novelraw Chapter 723: The Change in Naval Warfare
Chapter 723: The Change in Naval Warfare
The three of them embraced each other happily when they met.
Shire didn’t actually have such close personal ties with Wells and Vice Admiral Gephardt; it was just that the shared interest in the shipyard brought them closer together, making them seem like comrades in the same camp.
Shire was a bit surprised to see Wells: "You don’t seem like you should be here, Mr. Wells, otherwise those parliamentarians will make an issue out of it again."
Wells gave a noncommittal smile: "You seem to forget, General, you are now the investor of the Brest Shipyard. Discussing shipbuilding plans with the investor doesn’t seem to be a problem, does it?"
The few of them laughed heartily.
In fact, given Shire’s current status and prestige, there was basically no need to worry about such idle gossip.
He had reached a new height, not only gaining the recognition and trust of the vast majority of citizens, but also establishing his own military theory and solidifying his position.
At this height, Shire could not be toppled by a few accusations of "colluding with merchants."
If any parliamentarian were to question in the parliament:
"Shire supports the Brest Shipyard because he has secret dealings with Wells."
"Yes, this concerns Shire’s own interests."
"We have reason to believe Shire owns shares in the Brest Shipyard or has accepted bribes from Wells. It is well known that they have private interactions."
...
This voice would soon be overwhelmed by a tide of rebuttals:
"God, don’t you know these warships were donated by Shire?"
"What interest can be higher than the cost of building ships? That’s tens of millions of US Dollars!"
"Even if there is interest, so what? Shire spent money to donate warships to the navy, can’t he build them in a ’friendly’ shipyard?"
...
Most French citizens had already been won over by Shire. No matter what rumors there were, their first instinct was to question the parliament, not Shire.
Therefore, even the parliamentarians knew this rhetoric wouldn’t work on Shire; it couldn’t topple him, not even cause a ripple, so they simply didn’t bring it up.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Vice Admiral Gephardt sat down in the meeting room chair. As he took the coffee handed to him by the attendant, he couldn’t help but complain:
"You wouldn’t believe what the parliament is discussing."
"Many parliamentarians are doubting your decisions in the Meuse River campaign."
Shire looked puzzled: "Command of the Meuse River?"
He didn’t think there was anything wrong with the Meuse; at least it was a major victory and was already in the final stages.
"Yes." Vice Admiral Gephardt nodded, a look of disdain on his face: "They say your command was too conservative, that the First Armored Army should have crossed the Meuse, and while the Germans’ rear forces are empty, recapture all of France in one go."
Shire nearly choked on his coffee at these words: "They really said that?"
Wells raised an eyebrow: "I can attest to that, but it’s quite normal; they are parliamentarians, not generals, and certainly not Shire."
Wells and Vice Admiral Gephardt laughed again.
Parliamentarians didn’t understand military affairs, but it was exactly this group of people who didn’t understand military affairs that could decide strategic directions, interfere with military command, and even appoint or remove commanders.
Then Wells steered the conversation back on track: "How’s the matter with the warships? I heard you just finished talking with the Neon Military Officer?"
"Yes." Shire replied, taking out the freshly signed contract from a drawer and handing it to Wells: "Everything went smoothly."
Wells and Vice Admiral Gephardt leaned in to take a look, both showing peculiar expressions on their faces.
Wells looked at Shire hesitantly: "This can’t be right, 1.6 million US Dollars, over 3,000 tons of displacement."
"What’s wrong?" Shire asked: "Are you not satisfied with it?"
"No, no." Wells hurriedly explained: "I mean, this price... it makes our costs look inflated, and very inflated."
"Don’t worry, Mr. Wells." Shire laughed: "I know what’s going on. This is just Neon’s concession; they are willing to take a loss to secure this deal."
Hearing this, Wells finally breathed a sigh of relief, then a gratified smile appeared on his face.
Neon can produce this light cruiser of over 3,000 tons, and in the future, the Brest Shipyard only needs to make some modifications to produce another model, saving a lot of time and cost in design and validation.
In other words, the future ships from the Brest Shipyard were more or less settled, so naturally there was no need to worry about the shipyard being shut down.
Vice Admiral Gephardt stared at the structural diagram of the warship in the contract for a while, then said:
"I’ve always had a question, Vice Admiral, how should we conduct training?"
"I mean, with our new warships and the one produced by Neon."
"They should focus on air defense and anti-submarine, right?"
Vice Admiral Gephardt had been studying Shire’s Battle of the North Sea for some time and had already realized the importance of air superiority in naval battles. He had also heard about Britain building aircraft carriers.
The aircraft carriers were something Shire had told Tijani, and Tijani had passed it on to Gephardt.
Initially, Vice Admiral Gephardt didn’t believe it, but considering Britain’s already commissioned "Royal Ark" seaplane carrier, it seemed quite possible.
He could only sigh: The world was changing too fast, and naval battle modes were likely to undergo dramatic changes because of this. They were just in the process of it now.
Shire answered: "You could say that, at least for us. But we still have to consider combat against ships."
This was determined by the backward reconnaissance methods of the time; without radar and aircraft carriers, warships couldn’t engage in combat beyond visual range or ship gun range.
Vice Admiral Gephardt nodded in agreement.
"But we need to change our way of fighting against ships." Shire added: "When there is no air cover, our ship guns should target the enemy’s destroyers, and the enemy’s battleships should be dealt with by torpedoes."
This was the concept of Neon’s "Mine Warfare Unit," although Neon’s "Mine Warfare Unit" had not yet formed due to a lack of command ships.
Vice Admiral Gephardt pondered for a moment, confirming these aspects, he roughly understood the direction of navy training and mentally rehearsed it.
However, Shire added: "The shelling method and communication method should also change, or strictly speaking, the coordination method."
"What?" Vice Admiral Gephardt looked baffled.
What he had just mentally rehearsed was all based on traditional shelling and coordination methods. If even these had to change, it meant what he had in mind was still wrong, and very wrong.
Shire pointed to the contract on the table with his chin: "My coordination method, I lean more towards pairing a 3,000-ton class light cruiser with a destroyer."
Vice Admiral Gephardt was taken aback and exchanged a glance with Wells. Both saw the surprise in each other’s eyes.
They had thought Shire would use the light cruiser produced by Neon as the flagship and bring along a large fleet of new and old destroyers.
They didn’t expect it to be one paired with one.