What about General Rodhack? In terms of the command system, he belongs directly to Marshal Schell. Apart from three aircraft carriers, the aircraft carrier detachment does not have a fixed escort warship organization. On the one hand, this is the tradition of the German Navy. For example, the commander of the German Navy's battleship detachment rarely has additional auxiliary warships, and is generally temporary. On the other hand, it is because the number of light cruisers in the German Navy is too small, which is not enough at all.

Even in Admiral Schell's view, even if the treaty was signed later and the German High Seas Fleet obtained a large number of new cruisers, it would not necessarily assign a separate cruiser to the aircraft carrier team. And it would not design a separate specialized light cruiser for the aircraft carrier team! Because this would seriously squeeze the tonnage! You should know that the tonnage set by the German Navy is about 15,000 tons and the tonnage of light cruisers is about 10,000 tons. This tonnage higher than in history has limited the number of warships.... Do you want to make a specialized one?

In fact, before this meeting, Admiral Rodhack had informed Schell of the idea of ​​developing a dedicated air defense warship. In the general's opinion, the current destroyer's defense is too poor and the air defense firepower is too poor. The tonnage must be increased and the number of anti-aircraft guns must be increased. If the conditions of ocean-going combat with aircraft carriers are added, the tonnage will definitely roll on. As for this opinion, Admiral Schell, who already knows that the German Navy will have a period of tight life in the future, will naturally quarrel.

Hippel is also dissatisfied with this requirement. After all, in the future, he plans to allow his fast fleet to have a fast battleship team and a heavy cruiser team, plus a light cruiser team. This is not Hippel's greed, but it is indeed necessary. After all, the deployment of German maritime forces in the future will be similar to that of Britain before the war. At some important overseas nodes, a certain amount of military force is also required. For example, in Ceylon Island (now Sri Lanka), in order to deter the Japanese navy that may want to enter the Indian Ocean, and in order to threaten the most important colony of the British, it is normal to deploy a heavy cruiser team. Therefore, Hippel, who is in charge of overseas deployment in the future, will naturally leave a margin for his fleet. This is understandable!

If the general process is followed, if the two naval marshals Scher and Hiper, the two naval marshals, disagree, the opinions of Admiral Rodhack would probably be thrown into the waste paper pile. However, at this time, Earl Spee, the three giants of the naval fleet system, put forward different opinions. He believed that the construction of the aircraft carrier fleet was of great importance. It was reasonable for Scher and Hiper to raise objections from the perspective of fleet allocation, but on this decisive matter, the German Navy did not inform Crown Prince Ruprecht. After all, Ruprecht still has the naval supervision power in name, and important things should be reported.

What's more, General Rodhak was originally a Bavarian air force. During the war, he and his air force were temporarily incorporated into the German high seas fleet. But now, they have completely separated from the Bavarian air force and are considered subordinates of the high seas fleet. They performed diligently during the war. They had both contributions and hard work. As a result, the first proposal after the war was directly rejected by the Admiralty Department, and they did not give him any chance to listen to the heavens. This is somewhat unreasonable in terms of reason and human nature.

And to put it bluntly, even if General Rodhak cannot contact Ruprecht through the naval route, he was born in the Bavarian military and belonged to one of the founders of the Bavarian Air Force. He had been with the Crown Prince for 8 years before joining the navy! People always have a way to make this suggestion. At that time, if Prince Ruprecht thinks that the navy is not handled properly, who will take the blame?

So the three of them gathered together, and the Earl Spee came forward to mention the matter with Crown Prince Ruprecht, and stated the opinions of the senior naval leaders on the disposal of this suggestion. Ruprecht did not respond immediately, but in the end, the name of Admiral Rodhack appeared on the list of this meeting. This made Scher, Hippel and others a little nervous for a while. However, during the previous discussion, Admiral Rodhack did not make any comments, which made Scher and others relax for a while. But now, the meeting was about to end, everyone was very happy. Admiral Rodhack suddenly proposed it again, which was a bit embarrassing.

"Well, I know, the number of cruisers in the Imperial Navy during the Treaty Period in the future may be relatively tight, so the future aircraft carrier teams may not be equipped with individual heavy cruisers and light cruisers, but we need an air defense warship with displacement under the usual gun battle light cruisers and equipped with a large number of 105mm or 128mm anti-aircraft guns." Looking at the bad eyes of Schell and others, General Rodhack was decisive and a little cowardly, so he decided to take a step back and equip the air defense warship first!

"Is it necessary? I think the air defense of destroyers is enough now. The largest destroyer in the Empire is already 2,000 tons, and it can be equipped with at least 6 128mm-level artillery guns. In addition to other caliber anti-aircraft guns, it seems that it should be enough now. There is no need to squeeze the tonnage of the cruiser, right?" Hippel said.

"However, destroyers have no protection. They are very fragile when facing light bombs and machine guns, and have poor airworthiness. They are not a stable air defense platform. In my plan, the tonnage of cruisers used for air defense in the future should be more than 5,000 tons, equipped with more than 8 air defense artillery, and have certain armor protection. The speed and endurance can accompany the operation of the aircraft carrier detachment." Rodhack said.

"5,000 tons? I guess I can't hold it!" Hippel frowned. After so many years in the Navy, Hippel is very experienced. The 5,000 tons he said verbally increased to 6,000 tons on the drawings. In fact, 7,000 tons were often made. There are precedents in the expansion of tonnage of various main ships, and this is still normal!

"Do we need to use the tonnage of precious cruisers to install a large number of 128mm or even 105mm naval guns that are not very powerful in sea combat? Such warships are only used for air combat? To be honest, I think the price is really a bit too high." Scher also expressed his own opinion.

"We can make some concessions in terms of destroyers. We can develop special air defense destroyers, but it is not appropriate to occupy the tonnage of the cruiser." Hippel also said.
Chapter completed!