Chapter 1000 It’s time for aircraft carriers to play a role
If the Minister of Munitions and General Winter were talented people, Charles might have swallowed his pride and kept them in Belgium regardless of the consequences, even at the cost of losing his reputation.
However, General Winter is of mediocre qualifications, and the Minister of Munitions is a "reverse talent". In the future, he will bring down the British Empire by his own strength. Therefore, Charles will not only not harm him but will also protect him secretly.
However, Charles' words did scare the Quartermaster General and General Winter out of their wits.
Belgium has no good feelings towards Britain, and now has the backing of powerful France. It is not a bad idea to detain important naval officials to strike at the Royal Navy.
So they fled all the way to Antwerp, not even daring to take a plane.
The reason was that the sky during this period belonged to France, and there were no radios on the planes. They could be shot down and sunk to the bottom of the sea without anyone noticing, and they could later find an excuse saying it was due to weather reasons.
In this situation they could only trust the warship.
So we took several trips by boat and car, and finally arrived back in London safely the next afternoon.
Although the Minister of Munitions was quite tired after traveling all the way, he did not dare to rest. He took General Winter and rushed to the War Building to hold an emergency meeting.
Also attending the meeting were Prime Minister George, First Lord of the Admiralty Balfour, and Major General Trenchard, Chief of Staff of the Royal Flying Corps.
(Note: After Kitchener's death, Prime Minister George served as Secretary of State for War for a considerable period of time. Also: The Royal Air Force was established in 1918. Before that, it was the Royal Flying Corps, which was essentially an auxiliary force of the Army and Navy.)
(The above picture shows British Major General Hugh Trenchard, the first Chief of Staff of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC))
Prime Minister George had already received news of this and knew that Charles had announced to the world that Britain was forcing France to increase the compensation.
He glanced at the Minister of Munitions with dissatisfaction and said sarcastically, "It seems that your negotiations are not going well, Your Excellency."
"Yes, Your Excellency, Prime Minister." The Minister of Munitions was a little frustrated.
"Do you know what this means?" Prime Minister George complained:
"Not only did this not have a positive effect, it had a counterproductive effect."
"The Germans have learned that we intend to drag France into increasing the reparations, and they intend to side with France in the war against us."
"Including the navy, the German navy, they are preparing to leave the port and fight our army!"
The Minister of Munitions was stunned: "German Navy?"
"Yes." Prime Minister George nodded:
"You should have thought of this, Your Excellency."
"If we intend to win over France at the expense of Germany's interests, it means that Germany will completely side with France."
"Because Germany is more worried that France will agree to our conditions, and at the same time will not allow France to be defeated by us!"
Under the operation of the Minister of Munitions, Germany was no longer in a situation where it could only sit on the sidelines and watch the fight between two tigers.
Once France agrees, or if France is defeated and forced to surrender, Germany will face huge reparations that will take hundreds of years to pay.
Thus, the Minister of Munitions actually tied the interests of Germany and France together.
"There are other countries," said Balfour.
"Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc."
"Neutral countries, both those that joined the League of Nations and those that did not, were supporting France."
"Although the colonies haven't spoken out, we've received intelligence that their armed forces are gathering."
France is the country that dared to stand up and resist British hegemony, the country that openly represented the weak countries in the world in resisting British oppression, and the country that worked for human peace, for the "freedom" of other countries, and for the elimination of war.
In principle, all countries have common interests with France, and they will not sit idly by and watch France being defeated by Britain.
The Minister of Munitions suddenly understood Charles' purpose in making the content of the negotiations public: to unite European countries, including Germany, to fight against Britain.
He glanced at everyone awkwardly and changed the subject:
"None of this matters, gentlemen."
"The Germans are just pretending, and the other countries are just offering support. What matters most is always France, the Charles, and the Mediterranean."
"As long as we defeat Charles with lightning speed and defeat the French navy, nothing will change."
The Minister of Munitions was well aware of the principle of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. As long as the most important "leader" was killed, other countries would not dare to act rashly.
Major General Trenchard, Chief of Staff of the Royal Flying Corps, said calmly, "You may be right, Your Excellency. But the question is how can we achieve this? How can we defeat the Shire?"
The Quartermaster General looked at Trenchard in confusion. "Why not? We have a battle plan."
"Yes," Trenchard replied.
"But the battle plan did not include Malta."
"And now that the island of Malta is under French control, Charles' planes are constantly sending reinforcements to Malta."
"Fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes."
The Minister of Munitions was unconvinced: "Is Malta so important? It's just a small island!"
The Minister of Munitions remained skeptical about this. Although he was frightened by Charles's confidence and fled back, he discussed it with General Winter for a long time on the way, but he still couldn't figure out how Charles could prevent the British fleet from controlling the Mediterranean.
"It's not just Malta." Major General Trenchard shook his head slightly. "We discovered that the Italians have built an airfield and stockpiled fuel on Sardinia. I have reason to believe they did so with instructions from France."
(The red circles in the above picture indicate the locations of Sardinia and Malta)
Major General Trenchard pointed to the map on the table and said:
"Look at this, gentlemen."
"With Sardinia as the center, France is on the upper left, Algeria is on the lower left, and Malta is on the lower right."
"What did you come up with?"
Without waiting for anyone else to answer, Major General Trenchard drew a circle on the map:
"Char's planes controlled the entire Mediterranean."
"He can use the Camels and Snipes to fight for air superiority, and then use the Torpedo Planes to bomb our warships."
“How can we fight them?”
The Minister of Munitions suddenly understood the reason why Charles was "talking nonsense". He planned to use "torpedo planes" to sink the British warships one after another.
General Winter remained unconvinced. "But we have the SE5a. They are much faster than the Camel and Snipe, and there are more of them than the Jenny A."
Major General Trenchard asked, "But where are our fighter planes going to take off from? Our airfields are far away in Greece and Egypt, and our fighter planes have a range of over 400 kilometers, so they can't even reach Malta to fight."
The Quartermaster General and General Winter exchanged a glance.
They knew it was time for the aircraft carrier to play a role. Only it could assist the navy in eliminating Charles's airports on these islands one by one!
(End of this chapter)
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