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Post by aiolife on Jun 11, 2020 15:05:38 GMT -6
02 July 1926:
Down on the jetty stood a long slim figure, his silhouette against the summer setting sun. July in Naples is always warm and windy, but he wore an overcoat over a fine suit and a tight tie closing the neck of the shirt. This strange outfit alone could have made anyone suspicious, but we were perfectly aware of the reason that man was here, in Naples, getting off from an anonymous boat, without any flag or insign. His identity was to be kept secret, but we knew that he was one of the French generals who were planning the next coup.
Francois Darlan - The strange man that came to Naples that evening.
We met in the offices at the Naples base, late that evening, so we attracted the least amount of attention.
We granted him full support in his attempt to regain control of the French Government, but he would grant us favourable conditions during the peace treaties. He willingly accepted our terms, and after some hours, it was completely dark by then, he left on the same anonymous boat he came with, but with a suitcase in his hands.
05 July 1926:
Together with Col.Vigevano we were following the constant stream of reports that our secret agents in Paris were throwing back down our secure communication channels. Admiral Darlan (we knew he was the man whom we had met some days before) had gathered a small army of nationalists among the armed forces' ranks, and with extreme violence and strength they were able to seize the French Parliament, and declare himself as the new Prime minister. For obvious reasons, the previous communists led government was really not keen on leaving the Assemblèe Nationale without fighting, and so the country fell into a violent and bloody state of civil war.
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Post by vonfriedman on Jun 12, 2020 4:07:17 GMT -6
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Post by vonfriedman on Jun 12, 2020 4:11:44 GMT -6
Excellent AAR, that I read on Italian Navy Day, in memory of the sinking of the battleship St. Istvan by Luigi Rizzo's MAS 15. Perhaps Agilulfo Emo Bertrandino dei Guildiverni e degli Altri di Corbentraz e Sura, knight of Selimpia Citeriore and Fez was one of the ancestors of Admiral de Agilulfis? Damn vonfriedman you got me! Admiral DeAgilulfis' uncle Italo used to tell him about the tale of a valiant ancestor Knight which existence was constantly questioned! Thank you! I hope to be able to show even more human side of the men that fought the bitter war out at sea... such as the heroic deeds of Luigi Rizzo and his fellows! These ancestors! You must know that on Rizzo's Mas 15 a crew member whose surname is the anagram of Friedman was embarked as a "volontario motonauta"
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Post by aiolife on Jun 12, 2020 8:22:15 GMT -6
Damn vonfriedman you got me! Admiral DeAgilulfis' uncle Italo used to tell him about the tale of a valiant ancestor Knight which existence was constantly questioned! Thank you! I hope to be able to show even more human side of the men that fought the bitter war out at sea... such as the heroic deeds of Luigi Rizzo and his fellows! These ancestors! You must know that on Rizzo's Mas 15 a crew member whose surname is the anagram of Friedman was embarked as a "volontario motonauta" WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!! "Memento Audere Semper" to you then my friend...
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Post by aiolife on Jun 12, 2020 10:23:03 GMT -6
07 July 1926:
An urgent meeting of the war council was organized this morning. The Duce updated us on the events of the last few days.
The situation is quickly degenerating in France. The civil war is spreading like oil stains from every major city: Paris, Nice, Lion, Tulouse, Marseille... From everywhere, small Nationalists armed groups show up in front of the city halls, government buildings, railroad stations, barracks and bases, seizing them from the police and armed forces. Often even some of the regular officer and soldiers join these small parties, and open the gates to them without needing to enforce the request with the use of weapons. In many other cases the reaction comes hard, and bitter fights happen all over the place, involving civilians and adding up to the death toll, already high from the 2 years of war.
These right-wing nationalists call themselves the "Actionists" from the name of the party Action Francaise. They are led by Admiral Darlan, and by some other high-ranking officers in the armed forces. If you could be there, and witness some of their swift, brutal and cunning actions, you could maybe see some similarities with Italian "Arditi" who fought in the Alps' trenches 15 years before in the Austro-Italian conflicts. Probably you could also see some of the machine-guns and rifles they use are Italian made Breda and Beretta. The Duce however remains extremely vague about a possible involvement of our secret services in this matter. But nevertheless they show great resolution and organization, since they are able to contest many of the great cities from the French Communist government.
The consequences on both the Franco-German and Franco-Italian front are disastrous! Without a stable chain of command, with the supply and communication lines broken by the guerrilla-style actions of the "Actionists", the French army quickly falls to pieces.
German infantry and motorized batallions roll over the complex fortified trench frontline, forcing whole French divisions to surrender, caught surrounded in a cùl de sac. Looking at the actions of these days, a German general named Hanz Guderian will foresee the future of mobile warfare, he will call it Blitzkrieg.
Exactly at the same time the Italian Alpini mountain infantry divisions break through the Monviso and Colle Tenda pass, encircling the French divisions at the border, cutting the supply lines, and forcing their surrender.
An Italian Alpino, with a Mule-packed Mortar, thanks to the use of these animals as transport, Italian troops could achieve astonishing results in mountain warfare.
10 July 1926:
After the rapid collapse of the French armies, it was clear that the war was approaching its final chapter... in fact this morning I received news that we will be leaving this very evening on a plane, to reach as soon as possible Paris for a negotiation table.
The Ciampino military airport was closed that night, to allow for 2 twin-engine transport planes to take off undisturbed. I sat on a simple wooden seat together with Count Piccio and some of our secretaries and staff members, the Duce and the Chief of the army with their staff, were aboard the other plane. The weather was almost perfect, nevertheless the flight was not exactly a first class cruise on an ocean liner. My back is starting to feel the signs of my age. It was only 10 years before when me and Count Piccio used to fly on those wooden and linen planes... how foolish we were back then! And we didn't complain about the icy wind in our face! Now that we are in an enclosed plane, 5 times the size of those we used to fly in, my body is aching in every single bone and muscle. Unfortunately I'm slowly becoming an old armchair general...
Me in an old picture, one of my first fligths during the Austro-Italian War.
An escort group of fighter planes was arranged, and was already in the air waiting for us. After a stop in a German airport for re-fuelling and to pass under the protection of Luftwaffe fighters, we finally reached Paris the morning after.
