Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 204 >

The North Atlantic Ocean, about 1000 km southeast of Greenland.

A Russian roundel-equipped aircraft flew through the sky at high speed.

“Where are these? Are you really coming from somewhere through the Azores?”

The pilot groaned.

All he did every day was reconnaissance, reconnaissance, and reconnaissance, so he was fed up with it.

“yes? What is this?”

***

US Navy flagship ‘Iowa.’ North Atlantic.

Admiral Fletcher was staring at the map.

According to communications from Moscow, it was clear that the British Navy had launched a sortie, and the US Navy also cross-verified it.

If Suez was to be reclaimed, the report would have come from spies from Spain. Instead, if they were going around Africa, the agents dispatched to Africa would have reported it sooner.

If you are going to attack Scandanavia or anywhere else, there is no way the Russians will not know.

In other words, these guys are obviously in the North Atlantic.

However, the US Army has been struggling lately. When the opponent was not properly prepared, the National Guard from Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois from the north was quickly convened, and only the air force of the Army Air Corps was attached to attack first. The follow-up and domination of the Great Lakes coast and major cities such as Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal were excellent.

The problem was that they were attacked from Ontario and Quebec. The Federal Army was in bad shape, but the National Guard, worse than that, was smashed. British Columbia, Nunavut, Yukon and other troops were taken out and the Canadian Army counterattacked on the Eastern Front, which virtually gave up its defense of the West, destroying the U.S. Army, and the Canadian Army recaptured Ottawa.

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Meanwhile, the US Navy was convinced that if the enemy came, they would go to Newfoundland and lay down their ground forces, and then they would come near Greenland.

The problem isn’t that, but if the ship is turning to Cuba and trying to support Mexico or attack Panama. In preparation for this, in Panama and other areas, not only the existing coastal batteries, but also 20 12-inch mortars and 2 7-inch guns were urgently relocated and strengthened. Of course, some were redeployed to block Mexican forces, but many were aimed at the eastern seas.

Of course, some suspected that they were even trying to land on the US mainland, but in that case, the Russian submarine force and the US Navy would kindly cut off the supply lines. However, there is no reason to bring out a large fleet of that size when there is already a shortage of oil to destroy trade. Isn’t one squadron enough?

Anyway, what the US Navy is concerned about now is that they may have been heading to South America or Mexico, pretending to help Canada. Then, the Americans must also give up their attack on Canada and redeploy their entire force to the Southern Front.

‘Politically, it’s suicide.’

The moment the British Commonwealth ends the moment Canada abandons the decisive battle to help Mexico.

Currently, the main force of the Canadian army is the militia that rose up to defend their homeland. However, given the timing of the Canadian counterattack, giving up the West Coast and defending the Great Lakes, Quebec, and Newfoundland against the main US forces is highly likely to mean that they will hold out until the British navy arrives.

What if it turns out that the British navy was devastated on the way and reinforcements could not come? The entire Canadian army and the government will collapse in a sense of betrayal, realizing that the problem is not only the Western Canadian Army, who trusted the British Army and gave up their hometown, but was abandoned and that they were nothing more than a private person. You may even surrender altogether.

In addition, Australia and New Zealand will also be shaken. Canada has become private in that way, but there is a law that says Australia or New Zealand cannot be private. India is already shaking, and when that happens, the result is one.

The collapse of the Commonwealth.

If Britain loses this war, it will be completely annexed to another country and will be destroyed.

Even if it was an all-out war, no country thought that it would be completely destroyed just because it was defeated.

Of course, if Britain loses, it will be wiped out, but does that mean that the British government will give up the Commonwealth?

‘If I can, I’ll try to stop it by even offering a princess to Russia.’

It was half joking, but half serious. I couldn’t openly ridicule the head of state of an ally, and even more so, if the opponent was a master who could not be compared to his contemporaries on land, I only thought to myself.

Assuming that we will lose the battle, it is good for the British to have some kind of advantage. Even if we have to vomit enough reparations to uproot the pillars of the country, if we can somehow maintain the Commonwealth, or even India, we can remain as a regional power.

But will Russia really let it go?

There is a high possibility that the Royal Navy will be disbanded immediately upon surrender, and all foreign territories will be independent, including Ireland, and only the mainland of England will be left and let them live on their own.

How much did Britain f*ck Russia in the Great Game right now? Who doesn’t know that Britain was the country that actively supported Japan in the Russo-Japanese War?

Russia is one of those countries that would never give up if it could completely disarm Britain.

This war is also a karma for Britain if it goes into fundamentals. At the very least, it will be castrated so that it can never again exert influence in Canada, India and Australia.

Conditional surrender is still a possibility, but the question is whether Russia will accept the conditional surrender or will it end when the war has begun?

At least, he was going to impose more than twice the disposition given to Germany last time, but the first request that Germany received was the abandonment of the colony.

However, if Britain is asked to give up all its colonies here, there is a high possibility that it will roll down to a regional power rather than a great power, or maybe even less.

Where were they financially sound in the first place? Even if you do not ask for a separate compensation, it will be difficult to properly feed the people of your country.

In any case, their chances are that the Russian tyrant will be tempted to show some mercy to Britain.

Of course, the emperor is Empress Olga, but it’s no secret that most of the real power rests with her husband. And doesn’t he reveal his womanhood?

The story of having all three of his sisters-in-law as mistresses was not enough, so he took princesses and queens of other countries into their bedrooms and made them pregnant. The truth is unknown.

In any case, at least as far as is known, all his mistresses were women of the royal line of succession. So you could even joke that sending the princess to the government and roasting it would be Britain’s only means of survival.

