The black car sped smoothly through the empty streets of Dresden, like a silent fish darting through the sea.
The mottled light and shadows from the streetlamps outside rhythmically swept across Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz’s wrinkled face, flickering on and off, mirroring his current dark and uncertain mood.
Tirpitz leaned back against the soft seat, his eyes—usually as sharp as a falcon’s—half-closed, his fingers unconsciously tapping on his knee.
The clamor of the dinner party had faded, as had the annoying chatter of Strasser, the Air Force upstart, about his “aerial assault force.” However, the young Army Lieutenant Colonel’s final words lingered, deeply embedding themselves in the Admiral’s mind like an unremovable thorn.
“As long as they can maintain the absolute superiority of the Royal Navy, let alone bombing and sinking their ally’s fleet, even if you asked them to sell their own mothers…”
What is constantly kept in mind will surely echo.
Morin’s somewhat exaggerated, half-joking comment at the dinner table lingered in Tirpitz’s mind like a phantom. The remark was crass and blunt, but it acted like a bolt of lightning, piercing through the fog in Tirpitz’s thoughts.
When the car brought Tirpitz back to the Admiralty building, it was still brightly lit.
Unlike the Army General Staff, which was bustling and operating at its peak, the atmosphere in the Admiralty was equally tense but overlaid with an oppressive heaviness.
The staff officers in the corridors hurried along, but upon seeing His Excellency the Admiral’s dark expression, they tactfully pressed themselves against the walls, not daring to breathe loudly.
Tirpitz pushed open the heavy oak door of his office and walked straight to the massive chart table.
He didn’t turn on the room lights; he merely switched on a desk lamp at the corner. The dim yellow halo illuminated the map, making the blue oceans look unfathomably deep.
Tirpitz moved the magnifying glass across the table, finally locking onto the Mediterranean region.
As the Imperial Grand Admiral, he understood better than anyone how delicate the current situation was, and the crisis the Navy faced—not from enemy fire, but from skepticism within the Empire.
The Army had performed too well… exceeding everyone’s expectations.
From the rapid breakthrough at the Liège Fortress to the series of fierce battles in Amiens, Creil, and Paris, the Imperial Army had now almost entirely pocketed northern Gaul.
With victory after victory, the Imperial Army had proven itself the Empire’s sharpest sword.
Even the Air Force, which constantly clamored for funding, had earned enough face before His Majesty the Emperor with a few “strokes of genius” from their armored airships at critical moments.
The Navy alone, however, could be said to have played almost no role whatsoever during this process…
Although under Grand Admiral Tirpitz’s leadership, the Imperial Navy had built a massive High Seas Fleet, barely catching up to the pace of the Britannia Royal Navy to become the world’s second-largest, the Admiral knew very well just how vast the gap between first and second truly was.
Not to mention that the third-largest navy in this world was the Britannians’ North American Colonial Garrison Fleet.
Thus, the Britannian Navy in this world never proposed the so-called “Two-Power Standard” (a historical British policy requiring the Royal Navy to be as strong as the next two largest navies combined).
After all, if the first and third fleets are both mine, what do I have to worry about?
It was precisely this terrifying naval power of the Britannians that kept the Imperial Navy’s high command, including Tirpitz, in a state of constant unease.
Ultimately, this led the Tirpitz of this world to avoid single-mindedly pursuing a “decisive fleet battle from an interior position” strategy. Instead, even before the war, he was considering a “fleet in being” approach.
In his view, only by building the High Seas Fleet to a point where the Britannians wouldn’t dare lightly engage in a decisive battle—or would need to consider recalling the North American Colonial Garrison Fleet—could the fleet achieve the effect of “strategic deterrence”…
However, when war broke out in August 1914, the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in late August made the Saxon Navy realize that they felt immense pressure just facing the “Grand Fleet” of the Britannian home islands.
Following the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the High Seas Fleet not only failed to find any opportunity for a decisive fleet battle but was completely trapped in the North Sea, becoming a “bathtub fleet.”
After the Battle of Dogger Bank concluded at the end of January this year, Emperor Albert II ordered these precious main naval vessels to cease operations and remain on standby in port.
Tirpitz looked at the narrow stretch of water in the North Sea on the map, a bitter smile touching his lips.
That High Seas Fleet, which had consumed countless amounts of Imperial gold and carried his life’s work, was now like a pack of caged beasts, only able to issue impotent roars from behind the breakwaters of Wilhelmshaven and Kiel.
“If we can’t produce decent results soon…”
Tirpitz muttered to himself, recalling Strasser’s aggressive demeanor at the dinner and the seemingly impartial, yet actually biased, attitudes of Falkenhayn and Moltke the Younger.
He knew they weren’t joking or speaking without a target; they were truly aiming to carve up the Navy’s shipbuilding budget.
