＜ Episode 217 >
“How did this happen?”
Huey Long was not angry. It was no better for the naval leaders, including Admiral Richie and Ernest King, who were rushed to the Navy Department when they were sleeping when they received an emergency report, and were caught by an aide in the lobby and brought to the White House.
Long didn’t say a word, but anger blazed in his eyes.
“The shipyard burned down, the Statue of Liberty destroyed. It is estimated that about 60 merchant ships lost communications and sunk. It happened in just one day! Admiral King, Admiral Lich, if you can excuse yourself, try it.”
Admiral Richie stepped forward before his men did. King is a human being who, when the US Navy is insulted, even if it is an insult to his own president.
He is a yangban who cut MacArthur and put him in the Philippines for arguing with him. Of course, before the war broke out, and MacArthur himself had quite a connection to the Philippines, he was just putting him in a position, but there were also rumors that Long, who hated MacArthur, did not send reinforcements to the Philippines to let MacArthur die in the Philippines.
In fact, there was no ability to send reinforcements in the first place, and Huey Long himself did not know that Japan would open up in such a way, and he decisively sent a battleship to escape MacArthur, but MacArthur himself refused to escape, so it was a hypothesis ignored by the military. The yellow press spoke as if it were true.
Enraged, Long shut the mouths of newspapers with censorship and moved Parliament to commemorate the heroic performance of MacArthur, who was killed, and tried to settle the situation by awarding a medal of honor. It had subsided, but in any case, it was only natural for Admiral Richie to worry that his beloved subordinate, Kingdo, would be thrown into a limb if he offended the president.
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Moreover, King did not wield the level of power guaranteed by Roosevelt in original history. The reason was the same as the reason that Marshall was appointed commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force rather than chief of staff. Marshall himself, although he preferred the position of Chief of Staff.
Long, who wanted to remove the ‘Roosevelt color’ from himself, did not like the greeting Roosevelt suggested to be moderate.
Of course, none of the personnel proposed by Roosevelt were incompetent, and he was not too crazy to distinguish between public and private, so he was assigned to a key position in some way. .
Naturally, of the three powers King demanded of Roosevelt in his original history, the only thing Long granted him was to change the name of a naval commander, which didn’t sound very well-spoken. The authority that King initially demanded was a right that Roosevelt gave by using all sorts of tricks because it became a legal problem in the original history, but Huey Long, who already had a bad view of King’s profanity, was not as generous as Roosevelt.
It could be seen as an inevitable difference, but in any case, although the FDR is respected, he is a ‘ex-president’ who has retired after completing 8 years, and cannot officially exert any influence, and that is normal.
Obviously, the current president is Huey Long, and his term is still long. No matter how much they were being attacked by Congress, it was not a very elaborate task to put one or two naval generals in one position.
Now was the time to put your head down. For myself and for my dear junior who should be the pillars of the US Navy. Most of all, you can make excuses as much as you want, but no matter what you protest, it’s absolutely true that the current situation is the fault of the Atlantic Fleet.
“I have nothing to tell you.”
Admiral Richie lowered his head as he gently stepped on King’s foot, who was about to say something.
“For whatever excuses, this is a naval vigilance failure. Do you have any objections?”
“There is not.”
“Now the people are outraged, the members of Parliament are biting me! How long has it been since I started my second term, should I be like this? Yes?”
Long is basically a populist. Of course, there is a tradition since Washington, so it’s hard to get a third term anyway, but no president wants to be a lame duck and a sandbag in Congress after less than half of his term has passed.
“Reports keep coming in of a number of submarines and armed merchant ships roaming the East Coast. Don’t let a single one come alive, and smash those cruisers and submarine bases to make sure this doesn’t happen again! This is an order!”
“Sir, all of the main ships are currently under repair or are on the Pacific front. Clearing up the east coast is enough for heavy cruisers, and if we set up a strict border and intercept in the Atlantic…”
“Occupy even the Azores and say that. Admiral Richie, it’s been less than three days since the Canadian government publicly advertised an unconditional surrender! three days! Does that sound come out even after being humiliated like this? The people want revenge! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! We must also set fire to their shores, and furthermore, we must ensure that such attacks never happen again! If the Navy refuses to do it, I will entrust this mission to the Army Air Corps.”
“Can we occupy the Azores?”
Then the King, unable to bear it any longer, came out.