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Post by aiolife on Jun 13, 2020 6:50:35 GMT -6
11 July 1926:
In the first hours of the morning, after a few hours sleep, we get on the cars sent by the German Command, which in the meantime has arrived in Paris.
The column drives fast in the large boulevards of the French capital city.
Behind the rolled down windows an unbelievable scenery is lightly shadowed by the rising dawn.
A city in despair, the poor and the hungry, left dying at the corners of every street, women and their children without a home asking for a piece of bread pushed back with rifles and bayonettes.
From the back-seat of the Daimler-Benz, driven by a young blonde german soldier, I try not to look out of the rolled down window, feeling guilt deep inside of me, even if my brain tells me that war is merciless... no matter what.
The only thing I can do, is trying to make it the shortest as I possibly can. And that's what we're here for!
High columns of smoke rise up from the Assemblèe Nationale, after the fighting of the last week.
So we move to a safer place, an Hotel near the Italian Embassy betwen Boulevard Raspail and Rue de Varenne. Heavy surveillance is in place all around the block of historical buildings and the park surrounding them, and German tanks and armoured cars create checkpoints all around at every junction.
A long queue of military cars is waiting for its illustrious passengers to get-off: The Duce, Admiral Darlan, German Councellor Mueller, The british prime minister Lord Chamberlain, the young Archduke of Austria, and a neverending list of Ambassadors, ministers, generals, admirals, secretaries and their staff.
The hotel was literally swarming with people in their uniforms of every different colour and fashion. Waiters with cups of champagne, coffee and fine French pastry made their way through the crowd of ministers, generals and ambassadors.
The contrast with the scenery we encountered in the streets, made me really sick... I wanted to run away from all of this, but Count Piccio understood the look on my face, and held me by the shoulder.
After nearly an hour, everyone was seated in its carefully chosen and arranged place at the peace table.
The sign of the Paris peace treaty in July 1926
The conditions for this treaty were obviously pre-arranged between the Duce, the German Councellor and Admiral Darlan, but they played the part everyone was expecting from them.
The Duce and his German allied were looking upon the French dignitaries, whom played the role of the offended victims, but this was all but a well executed theatrical exhibition.
So, in the end, the treaty was signed, and the conditions for this peace put French in an abysmal position.
They lost all their mediterranean and african colonies, all going to Italy. They kept anyway their island posessions in the Caribbean and in South East Asia.
Also the German-French border was heavily modified, assigning to Berlin a lot of resource-rich areas.
Corsica was part of a bitter debate, but it was agreed that it should go to Italy as well.
Not a lot of money was asked as war reparation... since the French economy has completely been annihilated by 2 years of embargo.
French will be guided by Admiral Darlan, who proclaimed itself as new Prime minister with plenty of powers, the Actionists groups will form a private militia, to enforce the new government acts and finally push out of France the "communist dissidents", as he called them.
For sure the new French regime will be aided both by the Italo-German alliance, in form of war consultants and weapons technology.
Then it came my moment to discuss the future of the French Navy.
Since a lot of the officers seems to be supporting the Communists and are not following orders from the Darlan regime, Marine Nationale will keep its warship locked in port, under surveillance of Regia Marina, starting from tomorrow, until further replacement of the naval hierarchy will be completed.
On the way back to Rome, the Duce appeared really satisfied...
"The Italian Empire is born today!" he will say to the reporters while getting of the plane in Ciampino airport the next day.
Italian Empire of the "Afriche Orientali e Occidentali Unite" (United West and East Africas)
The Mediterranean Sea now it's almost entirely "Mare Nostrum"... ONLY some annoying English posessions blocking both ends.
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Post by aiolife on Jun 16, 2020 15:06:44 GMT -6
"IL TRICOLORE SVENTOLA SUL GIORNO DELLA VITTORIA!" (Italian Flag stands upon the day of Victory!) 13 July 1926
After all... after 22 months... the longest 22 months of my damn life, this war is finally over. We have luckily been able to pull of a victory, only thanks to one single battle, the bloodiest I've ever seen, and to the help of our German allies.
And despite all of this, we are beaten like dogs, hunger and misery crawl under the inevitable happiness and joy of the days of Victory.
Celebration is going on in every city and village, young men are coming back from the frontline, and can now fall exhausted in their parents', wives' or lovers' arms.
The maimed and wounded, and the souls of the dead, will rest as a bloody burden on the shoulders of this regime, as economy must now restart, without help from those who are lost forever.
But life is wonderful, and from the hope and pride of the ones who made it home I am sure we can make it and rise up again from the ashes of destruction.
People dancing in the streets after the news of the end of the war.
All these thoughts passed by in my head, as I look at the parade, marching through the streets of Rome, as a chanting crowd acclaims the heroes of this war.
The Duce, soaking in all of the cheering and shouting, he lives for this pantomime...
Italian flags, green white and red, are hanging everywhere, from every balcony, from ropes across the streets, in children's hands, on women's shoulders...
Parade along the newly re-named Viale Impero in Rome.
White as the pure hearts of the mothers and wives... red of the blood of the fallen heroes... and green as the hope we all keep in the bottom corner of our hearts.
But even this days of celebration and joy are not quiet and free from bad news.
This morning one of our cruisers, RN Catania, that participated in most of the actions against the French Navy, operating brilliantly and valiantly... and survived, was sunk by an abject assault from a French cruiser.
RN Catania and its crew, part of a bigger task force, were guarding the French ships in Marseille, enforcing the treaty clause that prevented Marine Nationale vessels to leave port.
But they were unaware of some communists squad that had a plan to exfiltrate and hide in Russia.
So, in the cover of darkness, just before dawn, the Bolshevik partisans boarded the MN Cosmao (Coetlogon class protected cruiser) and killed the Italian soldiers on guard duty aboard it.
Before they could start the engines and leave port they had to make diversive actions so started firing broadsides to the nearby anchored RN Catania until it was torn to pieces, even before it could return fire.
In the general confusion they were able to finally escape, leaving behind the wrecks of the RN Catania, 15 dead and 32 wounded.
15 July 1926:
After the end of the war, they come eventually: the budget cuts and spending drop... money are needed for repairs, to help the veterans and their families, to restart the industry and economy.
I perfectly understand all of this, so my main goal now, is to save money wherever I can.
Some choices are really easy... all the 7 Nino Bixios old cruisers are sent immediately to scrap! They became useless long ago, they now deserve their final rest.
