Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 133 The Vanished Technology Tree of Burkina Faso

"Demand that the Franks or Italians send troops to the Empire? Would they agree? What conditions would they have to pay? And how many troops do you need from them?"

Faced with Minister Wharton's outlandish ideas, Prime Minister Asquith instinctively threw out several questions in quick succession.

These were the difficulties he immediately thought of that might arise during the implementation of this matter. And if Wharton hadn't even figured out solutions to these problems, then there was no point in discussing the proposal in depth.

Fortunately, Wharton had clearly given this matter considerable thought; he briefly reviewed the Prime Minister's questions and began to answer them one by one:

"I think it's quite possible to persuade the Franks or Italy to send troops. In terms of fighting strength, I'm more inclined to ask the Franks to send troops."

Although they also suffered over 10 casualties this year during the early spring battle of Ypres, attempting to coordinate a rescue effort, they later lost another 20 men in the Demanian attack on Calais and their own subsequent attempts to retake Calais. The new counter-offensive launched in Champagne and Artois has also resulted in 30 to 40 casualties so far. The total casualties for the Frankish land forces this year are around 70.

However, with the Italians joining our side, the Franks can at least free up some of their soldiers who were defending the Italians on the southern front for other battlefields. If I want to persuade the Franks, we must tell them: stop wasting lives in Champagne and Artois; they cannot launch a counterattack on the territory already occupied by the Demanians in a short time.

If some of the surplus troops from southern France were transferred directly to the eastern front via the Mediterranean, I think they could squeeze out at least 20 divisions, or 30 men.

However, if the Franks are unwilling to contribute, then we will have to choose the Italians as an alternative. We can have His Excellency Belfort talk to the Italians again; they should be able to afford 20 divisions, or 30 men.

Since the Italians entered the war, they have been fighting Austria on the Slovenian front for two months, advancing only about 30 kilometers, and suffering cumulative losses of over 10 men. So far, they have only obtained the island of Malta, which we ceded; in other areas, due to their poor performance, they have failed to fulfill their diplomatic promises.

However, Italy can mobilize more than a million troops. Even if they lose 100,000, they can transfer another 300,000 to other areas. After all, they only need to worry about the short front along the Isonzo River.

Furthermore, if Italy is willing to send troops, we can promise that the portion of Egyptian territory we previously agreed upon—that they would only cede to us after they conquered Trieste and Slovenia—will be given to them as promised, provided they send troops this time.

Frankfurt has lost 700,000 workers in the first six months of this year, while Italy has only lost 100,000. In terms of willingness to make further payments, Italians are definitely more resilient to losses.

However, it is a well-known and indisputable fact that the Italian army's combat effectiveness was far weaker than that of the French army, so it would be best if they could draw the French army away.

After hearing the proposal, Prime Minister Asquith thought it was quite good, mainly because it wouldn't require the Great Britannian Empire to take away its existing colonies as a price.

The Foreign Minister had previously promised Italians some land, but Italy itself lacked the ability to acquire it. Now, it's simply a matter of extending the conditions for fulfilling the promises made earlier, which will be easier to explain to Parliament and the people.

"If you only need to borrow 30 troops, how many people will you need in total? How will the other departments raise their own troops?" Seeing that the Prime Minister was interested, War Secretary Lloyd George, fearing that the Army would be taken advantage of again, quickly asked this question.

Walton Spencer also gave his final offer straightforwardly: "The army will provide 200,000 men: 50,000 veterans with six months of experience and 150,000 new recruits with two months of experience. We'll also find a way to pull another 300,000 from all the colonies, and another 300,000 from the Franks or Italy, bringing the total to 800,000 for the entire war in the Eastern Mediterranean. The first batch of 200,000 will suffice; once they've established a foothold on land, the remaining 600,000 can be deployed in batches."

I have already scouted the area. After the Hungarian and Balkan campaigns, the Demanian 10th Army has been redeployed to the southern flank of the Polish salient, also to guard against a counter-offensive by the Rusza forces in Poland. The Austrian 3rd and 5th Armies have also been redeployed to the Krakow-Gallicia line to confront the Rusza forces.

