Before the outbreak of the European War, the Royal Navy had four aircraft carriers, which were simply unable to meet the needs of the United Kingdom.
Britain also has a long coastline and huge overseas interests that need to be protected.
Southern Africa has ten aircraft carriers, the United States has six, and the United Kingdom has only four. This is obviously inconsistent with the status of the Royal Navy.
After Britain declared war on Germany, the Navy launched a new shipbuilding plan.
This is already the fourth shipbuilding plan proposed by the UK in the past five years. The previous three were all abandoned halfway.
There is nothing we can do about it. The situation develops too fast. The Royal Navy, which is belatedly aware of the situation, always suddenly realizes that it has lagged behind the times when it is halfway through the implementation of the shipbuilding plan, so it revise the shipbuilding plan.
This time the shipbuilding plan was carried out under the auspices of Winston.
Britain plans to build six new aircraft carriers, two G7-level super battleships, six fast battlecruisers, and a total of 42 cruisers within three years.
As for small ships such as destroyers and frigates, I will not explain them one by one here.
If all goes well, by 1942, the Royal Navy will be back to number one in the world.
The crux of the problem is that the warships that will be commissioned three years later will obviously not be able to meet the current needs of the Royal Navy.
Therefore, Winston proposed that the Navy should obtain a large number of small fast escort aircraft carriers that can only carry 12 to 25 carrier-based aircraft in the shortest possible time through modification to meet the needs of the Royal Navy.
The "Brave" was sunk before the refitting work had begun, which dealt a heavy blow to the already sluggish Royal Navy and made matters worse.
"Courage" is the second ship of the "Elizabeth" class aircraft carrier. Including the improved version of "Elizabeth", the UK has only four aircraft carriers in total.
The war has not really begun yet, and the British naval aviation has already lost a quarter.
This isn't over yet.
Just three days after the "Valiant" was sunk, the "Elizabeth", the lead ship of the "Elizabeth" class, was also attacked by a German submarine while performing its mission.
"Elizabeth" luckily escaped the torpedo.
The attacking German submarine was sunk by the escorting destroyer, and the Royal Navy escaped unscathed.
Winston soon called Roark again.
The Royal Navy needs a large number of light cruisers and destroyers that can be used for anti-submarine warfare.
Of all the countries in the world, only southern Africa can provide it.
Americans are also capable.
However, since the Brazilian Civil War, the Americans have also launched a huge shipbuilding plan and at the same time modernized and refitted existing warships. For the time being, there is no excess slipway to meet the needs of the British.
There are in southern Africa.
Southern Africa not only has slipways, but also has spot goods.
It's not possible this time.
Southern Africa is the country that attaches most importance to anti-submarine warfare in the world. In the early years, due to restrictions from the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty, Southern Africa could not build battleships, so Southern Africa built a large number of 3,000-ton light cruisers.
Needless to say, ten years ago, last year, the Royal Navy even looked down upon the 3,000-ton "Durban" light cruiser.
Now
All I can say is that it smells really good.
"We now have a total of 65 Durbans and 112 destroyers. If it is just anti-submarine, then frigates can also be used." Angel showed off his muscles. There are only four battleships in southern Africa, and they are still the models from the last world war.
There are really many small warships in southern Africa.
In fact, anti-submarine warfare does not have high requirements for warships. As the last world war progressed, the United Kingdom modified a large number of trawlers for anti-submarine warfare.
It's the same now.
Facing the increasingly rampant German submarines, Winston repeated his old tricks and once again decided to modify the trawler for anti-submarine use.
So the problem came again.
Winston was surprised to find that Britain did not even have enough trawlers.
This made Winston feel unbelievable.
Britain started out as a seafarer, but now it doesn’t even have fishing boats. Fried fish is still the British national dish. Where did the fish come from?
Winston only found out after investigating.
The fried fish on British tables is provided by South African and Rhodesian companies.
There is nothing the British fishermen can do.
Southern Africa's fishing boats are more advanced, more efficient, and workers are cheaper, making them very competitive.
British local fishing companies have long been defeated in competition with southern African fishing companies.
The local fishery industry in the UK is now basically controlled by Southern African capital. Fishing boats and the like naturally become Southern African nationalities, and the British government has no power to expropriate them.
Even if you build a new one, it’s too late.
And it's not necessary.
If we want to build a new one, wouldn't it be better to just build light cruisers and destroyers? Why build trawlers?
"Of all the 65 'Durban' ships, only 24 were newly built in recent years. Strictly speaking, they are no longer 'Durban', and their performance is more powerful than 'Durban'." Angel is very happy, the Royal Navy is in the south
Timely rain for African navies.
Who doesn’t like new warships with more advanced capabilities?
