Chapter 276: Politicians’ Battlefield

In the conference room on the third floor of the Admiralty Building in London, England, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and naval officers including General Winter and other young men had a heated discussion about the Battle of the Dardanelles.

"We should stop this combat plan!" General Winter expressed his opinion in the meeting: "This plan may have been successful at the beginning, but now it has failed. We must admit this result. Try to invest more troops A war with supplies that is almost hopeless is more like a gambler than a war!”

The young faction supports Ciel's views. They have always believed that it is simply unrealistic to win a war and force a country to surrender with only the navy. This era has passed.

Even if the powerful fleet of the Allied Powers can break into the Strait of Marmara, and even if the fleet mounts its cannons under the city of Constantinople, will the Ottoman Empire surrender?

The Young People's Party said this: "They only need to withdraw their troops to a dozen kilometers away, and then you can do whatever you want. Why surrender?"

The Admiralty asked with a stern face: "Why isn't war a gamble? Is it a death sentence just because of a small defeat? No, we shouldn't give up just like that!"

"Your Excellency!" General Winter looked at the Minister of the Navy in disbelief: "We lost three battleships in one day, and three more were seriously damaged and lost combat capability, but you think this is just a 'small defeat'?"

This is already one-third of the strength, and they can even form a country's navy.

The Minister of the Navy smiled lightly, stood up and replied calmly: "Gentlemen, first we should look at the human losses in this battle."

The Minister of the Navy picked up the document in his hand and waved it to everyone, then turned around and said, "You may have received the battle report. There were only 728 casualties in the entire battle!"

The Minister of the Navy threw the document on the table and tapped it with his finger: "728, this casualty is negligible. The army's casualties can reach thousands or even tens of thousands in a day. Is it possible that our navy will suffer such casualties?" Intimidated?"

The Admiralty Minister did not analyze it in detail, and the people present at the meeting all agreed not to discuss it, but they all understood in their hearts:

Most of the 728 casualties were from the Bouvet.

It exploded and sank in more than two minutes. Most of the crew were unable to escape in time. More than 600 people were taken to the bottom of the sea by the warship.

But the Bouvet was a French warship, and the casualties were French. The British crew actually suffered only more than a hundred casualties.

This is indeed "trivial".

The words of the Secretary of the Navy were immediately opposed by General Winter: "We are not an army, Your Excellency! We lost 6 battleships..."

"Three ships, Admiral Winter." The Lord Admiralty corrected the statement: "The other warships were only damaged."

Then the Lord Admiralty added impassionedly:

"Damaged warships only need to spend a month or six weeks in the Malta shipyard to be roughly repaired and then go to war again."

"As for those sunken battleships, they are destined to become a pile of scrap metal under any circumstances. Even if they are not sunk, they will be eliminated in the near future and sent to the shipyard for demolition!"

This statement was met with fierce opposition from a group of naval officers, who responded angrily:

"Navy mines can't tell which warships are old and which are new, Your Excellency!"

"The reason why the old warships are lost is because they always rush to the front, and the new warships follow behind and follow the same path they have taken. If the old warships are bombed, shouldn't it be the turn of the new warships next?"

"If you think so, why don't you board the Queen Elizabeth and fight the battle yourself?"

…

The Lord of the Admiralty said this without any common sense. The sunk warship was indeed old to Britain, but it was still quite advanced from a global perspective at this time.

And when it comes to dealing with mines, it really has nothing to do with old or new warships.

General Winter believed that these words were insulting to the dignity of the Navy. He stood up and glared at the Minister of the Navy:

"Your Excellency, I think you must know that these old warships are sacred."

"When many sailors are young officers and they step onto the deck for the first time, the first words they are trained to say are, 'It is a shame to abandon a warship, and they will be with the warship.'"

"Until they become an old crew member or even a captain, they will still keep these words in their hearts and engraved deep in their thoughts."

"But you treat them with disdain, even treating them as consumables and garbage that must be dismantled even if they are not sunk by bombs..."

The Lord Admiralty interrupted General Winter:

"I understand that, General."

"But for leaders, warships have no sentimental value in times of war."

"Warships are just tools, machines used to take risks in war. If necessary, they can be sacrificed for the common cause and the country's basic policy! I think this is very worthwhile!"

General Winter and a group of naval officers did not know how to refute. What the Lord of the Navy said seemed to be the truth, but on the contrary, they, the naval officers, had emotionalized and personified the war machine.

This is the result of politicians directing military operations. They do not consider the feelings, morale and battlefield realities of the military. They only consider their own political interests and reputation.

The point is that politicians usually have better eloquence. They can kill all parties in the conference room battlefield and make the military unable to respond, even though the facts have proven that the politicians are wrong.

Finally, the Royal Navy agreed to continue the war under the lobbying of the Navy Minister, but did not accept the absurd statement that "the navy can win."

This is exactly what the Navy Minister wants, and he has persuaded the Army Minister to let him participate in this plan.

Their idea is: "The navy almost won, and now if the army cooperates, it will not take too much effort to end this war gloriously."

At that time, they will be the creators of a great victory. They created the turning point of the First World War and ended the war, which will bring them unimaginable political benefits.

General Winter sent a pessimistic telegram to Charles:

"I feel that we are sinking deeper and deeper in the quagmire, from one disaster to another more terrible disaster."

"But I can't stop it, I can only put my hope on you."

"If anyone can save them, I believe that person must be you. Please be prepared!"

This reminded Charles.

Before this, Charles had always hoped to stop this battle or make it develop in a good direction through intelligence. But it didn't seem to work.

If it cannot be prevented, is it possible to prepare for it in advance?