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The Art of War
The Sun Rises Yet Again
Chapter 12: The Art of War
May 17, 1925
All the general staff of the three major branches of the British military are gathered. J. F. C. Fuller leads the Army, David Beatty is head of the Royal Navy and Hugh Trenchard represents the Royal Air Force.
They all have their best men with them today, hoping to put their best foot forward.
Fuller brings Liddell Hart, Bernard Montgomery, Edmund "Tiny" Ironside, Alan "Shrapnel" Brooke, Archibald Wavell, John "Tiger Gort" Vereker, Claude "The Auk" Auchinleck and a plethora of officers from the Camberley Staff College.
Beatty brings Reginald Henderson, Russel Grenfell, Lumley Lyster, Charles Madden, Herbert Richmond, Andrew "ABC' Cunningham, Reginald Drax and numerous naval officers of the Greenwich Royal Navy College.
Trenchard brings Arthur Harris, Hugh Dowding and Charles Portal as well as several other theorists and pilots from the Cranwell Royal Air Force College.
All have rehearsed and prepared their speaking points and are ready to deliver them.
Mosley joins the men into the conference room. As the men sit down in their respective groups, Mosley is the first to speak, standing in an elevated position, equidistant to all the groups, signifying his superiority and respect to all branches.
Oswald Mosley
"Gentlemen, today we are here to discuss the strategies, tactics, operational procedures, technological and doctrinal innovations, potential synergy between the branches and, of course, the direction, focus, and goals of Britain in the coming decades. Let us discuss the issues with vigor and passion but also with the tact and courtesy necessary to keep a proper pace and to prevent senseless bickering. Now, the Army underneath J. F. C. Fuller may take the floor."
J. F. C. Fuller
"Thank you your Excellency. As we all know, the army needs a major overhaul. The outdated tactics of the early years of the war cost us dearly. It wasn't until late 1917 that commanders and generals finally understood some of the tactics needed to fight effectively in that truly modern war, but by that time it was too late. Even Field Marshall Haig, for all his efforts, could not turn the war in our favour, even the victory at Lyon was not enough. With this costly and terrible lesson, I believe the General Staff and I have reached several conclusions that will benefit the army. The first of these is to develop a large and powerful tank corps, emphasising speed, decisive breakthroughs and the encirclement of enemy forces. This will be crucial to our success in our continental endeavors as most of our foes will have numerically superior armies. We will have to take inspiration from Napoleon, especially his victories at Austerlitz, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Clausewitz and many other military geniuses. Defeat in Detail, mass mobility, armored breakthroughs, superior firepower and rapid encirclement will be essential to ensuring sustained success without incurring abhorrent butcher's bills like in the Great War or, as I prefer to call it, the Seminal Aberration. We must also expand the NCO corps so as to exercise effective control over the massive armies of the modern age. Individual initiative and deviation from certain aspects of the overall strategic plan to achieve meaningful tactical success must not only be allowed but encouraged. The radio and its coming advancements will help generals and field marshals maintain efficient and tight control and communication with the front-line and to react in real time, even faster than the telephone. However, even if this becomes so widespread as to allow obsessive direction of all forces, this should not be pursued or desired. Men at the front-line, officers and infantry, must be allowed to make their own decisions. We cannot account for everything and an insistence that we can or should will lead to unnecessary bloodshed. A doctrine of autonomy, if you will. We must also seek to improve our understanding of the three C's of warfare, Command, Control and Communication, or C3 for short as well as the 9 Principles of War: Direction, Concentration, Distribution, Determination, Surprise, Endurance, Mobility, Offensive Action and Security. These 9 Principles do not stand on their own but instead overlap, forming the Law of Economy of Force. Furthermore, the 9 Principles are joined into 3 groups with 3 principles each, the Principles of Control are 1, 4 and 7, the Principles of Pressure are 2, 5 and 8, and the Principles of Resistance are 3, 6 and 9. Improving our understanding of these concepts will allow us a better view of the battlefield in its entirety."