Currently, the main force on the front lines in Romania and along the narrow strip of land on the western edge of the Kievan Rus' Plain is the Demanja 6th Army, which is also our old adversary. Five months ago, our expeditionary force died at their hands in Ypres!
Fortunately, the German forces (units 10 and 3/5) have been redeployed. If we launch an operation in the Dardanelles region, we will only be facing the Ottoman army directly. If we act quickly, the German forces (unit 6) might not even have time to arrive as reinforcements. Even if we are slow, as long as our 80 troops successfully land, even if the German forces (unit 6) arrive and join forces with the remnants of the Ottoman army, they will not be a match for us!

After a series of fierce battles, the German army has dwindled to just over 200,000 men. However, I've heard they recently incorporated some of the Austrian troops rescued from the Przemyhil fortress. Even if their total strength exceeds 300,000, the advantage is clearly in our favor with 800,000 against 300,000!

I heard that as long as the army directly sends 20 troops, Lloyd George won't be able to negotiate any further, and the issue will be considered settled.

However, while personnel arrangements were settled, equipment agreements were not. Italy was required to provide 30 personnel, along with a considerable number of artillery pieces, machine guns, and other equipment. This was no small sum.

The Italians themselves also had light weapons and rifles, but the Italian army's heavy firepower ratio was very low. If the Italian army wasn't given machine guns and artillery, they certainly wouldn't be willing to put in the effort.

Lloyd George also held the position of Secretary of Armaments, and since Walton wanted to use other people's resources, Lloyd George naturally had to force Walton to recoup some of it from his own pocket.

"I have no objection to the army providing manpower. However, you mentioned providing equipment to the Italian army, and this additional expense is not included in the Ministry of Armaments' budget. Since it was your Navy Ministry that insisted on initiating this proposal, I demand that this portion of production capacity be deducted from your Navy's budget and raw material and production capacity allocation! Providing machine guns and artillery for 30 people is no small sum!"

Prime Minister Asquith also felt this was reasonable, as the navy was indeed spending too much money. Now the army needs too many resources to rebuild, and it also needs to get allies involved and provide equipment. Therefore, some unnecessary naval shipbuilding plans must be cut.

Walton Spencer seemed to have anticipated this situation. Before attending the meeting, he had already rummaged through his own resources, knowing which items he could sacrifice to save his king.

Walton sighed deeply and said with great reluctance, "I have roughly calculated the production capacity and budget. The Navy is willing to give up the first two 'Hawkins-class' heavy cruisers that are about to start construction, and also give up the next three ships whose budgets and materials have been approved for the next three years, for a total of five ships!"

Wharton's words even slightly moved Prime Minister Asquith, who clearly knew that the Navy was very sincere this time, cutting projects that were expensive and unnecessary.

The Imperial Navy had not previously built ships of the "heavy cruiser" category. However, in 1907, before the commissioning of battlecruisers, during the pre-dreadnought era, the Empire had built quite a few "armored cruisers".

However, with the advent of battlecruisers, armored cruisers were largely phased out and their development ceased. It wasn't until the outbreak of World War II that the Royal Navy realized its battlecruiser numbers were far too few to effectively counter large-scale enemy raids and harassment. On the other hand, using light cruisers and destroyers to engage enemy light cruisers, or even armored cruisers, offered no performance advantage.

So the Britannians began to consider again whether they could convert the old armored cruisers to use steam turbines to increase their speed, while maintaining the firepower of 8-inch main guns and the armor to withstand the enemy's 6-inch light cruiser main guns and battleship secondary guns.

Following this line of thought, the "heavy cruiser" of later generations was about to be born. It can be said that the technology tree for heavy cruisers was actually interrupted during the years from 1907 to 1915.

However, this heavy cruiser plan was originally an experimental proposal put forward when resources were not so scarce. Later, in the later stages of World War I, five "Hawkins-class" heavy cruisers were built. In fact, this class of ships should have been called the "Cavendish-class" because the first ship was named Cavendish.

However, after their completion, these ships did not play a significant role. The Demacians locked down their high seas fleet during the later stages of the war and ceased large-scale raids. Later, the Britannians reused these ships, converting the lead ship, the Cavendish, into an experimental aircraft carrier and renaming it the Furious.

It was precisely because the lead ship became an aircraft carrier that the subsequent four ships of this class of heavy cruisers were named after the original second ship, "Hawkins".

