I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 1003: How Did They Sink Our Aircraft Carrier?

Chapter 1003: Chapter 1003: How Did They Sink Our Aircraft Carrier?

The "Crossbow Cannons Plan" is under the responsibility of General Winter.

At this moment, he is commanding from the flagship "Canada" battleship.

(The above image shows the "Canada" battleship, with a displacement of 28,000 tons and a speed of 22.75 knots. This ship was purchased by Chile from England, but due to the outbreak of war, England negotiated with Chile to buy it for 2.5 million Pounds, renaming it "Canada", and it was commissioned in 1915.)

During the pre-war meeting, the Minister of Military Supplies outlined the division of labor:

"We have reasons to believe the German High Seas Fleet might join the battle."

"Considering this, we must place the main force of the Royal Navy in the North Sea."

"Only then can we trap the German fleet and ensure homeland security."

The Prime Minister, Minister of the Navy, and General Winter had no objections.

The security of the North Sea is of utmost importance; the German High Seas Fleet is the main opponent of the Royal Navy.

As for the French Navy, they are mostly small vessels and don’t require advanced battleships to crush them.

Therefore, most of the British Army dispatched to the Mediterranean are outdated pre-dreadnoughts, along with two battlecruisers for maneuvers.

Among all the ships, the "Canada" battleship, commissioned in 1915, was considered advanced enough, and thus it was chosen by General Winter as his flagship for the battle.

General Winter stayed at the main battlefield from beginning to end.

His naval warfare ideas hadn’t transformed; as a member of the navy, General Winter always thought naval battles should involve ships firing at each other, gun against gun.

As for fighter planes, they were just auxiliaries.

Thus, he naturally treated the two aircraft carriers as auxiliaries rather than main forces.

This is also why he used a battleship as the flagship instead of an aircraft carrier. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

At this time, General Winter was holding up binoculars in the command tower, observing the battle situation ahead.

So far, he was satisfied, everything was proceeding according to plan, and the third fleet was methodically depleting the French Navy and planes.

From his perspective, the enemy planes were being forced back under the pressure of the "S.E.5a" fighter planes.

(Note: The French "Camel" fighter planes ambushed the "S.E.5a" and casually took down the seaplanes before retreating completely, but at this time, the fighter planes weren’t equipped with radios and couldn’t communicate with the surface, so General Winter, not understanding aerial combat, misunderstood this as a defeat of the French fighter planes.)

"The idea of the Minister of Military Supplies was correct." General Winter felt pleased: "Shire’s fighter planes are not our match; they don’t even dare to use ’torpedo planes’."

"Of course, General." Captain Ethan adjusted his brand-new military uniform, speaking with sarcasm:

"I heard Shire was seasick for several days while heading to the Dardanelles Strait."

"From this perspective, we’ve already won."

"On land, Shire might be a king, but on the sea, no one can compete with the Royal Navy!"

This should have been done earlier, Captain Ethan thought; if the Royal Navy had joined the war sooner, Shire wouldn’t have developed this far.

General Winter nodded slightly.

Initially, he had some concerns that Shire might have some ingenious ideas to change the situation.

But watching the aerial French seaplanes being shot down one after another, his remaining worries were cast to the winds.

That’s your weakness, Shire.

Even if you can win countless battles on the European continent, and even unite Germany, Greece, Belgium, and the African Colony.

But as long as you lose at sea, all the victories still belong to England; you cannot change that.

The Navy is a strategic force; we have achieved strategic victory!

(Note: Before the development of the Air Force, the Navy could be considered a strategic force. Whoever had a strong navy had more overseas colonies and interests; victories on land could not change this situation.)

However, just as General Winter was breathing a sigh of relief and watching the Royal Navy’s victory with a spectator’s mindset, the communications officer stepped forward to report:

"General, our First Fleet and Second Fleet are under attack."

The First Fleet was centered around the aircraft carrier "Hundred-eyed Giant," while the Second Fleet was the "Furious" fleet.

General Winter didn’t take this report seriously.

"Is it France’s Thunder Strike Ships?" he asked.

The main French fleet was here, so they could only attack the First and Second Fleets with a few small boats.

"Ignore them." General Winter ordered: "Our destroyers will handle them..."

The communications officer replied:

"No, General, it’s the enemy’s aircraft."

"They are attacking our aircraft carriers from the southwest; Major General Brent is requesting reinforcements!"

General Winter’s expression subtly changed as he turned to the communications officer: "Aircraft? How could there be enemy aircraft in the southwest?"

The planes from Malta Island couldn’t reach the location of the aircraft carriers.

Even if they could, they wouldn’t have enough fuel to return after completing their attack.

The communications officer shook his head blankly: "I don’t know, General. And there are quite a few; reports say at least over forty planes."

The communications officer handed the telegram to General Winter.

General Winter took the telegram skeptically and glanced at it, suddenly remembering something, he quickly walked to the desk and stared at the nautical chart in a daze.

Captain Ethan approached, puzzled: "Is the problem serious?"

General Winter smiled lightly: "No, it’s just the appearance of French aircraft carriers."

"French aircraft carriers?"

"Yes." General Winter nodded, and his finger drew a circle in the southwestern sea area: "Their carriers should be in this area."

Captain Ethan uttered an "oh": "So those planes took off from the aircraft carriers. Is this Shire’s scheme to defeat us?"

General Winter and Captain Ethan exchanged glances and smiled, full of disdain.

They weren’t worried at all.

The reason is they assumed that Shire’s aircraft carriers were like the British ones, capable of launching only fighter planes, not bombers.

To be precise, unable to launch the large "torpedo planes"; what concerned them were these "torpedo planes."

If it’s just fighter planes equipped with machine guns, what threat can they pose to warships?

Those machine guns couldn’t even tickle aircraft carriers or destroyers!

This was also one of the reasons the British Navy hadn’t emphasized naval defense until then; most people felt it wasn’t necessary.

With aircraft carriers launching fighter planes against "torpedo planes," warships only needed minimal anti-aircraft defense as the final layer of protection.

However, as they leisurely discussed how to "round up" the French aircraft carriers, the communications officer rushed over again.

"General." His face was filled with fear:

"The ’Hundred-eyed Giant’ is on fire, with severe losses to its aircraft."

"The ’Furious’ has been sunk, with no surviving aircraft."

"Major General Brent is missing, and Colonel Aubrey has taken command and is requesting reinforcements!"

General Winter and Captain Ethan were shocked:

"What? Impossible!"

"How did they sink our aircraft carriers?"