Same fate for the oldest class of 500tons destroyers, 8 of them scrapped, only the ones converted to minesweepers are kept, but decommisioned for the moment.
Another choice is really easy for me... scrapping the old Caracciolo Battleships as well... all 5 of them!
But the Duce sends me a warning.
He will not let me humiliate the Regia Marina like this! We need to keep a substantial fleet of capital ship in service, otherwise we risk to look weak, like a second class navy.
We have an Empire now! We just entered into the world super-power club, like Great Britain and Germany!
The Francesco Caracciolo class so must remain afloat...
Well I think I can read the Duce request under a slightly different angle, and at least decommission them until we need them again to "flex our naval muscles" with some foreign officer visiting our beautiful country.
Maintenance will be kept to the minimum... cleaning, keeping weed and sea grass off the keel, painting... it won't matter a lot if the guns are not able to hit an island-sized target from 1000 yards.
The other 2 battleships, the Pompeo Magno class, will be kept in reserve. Only Admiral Riccardi's 28°Battlecruiser division (RN Lombardia and RN Francesco Ferruccio) will be on active duty.
For patrol purpose the Bologna class cruisers RN Cagliari and RN Milano will form the 36° Cruiser Division and will be soon joined by the 4 Bolzano class in 2 separate divisions.
For escorting purposes I'll keep in service only the newest 1100 ton Borea Class and 1500 ton Antonino Cascino Class fleet destroyers for a total of 11 ships.
To guard our newly acquired colonies we need good efficient ships, and our 3 "Esploratori Oceanici" colonial cruisers (RN Barletta, RN Messina, RN Foggia) are really aging fast, and I suppose they will not be able to race up and down the African coast.
So I plan an urgent re-fitting for them. I recall them to the Mediterranean, they will be heading for Castellamare Shipyards. I still don't know how to upgrade them for the next years... but I need some rest and a good cup of coffe before deciding such things.
I then order to Admiral Cattaneo's Raiders (RN Raimondo Montecuccoli, RN Giuseppe Garibaldi, RN Giovanni delle Bande Nere) to finish re-supplying and leave immediately for the colonies.
All other navy asset will be kept in reserve or decommissioned. So our available ships are the following:
BB:
5-Francesco Caracciolo (MB)
2-Pompeo Magno (RF)
*2-Vittorio Veneto (Building)
BC:
1-RN Lombardia (AF)
1-RN Francesco Ferruccio (AF)
CA:
3-Raimondo Montecuccoli (FS)
CL:
3-Salerno (RF)
3-Esploratore Oceanico (RF)
2-Bologna (AF)
1-Bolzano (WU)
*3-Bolzano (Building)
CVL: *2-Falco (Building) DD:
11-Nembo 500t minesweepers (MB)
9-Corazziere 700t (MB)
6-Agostino Bertani 900t (MB)
7-Borea 1100t (AF)
4-Antonino Cascino 1500t (AF)
*5-Antonino Cascino 2°batch 1500t (building)
KE:
7-Regina Pacis minesweepers (MB)
*5-Adelina minesweepers (Building)
SS:
7-Coastal Subs
4-Minelaying Subs (+2 Building)
8-Oceanic Subs (+3 Building)
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Post by aiolife on Jun 17, 2020 15:14:27 GMT -6
05 August 1926:
Now that the war is over, I have plenty of time to travel around and visit our bases and port around Italy and our new Empire. You should know me well by now... I am not very fond of public relations, but I am still not used to sit on an armchair all day long either!
So here I am, under the hot summer sun, in Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, invited as guest for the launching of RN Trento, second of the Bolzano class cruisers. While all the guests are having fun, drinking their fine wine from crystal glasses, me, Mr.Rota and the chief engineer from STT are discussing about business.
I presented them with my biggest problem up to now. What should I do with the old Francesco Caracciolo battleships?
They are slow (22kn), short ranged, and outgunned (5 dual 304mm in AFGYX configuration), and with less than 19000tons there is no room for any re-fitting. Their most logic place right now should be... I don't know? Railroad tracks? Or maybe fast coal tenders?
But suddenly, between a sip of Tocai wine, and a fish tart, Mr.Cosulich owner of the Shipyard, came up with a ingenious solution to my problem:
"Why don't you try, Admiral, and convert one of such hulls into an aircraft carrier? We have the space and skilled workforce right for the job!"
He had been for sure disappointed by my refusal to buy their Sparviero project for a new Aircraft carrier back in January, but I thought that after 8 months he would have forgotten about that!
Anyway this sounded like a very good idea so I won't waste the hulls from the old battleships. I looked at Mr.Rota, and he nodded in agreement:
"Mr.Cosulich... we'll give you a second chance, make us a design proposal. With double the displacement this time you should have plenty of material to work with!"
13 August 1926:
Just before the summer holidays, we receive the offer from STT for the Battleship-to-Carrier conversion of the Caracciolos:
-Complete overhaul of the machines, switched to oil-fired boilers, 3 shafts and 60500 horsepower for 27knots;
-34 airplanes in the hangar;
-8 single-mount 152mm guns in lateral sponsoon, under the flight deck's level;
-16 single-mount, dual-purpose 76mm ansaldo guns with their own fire control equipment;
-plenty of light AA machine guns;
All of this at the cost of just under 44Milion Lire, expected to be completed in less than 2 years.
Seems like a good deal!
Demonstration of the Ansaldo 76mm dual purpose gun. Its compact design and versatility are the reason why it's been widely used in all Regia Marina ships. The army is thinking about using it as well in the double Anti-tank and Anti-Aircraft role.
I immediately sign the order for one of this. RN Francesco Morosini, the latest of the Caracciolo class, is my chosen one. It will be sent immediately to Trieste to begin the transformation. It will be the largest aircraft carrier afloat in the whole world!
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Post by aiolife on Jun 19, 2020 15:34:27 GMT -6
04 September 1926:
It's a warm September morning and I'm heading towards the jetty to inspect the RN Messina, one of the Esploratori Oceanici colonial cruisers just returned home from Massaua. They will for sure need some re-fits, so we are looking deeply at their state of service, to understand how we can improve them and make them useful again for the years to come. This class of cruiser needs to be reliable and flexible, to adapt in all situation, representing our nation around the recently expanded Empire... no one would like to be represented by an old rusty ship!
