
Personal log - the 5th of January
Today I have review of our industry capabilities and efforts in different fields of research. I decided to give priority to different fields.
Machinery development - medium - we are ahead and according to intelligence no other nations has as effective boilers as we have
Armour development - high - we are quite behind as all other nations has already managed to produced krup cementit armour and according to intelligence some nations have improved armour bracing methods
Hull construction - medium - we are behind except A-H as all other nations managed to produced better quality steel for their hulls
Fire control - medium - it is quite important be not behind however I hope the cooperation with US Navy could help us not to invest too much into it. Except A-H all nations have same quality as we have, USA has 12 ft rangefinders.
Subdivision and damage control - low - Our intelligence was unable to get any information in this field however we now that Royal Navy did not include any torpedo protection in their ships, France, A-H, Germany, USA has same quality as we have
Turrets and gun mounting - low - We have only information, that A-H, Russia, Germany and USA has tripple turrets
Ship design - medium - almost all nations have similar technology, only Russia and A-H are behind, Germany invented new principles of armouring ships, with max. armour in important areas and rest not armoured at all
AP projectiles - high - we have almost no information except France and Russia which have better projectiles
Light forces and torpedo warfare - high - I consider that most important as we cannot match other navies in capital ships and every nation except A-H is able to build 1100 tons destroyers
Torpedo technology - low - we have no information about other nations torpedo technology but 33 knots at 4000 yards seems good
Sumbarines - low - we need to focus on other type of ships
ASW technology - low - Germany and UK is a little advanced, however there are not many submarines so it should not be priority
Explosive shells - medium - all nations except us have base fuzes, USA has evn improved fuzes
Fleet tactics - low - we are a little advanced as nobody has better technology and several nations including USA has not fleet cruising formation
Naval aviation, lighter than air - low - I do not have fate in aviation yet
Naval aviation, heavier than air - low - I do not have fate in aviation yet
Amphibious operations - low - We do not need it if we do not have fleet advantage
Naval guns - low - we have very good 4", 5" and 6" guns and reasonable 15" guns so there is no need for today
Personal log - the 14th of January
I have just finished meeting about naval things with Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Naval Secretary. They confirmed that we should focused on the Mediterranean and there is no need for the fleet operate outside the Mediterranean. I have spoken about my plans to improve fleet especially building new battlecruisers and financial issues and my plan to scrap 3 Umbria class battlecruisers. I persuade them that there is just big elephants we have no money for and we should prepare new designs to be less expensive and still suitable our needs. I was suprised that even Naval Secratery this time agreed with some thing. However I do no tell about my ideas to review even Milano class cruisers that I think that there is no need for such high number of large expensive cruisers and that may be 3-4 ships would be sufficient and better to build another 5-6 smaller cruisers with similar capabilities.
Personal log - the 19th of January
I have just received report about our coastal fortifications. I am not certain of advantage of 4" or 5" batterries except against enemy destroyers. But we have a lot of destroyers so I order to scrap all these batteries.
Personal log - the 22nd of January
Next month I will start deciding about scrapping several ships. However I decided that I will probably not continue with 2 cruisers of Milano class to have more funds for battlecruiser program. It means that next month after launching Taranto our fund will be around plus 0.5M per month with restarting construction of 2 Milano class cruisers. So I think I should start thinking about new battlecruisers and specifications.
New battlecruiser - project Pronto
First question should be which type of ships we need and we would fight. We should certainly has better ships than Tirol or Nantes class and Royal Navy New Zealand class should be taken as example. We can look at USN Constitution class battlecruiser. All nations are building battlecruiser around between 27000 - 30000 tons.
Our 3 battlecruisers Umbria class would costs us 390M. I think we should focuse to have 4 battlecruisers for price about 400-440M, so 100-110M per ship, about 6 % more expensive than Taranto class battleship.
What abilities should have such battlecruiser:
1. speed
- fastest ships are have max. speed of 26 knots
- so we should focuse our ship has speed of 26-27 knots
2. main firepower
- French fast battleships has firepower of 8x13" guns, their next generation battlecruisers could have about 8x14" guns, New Zealand class battlecruiser has 8x15" guns
- we should have at least 8x14" or 6x15" guns
- evaluation of tripple turrets should be done during trials of Taranto class battleship
3. secondary firepower against destroyers
- as speed of destroyers are expected to be around 5-6 knots faster, we should expect that speed itself is my defense
- we should have about 10x4" to 14x5" guns
4. torpedo protection
- maximum TPS level 2
5. armour protection
- this is up to debate however we should focuse to have probably belt thick as French fast battleship or British battlecruiser. Rest of battlecruisers has inferior armour and it could allow us having advantage
- probably 12-13" belt
- probably 13" turret armour
- probably 3" deck which would protect up to 20000 yards of our 15 guns
- conning tower is up to debate if 2" splinter protection or 4" against 6" guns or full 12-13" of armour
- casemates protection up to debate - either none, 2" spliter protection or 4" against 6" guns
6. range and accomodation
- short range is accepted and cramped accomodation too