Chapter 761: Exercises in the Gulf of Tokyo

Mahan once said that a nation could not have both land and sea power, and for Britain, the choice between land and sea had been a one-way street long after the Hundred Years’ War, and for three hundred years the glory of the beige flag had relied on generations of sailors to plant it all over the world.

To this day, only the afterglow of the sunset remains, and it is only at times like these that the task force in Tokyo Bay can remind others of the glory days that once were.

Tokyo Bay, the international name for the Gulf of Tonkin, which belonged to two countries, was an appropriate place for the Royal Navy to demonstrate, and the presence of this powerful task force made the Vietminh, which had already taken control of most of North Vietnam, with only Hanoi remaining, nervous.

Compared to France, Britain, with the title of the Sunset Empire, had a greater reputation among the colonial empires.

Within the Vietcong, there was also a discussion about the appearance of this task force in the outer sea, after all, in this kind of victory eve, no one wants to make trouble, the bright future of the unification of the motherland has already appeared, and then faced with a new enemy is what all people do not want to see.

The Vietnamese thought too much, even if Britain did not show up, Vietnam’s dream of unifying the motherland, at least for now, was still a dream. Only at the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was in no position to speak, and now they were unaware of the disappointment that was to come.

Although the task force has battleships and aircraft carriers, and is a force enough to calm ninety-nine percent of the countries in this world, it is an embarrassment for a military service like the Navy that if you are not number one, you are nothing.

The size of the Royal Navy is now shabby enough compared to what it used to be, and it can only find self-confidence in front of a country like Vietnam, waving the glory of the British Empire.

The battleships of the task force, although there is no problem to look at from a distance, but after all is a group of old ships, purely out to play the heat, the task force does not even have the George V class battleships, but to let all the sealed once, and later reopened the Queen Elizabeth class battleships.

This level of battleships but the first world war has been in service, after the war was to be dismantled, but then put back in the colonies as a deterrent, maintenance not only requires funds, but also requires a group of professionals.

Allen Wilson also pardoned the naval logistics prisoners of war of the Confederate Army of Japan for this reason, if Japan really exists in the spirit of craftsmanship, he hoped that these prisoners of war is, to serve these old ships to save some logistical costs.

Although slightly saddening, that in Asian waters, these have been through two world wars, highly decorated warships, or very powerful, at this time is calm Tokyo Bay cloak.

What is a little comforting is the neatness and high morale of the naval officers and men lined up on the decks and sides of the battleships, their youthful faces a stark contrast to those of the older ships. As a service with a reserve of 150,000 men, Britain has never lacked professional sailors.

The escorting destroyers of the special protection fleet are obvious, and the two old battleships among them are not related, their hulls are brand-new and have smooth lines, the sharp ships cut through the waves, and the high-running propellers stir up a large area of white water traces. Naval flags were blaring in the wind.

Part of the escorting battleships would play the role of the imaginary enemy’s poor country’s maritime menace, threatening the task force’s righteous escort with the guerrilla warfare at sea envisioned by the British Naval Staff Cranium.

The rumbling of the guns, those up-and-coming light warships fully exerted their agile characteristics, they sometimes strike to harass each other, and sometimes form up to launch intensive torpedo attacks, training torpedoes weaving in and out of the sea, the scene is very lively.

After all, at this moment, even the number one socialist power, the Soviet Union’s navy, in the eyes of the free world is a standard poor country’s navy, in addition to this kind of hit-and-run conception, it seems that in the fight against the Royal Navy this kind of opponent also has little method.

Confrontation drills followed. Several of the light cruisers also conducted at-sea resupply and repairs with auxiliary ships. Finally, the confrontation ended and the task force continued to patrol Tokyo Bay.

“Every exercise will attract the attention of the neighboring forces, and with something like an exercise, there is a real thing and a fake thing that might turn out to be true.” Admiral Bilton looked at Alan Wilson and asked, “This is something you know, Admiral Mountbatten is the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, which is a little above the Pacific Fleet.”

“Not necessarily from a tonnage standpoint, the Mediterranean Fleet does still have an advantage in the age of warships in service.” Alan Wilson was referring to the fact that among Malaya’s fleet, there were a whole bunch of warships that were all going to be dismantled and just thrown over to be wasted in the colonies.

“For a lot of countries, it’s already more weapons than they can imagine.” General Bilton shook his head to show that he didn’t agree with the other man, “By the way, it seems that the role of helicopters on the battlefield should be emphasized.”

