Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 464 The Arms Race and Tanks

Spain's army expansion in 1907 was just a microcosm; not only Spain, but all the major European powers engaged in large-scale military expansion and an arms race that year.

The British were closely monitoring Spain's battleship construction. In an effort to erase the humiliation, the British government had already announced its shipbuilding plans for the coming years shortly after the end of the Spanish-American War.

After investing heavily in research on new battleships, the British government officially began construction of its first new battleship in mid-1905. The British Navy internally named it "HMS Avenger," the target of which was self-evident.

It must be admitted that Britain built its navy at an extremely fast pace. The battleship HMS Avenger, which began construction in mid-1905, was officially launched in March 1906.

It is unclear whether the British battleship HMS Avenger has entered service, but it is certain that this battleship is just the beginning for the British government.

As early as the beginning of 1906, the British government announced its naval construction plan, declaring that it would build five dreadnoughts to fight against Spain over a three-year period from 1906 to 1908.

With the addition of HMS Avenger, the first dreadnought ship built by the British government, Britain would have six dreadnoughts by 1909, which is enough to demonstrate Britain's high investment in the navy.

In fact, if Spain hadn't taken the lead in dreadnoughts, it probably wouldn't have been able to defeat Britain in the navy.

There was no other way; due to its large industrial base and advanced shipbuilding industry, Britain was able to build its navy at an extremely fast pace.

Spain began construction of its first dreadnought in April 1901, and by early 1907, it had taken six years to build only five dreadnoughts.

Britain's first dreadnought, HMS Avenger, was built in just over a year, and subsequent battleships were built even faster, with the ability to build several battleships simultaneously.

Under such circumstances, even Spain, which had already taken the lead, was struggling to keep up with Britain's relentless pursuit.

Not to mention those countries that did not lead Britain in dreadnoughts, whether it was Germany or France, it would be difficult for them to catch up with Britain in terms of the number of dreadnoughts.

Of course, difficulties are difficulties, but with a large-scale naval arms race taking place across Europe, neither Germany nor France is willing to fall behind.

On the one hand, France ordered three battleships from Spain. Although these three battleships were delivered relatively late, it was enough to ensure that France possessed dreadnoughts relatively early compared to other European powers.

On the other hand, the French government was also developing its own dreadnoughts. According to the French government's plan, their first giant battleship, weighing nearly 2 tons, was expected to begin construction in 1907 and officially enter service with the French Navy before 1910.

Although it entered service later than the three battleships delivered by Spain, for a major power like France, building its own battleships was of utmost importance.

After all, others can choose to build battleships for you, or they can refuse to build them for you. Only by mastering the technology to build battleships can you qualify as a true naval power.

Currently, most of the world's major naval powers possess the capability to build their own battleships. France, of course, cannot abandon the idea of ​​building battleships; even at a great cost, they are determined to acquire this capability.

Like France, Germany also decided to build its own dreadnoughts.

Unfortunately, although Spain agreed to sell warships to France and Italy, it refused to hand over the blueprints and design data related to the new battleships to France and Italy.

Italy, unable to obtain the relevant design blueprints and data, naturally couldn't share them with Germany. Without the necessary information, Germany had no choice but to develop its own dreadnoughts if it wanted to possess them.

If it were a less important technology, it would be easy to abandon it. However, the 2-ton battleships represented by Spain's new warships are precisely the most advanced naval designs at present.

Germany would never give up on building 2-ton battleships. Like the French government, they were determined to build their own dreadnoughts, no matter how much money they had to invest.

Compared to France and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia did not have such strong desires for dreadnoughts.

Austria-Hungary could have purchased dreadnoughts from Spain, but after inquiring about the price of Spain's new battleships, they hesitated for a while and ultimately decided to temporarily abandon the purchase.

Since his two allies, Germany and Italy, would both have dreadnoughts in the future, Austria-Hungary naturally didn't need to pay as much attention to its navy; developing its army was the most important priority.

As for Russia, their financial situation was not much better than that of Austria-Hungary, and could even be said to be worse.

The turmoil in Russia had just ended, and both the government and the military were quite exhausted.

Tsar Nicholas II had no interest in expanding the navy at this time. The Russian government could not afford such high military expenditures and could only rely on its ally France to provide support so that the Franco-Russian alliance could acquire dreadnoughts as soon as possible.

Italy chose the same path as France. On the one hand, they ordered several dreadnoughts from Spain, expanding their naval strength.

