War was bloody. From the moment the Holy Roman government decided to bring the landing plan forward, the fighting over the English Channel grew increasingly brutal. Almost overnight, the Continental Alliance seemed to change its entire style of warfare. No longer concerned with casualties, it began playing a ruthless war of attrition. There was no finesse involved, just a raw contest of strength. For the British Empire, standing alone against the whole of Europe, this kind of exchange was nothing short of crushing pressure. London “Starting in late July, the enemy has gone completely mad. They have launched attack after attack without pause, and this time London is no longer the main target. Coastal ports, large and small alike, have all suffered devastating air strikes. Not even fishing village piers have been spared. It is as if bombs cost them nothing at all. In just the past month, the enemy has dropped more than fifty thousand tons of bombs on England alone. Judging purely by the direct results of the bombing, I seriously doubt whether the damage inflicted is even worth the fuel consumed by their aircraft sorties. Under the impact of these bombings, our coastal garrisons have also suffered heavy losses, especially the coastal artillery. More than three hundred guns have been destroyed.” Secretary of War Marcus said this with a deathly pale face. Regardless of how high a price the enemy paid, England was the one suffering. Because of geography, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales had largely escaped disaster. More than fifty thousand tons of bombs had fallen on England. Including earlier raids, England had already endured well over a hundred thousand tons of bombs. From the English Channel to the Strait of Dover, not a single port along the coast remained intact. Those not completely destroyed by fire had suffered crippling damage. So many bombs were aimed directly at ports, cities, and factories, all densely populated areas. Heavy casualties were inevitable. As a result, the Royal Navy had withdrawn to the rear. If the enemy were to launch another landing operation, it would take the Royal Navy at least a full day to rush back. Although no one said it outright, the implication of blame directed at the air force was already unmistakable. Under the gaze of everyone present, Attilio, the Air Secretary, felt nothing but bitterness. The air force had truly done everything it could. Unfortunately, the enemy was fighting just as desperately. They could not win in head-on engagements, and even when a trap was painstakingly set, their own aircraft could not catch up with the enemy. Every air battle ended in defeat. Even if the British air force wanted to fight harder after each setback, its remaining strength simply could not withstand such losses. Britain’s aviation technology was already behind the times, and as for its allies, there was even less to hope for. At most, some components could be purchased. As for core items like engines, even if British firms were willing to share their technology openly, it would take allies a few years to digest and apply it. Technology could not keep up, production capacity could not keep up, and personnel reserves could not keep up either. Under such circumstances, losing battles was hardly surprising. “Do not look at me. You all know how heavy the air force’s losses have been. The war has only been going on for a little over half a year, yet more than four thousand aircraft have already been lost. The pilots have been replaced three times. Of the earliest group of veteran pilots, more than half have already been killed in action. In order to fight for air superiority, we have repeatedly shortened pilot training periods. The shortest training time was less than half a month before they were forced onto the battlefield. The air force has now been pushed to its absolute limit. If you want to further increase the intensity of operations, then the air force might as well be removed from the order of battle altogether.” In order to preserve what remained of the air force, Attilio no longer cared about appearances. If he did not make the situation clear now, the air force would be completely wiped out. With the support of ground-based air defense units, barely managing to defend London’s airspace was already the limit of what the air force could achieve. To expect it to cover other regions as well was pure fantasy. It was not just that the air force could not do it. Even the ground air defense units were incapable of covering the entire country. Unlike later eras with precise targeting, when missiles could chase enemy aircraft, the anti-aircraft guns and machine guns of this period had painfully low hit rates. Intercepting enemy aircraft did not depend on a few machine guns or a handful of anti-aircraft guns. It required large-scale, organized air defense firepower formations. Take London as an example. The British government had concentrated several thousand anti-aircraft machine guns and nearly a thousand anti-aircraft guns, and only with the cooperation of the air force could it barely manage to provide air defense. Britain’s resources were limited. Even holding on to London was already a great strain. For the rest of the countryside, it was simply impossible to devote the same level of resources. Without sufficient ground-based air defense firepower to cooperate, relying