One day in July 1929, in the conference room of Limerick's "Forest Palace", the atmosphere of silence for a long time was as unpleasant as the weather outside the window that had not rained for a long time. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIrish military officials silently circulated a stack of photographs that reflected the situation in the area near the mouth of the Almagre River in Mexico from an aerial perspective: inland at the mouth of the river, the Lapsca fortified area held by the Christian rebels was already full of holes and lifeless, and it fully demonstrated the terrible destructive power of large-caliber naval guns and heavy aerial bombs on ground fortifications, subverting the previous impression that large fortresses could only be pushed by large infantry; In the waters off the estuary, the remnants of the US super-dreadnought ship "Ioda" are still clearly traceable, it seems to be a giant whale that died because it got lost and ran aground, lying lifelessly on the seabed less than 100 meters deep, whenever the weather is clear, the planes and ships passing by this sea can still see a huge black shadow under the water, the Americans sent divers to take away the equipment and materials related to military secrets, and large and small artillery, guns, and an astonishing amount of ammunition are left in the wreckage of the ship's hull.

More than two months ago on the night, the 850-kilogram AI-made MKV-type aviation torpedo and the 32,600-ton American-made New Mexico-class battleship staged a completely unequal confrontation, but the huge difference in size and weight did not allow the latter to completely ignore the former's attack, but derived a 74-hour disaster blockbuster and a protracted diplomatic war, and laid the groundwork for the outbreak of World War II a few years later, all of which are closely related to a little-known person. He was Major Anthony Gomez of the Spanish Army Air Corps, a hero throughout Spain and Europe. Years later, his single-handedly takedown of American super-dreadnoughts is still widely circulated.

With the super defense of the New Mexico-class battleship, it should have easily resisted the attack of an aviation torpedo, at least the naval engineers who designed the battleship and the naval officers and sailors who used the battleship thought so, but the fact was that a series of accidental and inevitable factors were intertwined, and finally caused this scene that surprised countless people. In the subsequent investigation and reflection, many people believed that the US Navy's complete abandonment of external mine protection nets had laid a hidden danger for the "Ioda" to be buried in the Gulf of Mexico, and some people believed that there was a miscommand of Admiral Upham and Colonel Halsey who should bear the main responsibility for the loss of this warship, and some people even pointed out that the US capital ships designed and built after the war adopted the same key protection concept as the British Navy, and sacrificed the protection of secondary parts in order to enhance the defense value of important parts, which was a bad strategic mistake. The German Navy's comprehensive protection design should be emulated. The official investigation report also mentioned a very critical technical problem, that is, the New Mexico-class battleship's mine-protection compartment did not have a waterproof area, which was a major defect that directly led to the capsizing of the "Ioda".

Fortunately, on the night when the "Ioda" was torpedoed, the sea conditions in the Gulf of Mexico were good, and there was no bad weather for several days after that, and most of the trapped crew members were able to escape, and only seven people were killed in the end, which was less than the loss of personnel of the destroyer "Conway", but this disaster still sounded the alarm for the overconfident US Navy, and also made the naval community once again realize the extraordinary value of naval aviation. Just a month later, the U.S. government approved a military budget aimed at expanding naval aviation, updating carrier-based aircraft and related armaments, and decided to prioritize the construction of new aircraft carriers within the limits permitted by the Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments, and all design and preparation work was on the agenda. The British Navy, which is actively preparing for war, attaches particular importance to the leverage role of naval aviation in leveraging the battlefield pattern, and the training intensity and tactical capability of British naval aviation are already at a first-class level; after the sinking of the "Ioda," the British Navy has raised its aircraft carrier and carrier-based aircraft to a status that surpasses that of battleships and battlecruisers.

More than 30,000 Army soldiers advanced from northern Mexico to central and eastern Mexico under the cover of planes and tanks, and more than 5,000 Marines landed near the mouth of the Almagre River to besiege the fortress of Lapsca together with Mexican government forces and captured it in early May. At the same time, the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia was suddenly changed due to the intervention of Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, and the Paraguayans, who had won a series of victories on the battlefield, had to accept mediation due to the diplomatic and military pressure of the three South American powers, and then began difficult multi-party negotiations.

As one of the initiators of the sinking of the "Ioda," Ireland, which provided torpedo planes and aerial torpedoes to the Mexican Christian rebels, naturally did not escape the US government's overt and covert retaliation. Just three weeks after the incident, the U.S. government suddenly raised the import tariff rate of Irish goods sharply, and soon after, Ford Motor and other eleven large enterprises announced that they had withdrawn their investment from Ireland, and many Irish companies faced the dilemma of breaking the capital chain and had to rely on the government's emergency loans to maintain their operations, and Ireland's financial market was also hit by another strong impact since the economic crisis, and people who went bankrupt due to the collapse of stock prices continued to refresh the record of jumping from the Shannon River Bridge and the Liberty Building. The country's economy can barely survive the cold winter, but the social order and people's psychology have been greatly impacted.

