Chapter 2 Keywords - Exploding a Warship (III)

There is no doubt that this is the most difficult period for the British since the British-German naval arms race in 1898. Now only fourteen main battleships are left in Scapa Bay, with the fleet's high-level turmoil and the training of sailors is low.

Fortunately, the Germans once again had "internal strife". Their Navy Minister Capelle fought with the naval hero Silem, so the Ocean Fleet was unable to take a large-scale raid during this period.

The Royal Navy gained a precious respite, and the newly appointed Arthur Belfort did not disappoint the trust of the new prime minister. The executioner of Ireland, the victim of the supernatural incident, the sadomasochist who had never married for life, the former prime minister of the British Empire, Belfort, who had never had any interaction with the navy before March 1915, did not hesitate to set off a bloody storm and mastered the navy with thunder.

Churchill and Fisher's supporters and sympathizers in the Admiralty were purged, the authority of the naval veterans and important officials was shelved, and generals who were timid and fearful of war were transferred. Belford used Thunder Fengxing to firmly grasp the rebellious power of the royal navy, and used his steel will to initially win the trust of Britain.

On March 24, 1915, in London under heavy fog, a brick-red building in the British Empire Admiralty that was rotten and moldy unexpectedly blossomed into lonely roses.

A secret naval meeting aimed at summarizing the just-concluded Navy Navy naval battle, analyzing the maritime situation, and deciding the Royal Navy's response strategy was finally held. Outside the arched gate was covered with black military vehicles, black umbrellas were connected to the front line, and the haggard figures of the Navy bosses sank into the Navy headquarters building.

Except for the temporarily vacant positions of Chief of Staff and Third Maritime Secretary, all the Navy officers qualified to attend the high-level meetings gathered in a not-wide conference room. When the three Maritime Secretary, commander of the front-line fleet, deputy chief of staff and senior staff, the Minister of Navy Intelligence, other members of the Navy Committee, Parliament, National Defense Committee and shipyard representatives sat in their respective seats, they were surprised to find that the Navy's top leaders were beyond recognition.

Even though the new officers felt strange to each other, the practice could not be changed. As usual, cigars were lit to suck the clouds and mist. If it weren't for the time being too early, they might have ordered a cup of afternoon tea. At 9 o'clock, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and Belfort walked in with a dark briefcase in his arms, sat in the main seat of the conference room with a expressionless face. The commotion in the conference room stopped.

In the past two hundred years, the Royal Navy has been the world's number one existence. This is the pride of Britain, but it is also a burden for the British.

From the era of single-technical sails to the era of ironclad ships with blooming flowers, to the era of peak dreadnoughts, the loopholes and drawbacks of the Royal Navy have become an irreplaceable historical tradition after the fermentation of time; the long-term adherence to the principle of two strengths has led to the indefinite innovation of technology and tactics; the prejudice accumulated from the Age of Discovery has caused technical officers and turbine officers to be discriminated against.

As time entered the 20th century, except for the dazzling naval reformer Fisher, the Navy headquarters, which had just raised a few antennas on the top of the brick-red building, could not change the fact that the twilight was so till the sun was. The Royal Navy continued to slide into the endless abyss.

The heavy history and glorious past have transformed into unacceptable criticism of even the draw, and then become an unbearable burden. Senior officers are increasingly focused on management rather than naval warfare. Young officers have only Nelson's spirit but cannot see the risks. Technical officers have many internal conflicts in the navy because they have not received attention for a long time. The only reformers have had to resign because of their peers' slander. The still-sized British Empire's Navy Department actually has a sense of being difficult to return.

It was something that Navy strongman John Fisher and the Fisher Gang wanted to do but could not do. However, in March 1915, in the face of the double defeat of Mudros Bay and the North Sea, Belford got a rare opportunity.