purely on air force versus air force combat made this war impossible to fight. “The air force is indeed facing serious difficulties. The enemy’s recent offensives have been extremely brutal. Over the past month alone, we have shot down more than eight hundred enemy aircraft, yet their offensive shows no sign of slowing. Combined with the enemy’s continuous bombing of ports and the resulting withdrawal of the Royal Navy, we can preliminarily judge that they are preparing for a landing operation. In order to meet the coming defense of the British Isles, the air force is indeed not in a position to expend too much of its strength at present,” the Secretary of War said candidly. This explanation was not satisfying, yet everyone had no choice but to accept it. Losing was losing. Even the Royal Navy had failed to secure victory, so how could one reasonably expect the air force to defeat a stronger enemy with weaker means? Foreign Secretary Adam said, “Relying solely on chaos in Europe will not buy us much time. As long as no major internal turmoil breaks out within the Holy Roman Empire, the enemy’s offensive will not be significantly affected. What the Empire needs now is victory. The Holy Roman government is launching an active diplomatic offensive, and the positions of many neutral countries are already beginning to waver. Even our own allies are starting to stir. Some of them have even made private contact with the Holy Roman government. They are only one step away from negotiating terms and switching sides. If the strategic situation fails to improve for an extended period, the developments ahead will be extremely unfavorable to us.” By this point, Adam was already steeped in despair. The title of the worst foreign secretary would cling to him for the rest of his life, and there was now more than a hint of resignation in his attitude. The decision not to replace the foreign secretary stemmed partly from the fact that no truly capable person was willing to jump into this pit. And appointing an incompetent replacement would be worse than letting Adam continue. Although the diplomatic results had been disappointing and the foreign secretary’s morale had clearly suffered, his actual professional ability was still recognized by everyone. In any case, the foreign secretary’s main role was to coordinate overall diplomatic work. The concrete execution was handled by the civil service below. As long as the planning was sound, individual morale issues would not affect the overall situation. Of course, there was also an unspoken mentality of shared ruin. After all, the war had not yet been lost. Even if they bore infamy now, it would not be worse than what awaited them after an outright defeat. Before the group could even reach a unified position, the Secretary-General burst in hurriedly. His voice trembled as he reported, “An urgent telegram has arrived from the front. At around ten o’clock this morning, the enemy simultaneously launched landing operations in thirteen locations, including Weymouth, Poole, the Isle of Wight, Worthing, and Eastbourne. According to reconnaissance aircraft reports, the enemy’s main naval force is sailing toward London, followed by troop transports. There is a strong possibility that they intend to launch an attack on London.” Campbell snatched the battle report from his hands, and the color drained from his face instantly. A landing offensive that blossomed everywhere at once, without any clear main or secondary direction, was clearly at odds with basic military logic. Once the British army found an opening and concentrated on crushing one or several of these landing forces, the enemy could easily suffer devastating losses. Staring at the map on the wall, the military officers exchanged bewildered looks. No one could make sense of what the enemy was trying to do. Even for a feint, choosing two or three locations would have been more than sufficient. That would confuse the defenders while still keeping forces relatively concentrated and preventing exploitable weaknesses. After calming down, the consensus reaction was simple. The enemy had lost its mind. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Swinton, was the first to break the silence: “An opportunity has presented itself. Since the enemy dares to disperse its forces, we should show no courtesy. Let us first wipe out one of their landing groups.” There was no room for hesitation. In the previous two major naval battles, the Royal Navy had already suffered severe humiliation. If it could not now produce tangible results to shore up its standing, the navy’s long-held dominance would be impossible to maintain. The choice of target was obvious. The force advancing toward London would be struck first. As for the other regions, they could be dealt with later. … A sea breeze brushed across the face, dispersing the oppressive heat of the blazing sun. The small town of Grier, located along the Strait of Dover, remained as tranquil as ever. Because of natural constraints, although it lay by the sea, Grier had no proper harbor. Most of the coastline consisted of sheer cliffs. In the few relatively gentle areas, the continental shelf extended too gradually, making them wholly unsuitable for harbor construction. A makeshift harbor dug by hand could barely accommodate fishing boats of a few hundred tons. Even if a large warship managed to enter, once