African Entrepreneurship Record

February 1899, Port of Pemba.

In Pemba Port, a group of German naval personnel were communicating with East African naval personnel. They were not very interested in East African warships, but came for East African submarines.

The leader of the team was the German Navy Tirpitz. The German Navy Minister Tirpitz visited the East African Navy. It was originally to strengthen the cooperation between the two navies. The most important thing was to hope that East Africa could open some ports, or that the colonies would become the daily basis of the German Navy. Training or foothold.

However, Tirpitz in Bagamoyo City learned about the existence of East African submarines from a German businessman, so he made an impromptu decision to go to Pemba Port to inspect East African submarines.

After obtaining the consent of the East African navy and government, Tirpitz and his party arrived at the southern port of Pemba, which is currently the only home port of the East African submarine force.

Of course, the main reason why East Africa was willing to sell Tirpitz was because of his special status. Otherwise, as the strategic weapon that Ernst favored, it would have been impossible to demonstrate it to these outsiders.

Tirpitz, whose full name is Alfred von Tirpitz, was appointed Imperial Navy Minister by William II in 1897. He was the father of the German Ocean Navy in his previous life. He once said, "Without a strong navy, Germany's The world functions like a mollusk without a shell.”

There is no doubt that Tirpitz was one of the main executors of Wilhelm II's great naval plan. Now the former founder of the German Ocean Navy visited East Africa for the first time after leading the development of the German navy.

It is not surprising that Tirpitz looks at East Africa. As one of the world's naval powers, the East African Navy itself has a certain value in winning over, not to mention that the East African Navy has advantages that the German Navy does not have, that is, a relatively abundant Overseas bases, the advantageous geographical location of our East African Navy.

East Africa faces two oceans, especially the Indian Ocean, which has a great deterrent effect on the Asia-Europe shipping lanes. Its strength in the Indian Ocean region is second only to the British Royal Navy.

East Africa also has multiple colonies in the Pacific region, which are currently lacking in the German Navy. Especially under the world policy of the Wilhelm II government, the German Navy is in an extremely embarrassing situation. Even if it builds new warships, it cannot change it. The harsh geographical environment of the German Navy,

In the absence of colonies and overseas bases, the German navy, no matter how many warships it has, can only play a role on the European continent and cannot form the world influence like Britain and France.

Just like a certain big country in the previous life, even if its naval strength reached the second in the world, it would not be possible to go to the Baltic Sea and slap Lithuania.

Looking around the world, in the eyes of the German Navy, there is no better collaborator than East Africa. This is why Tirpitz focused on East Africa.

"The submarines of the East African Navy look very good. I personally think that the role of submarines in maritime strategy is no less important than surface ships. I just don't know the specific performance of your naval submarines?"

After seeing the East African ship for the first time, Tirpitz became very interested, because his intuition told him that the big thing in front of him was definitely extraordinary. Just from the part floating on the water, it was inferred that the displacement should be at least More than hundreds of tons.

The construction of such a big thing in East Africa is obviously not for use as a toy, so Tirpitz initially judged that the East African submarine is likely to have strong combat capabilities.

As early as the Franco-Prussian War, Tirpitz had a keen interest in the potential power of submarines in war. After all, the Prussian navy was weak at the time, so during the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian navy could only huddle in the harbor most of the time, vigilant. The French navy passed through the English Channel, which was very embarrassing for the Prussian navy.

In this aggrieved environment, Tirpitz naturally asked how the Prussian navy could deal with the powerful French navy when it was at a disadvantage. Submarines could obviously play a certain role. After all, their functions were obviously huge compared with surface ships. difference.

"Our country's research and development of submarines began ten years ago. The technology is now relatively mature and uses internal combustion engines as power. Currently, there should be no other country in the world with similar submarines." Clint Mann, Chief Inspector of the East African Submarine Fleet Said for humility.

In the previous life, Germany only developed a special diesel engine for submarines in 1913, and East Africa has greatly participated in this process. East Africa's research and development in the field of internal combustion engines is at the top level. Coupled with the early layout and Ernst's attention, this made East Africa take the lead in military submarines. It turned out to be the world's first submarine force.

In fact, as early as 1720, the Russian Nikonov built the first military submarine with the support of Peter the Great. However, after the death of Peter the Great, the Russian Navy canceled all support.

In the following two hundred years, some people continued to try to break through submarine technology, but the effect was not great. The suitable power to support submarines' long-distance underwater navigation would have to wait until technologies such as diesel engines and electric motors matured. As it happened, East Africa It is relatively strong in these fields, so when the technology is mature, East African submarines can emerge.

"The normal depth of the Nautilus in front of us can reach about sixty or seventy meters, with a surface displacement of more than two hundred tons... It can sail long distances, but the failure rate is quite high. Previously, our submarine Crow in East Africa disappeared directly."

The Crow was not actually equipped with the navy, but was an experimental product of the Solon Lake Submarine Research Institute. During the eighth trial, it sank into Lake Solon due to a malfunction. Due to the depth of Lake Solon, it did not Salvage it.

At present, the East African Navy has only four submarines, and the oldest one has only been in service for three years. Before that, the East African submarine had already achieved an iteration. At present, the Nautilus and the other three active submarines are quite mature in technology, but Clintman did not tell Tirpitz the truth.

Even if Germany and East Africa have a good relationship, Clintman cannot be selfless enough to reveal the core data of the East African submarine to the Germans. The figures mentioned before are relatively conservative, and even mixed with the data of the previous generation of East African military submarines.

Even so, Tirpitz's eyes lit up. Regardless of the East African submarine technology, it is already very remarkable to be able to be applied to actual combat, not to mention that East Africa has even formed a special force for submarines.

"Colonel Clintman, if nothing unexpected happens, your submarines should be the most advanced in the world without exaggeration."

The reason why Tirpitz said this is mainly because East Africa is too hidden. He only knows this situation now. Maybe other countries have similar projects.

In fact, the "exposure" of the East African submarine is inevitable, unless the East African submarine force stays in the Pemba Bay all day long. The depth of the Pemba Bay is obviously not suitable for submarine training and operations, so submarines that frequently move in the Indian Ocean will eventually be discovered.

The German businessman who reported the news to Tirpitz was one of them. During a business trip to the Port of Beira, he accidentally saw the East African submarine floating up from the water on the ship.

Of course, he didn't know that the submarine belonged to the East African Navy. After all, there are currently no naval submarine forces in countries other than East Africa.

When he met Tirpitz in Bagamoyo, he unexpectedly thought of this submarine, so he told Tirpitz the news. After all, if it appeared near the coast of East Africa, then this submarine is likely to be from East Africa.

If ordinary people get this news, they may not take it seriously and forget it after listening, but Tirpitz is not an ordinary person. His interest in submarines can be said to be unparalleled among the senior naval generals in the world.

In the past, Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" was its masterpiece, but unfortunately, even so, it did not change the fate of the German Navy.

Of course, Tirpitz's idea was a bit over-concerned, because the only country in the world that attaches importance to submarine technology is East Africa, but this is limited to the government level. There are also many private individuals or groups in other countries exploring submarine technology.