Chapter 1,275 Transactions Between Britain and Japan 1
Chapter 1275 Transactions between Britain and Japan 1
"To be honest, I really didn't expect that you would be the leader of the delegation this time." Standing on the armored cruiser HMS Hampshire, Lieutenant General Valentine looked at the somewhat forlorn former Lord of the Navy Sir Fisher next to him and said .
"Haha, I didn't expect those guys from the Congress to send me here, but fortunately, they finally arranged some things for me. I thought I would be sealed away and permanently insulated from the military and politics." Look. The Port of Nagasaki has gradually become clearer. Sir Fisher, the former Lord of the Admiralty, couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Fisher's life was a glorious life! He reformed the British naval system, promoted the development of dreadnoughts, and freed the Royal Navy from the shackles of a large number of old ships. His life played an important role in the continuation of the Royal Navy's glory, but his biggest and only mistake was to promote the battlecruiser... Generally speaking, Fisher is really capable, but it is a pity that his sensitivity in battleship technology is a little bit worse. If the armor was thicker and the speed was lower, it would be better. Then Fisher's situation is definitely different!
However, there is no if in history. Fisher, who resigned sadly, became the British Empire's special envoy to Japan. As the war continued, British maritime power suffered heavy losses in battle after battle. Note that this maritime power is not simply about warships and naval personnel, but also includes the British Empire fleet, which was previously ranked first in the world and has 40% of the world's maritime transport capacity! This is also a force that cannot be ignored!
However, now, this huge fleet, which connects the body and heart of the British Empire like blood vessels, has suffered too many losses in the long battle. The losses caused by submarines, mines and raiding ships every month have been far away. Exceeding the speed of British ship supply, the most important reason why the British can support it is to rely on their own already very large fleet and the import of ships from neutral countries and allies.
"Simply relying on building and buying ships will not allow us to tide over the crisis. It takes us months to build a new ship, but it may only take a few minutes for a submarine to use deck guns and torpedoes to destroy a transport ship. We need to build A complete escort system, at least, deploys destroyers in areas where submarines are rampant. Even if these destroyers cannot destroy submarines, as long as they can prevent submarines from launching attacks!"
Fisher's opinions were once again adopted by the British top brass. Everyone, including the British Prime Minister, believes that this statement is reasonable, but the biggest problem is that it is almost impossible to implement because it requires too many destroyers, which is absolutely astronomical for the current British Empire!
Fisher did have a point. Even if the submarine cannot be effectively destroyed, the establishment of the escort system is still effective. However, it is a pity that there is no United States in this dimension. It lacks the U.S. industry that can be called heaven-defying, and lacks the ability to quickly destroy the submarine in a short period of time. Hundreds of flatbed destroyers emerged. Where did the British get so many ships to play the convoy system? It is an extremely difficult task to establish a complete escort system, but after discussions with the British cabinet bosses, they believed that
Unless we are ready to stop the war now, we must establish a convoy system no matter how difficult it is. However, the British needed more destroyers, and then they thought of the Japanese….
Japan is now the well-deserved third navy in the world. Although it is far from the first and second place in the world... But after all, in the previous small-scale fleet conflict, it defeated another strong competitor-the US Navy. At the same time, in the Mediterranean Sea, they suppressed two United Forces-class battleships in a 2V2 situation. After being attacked by the superior Allied Mediterranean Fleet, they successfully turned in. As a result, the Japanese Navy became known to the world as capable of fighting. Know....... After all, they had an advantage in fighting against the Allied fleets with the best single-ship quality, which was enough for the Japanese navy to show off in front of the British and French navies. Don’t forget, it’s almost the same model of battleship, but it defeated Thomas’ two Queens almost to death in the Indian Ocean!
This time, what Fisher came to Japan to do was mainly to discuss the issue of Japan's dispatch of the army and navy in the Dardanelles Strait operation, and also to discuss maritime anti-submarine matters, because it involved Japan's dispatch of the army, so The War Department sent Lieutenant General Valentine to participate in the talks as deputy envoy. "Our most important purpose this time is to get the Japanese to provide some destroyers and no less than at least three divisions of infantry. This is a task set by the cabinet, but I hope we can raise this standard by another 30%." Fisher said to his deputy with high spirits.
"Okay, I don't understand the Army. Tell me what you think about the Japanese Army." After a moment, seeing the other party's wilted look on the naval issue he was talking about, Fisher decided to listen to the latter. Regarding the thoughts of the Japanese Army, after all, General Valentine fought on the Western Front for nearly half a year, and he was also the first person to come into contact with the Japanese Army.
"The grassroots soldiers of the Japanese Army have a very strong will to fight. They are fanatical, tenacious, and can even be described as bloodthirsty, but they lack the most basic moral restraints and sufficient basic knowledge. In other words, they can use the rifles in their hands , Machine guns are very good, but they are definitely not suitable for driving tanks, cars or other high-tech things." General Valentine said.
"In other words, they are essentially a group of excellent cannon fodder?" Fisher said with a smile. As a navy, there has always been a sense of superiority to others, but when it comes to foreign armies, especially the Japanese army, Fisher's sense of superiority is even stronger.
"The level of knowledge is indeed low." Valentine nodded. "There are excellent middle-level officers, but most of them have rigid ideas. They even despise the lives of soldiers even more than we do. In their view, a soldier's life is only worth 5 yen. Their tactics lack flexibility. During the Russo-Japanese War, it was a detour. On the European battlefield, it was an infantry detour. But now, it is still an infantry detour... We have tried to conduct joint operations with them with armored forces, infantry and air force. However, The result can simply be described as terrible! The infantry units either throw them aside and fight on their own, or they want to rely on tanks to solve all problems but do not know to provide the necessary support to the tanks... So , I feel that the more complex the organization of the Japanese Army is, the lower the combat effectiveness of the troops will be compared with European troops." General Valentine said.
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