In the first place, if he was wrapped around the skirt of a woman’s skirt, he wouldn’t have been able to even bring Russia to that level if it affected his public affairs, so it’s only a joke, but after winning the war, wouldn’t he really take one or two women from the royal family of England or Italy as loot? The Admiral, who had spread his delusions even to Lago, escaped from the delusion at the sound of the door.

“Something?”

“Electrification from Stolipin! They say they have found an enemy fleet!”

“What is the distance and size?”

“I haven’t been able to confirm the exact size, but at least 7 battleships! There were so many ships that followed and there were so many auxiliary ships that it was impossible to count them. It is said that HMS Lions are sure to lead!”

“The Royal Navy’s main army!”

Fletcher jumped up and asked again.

“Wait, by the way, have you confirmed the locations of battlecruisers, high-speed battleships, or aircraft carriers?”

“I didn’t say anything else, but I’ll check it out.”

Hopefully, the battleships will not go along with the aircraft carriers, and there is a good chance that the battlecruiser squadron will maneuver separately to grab the head of the friendly battleship squadron.

In the last great war, the British Navy was caught in the same tactic and suffered a great defeat. Therefore, the primary task of an aircraft carrier or surface carrier is to locate an enemy battlecruiser and deliver it to the friendly forces while conducting a primary attack.

The advantage of battlecruisers is their speed, so when the speed is slowed down by being hit by torpedoes or bombs, the battlecruisers or high-speed battleships that hear from the carrier will rush in and destroy the enemy squadron first, and a confrontation between the battleship lines that would have already entered a head-on confrontation by then. to play as a wildcard in

If things go that far, the carriers will sortie all available aircraft, and in a battle between battlecruisers, the losing side will intercept the enemy squadron, and the winning side will search for and attack the enemy carriers or cover the skies of the battlecruiser squadrons. It was necessary to create an environment for the battleship squadron to be active.

Regardless of the carrier, if battlecruisers intervene in a battle between battleships, the tide of the charter is already tilted.

Of course, if the defeated fleet in the battle between battlecruisers propagated in the opposite direction in the battle between battlecruisers and the battleships were already wiped out, the battlecruisers would escape on their own, but this is usually not the case.

Battleships of battleships have little to no deception, and who’s gun performance is better, whose defense is better, and which ship’s crew is good at damage control, etc. are honestly contested.

If you’re lucky, the battleship may explode at once if a shell hits its weak spot, but if it’s designed with such a weak point, that’s the ship’s performance.

In other words, if one side is not too weak, it will last quite a long time. Even if one side of the fleet is annihilated, the probability that the other side is already in full swing is extremely high.

That was the naval battle of this era, and it was a global trend.

In fact, since the large-scale battleships have not faced each other since the Great War, there is no particular lesson that this method is wrong, and it can be said that it is the only ‘proven’ battle lesson.

The Russian doctrine made the aircraft carriers much more aggressive, as seen in their land doctrine. They did not simply use the carrier’s aircraft for reconnaissance and tethering to battleships, but rather prioritized the attack on enemy carriers over enemy battleships.

This doctrine, advocated by King Mikhail, is that the Mongols turned their bodies to the lancers who were pursuing them in ancient times and blew up their aircraft carriers as if they were shooting arrows. It was a tactic to do.

What if the enemy fleet is attached to a certain area because its purpose is to attack? After all, the landing doesn’t happen in a day or two, and in the meantime, he continuously sorties his aircraft to sink them, whether they are battleships or auxiliary ships.

Of course, there were many negative questions about whether aircraft could sink more than simply damage battlecruisers, and whether they could sink rather than reduce the combat power of battlecruisers. It’s Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of planes attacked battleships they weren’t prepared for at all.

Neighboring countries that have acquired this doctrine are not capable of building new battleships on a large scale, so it is evaluated that it is a tactic studied to fail to achieve the strategic goal of the enemy fleet while maintaining the fleet through continuous damage accumulation rather than direct sinking of enemy ships using aircraft carriers. It was not considered worthwhile to present or study in particular.

Of course, this is a tactic used when there are no battleships in the allies or when the level of deployment against the enemy fleet is insufficient, but the evaluation was positive that it was an attempt to make up for the lack of naval capabilities with the superiority of aviation technology.

In the first place, Russia is not a country that puts much weight on the navy, and among the land that is actually worth protecting, only a small number of places that are in contact with the sea can be built, but few in other countries valued it.

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Most of the battleship admirals responded that it was ridiculous. Yes, aircraft are faster than battleships. Aircraft carriers are usually faster than battleships. In other words, if an aircraft carrier decides to run away, it is impossible to sink an enemy carrier by delivering a carrier without a carrier.

But can an aircraft sink a battleship? Most of the world’s admirals vehemently denied this. Unless it’s a quiet battleship in the port, it’s absurd to say that a battleship sailing in battle is sunk by those flying flies.

Of course, there are those who think that the aircraft will be able to withstand the battleships. There were some in the US Navy, so there must be some in other countries as well.

However, they were attacked the moment they revealed their thoughts to the battleship admirals, the mainstream of the navy. Fletcher saw this as the fear of those being pushed back by the new power of the carrier. Like a cavalry being pushed by a chariot.

Of course, it may be a tactic created by an outsider at will. However, no matter how alienated the Russian Navy and the low voice of the admirals, there is something to believe in, so it would have been formally adopted.

Above all, he could not be sure that King Mikhail, who was called an incomprehensible genius, was a complete stranger to naval warfare.

‘Of course, that doesn’t make a big difference.’

Even if the Russian Navy prefers to hit the enemy carrier group, there is no way it will attack by raking in its entire force. Their naval air force is at least twice that of the enemy, so they have enough power to attack both aircraft carriers and battlecruisers at the same time.

However, is it really a new weapon system that an aircraft carrier really overwhelms a battleship?

Only time will tell