The big man with a wide influence in the Navy either resigns or is about to face military trials. The picky Britons will not speak for the Navy before healing his wounds. The new prime minister will only endorse Belford, who is also a Conservative Party. In March 1915, Belford was the undeserved emperor of the Royal Navy! The royal navy, the fate of the British Empire was so subtly maintained between the palms of a cold-blooded guy.

"Our Prime Minister, the Secretary of the Navy and the First Maritime Secretary have resigned to redeem the negative impact of the naval successive defeats. General John Jelico and General David Betty also bravely stood up and were responsible for the Battle of the North Sea."

The elderly Belford pulled out a heavy memo from his dark briefcase, put on a pair of reading glasses, spread out the bookmarked page, and opened this meeting that was very important to the lives of the Great Fleet with an intriguing prophecy that was repeatedly studied and interpreted in later generations:

"The storm has passed, but in a sense, the storm has just begun!"

"In the Battle of the North Sea, we invested thirty battleships, while the Germans had only twenty-two. It seemed that we had a numerical advantage, but this advantage was quite fragile."

As Belfort's confidant, the new First Sea Minister Goff Karthorp took the lead in speaking:

"The Fast Fleet has ten main battleships, which seem to be twice the number of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, but in fact, our two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships have just entered service and have limited combat power. The three tireless class battle cruisers have just returned from the South Atlantic, and their combat power has been greatly reduced. In addition, the speed of the main ships in Betty's hands is not uniform, so it is difficult for the fast fleet to maintain unified action for a long time in naval battles. The numerous problems have led to the numerical advantage of the fast fleet that cannot be fully utilized. As for the main fleet, the advantages of the three main ships are almost negligible."

"It is not so much that the number of main ships is not obvious, but rather that it is implicated by the Royal Navy's global policies."

Major General Friedric Tudor, who served as the post of Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Navy, took over the words of the First Minister of the Sea and continued:

"The Battle of Dardanelles weakened its local power, and the two main battleships were confined to the Mediterranean; strangling the Speh fleet led to the three battle patrols being drawn to the Southern Atlantic. Although they successfully rushed back to their homeland and participated in naval battles, the long-distance raid caused great damage to the combat power of the three tireless class."

The reason for the failure of the North Sea Navy was blamed for the dispersion of the Royal Navy's forces, which led to the insufficient number of main ships participating in the North Sea decisive battle was not just a side statement of the Navy, but was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the form of mainstream British public opinion. The deputy chief of staff of the Navy either undoubtedly uncovered the scars, or did not realize something deeper at all, and squinted his eyes to continue the views of the First Minister of Maritime Affairs.

"Ha! It's just a kind of shirk that sounds very reasonable!" In the corner of the conference room, a trace of not-so-harmonious noise rippled.

"So, Major General Madden, what do you think?" Madden's merciless accusations made Major General Tudor angry. The new deputy chief of staff of the Navy pressed down his displeasure and stared at Major General Charles Madden, who barely retained his position as Chief of Staff of the Fleet, and was aggressive.

"The failure of the North Sea Naval Battle is still a problem with strategic thinking. Lieutenant General Betty mentioned at the end of the Battle of Scarglack Straits that no one has made any mistakes. The designers of the main ships should be sent to the gallows. Major General Lampard, deputy commander of the Fast Fleet, recently wrote an article titled "Scarglack's Gold", which clearly pointed out that the navy's strategic thinking was wrong."

"The dispersion of power leads to the failure of the large fleet" is obviously the most confusing and helpless Admiralty most hopes to see the most acceptable ending for the proud British Empire's people, but Charles Madden is obviously not listed here. Even though Madden's view is not appreciated by his colleagues, he must say some things, because most of the people who can truly participate in this naval battle can see the root cause of the failure of the British Empire have lost the power to speak.

"It is obvious that the British Empire no longer has the world's first-class national strength. It continues to adhere to the principle of two strengths and maintain twice the numerical advantage over the Germans is not worth the loss. The Battle of the Skagerak Strait proves that our main battleships cannot destroy the German main battleships well, but the Germans can easily sink us. Now is an opportunity to make changes. Continuing to guide and rebuild the large fleet with the principle of two strengths will undoubtedly exhaust the last penny of the British Empire's treasury. This is a weight that the British Empire cannot bear in the context of war!"