“What I want is to occupy the Azores to prepare a bridgehead for the British airstrikes, and furthermore, to cooperate with Russia to suppress the enemy’s ability to sail in the deep seas because they can’t even crawl out into the Atlantic Ocean. After all, since the Russians have completely occupied Germany, they are relying on fortress ships to hold on in France. If they have the resources to build a new ship, wouldn’t it be reasonable to build another tank?”
“then……”
“Occupy the Azores, form a mobile fleet and move with the goal of annihilating the enemy fleet. Clearing up the East Coast quickly is no wonder!”
Huey Long’s fury struck the Navy Department.
***
“Admiral King.”
“Yes, Admiral Richie.”
“Why?”
Admiral Richie, who had gone to pick it up and came back with a lump, took a deep breath.
“The Navy has been insulted. An indescribable insult! Those land dogs will guarantee the safety of the east coast, so leave the navy out of the way? If we go on like this, the Army Air Corps will disband the navy and ask them to build their own bombers with that budget!”
“Will you ever do that?”
“Do you know anything about the new bombers that the Army guys have ordered and are under development?”
“You mean that B-35? I don’t know.”
“The navy is also showing interest. The aviation corps has already made the name of B2T in advance. Taking off from southern Greenland, you can bomb London and return at your leisure. If it goes on like this, in about 10 years or so, wouldn’t it be said that he’ll be able to sortie from DC and go all the way to Moscow? The land port is already setting up a plan to develop a super-large cargo plane to replace cargo ships going to Russia!”
“I understand what you mean, then there may be some who say that the navy is unnecessary.”
“It’s not that it might come out, it will definitely come out. Are there not two aviation absolutists like Mitchell?”
Admiral Richie coughed with a very uncomfortable face, but nodded.
“But it’s going to be a tough fight, it’s hard to send anyone… The enemy still has 15” class battleships and cruisers, so it’s hard to expect any Russian support. They’re busy bombing London. Because there is none.”
After taking control of the Netherlands, a full-scale attack on the British mainland began. At first, rockets flew rather frequently, but now the Russian attack planes have gone to the point where they can see ships roaming the English Channel.
Since the Ruhr, which was the main target of strategic bombing, was also captured, there was no doubt that strategic bombing on the British mainland would soon begin.
“Admiral Nimitz is in charge of the Pacific, Admiral Halsey is hospitalized for shingles, and Kinkade is working as Halsey’s successor, so I can’t summon him. There is no one to call.”
“I will go.”
“Calm down, King, I know you’re angry, but you’re the Chief of Naval Staff.”
“I am sane enough. I’m sorry for the job of the Chief of Staff, but your seniors should take over. The absence of people is also a problem, but most of all… As you said, we have to negotiate with the Russian military. There are certain things that the State Department cannot do, and to do that, a person of high rank must go as far as possible. Aren’t there many enemies in the Russian army?”
“I can’t even say it’s crowded… Anyway, I know what it means, but if you send a half-assed admiral, you might get knocked out.”
Of course, the Russian army was not so violent that it ignored the allies’ request for support because the opponent was of a lower rank.
However, in a situation where there are no other people and it is difficult to expect proper support, you have to deal with enemy battleships and battlecruisers.
If you are lucky enough to get a battleship out of the Pacific, if you are unlucky, you may have to face an enemy fleet accompanied by battleships and battlecruisers without regular aircraft carriers or battleships.
A person of high enough ability and high status should go, but the problem is that such people are dead, are in hospital, or are in charge, so it is impossible to get rid of them.
“Aren’t there two Long Island class ships and four Avenger class ships?”
“There have been cases where a battleship was sunk by a carrier aircraft during a battle voyage, but it was an airstrike involving multiple regular carriers. so that you can…”
“The Japs battleships outnumber our fleet. If the main ship is recklessly pulled out and the defense line is breached, it’s over. The great victory at Midway was well prepared, and the soldiers under the admiral worked hard, but don’t you know that it was possible due to multiple layers of luck?”
In Midway, communication security was so lame that the Navy Department of DC could understand all the names of the main ships participating in the attack before they could sortie, but if the Japs had human intelligence, they wouldn’t do it again.
“Then I’ll try to hire a battleship that’s being repaired to redeploy as soon as possible. I’m sorry, there’s only one thing I can do for you.”
“Isn’t that what I asked for? Don’t overdo it.”