Chapter 874: Restless Scotland (Part II)

As feared, not long after the end of the Dublin World Aviation Expo, relations between the British countries were strained by a diplomatic strife. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Almost all diplomatic disputes originate from a conflict of national interest, and this one is no exception. The cause of the dispute was a ship, an unfinished 10,000-ton warship to be exact. It is the fifth Brave-class large cruiser ordered by the old British Imperial Navy, the construction code name "Neptune", construction began in September 1932, and was originally scheduled to be commissioned in 1934, but the construction process was slowed down by the outbreak of World War II, and by the time the British Commonwealth withdrew from the war, the hull of this battleship was only 70% complete. As the British Empire fell apart, the fate of the battleship also became confusing, first of all, the British engineers in the shipyard were worried that the Germans would take it for their own use, so they burned all the drawings and materials, and then the technical team of the German Navy conducted a field inspection of it, believing that the battleship had no practical value to Germany, and then Ireland, Italy, Austria-Hungary and other allied countries also fought its idea, but for various reasons, no country was able to take over, It eventually became a controversial inheritance that the new Scottish Republic received from the British Empire - the controversy was that the ship had been built at the expense of the British Imperial Government, and more than half of the British Imperial Government's revenue came from the English region, so the Kingdom of England claimed two-thirds of the ship's succession, and they proposed two solutions, either for the Kingdom of England to pay for the one-third of the inheritance owned by Scotland in order to obtain full ownership of the unfinished warship, or for it to be auctioned outright, the Kingdom of England received two-thirds of the auction proceeds.

The claim of the Kingdom of England seems to be very reasonable, but the collapse of the British Empire was not a self-disintegration, but a forcible dismemberment by the Central Powers, and the distribution of Britain's land, people, and resources among England, Scotland, and Wales was not legally and reasonably defined in the true sense of the word, but was forcibly dissolved under the supervision of the occupying forces. At that time, the war had just ended, whether it was the Scottish Republic or the Kingdom of England, the first task was to rebuild social order from the ruins, and no one had the strength to continue to build a warship of little significance, but whenever the Scottish side started to auction it off, the English side must have jumped out and intervened, and the final result was that it remained on hold at the Fairfield shipyard in Glasgow until Barrio came to power. The Scottish government's current capabilities are certainly not enough to build a strong naval fleet, but Neptune is seen as a sign of the rebuilding of the Scottish Navy. Until 1942, the hull of this large cruiser was continued at a very slow pace, but from the spring of 1942, the Scottish authorities received technical assistance from Japan, and the pace of construction of the "Neptune" was greatly accelerated, and the content of modern military technology was greatly increased. In October 1942, the new battleship, named "Scotland", sailed out of Glasgow for sea trials, which was also its first majestic appearance in the public.

Compared with the large warships of the German Navy heavy cruiser and above, the "Scotland" does not have any special brilliance, and the example of the sinking of the Soviet Russian battleship "Kirov" in the Sea of Japan shows that the warship designed for breaking the engagement at sea is not capable of high-intensity operations, so the German side reacted indifferently to the completion of the "Scotland", but the Kingdom of England, which was panicked by the "Scottish invasion theory" a while ago, reacted violently, and they seized the issue of the ownership of the warship and united Wales to attack Scotland. The Scottish government demanded compensation from both countries, but the Scottish government strongly refused, and England and Wales submitted the dispute to the League of Nations for arbitration.

As a result, the League of Nations has not yet made an arbitration, and the Scottish domestic media have been condemned, and the Scottish government has also turned up the data on the national debt of the British Empire to make a fuss, pointing out that England should bear the bulk of the British Empire's debts, including the huge amount of money that should be repaid to Scotland and Wales, which is enough to cover the so-called "pre-construction costs of warships", and submitted a huge amount of so-called evidence to the League of Nations Arbitration Tribunal.

In addition to responding through public opinion channels, Scotland also made demonstrations that worried the English. The "Scotland", which has not yet been officially commissioned, led four light ships to the western waters of England to cruise, and intends to show the strength of the Scottish fleet to ships from various countries to and from Liverpool -- due to the participation of the Japanese side, the superstructure of the "Scotland" has a strong Japanese style, including a tower-like bridge and antenna layout, and many of the ship's weapons and technical equipment are also out-and-out Japanese goods, not only the four triple 600 mm heavy oxygen torpedo launchers that are coaxing and coaxing, It is also said to be equipped with an advanced fire control system and detection radar.