To be honest, the heavy cruiser technology line was indeed somewhat redundant and wasteful, a product of trial and error. After World War I, this failed product like the heavy cruiser should have been phased out.

However, later on, the Peanuts Naval Treaty and similar agreements limited the number of battleships and battlecruisers that countries could concentrate their resources on building. Design departments in various countries were forced to conduct research and development with constraints, which led to the rediscovery of heavy cruisers from the archives, and a large number of them were built with the mentality of "might as well build them if we can".

Now that the Bretonnia are facing resource shortages, they clearly need to cut all those trial-and-error projects to concentrate resources on maintaining the war effort.

It's reasonable to cut five heavy cruiser projects in order to provide some artillery and machine guns for 300,000 Italian troops, which also cuts the entire heavy cruiser tech tree.

To be honest, if this news reached Lelouch's ears, he would also think that Walton's decision was wise; the last four ships of this class of heavy cruisers were indeed useless. However, the Bretonnia's losses were also real, as they inadvertently delayed their aircraft carrier development by at least several years. Historically, most early aircraft carriers were converted from failed heavy cruisers. It was precisely because heavy cruisers were built and proved useless that countries considered converting them into aircraft carriers.

Sometimes, disruptive innovation is born from trial and error, from seemingly useless and worthless ideas. If everyone is unwilling to create anything of value and only pursues high efficiency, then diverse and vibrant innovation will cease to exist.

While this move may not have permanently deprived Burkina Faso of its aircraft carrier industry, it certainly delayed it by three to five years. Originally, construction of hulls intended for future aircraft carriers was to begin in 1915, but now it would be delayed until at least after the war, probably around 1919 or 1920, before Burkina Faso had the resources and the will to even consider it.

However, even at this moment, despite Minister Walton Spencer's enormous sacrifice, expressing his willingness to completely scrap all five heavy cruiser construction plans and the heavy cruiser tech tree, the entire process was abandoned.

After calculating the costs, Armaments Secretary Lloyd George still felt that the Navy's sacrifices were not enough.

"To provide 20 divisions with additional artillery and machine guns, that would require at least 500 artillery pieces, thousands of machine guns, and other supporting ammunition and supplies. Simply cutting the plan for 5 heavy cruisers and subsequent research and development would not provide enough resources and production capacity! Moreover, we are also responsible for the weapons of the colonial army, so the navy will have to cut at least another portion of its resource budget equivalent to what we just discussed!"

Lloyd George said this in a cold, businesslike tone.

Walton Spencer tried again to argue his case, but ultimately failed to gain support. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and offer another condition that he had considered before, but was unwilling to use unless absolutely necessary:

"The Navy is willing to cancel the construction of all 18 planned submarines, as well as the subsequent research and development and trial production of various special-type submarines! And promises not to build any more submarines during this war!"

After Walton made this commitment, the Armaments Department and the War Department did some calculations and were finally able to settle the score.

Wharton's choice is in line with the current situation.

Submarines are primarily used by navally weaker nations to counter navally stronger ones. The Royal Navy of Burkina Faso has no need to rely on submarines to attack Demanian merchant ships; therefore, submarines are only used for ambushes and surprise attacks.

Battleships are used for fleet battles, battlecruisers are used for pursuit and counter-attacks, light cruisers are used to destroy a large number of enemy torpedo shield ships, and destroyers are used for shield and torpedo attacks.

These four tech trees represent the minimum requirements for the navy's survival and cannot be cut. After careful consideration, to avoid impacting combat effectiveness in the final battle, the only option is to permanently cut heavy cruisers and submarines.

This negotiation at Buckingham Palace, which involved assigning blame and finding fault, ultimately ended in this manner.

Until the end of the war, Burkina Faso will not have any new heavy cruisers or submarines, and this butterfly effect will mean that no new dedicated aircraft carriers will be built. (It is still possible that experimental aircraft carriers converted from merchant ship hulls will appear, because Burkina Faso has a large stockpile of old, decommissioned, large-tonnage merchant ships. However, such aircraft carriers would have extremely poor structural strength and speed, making them unsuitable for combat and only suitable for testing carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing.)
……

After the Bretons finished dividing the spoils internally, they naturally had to immediately go to their allies to stir up trouble and beg for alms.

