Naval Race:
Who: The Naval race was mainly between Germany and England. On the German side the German emperor Wilhelm II had a dream of being an imperial ruler. He set his sights on having an Empire to match that of the British. To do this he would need to have a large and powerful navy. In 1900 Wilhelm decided to put this dream into practice. He ordered the construction of several large and powerful boats. The British saw this as a threat and responded by building the 'Dreadnought'. This naval race led to many tensions between Germany and England.
What: The naval race was a competition between Germany and England to have the most powerful navy. The old rule of thumb had been to ensure that the British possessed a fleet large enough to face both France and Russia acting in harness. Now the rise of the highly industrialized Imperial Germany posed a new threat.
A pair of 12" guns -- Broadside of HMS DREADNOUGHT...
English: HMS Dreadnought (British Battleship, 1906...
Admiral John Fisher of the British Navy (1841-1920...Germany was determined to build her own navy to express fully her Imperial ambitions.
The Dreadnought: It was Admiral John Fisher, the First Sea Lord, who was the driving-force behind the development of the Dreadnought that was built at Portsmouth Dockyard between October 1905 and December 1906. The Dreadnought was the most heavily armed ship in history. She had ten 12-inch guns (305 mm), whereas the previous record was four 12-inch guns. The gun turrets were situated higher than user and so facilitated more accurate long-distance fire. In addition to her 12-inch guns, the Dreadnought also had twenty-four 3-inch guns (76 mm) and five torpedo tubes below water. In the waterline section of her hull, the Dreadnought was armored by plates 28cm thick.
The Dreadnought was the first major warship driven solely by steam turbines. The four sets of Parsons steam turbines with...