Greece to roman road

Although it was known that Captain Henry, appointed by the British Royal Navy, had impure motives and was suspected of supervising the Greek Navy, who asked Greece to ask for help?

"Colonel Henry, can you tell me how you plan to train Greek sailors?" Constantine said with interest.

The current largest warships of the Greek Navy are the two Esmeralda-class armored cruisers, with a displacement of only about 3,000 tons. Compared with the 17,000-ton battlecruisers, the complexity of the two sides is not at the same level.

The two 3,000-ton Esmeraldas have a crew of 130. As far as Constantine knows, the battle cruiser Invincible in service in the British Navy has a crew of more than 1,000. This huge A war machine that requires quite a lot of crew to control.

Before this, excluding the employees and clerks in the naval base, the Greek Navy had only more than 2,000 crew members working on warships. After all, the Greek Navy’s previous equipment were all small ships, such as those with a displacement of only two meters. Although there are many torpedo boats and patrol boats of about 100 tons, the number of people on a single ship is often only 2-30.

It is obvious that the Greek Navy has no experience in operating 10,000-ton warships; and the number of crew members required for the two battle cruisers has reached more than 2,000, which is almost the same as the total number of crew members of the previous Greek Navy.

It is also troublesome to find qualified and sufficient crew members to operate such a large warship.

Hearing this, Henry smiled apologetically and said: "Your Highness, although I have made preliminary plans for the training plan of the Greek Navy, I still lack understanding of the personnel of the Greek Navy. What is the status of your naval school? There are enough talents in reserve. What?"

Kontoriotis quickly replied: "The Greek Naval Academy has been established for three years, and the talents it has trained are enough to handle the service of new warships. Colonel Henry, don't worry about this, we have already trained some sailors in advance."

At this point, in order to prove to Henry that Greece has sufficient naval talent reserves, he continued: "The Athens Naval Academy focuses on the balanced training of military academy officers and trains every naval cadet as a university elite."

"The teaching subjects of the Naval Academy not only include professional content such as basic military training, basic navigation training, officer candidate training and shipboard internship, but also subjects such as maritime law, economics, oceanography, mechanics, foreign languages, and philosophy."

“The teachers at the Athens Naval Academy include not only soldiers, but also engineers, professors of philosophy and law, marine and zoologists, mathematicians and astronomers, linguists and medical professors. The school also regularly invites some well-known professors to give lectures. Help students broaden their horizons. The military academy has a profound foundation and an excellent teaching environment.”

If someone asks which is the best university in Greece, there is no doubt that it is the University of Athens in Greece. It has been established for a long time and has a lot of investment from the Royal Education Foundation. It is the best comprehensive university in Greece and represents the highest level of Greek higher education. level.

If you were to ask what is the fastest growing university in Greece, the answer without a doubt is the Naval Academy of Athens.

Kontoriotis, the naval commander, was extremely courageous. After getting permission from the government to establish the Athens Naval Academy at the National Defense Conference, the Navy invested about 20 million drachmas in the school every year. This move allowed him to bear Enormous pressure.

Both government officials and the Navy had objections to Kontoriotis's move, believing that the Navy Commander took the Navy's funds to do the job of Minister of Education.

Some mid-level and senior naval officers criticized that if the money was used to purchase warships, the Greek Navy could definitely have a few more light cruisers.

To this end, Cantoriotis personally visited Constantine to seek the support of the crown prince.

Kontoriotis’s words to persuade Constantine were: War is not only a science, but also an art. In addition to good military literacy and perseverance, every commander’s war performance is Closely related to his imagination and artistic attainments, only those commanders with the most creative imagination can create outstanding works.

The Greek navy only had ships and guns, which was far from being enough to become a powerful navy. The crew members who controlled the warships were even more important, because they were the nerve center of the warships.

The Greek Navy spends millions of pounds to purchase warships, but is unwilling to train more important crew members?

Constantine considered that the navy really needed sailors with profound technical literacy, so he agreed to support Kontoriotis's somewhat absurd move: a large amount of naval funds would be used as teaching funds for the Athens Naval Academy.

Besides, even if Kontoriotis's training method is ineffective in improving the navy's combat effectiveness, Greece will have nothing to lose. At the worst, the money will be used to train Greek talents.

It was with the support of Constantine that in the Athens Naval Academy, in addition to military subjects related to the naval school, there were many courses that others thought had nothing to do with the navy - such as philosophy, law, oceanography and zoology! And mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, medicine!

In the eyes of many people, what kind of naval academy is this? This is just like a comprehensive university, and it is of a very high level.

Many people said in the tone of Noyu that if the University of Athens does not work hard to improve, it will be surpassed by the Naval Academy.

Kontoriotis told Henry these situations, which surprised Henry. This teaching model completely regarded the Athens Naval Academy as a key university. Henry could fully understand Greece's determination to develop its navy.

“Our construction of the Athens Naval Academy was inspired by the Naval Academy in Kiel, Germany, and we attach great importance to the comprehensive quality of the naval academy,” Kontoriotis said confidently.

After all, Kontoriotis was a soldier, and his character was affected by his military career. He never expected that in front of Henry, a captain of the Royal Navy, he would mention the inappropriateness of the Athens Naval Academy imitating the Kiel Naval Academy in Germany.

Seeing the disdainful expression on Henry's face, Contoriotis remembered that the competition between the German Navy and the British Navy was at a fever pitch.

"The German army is indeed very powerful, but these Germans are still novices on the sea. As a continental country, it is really stupid to try to encroach on sea power," Henry said slightly arrogantly.

"For every capital ship the Germans built, the British Empire could build two."

From Constantine's point of view, Henry's words actually make sense. Germany, as a continental country, has no advantage at all when competing with Britain, an island country, on the ocean. The most obvious point is that the British Empire will do whatever it takes to control the sea. The German Navy obviously cannot do this. As a country on the European continent, Germany must maintain a strong army. After all, the army is the backbone of the German military, not the navy.