In the late Qing Dynasty Beiyang Navy 's two large ironclad ships, "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan", were designed with a relatively unique diagonal layout for their main guns. That is to say, the two main gun turrets, one on the left and one on the right, are staggered forward and backward in the middle of the warship. The advantage of this main gun layout is that the four main guns can fire forward at the same time, which is very suitable for the popular bow-to-enemy tactics at the time.
"Dingyuan" Memorial Ship
The design of the main gun layout of "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" is based on the latest ironclad ship "Inflesh White" in the UK. Speaking of which, steam ironclads had just come out not long ago, and all countries were in the exploratory stage. This kind of borrowing and plagiarism from each other was very common. In fact, the "Inflesh White" came into existence to a certain extent after drawing on Italian design ideas.
After unifying , Italy intended to reproduce the glory of the Roman Empire (although the Italians at this time had nothing to do with the Romans ). In addition, the Italian coastline was long, so it intended to vigorously expand its navy and become the overlord of the Mediterranean again. . However, the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean at this time was the Mediterranean Fleet of Britain, an established maritime power. In terms of foundation, Italy is far behind the newly unified Italy. In terms of national strength, it is also far behind. It is also impossible to catch up and catch up.
"Dingyuan" Memorial Ship
After thinking about it, Italian Navy designers decided to find another shortcut. At this time, the armor of ironclad ships was getting thicker and thicker, and the development of artillery was relatively lagging behind, making it difficult to cause a fatal blow to ironclad ships. The current situation is to develop an ironclad ship equipped with super-large-caliber artillery, and all the main guns can fire at the bow of the ship at the same time. As a result, this new type of ironclad ship can use artillery to destroy the opponent's warships, or use ramming tactics to launch an attack, while the opponent's warships cannot pose a threat to it, making it invincible.
According to this idea, the designer quickly came up with a plan. This ironclad ship named "Dulio" class will be equipped with a 15-inch (381 mm) caliber cannon, which is the largest caliber in the British Mediterranean fleet at this time. The artillery is only 12 inches (305 mm), and the gap between the two is huge.
The 450mm heavy gun of the "Dulio" class
Of course, there are gains and losses. Of course, equipping such a large-caliber artillery will not come without cost. The "Dulio" class ironclad ship has only 4 main guns in total. Compared with Below, the British ironclad "Alexandra" at about the same time was equipped with 2 11-inch (279 mm) guns and 10 10-inch (254 mm) guns, while the "Majestic" was equipped with 16 10-inch guns (254 mm) gun. The Italians traded quantity for caliber. In addition to the use of super-large-caliber artillery, another feature of the "Durio" class is the groundbreaking use of a diagonal main gun layout, which brings the bow of the ship to the extreme.
The British, who paid special attention to the maritime power of other countries, saw the Italian plan and were very satisfied with it, so they immediately decided to follow suit and copy their ideas to build their own ship, which later became the "Inverley White" "The ironclad ship.
The ironclad ship "Inflesh White"
Compared with the "Durio", the " Inflesh White " also trades quantity for caliber, and is only equipped with 4 main guns. It also adopts a diagonal layout, but The main gun was increased to 16 inches (406 mm). In addition, in terms of protection, the "Inflesh White" abandoned the traditional waterline armor belt, and instead used iron armor to enclose a space in the middle of the warship, and placed all the key parts inside, forming a unique armored fortress.
This time it was the Italian Navy's turn to be anxious. They could not change the protection. However, in order to ensure the advantage in caliber, the Italian Navy still did not stop and re-ordered four 450 mm caliber cannons to equip the "Duri" "Oh." As for the original 15-inch heavy guns, they were used on coastal forts, finally overpowering the British.
The ironclad "Infresne"
However, the sad thing is that the overall strength of the Italian navy is far less powerful than that of the British, and its reputation is much smaller. When later generations talk about the ironclads and diagonal main gun layout of this period, they generally still like it. Taking the "Inflesh White" as a typical example, the reputation of "Duriot" is also far less than that of "Inflesh White".