On the other hand, they are also developing dreadnoughts domestically, hoping that Italy itself will have the capability to design and build dreadnoughts.

As mentioned before, Italy has a certain level of expertise in naval design and construction. The Italian government is also quite ambitious; they want to become one of the few countries capable of designing and building new warships and to sell Italian battleships globally.

For Italy, there is a good chance they will have the capability to design and build new battleships. Even if there isn't much progress in development at present, they can wait until the warships built by Spain are delivered to Italy, and then refer to the Spanish warship design.

Research will eventually yield results; it's just a matter of time, and Italy can afford to wait.

Throughout 1907, European countries were constantly expanding their military capabilities.

Those with money to build a navy vigorously developed it, while those without money expanded their army like crazy.

It was precisely because of the continuous expansion of military equipment by the major European powers that many European newspapers and media outlets made various speculations. Some newspapers even boldly predicted that a super war involving multiple powers might break out, and this war might also affect the whole of Europe.

Spain, of course, also participated in this arms race. In addition to the regular land and naval arms races, Carlos also paid special attention to the development progress of tanks and aircraft.

In fact, if the only requirement is a tank with combat capability, Spain has already developed its first-generation tank.

During the water tank development project at the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Carlo also saw tanks of this era for the first time.

The most basic principle of a tank is actually very simple: a machine similar to a car or tractor covered with a thick layer of steel armor, and then a machine gun or a cannon is mounted on it. That's basically a rudimentary tank.

From the outside, this tank looks more like a tractor, but it is covered with a thicker layer of armor, making it look taller and bulkier.

And that was indeed the case. Although the engine was specially designed, the early tanks were extremely slow due to their overall bulkiness.

A long cannon protrudes from the top of the tank, and this cannon is the tank's main means of attack.

Inside the tank, there are four positions: driver, observer, gunner, and loader.

The observer is usually the commander of the entire tank, because only the observer can have a clear view of the outside of the tank. He not only needs to direct the driver to control the movement of the tank, but also needs to direct the gunner to aim at distant targets.

The loader's job is the simplest; their only responsibility is to load shells into the artillery. Normally, the loader's job is relatively easy.

But if war breaks out, the loader will immediately become the most overworked person. The shells are quite heavy, and they need to be loaded frequently.

However, compared to other soldiers without any protection, these tank crew members with their protective steel armor are relatively lucky.

After testing by the project team, the currently rudimentary tank has an impressive weight of 15.7 tons. In addition to accommodating four crew members, it can carry 32 rounds of ammunition and weapons for all four. If the tank breaks down or runs out of ammunition, the crew members can climb out and fight with their own weapons, ensuring they are not helpless in such situations.

At Carlo's suggestion, the tank adopted a tracked design, which had the advantage of eliminating concerns about the tires being damaged by the enemy.

Of course, the downsides are also quite obvious. While tracked tanks can operate without regard to terrain, they also significantly reduce the overall speed of the tank.

When traveling on relatively flat and solid roads, a tank can only reach a speed of 15 to 20 kilometers per hour, which is roughly the maximum speed of a tank.

If the road is bumpy or has complex terrain, it's already quite good if the tank can maintain a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, and you have to pray that the tank doesn't break down.

Of course, because of the tank's large size, it can carry more fuel.

This also results in tanks having a relatively long range; even this rather rudimentary tank can travel 240 kilometers.

Although a range of 240 kilometers seems quite good, tank drivers have to pray that the tank doesn't break down before it completes those 240 kilometers.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with tanks right now is their susceptibility to breakdowns. Although the breakdown rate was only 20% on flat terrain and 60% on bumpy roads in the project team's tests, this breakdown rate will certainly increase on the battlefield.

The good news is that since Spain was one of the earliest countries to develop tanks, it is safe to assume that other European countries likely have no means of defense against tanks.

Even if a tank breaks down on the battlefield, the enemy will not pose a significant threat to the soldiers inside unless they are hit head-on by a large-caliber artillery piece.

Otherwise, thanks to the tank's own thick steel armor, it can easily defend against both machine guns and rifles.

This is why tanks are considered a major weapon on the battlefield. Hitting a small tank with artillery is largely a matter of luck, and because tanks are moving targets, it's very difficult for normal artillery to hit them directly.

Even if the shrapnel explodes around the tank, it may not be able to penetrate the tank directly if it cannot directly hit the tank.

As for machine guns and rifles with more concentrated firepower, they are just a tickle to a tank; it would be quite good if they could only scrape off a layer of paint.