They are still quite fast ships for their age. A 6200tons cruiser commisioned in 1913, still steaming at 27knots, with worn coal engines, is something to be proud of.
Anyway they now have really obsolete guns: QF 6"/40 Armstrong in 4 single shielded mounts, one fore and aft and one on each side. They are old english guns license-built in Pozzuoli, Italy. The fire direction system is nearly rudimental, and the secondary armament consists of 8x QF 12 pounders produced from Ansaldo in the early 1910's.
We sat in the captain cabin aboard RN Messina, trying to figure out a solution that could provide a more modern ship at a reasonable price. At first my thought was to try the new Ansaldo twin 120/50 for a total of 4 turrets in a superfiring arrangement, removing the submerged torpedoes to place 2 on-deck double tubes.
The newest product of Ansaldo light calibers, the twin 120mm.
This meant that we must reduce the secondaries from 8 guns to 4, putting some of the new 76mm DP guns. In order to create space for the superfiring turrets we also had to move the machinery, and to fit enough power in such space required that we should switch to oil firing and to new turbines, totalling 29Kn of speed.
It all sounded very interesting... but the bill increased with every option that we were putting on the list. A rough cost estimation showed nearly 20 Million Lire, for the rebuild only... more than half the total cost of a new Falco aircraft carriers!
First re-build proposal... too expensive!
We then repeated the process, trying to stay low in our whishlist of requirements. I was inflexible about the fire direction, we had to update it at any cost. The main armament has to be updated as well, but without changing the layout, so 4 of the new Ansaldo 152mm should do the job. Then we took down 2 of the 8 secondary guns and replaced the 12 pounders with the 76mm. The submerged torpedoes seemed old too, so we again listed the on-deck tubes. But the weight increase could reduce speed under 25kn... so we had to take into account new engines. But again costs skyrocketed quickly up to 15 Milion Lire!
Second proposal... still too expensive!
In the meantime the lamps were lit in the captain cabin, and we still could not agree on a feasible rebuild for those 3 ships! Mr.Rota insisted that we didn't have any budget left, and he was right, but the admirals wanted a ship that could be operational and effective in its role. In the end I took the decision... We would have had only a minor refit! We needed these colonial cruisers quickly, and we didn't have the money neither to fully re-fit them, nor to pay for Cattaneo's supercruisers maintenance on colonial duty, while these 3 are in the dockyards!
Probably there won't be any serious conflict for the next 10 years, and what we had at the moment was perfectly suitable to gun down any wooden canoo in any island of damn Madagascar!
The result of my rage was that everybody agreed finally on my side, and we wrote down the requirements for the re-fit. Extensive maintenance and repair of the existing engines, cleaning and painting of the hull, replacement of the main guns with 4 Ansaldo 152mm, update of the Fire direction system, and replacement of 8x12 pounders with 4x76mm Ansaldo. Eight 13.2mm breda AA machineguns and a prototype rangefinder for aircraft targeting were added as well, everything without slowing down the ship of a single knot.
Total costs: 1 Milion 200 thousand Lire, and 3 months of work. I personally signed the list before anyone could add anything to it, and ordered to submit it to Genoa Arsenale, asking to begin immediately!
05 September 1926:
I woke up with a strong headache after yesterday's discussion on the Esploratori's re-fit, but the morning coffee turned my brain immediately on. I had some ideas for next year's building plan.
Situation of the major navies in September 1926 - according to our information
I looked up on the situation of the other main navies, in the notes and memorandum of Col.Vigevano and our secret service. We were dangerously behind everyone else in battleship numbers, even if I am perfectly sure that Austria and Russia still retained a bunch of old relics barely able to take sea. France should not be a problem for the future, now they have a friendly regime, and the Germans are bound to an alliance with us. I don't think we'd like to stomp on Great Britain's feet (for the moment), nor on the US', but anyway we had to increase the number of capital ships as soon as possible. The budget of the 3 Bolzano cruisers almost completed can be used to plan a couple of more battleships, starting next spring.
For what cruisers are concerned we were perfectly in line with my strategy and capable to handle both peace and war-time roles with what we had. Apart from the US, we are the only navy to build a full fleet aircraft carrier, and when the 2 Falcos will be completed I can consider myself satisfied about aircraft carrying vessels.
The other area where we showed weaknesses in the French war, was the submarines. So the other part of the budget next year will be used to expand our submarine fleet.
Anyway I still had 3 months before I needed to write down next year's budget. Winter will come in my aid, without the chance to go out sailing, my long afternoons will be spent in front of the fireplace, squeezing my brain to get out some fine idea!
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Post by aiolife on Jun 20, 2020 15:30:12 GMT -6
20 September 1926:
Count Piccio was leaning upon the fence, in a manner similar to a little boy astonished and amused by some strange animal in the zoo. But he was looking at a big fat recon airship, that was just beginning to take off. The engines were popping and smoking at each side of the small metal pod attached to the belly of that giant flying whale...
"You know what Francesco?" He asked me after some minutes of silence. "I think these airships will become useless in a few years'time..."
"Are you serious, Ruggero?" We used to call each other by our names, when we were by ourselves, like we used to do back in officers'school.
"Yes, exactly... our bombers and flying boats will increase their operative ranges until they'll be able to go further than any baloon."
"And they're not big balls of inflammable gas..."
"Exactly Francesco..." He nodded with a big smile on his face. Even if we were the same age, he looked a lot younger than me... well my beard and my eyepatch were not helping with that!
After less than a week from our conversation the order to retire from service any airship, and to convert their hangars for aircraft sheltering purposes, was issued. Count Piccio idea was bald and risky, but I had the same thoughts. I hope our gamble will have its payback in the future. For sure it has some small cost-saving effect in the short period! So I could not be happier than this.
We also require to send a Statement of Requirement to all Aircraft Manufacturers for a new Fighter plane. Our Ansaldo is still the fastest fighter in service, but it's quite lightly built and has only 2 light machineguns, not enough to pose a real threat to some of the more robust enemy bombers.
3 October 1926:
Since it's planned that in the first months of next year we will complete the re-fit of our Esploratori Oceanici, and the new Adelina class minesweepers will be commisioned, I'll have nearly 2 Million of free budget to spend. The treasury of Regia Marina has still some spare cash in our reserves, so I start early to order the submarines I was planning for the second half of 1927.
