"You want to ask about the future naval strategy, right?" Thomas looked at his old friend, who was a little lonely. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 "Although no resolution has been reached, we all know that we can only choose one of the two options for guaranteeing the security of the homeland and enforcing a long-range blockade of Germany. I think you know the answer to this either-or, right? ”

"Do we no longer have the strength to maintain the blockade?" Betty said with a frown.

"That's right, it's not just a matter of being overstretched, it's also the fiasco of the fast fleet that made us realize that in terms of the fast fleet, we can never beat the Germans." Jericho said.

"This is tantamount to giving the German Navy the initiative in the North Sea engagement." Thomas said.

"Or what?" Jericho asked rhetorically. "This result is a bitter fruit planted long before the start of the war, the inertia of the navy is too great, and when the initial decision fails, it may take us several years or even more than ten years to make up for it!"

The British were very rich, and they launched a naval arms race with the pride and will of the Germans to build one battleship and build two of them themselves, but in the end they found that a bunch of slow battleships they built were useless at all, and the fast fleet was inferior to the ...... of their opponents in terms of quantity and quality. One wrong step, and the defeat of two successive major battles made the situation of the Royal Navy even worse, so that the rapid fleet was in a state of extreme shortage, so that the original naval strategy had to be adjusted.

So now let's talk about the background of the Royal Navy's fast fleet, the only fast battleships that can be used at the moment are Rear Admiral Hood's 3 battlecruisers....... After three months, the four Queen-class battleships and the Tiger could be repaired and then ....... It's still useless! Thomas's Great Fleet could not have been without fast battleships as fleet avant-garde. What can 4 queens and 1 tiger do? If Thomas's fleet could have been compared with the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet a few times before. So now, it's definitely the rhythm of being pushed down when you meet! Look at the situation of this encounter, 5 queens and 2 battle cruisers, with 2 teams of light cruisers and a large number of destroyers filling in with their lives, more than half of them died.......

Of course, you can say that in the future, the Royal Navy can add two more Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, but by that time, maybe Bavaria will have 12 ships, and you will add 2 on your side and 3 on your side. That's a hairy one! As the British were unable to accumulate numbers of fast warships, the strength of the German fleet as a whole increased. After this battle off the coast of Forth Bay, the British Royal Navy's fast warships were no longer a strategic force. At most, they can only carry out reconnaissance missions, and then act with the Grand Fleet.

Even after the last two Queen-class battleships were commissioned, it would be impossible for the British to repeat Thomas's victory in the siege of Blucher! Because by that time the British fast fleet had only 6 Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. It is difficult to completely encircle the opponent, and as the strength of the German fleet grows, the number of troops that can break through the blockade forever will increase, the last time it was two battle cruisers, this time it may be 1 Bavaria plus two battle cruisers, in this case, even if the British fleet is divided into two groups to encircle, it is estimated that it will be broken by each one. 3 queens will definitely not be able to beat 1 Bavaria plus 2 battle cruisers.

Therefore, the heavy damage to Thomas's fleet was a sign of a total contraction of British naval strategy, and the Tiger would be incorporated into the battle cruiser detachment under the Grand Fleet as the flagship of Rear Admiral Hood. And the remaining queen will exist as a battleship detachment of the Grand Fleet! And to return to this situation, the Royal Navy will have at least 4 months!

"This is tantamount to abandoning the North Sea blockade line, and from then on, supplies can be continuously transported to Germany by sea, and our sea transportation lines will be attacked by German submarines, which is in a very bad form now." Thomas said with a sigh.

"There's no way, at least not for a short time." Jericho did not respond to Thomas's words, in fact, this downsizing was not only due to the loss of the Navy's high-speed capital ships, which was one of the important reasons, but not the whole reason.

If Thomas hadn't been dismissed, then Jericho might as well have said a few more words to him, but for now, Jericho can only say that, and the real reason hidden under the surface is inconvenient to tell the other party.

There are two more reasons why the British are really ready to shrink their naval forces to the mainland, the first is to deal with the increasingly rampant submarine warfare, and just last month, the tonnage of merchant ships caused by German submarines has reached 900,000 tons! The U.S. government has banned any U.S. merchant ships from entering British and French ports, even with Britain's strong shipbuilding capacity and ship ownership. It is no longer possible to afford such losses, and the most pessimistic view is that if this rate of loss continues, British maritime transport will collapse within 9 months! Now the British have degenerated to the point where they need to rely on buying ships from Japan!

Therefore, it is imperative to ensure the safety of sea transportation lines! According to the data, in the case of destroyer escort, the loss rate of British transport ships is generally less than 3%, so these destroyers cannot destroy submarines, but they can also effectively curb submarine attacks. Too young, too simple! Most of the results were achieved by deck guns! How many torpedoes are there for a submarine? If they were all torpedoed, how many ships could be hit at a time when they went out?! And if there is a destroyer escort, no matter how lame the destroyer is, it will not lose to the submarine in an artillery battle.......

As a result, a large number of ocean-going destroyers are needed. However, although the destroyer is easy to build, it can be described as a ...... when it dies. For example, this time, more than a dozen destroyers were directly sent, and if they were used to escort ships, they could be directly equipped with 4 escort detachments.

The British Grand Fleet was not only lacking in capital ships, but also in light cruisers and destroyers, not only in terms of the number of battle formations, but also in the number of destroyers that could be used on escorts! Moreover, for the needs of ocean voyages, the tonnage of destroyers must also be enlarged, and hundreds of tons are not wanted, and the future escort destroyers will be at least about 1,200 tons. So, under huge anti-submarine pressure, the British also had to shrink their fleet in order to free up their hands and ensure the safety of part of the route!

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