Imagine if the enemy's defensive lines were quite solid, and Spain deployed a large number of tanks. How would the enemy respond?
Machine guns and rifles were completely ineffective against the tanks; the only option was to rely on a large number of artillery pieces to try and target them. Once all the artillery's attention was drawn to the tanks, Spanish artillery could easily suppress the enemy.

Soldiers could also hide behind tanks and quietly approach enemy positions. Under the protection of these large tanks, soldiers could more safely infiltrate the vicinity of enemy positions, accelerating the Spanish army's breakthrough of enemy lines.

This alone is enough to make tanks a deadly weapon on the battlefield. Not to mention, tanks themselves possess powerful firepower.

Tanks can approach the enemy at close range before firing and aiming at them, which not only makes it easy to conquer enemy positions but also inflicts heavy casualties on enemy infantry.

When attacking enemy lines, tanks are virtually invincible. In skirmishes, their invincibility takes on an even more legendary quality.

Although current tanks have achieved basic combat capability, they are still far behind those of World War II.

During World War II, tank armor thickness had generally reached tens or even hundreds of millimeters, which was sufficient to easily defend against artillery bombardment.

The Maus tank, in particular, is known for its armor protection, with an astonishing armor thickness of 350 millimeters.

What does 350mm of armor mean? It's a full 35cm of steel armor. Let alone small-caliber artillery, even medium- or large-caliber artillery might not be able to penetrate such thick steel armor.

Now that we have seen this tank, it is natural to conduct some tests on its reliability.

To simulate a more realistic battlefield, the water tank project team built a simple simulated battlefield in an area on the outskirts of Madrid.

The trenches, barbed wire, shell craters, ditches, and barricades found in real battlefields were all recreated in this simulated battlefield.

There are even some simple small fortresses on the simulated battlefield, all built with reinforced concrete, and their sturdiness is quite reliable.

The purpose of this test, in addition to testing the tank's reliability, is to test its speed and firepower in these different battlefield environments, as well as its ability to withstand bombardment from large-caliber artillery.

On a high platform outside the training ground, Carlo and many generals from the Ministry of Defense sat together, watching the tests on the simulated battlefield through binoculars.

The location is over a kilometer away from the test site, so safety is guaranteed. Although such a distance can only be observed with binoculars, Carlo's safety is paramount and cannot be taken lightly.

On the training field, a uniquely shaped tracked vehicle slowly approached from a distance. Because it was tracked, it left behind distinctively shaped tracks after passing through the test area.

"Mr. Blake, are you confident in this big machine you've developed?" Carlo asked Blake, the head of the water tank project's research and development team, with a smile from the viewing platform 1 kilometer away.

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Blake nodded, his words revealing confidence in his work: “Although the reliability of the tank cannot be guaranteed at present, as long as this behemoth doesn’t break down, it will be invincible on the battlefield. Apart from large-caliber artillery, nothing else can threaten this behemoth.”

Carlo nodded and looked at the testing ground with a smile.

Inside the test range, the tank slowly approached the various fortifications that had been erected. Amidst the astonished gazes of many high-ranking generals, the tank passed through these fortifications without incident.

The barbed wire was easily crushed, and the wooden stakes, shell craters, and chevaux-de-frise were of no use in stopping the tanks.

Even trenches were ineffective at containing the tanks because of their tracked design. Although the tanks weren't moving very fast, these defensive measures were completely unable to stop their advance.

"My God, I now believe that this behemoth is truly a deadly weapon on the battlefield. No terrain can stop this behemoth; it moves freely across the battlefield!" exclaimed a high-ranking army general.

The army certainly understands the role of such a large machine on the battlefield; as long as it has the ability to move freely, it can pose a great threat to the enemy's army.

When all defensive and offensive measures fail, where can the enemy soldiers hide?

Although Carlo didn't speak, his eyes revealed a hint of curiosity about the tanks of this era.

Carlo was well aware of the role of tanks; what he was curious about was the performance of tanks in this era, and whether the tank in front of him could truly be used on the battlefield.

It is worth mentioning that the tanks, which could not be stopped by any defensive offensive, almost lost on a somewhat steep slope.

Fortunately, the tank's engine was specially designed. After the driver stepped on the accelerator, the tank emitted a puff of black smoke and eventually climbed the steep slope without any major incident.

Blake secretly breathed a sigh of relief; he didn't want his confident little guy to fail in such a relatively simple section as the steep slope.

As I said before, as long as a tank doesn't break down, it's invincible.

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(End of this chapter)