10 of them will be built, and all will be long range ocean-going vessels, armed with the newest 450mm torpedoes from Witehead.
Anyway if we really want to start a new class of battleships as I was planning, we'll need some more budget in 1927, so I am writing a letter to the Duce. If he grants me some more money next year, I will let him decide the name of the new battleships. I think he cannot resist my offer... his ego is too big to refuse to have some large modern capital ship named by himself!
25 October 1926:
Giovan Battista Caproni - Founder of Caproni Group that is now including amongst others: Officine Meccaniche Reggiane and Isotta Fraschini.
I often heard about Giovan Battista Caproni, owner of Officine Caproni, leader of the Italian aircraft industry. I have always been told that he was a man of genius, and quite a singular kind of person. And that evening I begun to understand why. He had a small wooden model airplane in his hands, and never took his eyes off from that perfectly crafted, smoothly polished piece of wood. After more than 10 minutes of embarassing silence, he finally spoke to me and to my staff, presenting what he had brought with him.
It looked like that the small scaled-down prototype flowed right out from his mind, and took shape in a 3-engined, medium-range, tactical bomber.
But, beside being a kind of aircraft design genius, he was a business guru as well! He had just bought Officine Meccaniche Reggiane, saving them from bankruptcy. He thought to re-start that factory by producing their own Caproni aircrafts, and the first model will be that very bomber! He called it the Reggiane Re.95! And he announced that he could start producing it right from the next week if we agreed on that...
Drawings of the Reggiane Re.95 3-engine bomber... It will be called "Il gobbo" (The hunchback) for the shape of the upper fuselage.
We were really astonished by the ease with which he told us those things, his achievements seemed to come out from the pointy hat of an industry wizard, but he spoke like we were friends talking about taking out our dogs for a stroll.
For sure Giovan Battista Caproni was a special man, he was able to convey and explain those complex ideas, in a simple and understanding way. And before leaving my office, without even waiting for our decision, he quickly added...
"I always said that the Savoia Marchetti SM.89 prototype was a complete and terrible fumble! Full of design errors... no surprise they were not able to keep their promise about loading the new 1000kg bomb..."
"Will your plane be able to carry that piece of ordinance?" I asked him in a provocative manner... to see if I could break his poker face.
"No it won't... but I can promise that my plane will go faster and a lot further than their plane!"
"Well Mr.Caproni... you can start producing those bombers even tomorrow... I want them!"
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Post by aiolife on Jun 23, 2020 15:30:26 GMT -6
23 December 1926:
We are finally approaching the end of this long... too long year, the second at the head of Regia Marina. Time again to make-up some of my thoughts and to sum-up what I've collected. Well... where to start from? A great victory in a great war? Not so much really... I cannot count this as one of my achievements. The fight at sea was already won before i got to seat in this leather armchair, in those two battles off the cost of Tunis, when we sunk all but one of the French Battleships... and we lost our brave sailors in thousands too. But at the end of those battles we were able to land our troops behind the enemy lines, and that was the real turning point in this bloody war. From that very moment when our first man touched the beach with his boot, I knew that the war was over, I couldn't tell you when it was going to end, but I definitely knew it was going to be in our favour. Oh, time for some hot chocolate and christmas desserts with my staff, today is the last day before Christmas holidays, we must celebrate, almost everyone is going to leave and spend these days with their families. Well for sure it's a time to remember some of our fallen friends too, I can see someone staring at a few empty chairs with a sad look on their face.
Suddenly I realize that all is left for me to do now is to collect all the broken pieces this war has shattered all over the place, and try to put together something that will try to resamble the old Regia Marina, even better if possible, but with many of the parts of this puzzle... that are missing. Great!
Fortunately in the last Parliament audience, it happened that my complaints to the Duce about the fact that we now have an Empire... and I meant a REAL one! Sorted some kind of effect upon him. In fact he decided to raise the budget to Regia Marina in 1927 by almost 35 Milioni di Lire... for some astonishing 3 Milions a Month! So with the re-fitting of the Esploratori Oceanici already finished, and the commissioning of the 5 new minesweepers, I shall have plenty of budget to work with next year.
New Adelina class Minesweeping corvettes. They turned out some really beautiful ships.
After the Christmas party, only me and Mr.Rota are left in the office, we have made some rough estimation and we think we'll be able to get some 3 Million/Month for the first half of 1927, and another 3,5 Million/Month for the second half. (After the aircraft carriers and second batch of Fleet Destroyers are completed) So the main plan for our Ufficio Progetti is to design a new class of two battleships, to be laid-down in the first months of next year, and then to upgrade and re-fit all our actual fleet destroyers to the new standards.
Well, you must admit that we were a bit concerned about designing a new Battleship... even more when you know that you promised the Duce that he could choose how to name it! At the moment we have the 2 Pompeos... still capable ships... maybe they'll need some re-fitting soon, but in the end they proved to be solid vessels. And the 2 Vittorio Venetos, still far from being ready (in fact they still need more than a year to be completed), are comparable with the best warships of Great Britain and United States... now in service... So we are lagging a year behind the 2 most advanced navies in the world, but somehow our secret service provided us with information that no really powerful battleship is being built in any dockyard.
Reports of our secret service about enemy most advanced battleships: Austrian and Russian ones being still under construction and expected to be commissioned within 1927 and 1928, just like our Vittorio Venetos. As you can see the Austrians are asking for some British built ship... while our German Allies started relying on some American Shipyard for their big guns...
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Post by aiolife on Jun 30, 2020 15:02:07 GMT -6
12 January 1927
"I think we shall try the 10 guns configuration, with the lower turrets equipped with 3 guns each"
Mr.Rota was explaining the Duce our plans for the new class of battleships. It was hard to stop him vomiting out technical specifications and pointing out every single detail contained in the drawings.
"At the moment there is no other navy who can field a 10x406mm guns broadside, neither the Royal Navy." At this sentence the Duce's eyes widened, and he lifted the head from the table, straightening his back, and looking at Mr.Rota, who was still fixed on the pile of papers instead.
"Yes, at a standard displacement of 42000 tons will be the biggest warship afloat" I added, after Mr.Rota finally finished its presentation.
Col.Vigevano at this point made a step forward and pointed out:
"Well... to be honest our agents estimate that the next Royal navy project for Hood class could reach 42200 tons too. It has 9x16" guns and its slower... sure... if we manage to reach the expected 30Knots."