After all, the patience of His Majesty the Emperor, the Supreme Command, and the Imperial Parliament was limited.
If the Navy continued its inaction, the new warships currently under construction on the slipways—especially the three highly anticipated Bayern-class battleships—might truly have their budgets slashed by an angry parliament and Supreme Command.
This was something Grand Admiral Tirpitz did not want to see.
Because for Tirpitz and the Imperial Navy, these three new battleships were highly likely to change the current status quo.
Besides incorporating all the latest technology in armor, propulsion, and other areas, the main armament of the Bayern-class battleships had been upgraded to four twin 380mm main gun turrets.
These 380mm main guns were not traditional artillery; they were the same “Multi-stage Accelerated Magitech Cannons” equipped on the armored trains “Odin” and “Jörmungandr.”
In numerous battles within the Gallic Republic, the “Twelve-stage Accelerated Magitech Cannons” equipped on armored trains had demonstrated terrifying offensive capabilities.
No land fortress could withstand the attacks of this epoch-making weapon; even the Eiffel Tower would be pierced by its “second form.” Let alone warships at sea…
Tirpitz’s fingers traced over the location of the Kiel shipyard on the map.
In order to mount this land-warfare killer—originally installed on the armored train “Odin”—onto warships, the Navy’s designers had worked their hair gray, even sacrificing a portion of speed and seaworthiness.
Once these three warships could be launched, they would fear no capital ship of any other nation in the world.
But this required money—a massive amount of money.
And now, Morin’s words seemed to have torn an opening in this dead end.
If the Britannians were truly mad enough to attack the Gallic fleet…
Tirpitz abruptly straightened up, walked to the window, and pushed it open, letting the cold wind pour in.
His brain worked rapidly, reassembling all fragments of intelligence—as the Minister of the Navy, he naturally received intelligence indicating that the Britannians were preparing a large-scale operation directed at the Mediterranean.
Once they acted, whether to land in the Balkans or for other strategic purposes, they could not bypass one massive variable: the Gallic Navy.
“Opportunity…”
A glint flashed in the old Admiral’s eyes, the look of a hunter catching the scent of blood.
“This might be the Imperial Navy’s only chance to turn the tables.”
Tirpitz returned to the chart table. This time, he took out a box of model pieces representing the fleets of different nations from a drawer.
First, he placed red pieces representing the Britannia Royal Navy at Scapa Flow and Portsmouth—their Home Fleet’s main bases. Then, he placed a cluster of red pieces on the east coast of North America—representing the world’s third-largest naval fleet, the North American Colonial Garrison Fleet.
Looking at the dense red mass, Tirpitz felt a wave of suffocation.
“How exactly did these Britannians amass so much naval power…” the Grand Admiral complained with a sigh of resignation.
However, the only good news currently was that this chess game might become active again.
Admiral Tirpitz’s gaze slowly shifted to the Mediterranean.
There, the blue pieces representing the Gallic Navy were anchored in the naval ports of Tunisia and Casablanca.
Originally, the Gallic Navy had re-entered the Mediterranean coastal province ports “recaptured” by the Gallic Republic Army.
But with the defeats on land, these Gallic main ships—to be safe and prevent being directly controlled by the Saxons from land—had left the ports again and returned to North Africa.
4 Courbet-class dreadnoughts, 12 pre-dreadnoughts; this was a force that could not be ignored.
Before the war broke out… and even in its early stages, due to the joint operational agreement, the Gallic Navy had established defenses in the Mediterranean through several anchorages in their North African colonies serving as naval bases.
In exchange, the Holy Britannia Empire’s Royal Navy undertook the defense of the Gallic Republic’s Atlantic coast.
Under these circumstances, the Mediterranean had always been the Gallic Navy’s main force + Britannia’s Mediterranean Fleet VS the Saxon Empire’s Mediterranean Fleet + the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Navy main force.
As for the Papal Theocracy, although it also possessed a naval force consisting of 3 dreadnoughts and 11 pre-dreadnoughts… due to this theocratic nation’s determination to adhere to neutrality, it rarely participated in naval confrontations in the Mediterranean.
But now, a massive shift had occurred in the situation.
“The Gauls are going to surrender…”
Tirpitz pushed over several blue pieces.
The Gallic Republic’s surrender was imminent. Regardless of the final agreement reached, the Gallic Navy’s fleet could certainly not continue coordinating combat with the Britannians.
Moreover, because of the “Undead Scourge” triggered by the Battle of Paris, the Papal Theocracy was moving increasingly closer to the Central Powers camp. News that the Papal Theocracy was about to declare war had begun spreading across Europa.
It could be said that overnight, the naval power in the Mediterranean had undergone an earth-shattering change.
