Chapter 83: The Future of Naval Warfare

Chapter 83: The Future of Naval Warfare



The first of the shipyards that Bruno had begun investing in was located in Danzig. It had been completed in roughly 1903. And for the past two years it had been mostly manufacturing Light Cruisers for the Kaiserliche Marine, simply as a means of gaining the status as a reputable ship manufacturer.

Quite frankly, it was a rather foolish act to provoke the British Empire by challenging its naval might. And it was one of the things which Bruno could only shake his head at. The Kaiser was not necessarily a poor leader. But his desire for the German Reich's prestige and glory sometimes went a bit too far.

Nevertheless, the British Navy was ahead of the Kaiserliche Marine by several years. After all, they had been building ships for centuries for their navy, while the German Reich was only really beginning to make such efforts. Because of this, the British Shipyards were able to outproduce their rival on the High Seas by a significant amount.

Bruno had no intention of helping the Kaiser build his grand navy in terms of battleships. Nobody realized it yet, but the HMS Dreadnought would be launched in 1906 and would make all other warships obsolete overnight.

By 1916, Battleships would be proven obsolete in the Battle of Jutland. A naval battle which would demonstrate the effectiveness of seaplanes and would eventually lead to the construction of carriers dedicated to this purpose.

But even so, the world would not give up on battleships until they were proven woefully obsolete decades later in the second world war. Quite frankly, Bruno had no plans to introduce aircraft carriers at this time, as they were expensive and outlandish investments into naval

buildup.

One which the Kaiser and the German Admiralty would not approve of, as they had yet to be proven in battle. Rather, Bruno instead planned to invest significantly in the development of submarines. As the early designs acted more as torpedo boats that could sink beneath the ocean's surface for a limited time to escape from pursuers.

But this was a horrific misunderstanding of submarine warfare. Something that would only really come to light at the end of the Second World war in 1945 with the introduction of the German Type XXI U-boat, a submarine who was the first to be designed for the purpose of operating primarily underwater.

While initially designed in 1943, these advanced submarines were not fielded until the very end of the war, and even then, they played no role in combat. Perhaps if they were introduced earlier, they would have allowed the Kriegsmarine to dominate the seas, as they were virtually undetectable by the means of the era.

However, the Type XXI U-boats were imperfect, a rather rushed design during a desperate era of the war. Their primary use in the history of Bruno's past life was actually as a means of study for all post-war powers to develop their own improved designs from.

With Litvinov currently in captivity and being interrogated by the Tsar's secret police. Bruno found himself once more engaging in the frivolous life of an office general. As a result, he began to turn his attention towards more important regards.

One of which was none other than Henning von Holtzendorff, who was the Grand Admiral who had come up with the idea of Unrestricted Submarine warfare in 1915 that led to the Lusitania incident. The Lusitania incident was not necessarily what one would call a false flag.

But it was a deliberate act on the part of the British Empire to attempt to coax the United States into joining the war on behalf of the Entente. For example, while technically a civilian vessel, the Lusitania was carrying weapons and munitions to France to be used in the war

against Germany.

While some of these weapons and munitions were declared in accordance with international shipping regulations, it was later revealed after a thorough investigation of the incident that at least one third of the explosive compounds onboard the vessel had been unlawfully hidden from the manifest.

In addition to this blatant violation of maritime law, the ship was also charted on a route that deliberately went through a declared maritime Warzone three months after the Germans had enacted unrestricted submarine warfare.

Despite all of this, or perhaps specifically because of it, the Lusitania took U.S. civilians on board and was inevitably sunk by a German submarine as a result. Killing many of the people on board, including multiple United States citizens.

The result of all of this was that the Lusitania incident was one of the leading causes for America departing from its century long policy of not interfering with European wars, and was used heavily in propaganda to incite the general public towards this purpose. After the Zimmerman telegram, another bold and quite frankly foolish move on behalf of the Kaiser, the United States of America officially entered the war in 1917 as a member of the

Entente.

The troops brought over to the Western Front by the Americans were used as a direct counter to the advantage the German Empire would have gained following the capitulation of the Russian Empire that same year. And by extent led to the armistice and ultimate defeat of the

German Army a year later.

Naturally, by getting in contact with the man who was responsible for the reckless approach of unrestricted submarine warfare that led to Germany's defeat, at least in part. Bruno had begun maintaining regular communication with the admiral.

And had proposed many ideals towards other uses of submarine warfare that were more geared towards military targets only. And the man's aid had been great in getting Bruno's shipyards involved in supplying the German Navy.

Having just sent out the plans for the most advanced submarines currently designed in the world. Bruno sat back and sent a message to admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, trying to establish a time to meet up and chat after the war in Russia was over and he could finally return to the Fatherland. A telegram that was immediately greeted with a positive response. As Bruno lit up another smoke and leaned back in his office chair, he couldn't help but smirk as he made a silent remark to nobody other than himself.

"I love it when everything goes exactly as planned..."