What makes those who are more sensitive to the world situation even more uneasy is that as the Allied bloc and the US-British alliance shift from economic competition to military intervention, the danger of a large-scale war is increasing day by day, and the US economy and industry, stimulated by the sinking of the "Ioda," have begun to turn to the track of war at a worrying pace -- judging from the feedback from diplomats and spies stationed in the United States, the US military will purchase at least 20,000 more fighters and 50,000 antiaircraft guns in the next two years!

In response to the in-depth strengthening of armaments by the United States, the German military not only increased orders for fighters in service, but also drew a "big cake" with a total order of 40,000 aircraft from former military aircraft manufacturers such as Deutsche Air Aviation, which is the Hobert Aviation Group, the Albarrot Aircraft Factory, which produced first-class fighter models such as the "Albatross," the Fokker Aircraft Company, which was founded with the participation of the talented Dutch designer Anthony Fock, and the Herberstadt Company, which produced excellent reconnaissance aircraft. These enterprises are required to come up with new fighters that are sufficient to replace the current models, and they have listed high-standard performance indicators for fighters, reconnaissance planes, bombers, and carrier-based aircraft. The experience of warfare in recent times has shown that whichever side can be the first to be equipped with new weapons of technological innovation can gain a significant advantage on the battlefield, and this advantage has in most cases been transformed into victory, and Prussia and its unified Germany have undoubtedly benefited the most in this regard. Austro-Prussian War, in which the Prussian army defeated the Austrian cavalry with a new firing pin rifle; In the Franco-Prussian War, the breech-loading guns of the Prussian army blasted the French to the ground; In the world war of 1914, the Germans overthrew Britain, France and Russia with their superior siege artillery, armored fighting vehicles, and combat aircraft. Therefore, in 1929, even the deep shadow of the world economic crisis could not stop Germany from sparing no effort to develop new equipment locally, which not only stimulated the international arms race, but also increased the German government's tendency to solve problems by force.

Not every country is qualified to sit at the table and play to the end, and Japan, Italy, and Austria-Hungary are among the halfway outers. Japan invaded Northeast China and planned to launch an all-out war, the resources of the entire country were invested in this military adventure of ants swallowing elephants, and the military industrial complex was so busy producing ordinary ordnance and ammunition as well as mature military models that it had little time to invest in the research and development of new equipment, and the speed of naval shipbuilding plummeted to the lowest level in 20 years. Italy and Austria-Hungary were largely burdened by market depression and economic recession, and most of their armament programs were frozen due to government funds struggling to maintain their current military spending levels, and they tried to solve their domestic difficulties through colonial expansion.

Ireland, whose economy is highly dependent on foreign trade, suffered a heavy blow at the beginning of the outbreak of the economic crisis that swept the world, and then the Irish government once again successfully used the strategy of capital operation and stimulating domestic demand, becoming the first country in Europe to reverse the economic decline and rising unemployment, but the fragile recovery is also difficult to maintain high military spending, and the modernization and modification of the early dreadnoughts "Westphalia" and "Rhineland" were put on hold indefinitely, and Ireland's second aircraft carrier "Queen Charlotte" The construction of the ship was also slowed down, and Ireland suffered a lot of losses due to US economic sanctions, and it seemed that the government should cut back on various expenditures, but at the imperial meeting attended by all important military and political officials, Natsuki proposed an armament plan that surprised many people: 400,000 first-class reservists were called; The Air Force has purchased 1,500 additional fighter jets, the Army has ordered 200 30-ton tanks, 400 20-ton assault guns and 800 half-track armored vehicles, and the Navy has ordered 90 submarines and 400 carrier-based aircraft. The logistics department has built 50 underground oil storage depots with a reserve capacity of 200,000 tons.

Is this a signal to go to war?

Interior officials could not help but be stunned by the scale of this armaments program, which would be a terrible astronomical amount of money that could plunge the country's finances, which had been functioning well for many years, but whose positive stimulating effect on the domestic economy would also be significant, a dangerous and sharp double-edged sword; Most of the generals were equally stunned by this ambitious armament plan, which meant that the Irish army had more than doubled in size and strength to rival the quasi-first-class powers of Italy and Austria-Hungary, and that the army and air force were even large enough to ravage the Italians. However, if this is a preparation for an expansion or intervention war, the priority order of various weapons and equipment seems to run counter to the strategic intention, you must know that fighters are usually used to defend the country's airspace and compete for air supremacy on the battlefield, and offensive operations should prepare a sufficient number of bombers; The 30-ton tank belongs to the heavy combat vehicle in this era, and the "heavy infantry" designed and developed by the Joint Combat Vehicle Research Center is aptly named, with a combat weight of 34 tons, a road speed of only 25 kilometers per hour, and an off-road speed of about 15 kilometers, and its mobility is far inferior to the 20-ton medium tank "Celtic Warrior" that began to enter service in 1924.

Except for a few high-ranking generals who were regarded as confidants, Natsuki did not reveal to anyone the purpose of the armament plan he had personally designed. After some peaceful deliberation, most of the military and political officials chose to support it unconditionally, believing like most of the people that His Majesty Joachim from the House of Hohenzollern was the captain of Ireland sent by the Creator, and that all his seemingly unreasonable designs and decisions had been proven to be masterpieces of ingenuity by time.

(End of chapter)