For the Britannians, the best-case scenario would be losing the aid of the Gallic Navy and facing the combined fleets of Saxony, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Papal Theocracy alone.
As for the worst-case scenario… besides the aforementioned problems, the Gallic Republic Navy’s main ships would also be controlled by the Saxons, or even added to the Saxon naval battle order…
If they leaned towards Saxony… Tirpitz placed several black pieces representing the Saxon Mediterranean Squadron together with the yellow pieces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Saxon Imperial Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet—excluding auxiliary and supply ships—had its main combat power composed of a battlecruiser squadron, a cruiser squadron, a destroyer squadron, and a submarine squadron.
Totaling 2 battlecruisers, 2 armored cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 1 scout cruiser, 12 destroyers/torpedo boats, and 4 U-boats. The main rapid-strike force among them was the two Moltke-class battlecruisers in the battlecruiser squadron.
Meanwhile, the Britannia Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet’s combat vessels consisted of 3 battlecruisers, 1 armored cruiser, 4 light cruisers, and 16 destroyers.
It could be said that looking solely at the Mediterranean fleets of Saxony and Britannia, there wasn’t a significant gap in the quantity and quality of vessels.
Therefore, at this time, the power of the main naval ships of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Gallic Republic, and the Papal Theocracy became crucially important.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had completely embarrassed itself in a series of battles in the early stages of the war, making the entire empire look like a dilapidated antique about to fall apart… their paper strength in terms of naval power was still there. 4 Tegetthoff-class dreadnoughts were sitting in the Adriatic Sea.
Although they had shown some cowardice previously when facing Britannian battlecruisers, they were dreadnoughts after all; a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.
Let’s tally up the main ships of the various factions in the Mediterranean.
Britannian Mediterranean Fleet: 3 battlecruisers.
And the potential opponents they would face: Saxony’s 2 battlecruisers + Austro-Hungary’s 4 dreadnoughts + the Papal Theocracy’s 3 dreadnoughts.
If it was the worst-case scenario—the Gallic Navy being taken over by Saxony—then 4 Courbet-class dreadnoughts would have to be added.
“9 to 3… or even 13 to 3…” Tirpitz took a deep breath.
If this situation materialized, let alone landing in the Balkans, whether the Britannian Mediterranean Fleet could even make it out of the Strait of Gibraltar alive would be a question.
The Mediterranean would completely become an inland lake of the Central Powers. The vital artery of the Suez Canal would be severed, and the Holy Britannia Empire’s global colonial system would suffer a devastating blow.
Those arrogant islanders would never allow this to happen.
“So, Lieutenant Colonel Morin was right.”
Tirpitz’s finger tapped heavily on the locations of the Gallic Navy’s two naval ports in North Africa.
“The Royal Navy will definitely strike… To survive, for hegemony, they must strike first and eliminate the Gallic fleet, this greatest destabilizing factor.”
This was not merely a tactical choice; it was a strategic inevitability.
And once the Britannians acted, successful or not, the Mediterranean would become a chaotic mess.
The Gallic Republic’s navy would likely counterattack in port. The final outcome of the battle between these two parties was unknown.
More importantly, to ensure the operation’s success, or to deal with the ensuing chaos, the Britannians must reinforce their troops. They had not become so arrogant as to try completing this series of operations with only 3 battlecruisers… So it was highly likely the Royal Navy would transfer a certain number of capital ships south from their Home Fleet.
“The Britannian First Lord of the Admiralty might be a gambler, but he’s no fool.”
Tirpitz lit another cigar, the firelight illuminating his deeply lined face as he muttered to himself: “He knows better than anyone how to do this math. If they lose control of the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal will be threatened, and their lifeline to the Red Sea will be cut… This is unacceptable to the Britannians.”
“Therefore, he has only two choices.”
“First, abandon the Mediterranean and fall back to defend Gibraltar and Suez, but this equals handing the Mediterranean over and making it impossible for the battles in the Balkan Peninsula to continue.”
“Second, dispatch capital ships south from the Home Fleet!”
Tirpitz calculated rapidly. He knew the number of ships in the dispatched fleet could not be small.
To suppress the nine capital ships of the combined Mediterranean fleet, and also factor in the potential “mutiny” of the Gallic Navy…
Thus, the Britannia Royal Navy must dispatch at least five to six dreadnoughts, or settling for second best, an equal number of pre-dreadnoughts.
“Five to six capital ships!”
For the Britannian Grand Fleet currently playing “cat and mouse” with the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, this was a number that was neither too large nor too small.
Although on paper, the Britannia Royal Navy still possessed a numerical advantage.
But naval warfare isn’t a simple numbers game.
Once forces are divided, the Grand Fleet’s formations, rotations, and maintenance cycles would be disrupted.
More importantly, the Royal Navy’s psychological defense line of “absolute superiority” would be broken.