Despite the negative impact of the dispute over the Scotland on stability in northern Europe, the League of Nations' decision was postponed due to the retaliatory vote of Italy and Austria-Hungary on the Council of the League of Nations, which failed to prompt the League of Nations to quickly resolve the dispute.

Intimidated by the Scottish Navy's demonstrations on its doorstep, the Parliament of the Kingdom of England quickly passed a huge arms purchase plan, which greatly expanded its national defense strength and increased the number of personnel scheduled for recruitment by ordering large quantities of aircraft, warships, and other weapons and equipment. Although the European countries did not immediately take measures to respond to the arms actions of the British countries, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, which are close to them, have all paid great attention to the development of the situation, calling on England and Scotland to exercise restraint on the one hand, and on the other hand, to make a prudent assessment of the military strength and war potential of the British countries, in order to determine under what circumstances they need to take measures to readjust their armaments.

The quarrel between England and Scotland has also created a sense of crisis in Wales, which has the smallest land and population and the weakest strength among the three British countries, and the call for Ireland and Wales to form a United Kingdom has been unprecedentedly high, and the joint plan that has been brewing and operating for many years has become more and more mature. However, the authorities in Ireland and Wales did not rush to openly push for a coalition government at this sensitive time, but proceeded methodically with all kinds of preparations. The reason why the attitude of most Welsh people changed from early opposition to favor was that the relationship between the two countries in the fields of economy, trade, defence, etc., had become inextricably linked. Wales' economy and livelihood recovered quickly after the war, thanks in large part to Ireland's "friendly aid" and "brotherly price". As Joachim I, the "King of the Two", said in a meeting with the Scottish Führer, even if other countries forcibly occupy Wales, there is not much to be gained from it, and the investment required to maintain the rule may not be worth the cost.

Time flies, the wheel of history rolls into 1943, and the flames of war are still raging in Northeast Asia, South Asia and the Australian continent. Although this offensive operation, which involved nearly 700,000 troops of the three fronts, failed to completely defeat the Japanese Kwantung Army, it dealt a heavy blow to the crumbling puppet Manchukuo regime, and more than 90 percent of the cities and counties under its rule declared their independence from the puppet Manchukuo rule, and this regime was basically in a state of existence in name only. At the same time, the Soviet and Russian air forces continued to bomb strategic targets in the Japanese archipelago, and although the losses were large and the results were slow, they gradually weakened Japan's war potential, forcing the Japanese government to devote a considerable amount of strategic resources to its own air defense.

In South Asia, the Indian Federation was emboldened by a steady stream of arms aid from the Western Allies, which gradually held back the offensive of the Japanese and Hindustan client forces in the Narmada River valley, whose ability to sustain operations was weakened by the elongation of supply lines. In order to break the deadlock, the Japanese Navy and the Army launched a landing operation in southwest India, once forcing hundreds of thousands of Indian federal troops into a desperate situation.

Although the 2 million white men who remained in Australia actively supported the rebels and guerrillas, due to the lack of heavy weapons and ammunition, it was difficult for the Australian fighters to launch a campaign-level offensive against the Japanese troops holding the city port, and they could only continue to practice the combat strategy of "encircling the city from the countryside". Thankfully, the war in Northeast Asia and South Asia held back the main strength of the Japanese army, making it difficult for the Japanese base camp to draw new forces to support the Australian battlefield, and the Australian fighters had to face only a total of slightly more than 100,000 Japanese quasi-first-line and second-line troops, and as time went on, the dawn of victory was emerging......

In the past year, the Americans continued to recuperate and maintain stable relations of competition and cooperation with the Western Allies, and although rifts have appeared within the Western Allies, they have not triggered a vicious arms race under the condition that Germany is the dominant power. Under such a situation, all countries have invested relatively well in the field of scientific research, especially in the field of military scientific research. After weighing the pros and cons of all parties, the Americans finally accepted Ireland into their nuclear research program and will build Europe's first experimental nuclear reactor in northern Ireland. In the field of jet fighters, Germany's cooperation with Ireland maintained its leading position, followed by the United States, Japan, Soviet Russia, Austria-Hungary and other countries to join the catch-up.

(End of chapter)