Britain needs a large number of light cruisers and destroyers, preferably in stock.
If Southern Africa sells older light cruisers and destroyers to the British, then the Southern African navy will have reason to build more new warships.
Rock didn't want to talk.
What Angel just said, the "Durban" newly built by the Southern African Navy in recent years is completely different from the previous "Durban".
If Rock guessed correctly, An Qi should have some reservations.
Strictly speaking, the performance gap between the newly built "Durban" in recent years and the previous "Durban" is estimated to be widened to the level of "generation difference".
What is generation difference?
A flintlock gun directly loaded with gunpowder
And modern rifles using fixed bullets!
This is called generation difference.
Of course, when it comes to the Navy, the performance gap is not that great.
Even the earliest "Durban" can still be used for air defense and anti-submarine warfare.
Otherwise, it would have been eliminated by the Southern African Navy, which loves the new and dislikes the old.
"Do we need to keep so many cruisers and destroyers?" Rock was skeptical.
The dumpling in Rock's concept is as long as new ships are launched every year.
If you look at the Southern African Navy, it is estimated that new ships will be launched every month, or even every ten days, and that would be called a dumpling.
"Lord, the displacement of the 'Durban' is only 3,000 tons, and a hundred ships are only 300,000 tons." Angel felt slightly guilty, but this is also true.
As mentioned earlier, the Royal Navy in 1939 had 64 cruisers and 119 destroyers, 15 battleships and battlecruisers, and four aircraft carriers.
Now there are three ships.
In British shipyards, there are still nearly a hundred warships under construction or in queue.
So where are the warships in the Southern African Navy? It’s not like 65 ships are equivalent to G7, so there’s nothing surprising.
"This is not a matter of tonnage." Rock waved his hand, finally having a clear idea of the size of the navy during World War II.
Rock has been reborn for too long, and has vague memories of many things that happened in another time and space.
What Rock can still remember, apart from the German attack on Russia, is the Normandy landing and the Dunkirk evacuation.
Rock really has no memory of the naval battles during World War II.
This is normal, because during World War II, no decent naval battles broke out in Europe at all, and large-scale naval battles were concentrated in the Pacific region.
Therefore, Rock was not really impressed by the size of the European navy.
So what if the Royal Navy has more battleships? The Germans only build submarines, giving full play to their strengths and avoiding weaknesses, and not going head-to-head with the Royal Navy. Isn't it embarrassing?
Now that he had a clear concept, Rock no longer hesitated and called Winston directly back.
Winston was equally happy.
There are a large number of light cruisers and destroyers, and they are all warships in service in the Southern African Navy. With standard immediate combat capabilities, the Royal Navy's anti-submarine escort capabilities have greatly increased.
The problem comes again.
The Royal Navy had no money, and Winston hoped that Southern Africa could provide loans, preferably free aid.
Just like after the Second Boer War, Britain provided free assistance to southern Africa for a long time.
"Winston, these are two different things. At that time, Southern Africa was part of the United Kingdom. The money given by London was used to maintain the colonial government's colonial rule in Southern Africa. It was not free aid." Rock was firm. This matter
I firmly refused to recognize him.
Based on Rock's understanding of Winston.
If Rock had admitted that the money Britain gave to southern Africa at that time was aid.
Then Winston will push further.
The traditional friendship between the UK and southern Africa, blood is thicker than water, and we feed back
There was so much that Winston could say by then.
"Locke, you have to be grateful!" Winston was very dissatisfied and changed his face as quickly as Rock.
"Winston, it's meaningless if you say that." Rock didn't answer. It was not the British's turn to express gratitude.
The achievements that southern Africa has achieved today have nothing to do with the British Empire.
I can't say it doesn't matter.
If the British Empire had not held back, southern Africa might have developed better than it does now.
"Well, how much loan can the federal government of Southern Africa provide?" Winston settled for the next best thing. He did not expect Roque to have such a high level of consciousness and provide free assistance to the United Kingdom.
"Winston, the federal government has no money. You know, the federal government just issued a batch of treasury bonds a few days ago. Now the total debt of the federal government has reached 500 million rand, and it cannot even pay back the interest." Rock started immediately
Complain.
On the other end of the phone, Winston was devastated.
When the debt of the southern African federal government reached R500 million, Roque began to complain.
Winston has served as the British Chancellor of the Exchequer for a long time and is very aware of the British financial situation. When the British declared war on Germany, the total national debt was 1.9 billion pounds.
Don’t be too little, this already accounted for 14.5% of the UK’s GDP last year.
Of course, don’t have too much.
Winston knew that the British national debt would continue to increase.
What Winston didn't know was that the British national debt was increasing so fast that it caught everyone off guard.
By then, I'm afraid the UK will have to sell off its overseas assets to repay its debts.