Mr.Rota adjusted his glasses and made his riposte: "For sure we will... our calculation never failed to estimate speed or range!"
First prototype of the new Ansaldo 406mm guns for the next Italia Class Battleship
To try and soften the atmosphere, which had grown quite hot despite the cold winter snow, falling outside the cabin's porthole, I summed up the requirements for the new ships:
"Well... Gentlemen, we are speaking about a 10x406mm main battery, 16x152mm secondary, and 18x76mm dual purpose tertiary armament, 32 Anti-Air machineguns with Anti-air fire direction system."
Mr.Rota heard a slight pause in my explanation and took-up from there: "Yes, right, 135'000 horsepower in 4 shafts, for 30knots of maximum speed, 2 meters "Pugliese" cylinders in the hull, to maximize underwater torpedo protection."
I tried then to finish it, since the Duce was clearly not paying attention to us: "We had to limit the maximum thickness of the armor belt though, making it 330mm only around the vital parts of the ship."
But Mr.Rota continued its lesson about ballistics and trigonometry: "Yes, yes, but I wouldn't use the word limit, since we are going to make some trials using inclined belt armor, in order to increase the path the shell has to penetrate, without making the plates exagerately thick."
As everybody in the cabin realized, the Duce did not catch any of our words. He then made quite a theatrical stop, to regain the attention upon himself:
"We'll call it ITALIA!"
Apart from the name of the ship, which was the least important thing, it was turning out to be a really effective design, ahead of anything the other navies could muster.
Much faster, better armed, even if somewhat with a compromise in protection, but not really inferior to many flaghsips of other navies.
The main setbacks though, were not merely in the armor, but in the resources needed to build such a big machine.
La spezia Arsenale had made a quotation of 162Milion Lire for 3 year's construction time for each vessel, too many to think about building more than one ship, but it had to be like this, this was the ship for the Duce, and it had to be unique.
12 January 1927 (continued)
After discussing about the design of the new battleship, we went out on the deck of the RN Francesco Ferruccio, and left the Duce inside the captain cabin, he had a diplomatic meeting with French "President" Darlan, so we left them to their political fuss.
Admiral Darlan proclaimed himself "president", even if it was quite literally a joke after all he had done in the last months, after the Coup in Paris. Half of the politicians and officers in the military were taken to prison or killed in consequence to some hilariously sick trials.
Some of them was sentenced by shooting due to laws that never even existed. But this reign of terror was paying off... since the people were now tired of fighting and they only wanted peace. Desperately seeking for stability, people sometimes accept even the worst injustice and abuses...
Icy wind was blowing snow flakes all over the deck of the battlecruiser, the ship showing the signs of continuous repairs during the war.
As we were walking by, we heard doors slamming a few decks upstairs, the "president" and his staff literally kicked out of the cabin, we could hear the Duce screaming in rage...
He appeared at the door with a paper in his hands, he frantically reduced the sheet into small pieces and threw them overboard, the wind took them flying away and disappearing in the winter mist, even before they could reach the water.
"Get the Fxxk out of my ship! Get Out! You ungrateful pile of liars! I hope you'll die freezing in the sea on your rotting, rusty boats!"
President Darlan and the french diplomats were running down the ladders, and into their motorboat, turning away full power as far as possible before the Duce himself could man a machinegun and blast them out of the water.
The Treaty of Campo Formio is signed - postcard of the 18th century
Trying to contain the laughter, we then learnt that France was going to send a "relief force" to the Island of Corfu after a serious diplomatic "incident" with the Greek government!
To our surprise we asked what France had to do with a small rocky island between Puglia and Greece? Well, apparently that island was attributed to France after the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, following the fall of the Republic of Venice, whom held the Isle up to that year.
Since that treaty, the people of Corfu had passed from one domination to the other in a whirlwind of invasions, campaigns, fall of nations, wars and other natural disasters.
The Russo-Ottomans took it from the French, who then retook the island just to lose it again in favour of the English in 1815. After the establishment of the new Greek monarchy, and the creation of Greece as an indipendent nation from the Ottomans, the British agreed to unite the island to the Greek Nation.
But all of this apparently was never written in any other peace treaty or political agreement! So the latest ufficial document is that Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797... and the French now want their little piece of rock in the middle of the Mediterranean.
14 January 1927
The one and only operational French Battleship, together with a division of 3 cruisers and various escorts, is at anchor just outside the port of Corfu, as the newly trained (... by our secret services!) elite militia lands and takes the ancient Venetian fortress, without even firing a shot.
The people in the streets are too astonished and surprised to even understand who this black-dressed soldiers, with strange african-looking green hats are.
Ancient Venetian map of the city of Corfu
This way, the so-called Corfu Crisis had begun...
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Post by aiolife on Jul 1, 2020 15:54:40 GMT -6
15 January 1927
We sail from Taranto with the only ships we had ready for duty at the moment, since this sudden move of the French took everyone by surprise.
Everyone, including the Greeks...
I sail with Admiral Fioravanzo in the RN Francesco Ferruccio, followed by Admiral Riccardi aboard RN Lombardia, our battlecruiser squadron is followed by 32° Cruiser Division and 5 Destroyers.
The orders from the Duce are clear: press the French out of Corfu, and restore the original situation, we cannot allow France to wage its interests just outside our back-door, at least without any consequence!
When we arrive, just after a few hours, it's barely dawn. The tall masts of the French ships project long shadows in the calm waters outside the port of Corfu.
But we are not alone, on the other side of the French formation we can see funnels and smoke... It's the Greek navy! Well, if we can call it so: a pair of 30 years old retired english battleships, one of our old Marco Polo amoured cruisers, saved from the scrapyard, and a couple destroyers, of quite a new design indeed.
And in fact, it was not the end yet! In the next hour or so, a British and a Russian Cruiser joined the show as well.
The Greek Ironclad Spetsai, one of the battleships present to the Corfu Crisis.
The situation could not get worse then. If we could have had a chance to negotiate something with the French Admiral, now the odds are multiplying with every other contestant joining the party!
The Russian were the closest friends of the Ottoman Empire, thus they represented the Nemesis of the Greeks.
British and Italians had always wanted to help Greece as it was a precious ally to counter Turkish power in the eastern Mediterranean.
