Chapter 193 Athens Naval Academy

Although it is known that Colonel Henry, appointed by the British Royal Navy, has impure motives and is suspected of supervising the Greek Navy, who made Greece need help?

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

The 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 is completely different.

The two 3,000-ton Esmeraldas have a crew of 130 people. As far as Constantine knows, the Invincible battlecruiser, which has been in service in the British Navy, has a crew of more than 1,000 people. This huge war machine requires a considerable number of crew members to control.

Before this, excluding 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 was all small ships, such as torpedo boats and patrol boats with a displacement of only about 200 tons. Although there were many of them, there were often only 2-30 people on each ship.

Obviously, the Greek Navy had no experience in operating 10,000-ton warships; and the number of crew members required for two battlecruisers reached more than 2,000, which was almost the same as the total number of crew members in the Greek Navy before.

It was also a hassle to find qualified and sufficient crew members to operate such a large warship.

Henry smiled apologetically upon hearing this and said, "Your Highness, although I have a preliminary plan for the Greek Navy's training program, I still lack understanding of the Greek Navy's personnel. How is your naval school doing? Are there enough reserve talents?"

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

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

"The teaching subjects of the Naval Academy include not only military Basic training, basic navigation training, candidate officer training and ship internship and other professional content, and even maritime law, economics, oceanography, mechanics, foreign languages, philosophy and other subjects. "

"The teachers of the Athens Naval Academy are 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 to 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, it is undoubtedly the University of Athens in Greece. It has a long history and has received a lot of investment from the Royal Education Foundation. It is the best comprehensive university in Greece and represents the highest level of higher education in Greece.

If you ask which is the fastest-growing university in Greece, there is no doubt that the answer is the Athens Naval Academy.

Kontoriotis, the naval commander, is extraordinary. After obtaining the government's permission to establish the Athens Naval Academy at the National Defense Conference, the navy invested about 20 million drachmas in this school every year. This move put him under tremendous pressure.

Both government officials and the navy disagreed with Kontoriotis's move, believing that the naval commander took the navy's funds and did the work of the Minister of Education.

Some middle and senior naval officers accused that if the money was used to buy warships, the Greek Navy could have a few more light cruisers.

For this reason, Kontoriotis personally visited Constantine to seek the support of the crown prince.

Kontoriotis persuaded Constantine with the words: War is not only a science, but also an art. In addition to good military literacy and perseverance, the war performance of each commander is closely related to his imagination and artistic attainments. Only those commanders with the most creative imagination can create outstanding works.

The Greek Navy is far from being a powerful navy with only ships and guns. The crew members who operate the warships are more important because they are the nerve center of the warships.

The Greek Navy spent millions of pounds to buy warships, but was reluctant to train more important crew members?

Considering that the navy really needs technically skilled crew members, Constantine agreed to support Kontoriotis' somewhat absurd move: a large amount of naval funds will 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 not suffer any loss. At least, the money will be used to train Greek talents.

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

In the eyes of many people, what kind of naval academy is this? It is a comprehensive university, and it is a very high-level one.

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

Kontoriotis told Henry about 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 the navy.

"We built the Athens Naval Academy inspired by the Kiel Naval Academy in Germany and attach importance to the comprehensive quality of the Naval Academy," said Kontoriotis confidently.

After all, Kontoriotis is a soldier, and his personality has been influenced by his military career. He never expected to mention the inappropriateness of the Athens Naval Academy imitating the Kiel Naval Academy in Germany in front of Henry, a captain of the Royal Navy.

Seeing Henry's disdainful expression, Kontoriotis remembered that the competition between the German Navy and the British Navy was in a white-hot stage.

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

"For every battleship the Germans build, the British Empire can build two."

From Constantine's perspective, Henry's words actually make sense. Germany, as a continental country, has no advantage in competing with Britain, an island country, on the ocean. The most obvious point is that the British Empire can do whatever it takes to control the sea, but 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.