"Major General Madden, your point of view is very novel, but the problem is that we can no longer go back."

Belfort is not Churchill who is very fond of praise and short-sighted. With his wisdom and ability, Belfort may not be able to see the root cause of the Royal Navy's defeat, but Belfort still has only room for change. It is true that Belfort has obtained a rare opportunity, but Belfort only has a hand that is so bad that it cannot be more bad.

"Our technical accumulation is enough to enable us to design and build battleships comparable to the German King-class and De Fringer-class, but what should we do if there are more than a dozen battleships with problems with protection? Will the Germans give us a chance to start over?"

Major General Madden wanted to refute the Navy Secretary, and just rushed into the Adam's apple with impulse, but was embarrassed to find that all Belfort was telling the truth. Belfort pushed the glasses on his nose and continued.

"Gentlemen, the maritime situation at the Allies is bad. In East Asia, the Germans still have a modified attack ship with merchant ships; in the Indian Ocean, swans in the east are still foraging; in German East Africa, the guerrilla war between the Konisberg and ours is not over; in German West Africa, they also have an excellent armored cruiser Gneisenau; in the Caribbean, the light cruiser Carbruno disappeared, but no one knew it would suddenly emerge from that place."

Every time Belford mentioned a place, his assistant would mark the world chart on the wall of the rostrum in the conference room. Soon, the red mark on the chart was shocking. He used to sitting in the office in a daze and fantasizing about the number one naval officials in the Royal Navy suddenly blushed, and Major General Madden lowered his head unconsciously.

The torture is far from over.

"In the Mediterranean, the Allied Powers have a Moltch-class battleship, four Joint Forces-class battleships; in the North Sea, the Germans have seventeen battleships and four battleships! In the German shipyard, they also have a Saxony class, four Bavarian class battleships, three Markensen class, and one Deflinger class battleship has a total of nine main battleships."

"Maybe you would think that by July, all the main ships returned to the factory to repair will return to the battle sequence of the Great Fleet, and the number of main ships of the Great Fleet will be restored to twenty-two. Together with the USS Ireland battleship of the Mediterranean Fleet, the USS Canada battleship to be put into service in September, and the USS Balum battleship to be put into service in November, our strength is insufficient to attack, but more than enough to defend. According to the intelligence sent by our spies lurking in Italy, the Germans are about to install a new type of battleship called the York class, and there may be three."

When the deliberately neglected maritime situation was exposed, the conference room fell into a dead silence.

"York-class? Is that a battleship or a battlecruiser?" As an officer of the Fast Fleet, Major General Madden knew clearly that the large fleet is now seriously insufficient in mobility and reconnaissance power, and the Fast Fleet could no longer contain any movements of the German Battle Cruise. Compared with those senior naval executives who studied the proportion of the number of naval leaders, the pragmatic Madden was more concerned about whether the three new warships would be new members of the German First Reconnaissance Fleet.

"The Italians have not received comprehensive information. Our intelligence personnel can only calculate that it is a 420 gun or 380 gun, with a tonnage between armored cruisers and battle cruisers. It is called the main battleship of a large light cruiser."

Belfort took off his reading glasses and pressed his old hand on the memorandum. The inappropriate gentleness dissipated. The voice of the Navy minister suddenly increased by octave and said coldly:

"So now is not a time to consider how to push the existing naval route and carry out difficult reconstruction. The problem we have to face is how to deal with the ocean fleet that is about to come to the door. If you guard the local area to protect the maritime transportation line! Please put away the inappropriate and unrealistic ideas for the time being and devote all your energy to a cause aimed at saving the danger of Britain! The keyword of the Royal Navy in 1915 is - blasting warships!"

...
Chapter completed!