But this willingness to help only partially covered the meddling they had in the hellenic politics and economics.
So, in the end, for the Greek admiral who had come to the table hastily arranged on the beach in front of the Venice Fortress, the most convenient solution was to listen to what the French ambassador had to offer... and to accept their terms!
Everyone was shocked, but luckily we kept our good manners. An act of rage or a voice raised to high, could have led to a misunderstanding.
At least a couple hundreds muskets and rifles from every side was waiting around, eager to fire some shot, not to mention the increasing number of warships hanging just outside the port, less than a thousands yards away.
The situation could easily lead to a massacre.
Greek Flagship firing its saluting guns to mark the end of the negotiations just outside of Corfu harbour.
In any case, after a full day of discussions, the Greeks bowed their heads to the French request and became de-facto their colony, we issued an Ultimatum to Paris ordering that they'll immediately back down on their demands, the French disregarded our ultimatum, and proceeded on taking Greece under their protection.
We then consulted the English, if they'll joined on our side we could easily take out France and liberate Greece. The English admiral had no power at the moment to decide, he told us that he needed to consult the high Lord of the Admiralty, the prime minister, or even the King itself.
And by the way he admitted that there were little chance that they joined our side, since we had always been fighting to get hold on Greece for the last 30 years or so... well he definitely had a point!
Even the Greeks themselves did not want to take our side in case we wanted to push the French out of Corfu... so we packed our bags and returned home, well knowing that the Duce will not be happy about this.
20 January 1927
In the last week a civil war broke out in Greece, after the Greek Government decided to let French troops enter Athens, the civilians raised partisans and militia groups to fight off the invaders and their own brothers in the military.
The diplomatic situation had become critical, none of the European powers really want to intervene, to avoid the outbreak of another big-scale conflict.
Greek soldiers fighting partisans in the Athen's Akropolis. They hold a french-made Chatellerault light machinegun.
27 January 1927
The Greek army, aided by the French, managed to defeat the partisans and the rebellion is finally quelled.
The international situation is not quiet though, relations between Italy and France are getting hotter every day. Based on this situation we are forced to revise our plan for the new Battleship.
Maybe is better to back down on the requirements, in order to be able to afford at least a pair of ships for the same cost of the one we wanted in the beginning.
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Post by aiolife on Jul 5, 2020 15:53:33 GMT -6
28 November 1927:
This winter has come really fast. I've been recently away from my office in Palazzo della Marina in Rome, because I decided to go on a 3 months training cruise with the best cadets in Regia Marina, aboard RN Lombardia.
This has been its las voyage, at least for how we are used to see it, since now it's undergoing heavy re-fitting. We decided to give it a new life after almost 10 years always on duty. They will replace the old 33cm German Skoda guns (Awful... to be honest) with some new barrells and modify the trailing to have a greater elevation, thus more range, allowing for accuracy thanks to an updated fire control system.
Her midship twin turret will be removed, and replaced with a catapult and a seaplane hangar. The secondary armament will be completely overhauled as well, unloading the 7,5cm Krupp guns and using the everpresent Ansaldo dual purpose 76mm, plus some other AA light machineguns.
With the free weight of the removed turret we are going to add some deck armour plates over magazines and machinery as well.
Some of the Regia Marina Officers during the training cruise.
This cruise had made me think about some important things, such as my life and what I really want for me now. I really do start to feel old and tired of everything. I would like to go back on the bridge of a small cruiser or destroyer and face the day to day troubles of life at sea.
For sure deadlier and tougher than all of this, but more rewarding when you overcome them, because after all, the first lover and the most fearful enemy of a sailor is the Great Sea.
By the way, I swear I'll stop one day with this old men's rattling and jabbering... now back to business, as usual.
We are at risk of another conflict against the French... again.
This time, France is led by a regime we created by ourselves to stop the 1924-26 war, but unfortunately you cannot make the dog's leash too short, otherwise it will bite you back. And that's exactly what happened. In the first weeks of March, they had complete control over Greece, despite our effort once again, to suppor the Greek partisans. Just after that, Admiral, woops... "President" Darlan tried to re-gain the Duce support, at least the smallest pieces of it, after he was almost thrown overboard the RN Francesco Ferruccio, by offering us a 5 years mutual alliance, in exchange of our withdrawal from the Rome-Berlin pact.
No surprise that he had almost been thrown out of the window -again- by an even more enraged Duce, thus creating the opposite effect on our diplomatic relation's health.
Marine Nationale is bringing to the Greek island a battle squadron of 1 battleship, 6 battlecruisers, and 3 aircraft carrier converted cruisers with their escorts.
As a countermeasure we activated some of our reserves, and organized our response.
The Pompeo Magno class of battleships will lead the fleet with RN Pompeo Magno, and RN Ottaviano Augusto freshly re-fitted. RN Francesco Ferruccio, veteran of a thousand battles is now left alone as our only active battlecruiser, since RN Lombardia, Adm.Riccardi's favourite, is currently being heavily modernized.
Yes, since the Corfu Crisis, we were forced to revise our capital ship's policy, we could not afford to wait for the Vittorio Venetos to be completed, so we started a little re-fitting of the actual line of battle.
RN Ottaviano Augusto had spent the spring in dockyard to replace her 13-Inch Armstrong main guns, with the Ansaldo 330mm her sister had already carried since 1923. It was planned to change them on the Ottaviano as well in 1924, but then war broke out, and the ship was needed elsewhere than in the dockyards.
While the main guns where changed, she had all her 12 pounder replaced with the 76mm dual purpose guns and the newest Galileo fire control system was installed, with 3,5m rangefinders, and direction for the secondary 203/50 batteries and anti-air weapons as well.
As I was saying some lines before, RN Lombardia is in dockyard too, after her last cruise.
In the meantime we had the new modified designs for the Italia class ready... without telling anything to the Duce, obviously.
We reduced the main armament from 10, to 8x406mm guns, we did not have time to develop the triple turrets. We reduced the displacement from 42000t to almost 35000t, and 28 knots of maximum speed (instead of 30) would be the best we could achieve with the already existing machinery.
But this way we could afford 2 ships for the total cost of 270 Milion lire for both, including development costs, instead of the nearly 180 Milion for 1 single ship of the previous design. They will be RN Italia and RN Impero, with this new design, they will not be too different from the Vittorio Venetos, just 2knots faster and better protected, but they are even cheaper.
