Napoleon II Reborn

Chapter 287: navy in action

(Chapter to)

After 12 years of development, the military strength of the French Empire has been greatly improved, especially the navy and air force, which have expanded a lot. Although the army still only has 9 legions, all of them have been strengthened. Semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles were developed successively, which made the French Imperial Army undergo another major refit. Semi-automatic rifles have been used as standard weapons for infantry, and each squad is adding two automatic rifles to increase firepower. However, the 88th Legion, the Guards of the French Empire, has no restrictions on weapons. All the infantry of the entire legion have been replaced with automatic rifles, which has greatly increased the firepower of the 88th Legion again. After demonstration, Xiao Jie fully believed that the 88th Army could block the attacks of 8 to 10 regiments of the Anti-French Alliance. Although the weapons of the countries of the Anti-French Alliance have also improved considerably, except for the performance of the new British rifles, it barely reached the level of the French. Except for the 1806 rifle, the performance of the standard rifles of other countries is basically equivalent to that of the French 1802 rifle. The strong strength of the army is the guarantee for Xiao Jie to implement the "Sinking Island" plan. With their defense line in the east, it is absolutely possible to ensure that France has enough time to deal with Britain.

The size of the navy is undoubtedly the fastest growing among the various services. By the end of 1825, the French Navy already had three major fleets, namely the Channel Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Among them, the Channel Fleet is the largest, because they have always been at the forefront of confrontation with the British Navy. The second is the Atlantic Fleet. In order to compete with the United Kingdom for control of the Atlantic Ocean and protect France's routes to Latin America, they also need huge strength as a guarantee. The smallest is the Mediterranean Fleet. In the entire Mediterranean, except for a small fleet in Austria, a few broken ships in the Turkish Empire, and a Black Sea Fleet in Russia, there are no other enemies at all. However, the French shipyards are mainly concentrated on the Mediterranean coast, so the size of the Mediterranean fleet is relatively small, but compared to other countries, no country other than the United Kingdom has such a powerful fleet. The naval warships are mainly composed of the improved 'Iberia' class, the 'Bonaparte' class, the 'former Dreadnought' class and the newly launched 'Dreadnought' class. Among them, the number of warships of the 'Iberia' class is the largest. The total number of the three major fleets has reached about 150 ships. The 'Bonaparte' class also has 42 ships. There are only 5 ships. Although the number is less than half of that of the UK, the most powerful warships of the UK are a little bit inferior to the 'Bonaparte' class. Therefore, in terms of the overall combat effectiveness of the navy, even if the French navy is slightly worse than the British navy, it is still That gap is also very limited. In addition to the expansion of the size of the warships, the size of the Marine Corps has also expanded a lot. Before 1814, the Marine Corps had only 4 regiments, but now it has 8 divisions, with a total number of more than 120,000 people.

The size of the air force has increased a lot, and one model has been added. Its carrying capacity has reached 70 tons, which is more than twice that of large airships. In the active air force, there are 40 such super-large airships. In addition, the entire air force has also increased to 100 large airships, 200 medium-sized airships, and more than 300 small airships. However, the air force at this time was not limited to France alone. Airships appeared in the armies of Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia, but only France listed them as a separate military branch. Except for the United Kingdom, the other four countries all use airships as a tool to provide artillery bombardment data. Only the United Kingdom has established a special airship force following the example of France, but its scale and performance of airships are far behind that of French airships. Just because other countries also have airships, French small airships are no longer included in the bombing missions, but are equipped with weapons as combat airships, used to **** other types of bandits and attack other countries airship. In addition, in addition to airships, the Air Force has also established an airborne force, but the scale is very small. Up to now, there is only one airborne regiment.

The first part of the military meeting ended soon. In this part, everyone simply accepted the battle plan. As for the detailed battle plan, not everyone can know it. After the end of the first part, all the low-level officers left the venue, and all the generals at the first level of the army corps, the generals of the navy and the fleet, and the senior generals of the air force remained. Only these limited few are qualified to know the real detailed combat plan.

"Okay, now the chief of the general staff, Marshal Ike, will issue combat orders to everyone." Xiao Jie looked at the dozens of people sitting below. Responsible person.

