Empire Conquest

Chapter 495 - 491: The Promoter

At this time, at the East Ocean Fleet Headquarter of the Newland Navy located at Treasure Harbor on Honu Island in the Howay Islands, the operations command center was busy.

In the spacious room, a group of staff officers were marking information on a nautical chart, specifically, placing icons bearing information onto corresponding positions on the chart.

Around the Nautical Chart Table, several Senior Generals stood guard, among them was Ethe, presiding.

Within their number was Spur, who had returned from the mainland just a few days earlier.

Regarding the disastrous defeat that the 61st Special Mixed Fleet had suffered in the Fan Flame Ocean, Ethe did not blame Spur, or to put it another way, he did not assign Spur the responsibility for the defeat.

Indeed, Spur wasn’t greatly to blame.

From beginning to end, the operational maneuvers were directed by Cunningham, and Spur had merely exerted his utmost effort. The result was a case of being outmatched by the skills of others.

If anyone truly had to bear the responsibility for the defeat, it ought to be Cunningham.

In Ethe’s view, managing to save the "Fenjin" and bringing almost all the battleships back to the motherland was already a commendable achievement by Spur.

We must not forget that the opponent was the Liangxia Navy’s top ace, and they had 2 fleet carriers at their disposal.

The key point was that during the battle, the 61st Special Mixed Fleet had "sunk" one Liangxia carrier, even if it later turned out that the carrier was only damaged by the explosion.

Consequently, upon returning to the motherland, not only was Spur not censured, but he also received a medal.

Furthermore, due to the strenuous efforts to rescue the damaged carrier, the officers and soldiers of the "Fenjin" all received commendations. Those who were injured were awarded the Purple Heart Medal, while those who were not injured received the Silver Heart Medal. Sergeant Major Depp of the engine department, who risked his life to repair the generator, became the first Navy officer to receive the Congressional Honorary Medal in this great battle, and thus became a well-known war hero.

However, this resulted in Spur staying in the motherland for several months.

It was said he was reporting on duties, to provide a detailed briefing to the Ministry of Navy and the Grey Palace regarding the damage sustained by the "Fenjin" and the 61st Special Mixed Fleet’s combat actions.

But in fact, it was mainly about repair work.

Having him report to The Ministry of Navy, Congress, and the Grey Palace to individuals like Rofuss was not for the sake of assigning blame, but for a different purpose.

To be explicit, it concerned the Kingdom of Bulan.

After the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean battle ended, the Bulan Authority shamelessly initiated hostilities first, claiming that the 61st Special Mixed Fleet had disobeyed Cunningham’s orders, making unauthorized contact with the Liangxia Navy, which led to the outbreak of battle and eventually resulted in the sinking of 2 Bulan carriers.

For this reason, they demanded compensation from the Newland Federation, essentially pro bono assistance in building 2 fleet carriers.

Not to talk of the finances, just the resources required to build 2 carriers and the shipyard space that would be occupied were not demands that could be readily agreed to.

For this exact reason, Rofuss had the Ministry of Navy organize a hearing and also had Spur report to the Grey Palace.

This move was to prove whose responsibility it really was.

Of course, these political struggles had little to do with Spur, and Rofuss was not about to involve a Navy General with little experience in diplomatic matters.

Afterwards, Spur spent over two months in the New City Shipyard.

It was where the two remaining Newland Navy fleet carriers were located.

According to the report Spur sent to Ethe, if the two fleet carriers could not be repaired by the end of the year, the Newland Navy would inevitably lose the Howay Islands.

Smaller carriers?

Clearly, Spur had never even considered winning a fleet battle relying on smaller carriers!

While in war-gaming simulations, smaller carriers with not inferior aircraft carrying capacity have strong offensive capabilities, and two such carriers could cripple two fleet carriers in one sortie, there are definitely various problems that exist in actual combat, which would impact the operational performance of smaller carriers.

To put it plainly, if small carriers could win fleet battles, then why have carriers been getting bigger and bigger?

Unfortunately, both the "Fenjin" and the "Lek" were in very poor condition.

According to the report submitted by the shipyard, the "Fenjin" was in slightly better shape, mainly because it had a completely new design, which reduced many maintenance difficulties. The "Lek" was modified from a battlecruiser hull, with many of its main components already out of production, making maintenance extremely difficult.

Even if everything went smoothly, these two carriers wouldn’t be repaired until the fourth quarter, and it would be quite an achievement to restore their combat effectiveness before Christmas.

Taking this opportunity, Spur also visited the "Ethe" class large carrier, which was under construction.

In fact, this carrier had not yet been named; the Ministry of Navy had internally decided on this name.

According to normal procedure, it would only be formally named after delivery.

It was during this period that Spur made many valuable suggestions to the shipyard’s design team, including finding a way to extend the flight deck.

The reason was that the design of "Ethe" relied on ship-borne aircraft like the F4F, which were designed before the war without considering the rate of aviation development, or rather, there was no need to do so at that time. Therefore, operating new types of ship-borne aircraft would definitely encounter a shortage of space.

Relative to that, the insufficiency in size was most apparent in the length of the flight deck.

In addition, the insufficient length of the flight deck also affected the design of new ship-borne aircraft.

The most representative case was the new ship-borne fighter designed by Walt Company, which had to strictly control the angle of attack due to its high landing approach speed, making low-speed operations very difficult. As a result, it had not passed the Navy’s acceptance. If the landing area of the deck could be extended by about ten meters, it would be possible to increase the approach speed of the ship-borne aircraft, thereby solving the problems caused by difficult low-speed control.

Of course, due to the restrictions of the Wangxi Canal locks, the width of the "Ethe" class was strictly limited and could not be increased to resolve the space shortage.

As for lock number three, it hadn’t been completed to this day.

That is to say, the most important thing that Spur did in these few months was actually to promote the design and construction of new anti-air warships.

In the two fleet battles that he commanded, Newland Fleet’s anti-air capability was a major problem.

Of course, a flawed anti-air network was a common issue across all navies, including the Liangxia Navy.

Take the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean Battle for example; facing enemy fighters breaking through at ultra-low altitude, the anti-air fighters and anti-air warships of the Special Mixed Fleet still failed to react in time.

However, compared to the Liangxia Navy, Newland Navy’s anti-air issue was even more pronounced.

That is to say, if there had been a few fast battleships with fierce anti-air firepower during the Northwest East Ocean Battle, those three fleet carriers might not have been sunk.

Additionally, the fact that the Liangxia Navy’s fleet carriers repeatedly escaped disasters was due to their strong anti-air firepower.

That’s exactly why Spur always advocated for the construction of fast battleships and to design and build specialized anti-air warships according to the anti-air standards of fast battleships.

In fact, they were large cruisers.

This point was quite similar to the situation of the Liangxia Navy.

The reason being that fast battleships were too expensive and took too long to build, making it impossible to quickly replenish losses, necessitating a cheaper alternative.

As for the result, that was the later "Alas" class large cruiser.

When Spur made this suggestion, he apparently did not consider the cost issue, or as a Navy General, he couldn’t possibly take into account the construction costs.

That is somewhat similar to the Bai Zhizhan.

All in all, Spur had not been idle during these months at home.

By the time he returned to the East Ocean Fleet Headquarter, the situation had completely changed.