Foreign Minister Balfour first approached the Franks, using all his persuasive skills to initially convince them.

Belfort also said that if the Franks sent 30 troops, Britannia would consider handing over parts of Mauritania in West Africa to France, so that the Franks could connect Algeria in North Africa and Senegal in West Africa. But in fact, this condition was completely worthless, because the inland area of ​​Mauritania that connects Algeria and Senegal is mainly part of the Sahara Desert.

As long as Frankken is willing, the specific areas and sizes to be cut from Mauritania can be discussed in detail.

However, this emergency negotiation lasted only a few days and had to be abandoned due to an unforeseen event.

The reason was that in late July, an unexpected turn of events occurred during a Frankish counter-offensive against the Demanian occupation forces in the Artois region.

The so-called "unexpected" event certainly did not refer to the French army's crushing defeat and heavy casualties. These were all expected; they had suffered defeats for half a year and lost 40 men, so they were used to it.

The truly unexpected detail was that during this French offensive, when they clashed with the enemy's line-crossing troops, they actually encountered enemies armed with Mosin-Nagant and M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns!
The sound of a Mauser G98 gun is quite different from that of a Mosin-Nagant, especially when the scale of the battle is large enough that hundreds or thousands of Mosin-Nagants are firing at the same time in a war zone, it is hard not to notice them.

The Frankish attack on Artois lasted for several days, resulting in thousands of casualties and over a thousand enemy kills. By chance, they also captured a small group of enemy prisoners.

Seeing at least a hundred Mosin-Nagant rifles and several M1910 heavy machine guns found on the battlefield, along with dozens of prisoners speaking Luke, the French general was furious.

They interrogated the prisoners harshly about why they were there.

The final answer was: "The Tsar is brutal and unrestrained, wanting to expand his territory and waging war in the Balkans. He doesn't treat the people as human beings! We have joined the army against the Tsar and will fight alongside our allies to return to St. Petersburg and execute the tyrant!"
"You Franks, for your own benefit and to avenge the Demagnesians, you've encouraged the tyrant to attack the Balkans!"

Upon hearing this, the French general was furious.

Only after severe torture was it confirmed that at least a regimental-sized number of Rusa prisoners had been reformed by the Demanians and urgently deployed to the Artois and Champagne fronts.

Several thousand Franks died, nearly half of whom were killed by the modified Rosa prisoners of war who were filling in the lines. Hundreds of Rosa prisoners of war also died during the line-filling operation, and many more were wounded or sick.

This outcome has temporarily and severely damaged Franco-Russian relations, and has also caused some unrest among the lower-ranking French officers and soldiers who were already exhausted from the offensive. Although its scale and intensity cannot be as exaggerated as the Battle of the Lady's Trail in 1917, it still has to attract the attention of the higher command.

In a free and easy country like Frankfurt, the issue of public sentiment is easily amplified. A group of politicians and members of parliament started bickering again, and in order to avoid unrest, they had no choice but to temporarily freeze all direct cooperation with the Lussa people.

As a result, the "seeking legal aid for France" plan, which Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister had been talking about so much, had to be shelved and fall through.

Moreover, due to the time delay, First Lord of the Navy Walton's Dardanelles landing plan had to be postponed again by at least 20 days.

The Franks refused to send troops, so Balfour hurriedly approached the Italians again, promising them great benefits, saying that "as long as Italy sends 30 troops, regardless of the outcome or whether there is any progress on the Isonzo River front, Britannia will cede all the coastal land 120 kilometers west of Alexandria, Egypt, to Italy."

Ultimately, the Italians, greedy for land, took the bait and agreed to send 20 divisions, totaling 30 men, along with some old warships provided by the Republic of Burkina Faso for escort, to the Eastern Mediterranean to participate in the landing operation.

However, due to the delays in the planning stage by the Burkina Faso, their landing operation was destined not to be recorded in history as "the first large-scale landing operation in World War I".

Because the Demacians had already launched a multi-arms campaign against the Lussa along the Black Sea coast before them, and had also launched two coordinated feint attacks.

The mastermind behind all of this was Colonel Lelouch von Ritter Hunt, a staff officer of the Demanian 6th Army.

(End of this chapter)