Alan Wilson froze, he was surprised by the question, then expressed his agreement, “A very novel observation, and from the French experience in Vietnam, helicopters really should be given more attention. A lot of carriers that don’t have enough tonnage could also be considered as helicopter carriers, and we all know that fighters are getting bigger and bigger.”

Alan Wilson’s mind doesn’t really have a memory of British helicopter development trends, which suggests one thing, Britain is not very good in this field.

Of course Britain’s helicopter development, in line with the development of all British weapons after World War I, rose early to catch a late start, the project was very early, the development is described as tortuous.

During World War II, Britain developed the Chevalier W.9 experimental helicopter. Chelva W.9 is not a practical helicopter, it is mainly to verify some aircraft technology, perhaps it is so, let this helicopter seems very strange.

The Chelva W.9 is also unique when it comes to balancing the torque of the aircraft, as it doesn’t use a tail rotor, but rather side-blown air. The engine has a variable pitch cooling fan, which blows cool air against the engine to dissipate heat, while the hot air mixes with the engine’s sizzling exhaust and passes through a long duct to the rear end of the tail beam, where the duct then turns to the right, and the pilot maneuvers the cooling fan to achieve changes in the amount of wind, and thus the direction of the aircraft.

The helicopter without a tail rotor, Alan Wilson does not know if it is unique, anyway, very consistent with the usual British style of ugly. This kind of helicopter naturally has no development potential, and was soon abandoned.

Now the British helicopter manufacturing company, which was Bristol Aircraft Company, finally got rid of the previous tail rotor-less layout. Alan Wilson felt as if he should be able to help the development of British helicopters.

At least he had seen the helicopters of the latter days, and many of the latter-day weapons might not necessarily be completely adapted to this era, but there were still things that could be borrowed from the shape, after all, the aerodynamic layout had been developed for so many years.

“Really should let the British military industry to take a little less of a detour, after all, now the United Kingdom’s thin bottom, can no longer afford to wear out.” Finally at the end of the war almost ten years, Alan Wilson finally thought of this point.

Couldn’t hold up the old ships older than his dad when it came to ship gun diplomacy, Britain needed something new too, or sooner or later it would sit on its hands.

The news of the task force maneuvers in Tokyo Bay reached all sides of the Geneva Conference, and the major British media, which will never bow to the government, coincided with the absolute absence of any government pressure to open their own reports.

Public opinion in Britain focused on Britain’s helpfulness in helping the French in their evacuation operations, while outside of Britain, the traditional British media were not so polite, clamoring for the North Vietnamese to be given some color.

At the Geneva Conference, news of the Tokyo Bay maneuvers was seen by the Soviet Union as a demonstrative move by Britain against the socialist family, which it was, but somewhere between unacceptable and acceptable.

Molotov, in his return telegram to Moscow, said that it was nothing more than Britain taking advantage of a bit of a hot international situation to find a presence, and it has to be said that it was a good look at the man.

“There is no doubt that the main negotiating partner is the United States and that the British move will have no consequences.” Khrushchev quickly telegraphed Molotov back, “From Comrade Molotov’s telegram, my comrades and I believe that this is Britain fighting for a decent retreat for France, just as in 1945, Britain was doing its best to help France regain its status as a great power, in fact, we all understand that Britain and France are no longer rivals of the Soviets, and it is important to preserve our side of the unity, while trying to keep the other side as disunited as possible, is the fundamental purpose of diplomats.”

“My personal suggestion is that we should ask our Chinese comrades what they really think, and try to embarrass the United States on the Korean issue; after all, China was a party to the Korean War and should rightly make its voice heard, but Vietnam? We’d better not take a stand.”

And Allen Wilson brain memory matches, at this moment in time, the Soviet Union, for the distant Southeast Asia is not yet interested. Borrowing Vietnam to bleed France wasn’t something the Soviet Union was particularly concerned about either; if it were to bleed the United States instead, that would be a different issue.

In another location, British Foreign Secretary Morrison and French Foreign Minister Georges Pidoule, were communicating with Undersecretary of State Smith after Dulles had left.

“We are very much in favor of the U.S. position, and in fact that has never wavered. But on Vietnam, as I’m sure Washington knows, France is not asking too much, and we want to maintain the balance between North and South Vietnam. It’s the same as on the Korean Peninsula! Otherwise, the domino theory, once it comes into play, will be too scary for the world in the future.”

“The question is what does the other side think?” Smith spread his hands and said, “As you can see, both the Soviet Union and China are difficult and have been going toe-to-toe with us.”

“This matter, I think? Shouldn’t be a problem!” Morrison smiled slightly, “It’s not that difficult to reach a consensus on Vietnam alone, but of course we have to be united as several countries.”