New modified design for the Italia class battleships. Most significant difference: 8 main guns instead of 10, and 28Kn max speed instead of 30kn.
Following the main battlefleet now we have 2 real Aircraft Carriers, the Falco Class (RN Falco and RN Folaga, with 24 aircraft each), finally completed this summer. They are escorted by the brand new cruiser division of the 4 Bolzano Class and the 2 batches of Antonino Cascino fleet destroyers.
In total we might be outgunned, but our line is quite modern and powerful in relation to their mostly pre-war ships.
Since the beginning of this escalation the Duce has granted us some more funding... so Mr.Rota suggested to increase our submarine list even more: 10 new modern vessels are ordered.
The shipyards are working full-time for Regia Marina all around the country, we even payed some extras when we forseen that some civilian project could cause some delay to the construction of the Vittorio Venetos.
Therefore it happened that the captain cabin in the RN Montegrappa, has furniture that was built for the new super-luxurious steamer Augustus, while the Shipowner was misteriously missing some of the furniture just some day before launching his ship.
Super Steamer Augustus, due to be launched in November 1927... it will have some unexpected delays.
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Post by aiolife on Jul 10, 2020 8:35:45 GMT -6
27 January 1928
"And the unacceptable conditions..." The King stopped for a moment to take breath and after some coughing he resumed.
"The unacceptable conditions of the refugees are causing severe troubles and disruption of the normal life and working activities in our colonies!"
King George V portrait picture
King George V's conditions were worrying. He has been fighting against respiratory deseases since 2 months now, he had in fact left most of his duties to his heir son Edward. But he really wanted to participate in the "London Conference of the Empires" that was held to try and put order in a difficult situation recently arisen in the West African colonies. Furthermore he wanted it to take place in London.
But let me explain briefly how all of this was kickstarted and rapidly escalated to the point where ambassadors, prime ministers and kings gathered from all over the world.
Map of German Southwest africa
It was Christmas day 1927 when the news in Berlin were struck by the fact that, in the German colony of Southwest Africa, a commando of Namib tribe's warriors broke into the barracks of the local Schutztruppen garrison.
Cought by surprise (having christmas dinner in the meantime), the German soldiers did not have the time to take up arms and react, so they were either shot by their own stolen rifles or beheaded in the old tribes'fashion, while sill alive.
The German Chancellor Herman Muller was faced with the only choice of punishing this humiliation and sent 2 regiments of Schutztruppen in retaliation. In a week's time the situation was a complete mess.
Though the German occupation of Southwest Africa was numerous and quite solid, the tribes were still a cumbersome presence, and the locals still depended on them rather than on the German institutions.
Rebellion rapidly broke out, and the death count was rising every hour. For every German soldier killed by the tribe's warriors, 100 local civilians were shot in return. This politic did not help putting down the fires and the situation went out of German's control in just a few day's.
African warrior after stealing German rifles during Christmas revolt
Chancellor Muller, then came to ask the Duce's aid, and we were happy to lend a hand to our allies. Troops and aircrafts were sent through our new bases in Middle Congo to help the Germans to "cool down" the situation. But as a consequence to the fighting in German Southwest Africa, a good portion of the civilian population felt that staying under the risk of being shot by a German rifle was not worth it.
Therefore a several miles long queue of fugitives knocked at the gates of the border with British controlled South Africa.
The astonishment of the British border police officer could not be imagined, but as we were already used to see, he did not take any decision and escalated to his superior officer, whom himself escalated to the chief Lord of the Army, and then to the Prime Minister.
While this escalation process was taking place, filling the British telegraphic lines with frantic messages, the mass of refugees continuously pressed at the borders, trying to pass with the favour of darkness.
Those trespassers who were cought in the act were rapidly shot by the "redcoats", thus increasing even more the death toll among the African civilians.
After some weeks of all this madness, King George V decided in the end to try and solve the issues, to prevent the crisis to reach his colonies as well, fearing that the revolt could spread in South Africa too.
London Conference of the Empires - 1928
So here we are in London, surrounded by earls, dukes, a king and a wide variety of politics, ministers, ambassadors and their secretaries!
The talks have endured for 3 days, and we are finally reaching the end.
The situation beforehand Christmas day was restored, so England avoided a civil war in its colony.
Germany lost a number of its Schutztruppen, but in the end was able to keep hold of Southwest Africa.
We were able to establish ourselves as an international player in the imperialistic game of colonies.
So in the end the only loser in this match were the African civilian population who lost thousands of innocent civilians.
That's the exact reason why I hate this diplomatic shows... but if I had to stay and suffer, seeing this liars and filthy sadistic bunch of animals, I tried to take home something.
So it happened that I was able to talk quite confidently with my counterparts in the other great european navies and gather some precious information.
For example I came to know that every other navy is fielding or is in process of building new classes of 13000tons heavy cruisers, armed with multiple 10-Inch guns and capable of speeds up to 30knots.
The British admiral, slowly softened after some glasses of brandy, even confessed that they developed this design well 4 years ago, to counter our Raimondo Monteccucoli class Raiders.
And now all the other nations followed this trend of fast, heavily armed heavy cruisers.
GREAT BRITAIN:
2 Diadem class: 13000tons, 8x10" main guns, 29Knots, 5" main belt;
GERMANY:
3 Yorck class: 12900tons, 8x10" main guns, 30Knots, 5" main belt;
RUSSIA:
Building 3 Bayan class: 13300 tons, data unknown, expected at least 8x10" main guns and 30knots;
FRANCE:
1 Dupleix class: 14700 tons 10x10" main guns, 28knots, 4,5" main belt;
Building 3 Latouche-Treville class: 11000 tons, data unknown;
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:
1 Kaiserin und Konig class (+1 building): 13100tons, 6x10" main guns, 28Knots, 5" main belt;
USA:
1 Pittsburgh class: 14500tons, 9x10" main guns, 29knots, 4"main belt;
This made me think about the need of some sort of ship of this class ourselves, so I came out with some rough requirement, that could match those ships.
At least 8 guns of the 203mm caliber, at least 30knots, 115mm of main belt armor... They will roughly come out at 14000 tons of displacement, but costs will be really high, so I think we'll be able to build at maximum 3-4 ships.
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