the tide receded it would immediately run aground. Such terrain was clearly unsuitable for a large-scale landing. Naturally, it was not a priority in British defensive planning. A single company was stationed there as a token presence, and together with the town militia, this constituted the entirety of the armed forces. The attention of the British government was focused on the prospect of major amphibious operations, leaving no time or energy to worry about a marginal town on the periphery. Major John, the town’s garrison officer, was at this moment leisurely inspecting the defensive positions. Although he did not believe any danger would arise, one still needed something to occupy the time. Having left behind the glittering nightlife of the great cities for this remote town, John found his daily routine completely disrupted. Grier, a traditional agricultural town, was almost entirely devoid of entertainment. Even when the occasional banquet was held, it failed to hold any appeal for him. It could be said that aside from its pleasant scenery, the town of Grier had nothing to recommend it. Even so, John was quite satisfied with his posting to this rural backwater. Despite its many shortcomings, there was one advantage that no other area could rival, namely its safety. Enemy aircraft were often seen passing overhead, yet not a single bomb was ever dropped. This alone was sufficient to demonstrate Grier’s lack of strategic and economic significance. As a top graduate of the Imperial Army Academy and a man of noble birth, Major John originally had many more options available to him. He rejected them all and resolutely chose the position of town garrison commander. Even when others accused him of lacking ambition or being afraid of death, he merely smiled it off. Winning glory on the battlefield sounded admirable, but war meant people died. If victory had been possible, John would not have minded taking the risk. Unfortunately, the disparity in strength between the two sides in this war was far too great, especially on land, where there was not the slightest hope to be seen. Noble honor was certainly important, but the prerequisite was surviving in the first place. As a member of the new nobility, John had none of the chivalric spirit of the old aristocracy. Agreeing to take the field at all was already a courtesy to the Queen. Many members of the new nobility simply refused military service outright. There was no need to ask why. The answer was simple. Their families had too much money, and they were unwilling to die. Capitalists were unwilling to serve, and capitalists who had become nobles were no exception. Lacking any innate martial spirit, they were naturally reluctant to set foot on the battlefield. In this respect, Britain and Austria were fundamentally different. In Britain, sufficient wealth alone could secure entry into the nobility through internal maneuvering. In the Holy Roman Empire, without military merit, no amount of money would allow one to cross the threshold of the aristocracy. The core logic was different, and naturally the outcomes were different as well. This was also true of Britain in the original timeline. In both the First and Second World Wars, those who fought desperately on the front lines were almost exclusively members of the old military aristocracy. The new nobility had far less interest in defending the empire than in making money. The ending was deeply ironic. Those who went to the battlefield to defend their country often ended up with their families ruined and everything stripped away, while those who stayed in the rear and amassed fortunes from the war walked away with the fruits of victory. A lesson learned at great cost is a lesson remembered. After these experiences, an empire in which no one was willing to bleed or sacrifice for the state was inevitably bound for decline. For now, however, it was still too early. People like Major John, these so-called clever men, were still viewed with contempt. The howl of aircraft suddenly filled the air, and a sentry cried out in panic, “Major, enemy planes are coming. There are so many of them…” Major John shot a glare at the rushing soldier and scolded him sharply, “I am not deaf. I can hear it myself. I do not need you to remind me. They are just enemy aircraft. What is there to make such a fuss about?” Before he could finish speaking, dark specks began to fall from the sky. A moment later, violent explosions erupted, throwing up clouds of dust and shards of buildings, leaving the scene in complete chaos. Hundreds of bombers, deployed against an insignificant little town, left Major John feeling that his mind could no longer process what he was seeing. There was no need to think any further. In the midst of the air raid, Major John was already stunned unconscious by the shock of the explosions. When the bombing ended, clusters of parachutes began drifting down from the sky. On closer inspection, one could see that each canopy carried a man beneath it. Sporadic resistance continued, but with their commander incapacitated, the garrison could no longer muster anything resembling effective combat power, although they had never possessed much to begin with. Faced with an enemy that could not be defeated, the hastily assembled militia were the first to open the way to surrender.
[Previous | Table of Contents | Next]
Comments
Post a Comment