"The key to the success of this operation is whether the navy can defeat the British navy. Therefore, in the first stage of the war, the navy will play the main role, and the army will play the main role in the landing operations later. The air force will assist the navy and the army. ’” Eck said first.

Everyone nodded in agreement. After all, because of the barrier of the strait, the army cannot land in the UK without first defeating the British navy. The greater role of the air force lies in providing fire support to the army or bombing important strategic cities of the enemy's country. It is impossible to attack cities and land like the army.

"The plan of the General Staff is like this: Everyone knows that since the British Navy was wiped out by us in the Mediterranean Fleet, the UK has only the Channel Fleet, the Home Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet. The overall strength of our navy and the British Navy is different. Not much, as long as we can kill any one of the three major fleets of the British Navy, the strength of our navy will surpass that of the British Navy, and we will be absolutely sure of destroying the other two fleets of the British Navy. Among the three major fleets of the British Navy, The local fleet and the Channel Fleet are the strongest, while the Atlantic Fleet is weaker. Among them, the Local Fleet and the Channel Fleet have been competing for the control of the English Channel with the Chinese Channel Fleet. The strength of the Atlantic Fleet is similar to that of our Atlantic Fleet. The fleet is mainly stationed in the west of England and North America, so as long as our Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet join hands, there is every chance that the British Atlantic Fleet will be completely wiped out. Our combat plan is also based on this purpose. After the meeting, The main force of the Mediterranean Fleet immediately sailed to the English Channel, and together with the Channel Fleet stormed the British Navy, forcing the British Atlantic Fleet to return to aid. Afterwards, our Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet were preparing to encircle and annihilate the British Atlantic Fleet. During this period, our Channel Fleet had to bear Take up the important task of holding back the British Channel Fleet and the Home Fleet, preventing them from having the opportunity to support the British Atlantic Fleet. After winning the victory, they will besiege the British Channel Fleet and the Home Fleet with all their strength. The goal of destroying the British Navy will be achieved. After that, the Marine Corps will 6 divisions will land in the UK, and the army will also send a corps to land in the UK to completely defeat the UK. As for which corps of the army will land in the UK, it has not yet been determined.” Speaking of this, Eck laughed. Because he found that after hearing his words, the eyes of the commanders of the army corps immediately began to glow green, as if a wolf was staring at his prey.

"In terms of the army, in addition to deploying one legion to land in the UK, 4 to 5 legions will be stationed on the eastern border of the empire to prevent other countries of the Anti-French Alliance from attacking our country. As for the air force, once other countries attack from land In our country, the air force dispatched airships to bomb the important strategic hubs and important cities of these countries, weakening their war capabilities and preparing for future wars."

"Okay, here's the general plan. The navy general stays, and the army and air force generals can leave. As for the combat orders of the army and air force, we will inform you in the next time." After Eck finished his speech~ lightnovelpub.net~ Dougal stood up and said.

Both the army generals and the air force generals stood up and left the meeting room, but the eyes of those army generals were a little strange. Afterwards, Xiao Jie, Dougal, and Eck had an hour-long meeting with the generals of the navy fleets, mainly to take precautions against possible problems in the war.

After this meeting ended, the war machine of the French Empire began to overload. First of all, the navy took action. After sufficient pre-war preparations, the Mediterranean Fleet left its home port, Gibraltar Fortress on January 24. After sailing out of the Strait of Gibraltar, it began to sail north, preparing to assist the Strait Fleet to attack the British Navy.

The Mediterranean Fleet is the smallest of the three major French fleets, with only one 'Dreadnought' class warship, which is the flagship Bravery. Both the Channel Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet have two ships, namely the 'Dreadnought', the 'Honor', the 'Hero' and the 'Knight'. In addition, the Mediterranean Fleet also has 4 'Pre-Dreadnought' class battleships, namely the 'Grand Duke', 'Warrior', 'Hunter' and 'Peninsula'. The Channel Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet have 7 and 5 ships of the "Pre-Dreadnought" class warships respectively. The "Bonaparte" class warships have 18 ships in the Channel Fleet, 14 in the Atlantic Fleet, and 10 in the Mediterranean Fleet. The "Iberia" class warships have 70 ships in the Channel Fleet, 50 ships in the Atlantic Fleet, and 30 ships in the Mediterranean Fleet.