"Is this a submarine?" In Taichung, the No. 9 ship of the Brom-Foss Shipyard, a round and rolling thing like a pike is under maintenance. Accompanied by the shipyard staff, Prince Ruprecht and Prince Heinrich visited the most advanced submarines of the German Navy so far. Note that this is not the first submarine, because before that, the German shipyard had started construction of three small submarines for Russia, one of which has even been delivered. Of course, these submarines are small cargo less than 200 tons. It is useless.

"That's right, this is a submarine." The prince nodded and said.

"But compared with submarines built by other countries, this ship is a bit big." Prince Heinrich said after roughly measuring the size of the submarine: "Does this submarine have any advantages compared to the previous products? I came here from afar, won't you just show me a simple expanded version?"

"You can't say it, it's basically an enlarged version..." The prince complained in his heart. "We used a new diesel engine as power on this submarine. Gasoline is easy to evaporate and explode. Moreover, my country's diesel engine oil level is very high, and it is more suitable for submarine power. At the same time, the ship's model has been modified to have a higher surface speed. The ship is larger and equipped with more weapons. If the submarines were only suitable for offshore combat, then this submarine can already fight on the British's west coast." The prince said.

"You seem to be very interested in this kind of little thing?" Prince Heinrich looked at the submarine being maintained, then looked at His Highness the Prince and said seriously.

"That's right. If I said that in the future, the ones that really decide the outcome at sea are these little guys rather than the battleships of the High Seas Fleet, what would you think?" the prince asked back.

"If it was someone else's saying it, I would think he was a lunatic. If it was what you said, I would think about it carefully and listen to your opinion." Prince Heinrich said with a smile. "Because I don't think that you will come from Munich in a hurry and run to make a joke with me."

"Well, imagine if we had dozens of submarines of this or larger that cruised over the vast ocean. When we encountered a transport ship without protection, we would use naval guns or torpedoes to sink them. A submarine with less than 1,000 tons may be able to sink 2 to 5 steamers with one strike. The registered tonnage may be nearly 20,000 tons. If less than 1,000 tons of ships are used to exchange for an opponent's 20,000 tons of ships, I think there are few countries in the world that can bear such losses, right?"

"If you encounter danger, you can still dive into the water. At present, there are no reliable anti-submarine weapons in the navies of various countries. You can also lay mines near the opponent's military ports, or use the warning force of the high seas fleet to pull out an anti-submarine network at the sea. Is that true? You have mentioned these to me in your letter, and I hope to hear more different opinions. In addition, I don't think that just relying on dozens of tons of fuel is enough for these little guys to travel to the Atlantic Ocean." The prince said.

"Although the submarine is now only 7,000 nautical miles on the water surface, it is enough to operate maneuvers in the waters around the UK. No matter which route the British ship takes, they will eventually appear near the British Isles. The maximum surface speed of this submarine is as high as more than 17 knots, and it can catch up with more than 90% of merchant ships!"

"Imagine if we had 100 such submarines, 30 of which could cruise near the British coast, what would this result be? Each of these submarines consumed only a few dozen tons of fuel. Our cost was very low, and as long as we could destroy a merchant ship, the cost of this submarine would have been recovered!"

"This tactic itself is tonnage exchange, and submarine tonnage is exchanged for the tonnage of the opponent's transport ship. More importantly, submarines can be mass-produced during the war and continuously make up for war losses, unlike the main battleships that require a long construction cycle!" said the prince.

"But such a submarine cannot even beat some torpedo boats, not to mention encountering light cruisers, but even some torpedo boats. What if the other party deploys gunboats in nearby waters or arranges escorts? The advantage of a submarine is only the concealment of navigation. If it is underwater, the normal speed is only 5 knots and the maximum speed is only 10 knots, and the transport fleet cannot even keep up. How can we launch an attack calmly?"

"Now countries do not have any weapons to effectively deal with submarines, but in my opinion, as long as the submarines cannot effectively destroy the traffic lines, the British will achieve their goal. The killing efficiency of submarines may not be very high. Do you think so?" Prince Heinlei said after thinking about it.

"You are indeed right. There are still many problems with submarines today, but the premise is that they are bright. Escort can effectively reduce the probability of submarines attacking merchant fleets. However, the premise is that the British need to invest a large amount of manpower and funds in the construction of the escort fleet. Moreover, if our submarines are large enough, we can even hunt outside the sea. The British's maritime transportation line will be riddled with holes in front of our submarines. The blood vessels of the empire will bleed continuously." The prince said.

"So you want my support? Then why don't you discuss this with General Tirpitz?" asked Prince Heinrich.

"Because this matter is still in its infancy, to be honest, not everyone has a very broad vision. Tirpitz is relatively conservative, and the main function of the submarine is to attack transport ships. Its strength is not like a battleship that can be measured by tonnage, artillery, armor and speed. Moreover, the failure of the young Admiral Moltke last time made me feel that it is not easy to walk on a simple road." The prince said helplessly.

"I understand this. If necessary, say hello to me. I will say to His Majesty the Emperor. It would be better if the submarine could be demonstrated through an exercise. In fact, during the war, the empire considered modifying some ships as maritime attack ships. The role of submarines is very similar to that of maritime camouflage attack ships." Prince Heinrich said.

"In addition, if you want to build large submarines, you can have other ideas. For example, once war starts and our maritime transportation is cut off by the British, you can use large submarines to transport strategic materials to the country. In this way, the underwater fleet of the high seas may have great development." Prince Heinrich said.

"Is it transporting a submarine? This excuse is very good, very realistic, and it is really necessary!" the prince said silently in his heart.
Chapter completed!