Fuller, Hart, and Montgomery are the primary advocates of these radical views and alterations to warfare, with Ironside being the first of the old guard to embrace it. With these 4 men combining their efforts, they manage to sway the majority of the room to their viewpoint, with the last few naysayers being suppressed when Mosley assures he intends to fully back these ideas. After this, the rest of the army staff go up and express the needs for proper recruitment tactics, improvement of mobilisation speed and efficiency as well as research and development of more advanced technologies to improve the amphibious capabilities of the army. With the army staff having finished with everything they desired to speak about, Mosley once again calls the attention of all involved.
Oswald Mosley
"Most impressive and convincing Mister Fuller. With that done, the Royal Air Force under Hugh Trenchard shall now take the floor."
Hugh Trenchard
"Thank you Sir Mosley. With the advent of the fighter plane came the introduction to entirely alien dimension of warfare, the skies. No longer is it sufficient to hold land and naval superiority; one must maintain control of the land, the seas and the skies if he is to ensure that his men can operate with impunity. At the moment, military aviation as whole is in its infancy, only just over a decade ago was it ushered into the world. Despite its complications and uncertainties, military aviation holds the potential to completely shift the way war is fought. With the introduction of stronger engines, we will soon see the debut of heavier-than-air aircraft into practical military use. With these larger and more powerful planes, we can begin to develop even heavier payloads for our bombers. This opens up gateways to a new way to weaken an enemies' war effort and morale of their citizenry without even moving our ground troops. It is something Arthur Harris, Charles Portal, the rest of my colleagues, and I have spent many hours if not days theorising about. We were having difficulties reaching a name until it dawned on me, the perfect moniker for this idea of aerial warfare, Strategic Bombing. Harris, however, felt it was far to modest and kind for our enemies and instead favoured Strategic Destruction and we as whole agree. This idea would mean the development of advanced bomber craft capable of carrying extremely heavy and frighteningly destructive payloads and travelling the long distances required to strike the industrial heartland of the enemy. It would also mean developing fighters capable of escorting the bombers to their target and back to base. With this, we will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies'. They will wonder will dreadful uncertainty whether or not the towns and cities of their people are safe from our righteous fury."
This proposal immediately resonates with most if not all in the room. Both on a practical and symbolic level, it is very appealing. Fuller eagerly stands up to speak.
J. F. C Fuller
"Trenchard, I believe I speak on behalf of all in this room that your proposal is a most sound one. The vile communists and dastardly Huns will be drowned in a sea of hellfire and brimstone delivered from the British Isles!"
The room erupts into cheering. Only Mosley's commanding presence and voice manages to calm them down, back to the stoic and professional composure that they began with. Fuller begins to speak again
J. F. C. Fuller
"But we must also not forget another role the air force must fulfill, that being the assistance of ground forces on a tactical level. These very same bombing capabilities can be scaled down from destroying cities to destroying fortifications, troops, bases and any other objects or persons that seek to oppose our forces."
Hugh Dowding stands up and begins to speak.
Hugh Dowding
"I concur. As much as I agree with the merits of strategic destruction, I also believe we must not forget the most crucially important role the air force played in the Great War, assistance of ground troops. From carrying out reconnaissance runs to detailing where the next artillery bombardment should be directed towards, to dropping bombs onto enemy troops, the airplane proved it is capable of working in synchronous harmony to achieve fantastically destructive results. Development of more agile planes with a shorter range and smaller payloads, designed not lay waste to an unsuspecting town but instead to a hapless enemy battalion, will help us achieve great success. This doctrine of air support in close proximity to ground forces is extremely important. I believe we can refer to it as Close Air Support?"
The room sounds in agreement.
Hugh Dowding
"The challenge is in balancing these two approaches to ensure neither is ignored. This should not prove to be too difficult as both rely on the use of bombing ground targets to achieve goals. One is strategic, the other is tactical."
Hugh Trenchard
"I agree wholeheartedly! We must also reinforce the idea that the RAF is an independent organisation, deserving as much respect and freedom as the Army and Navy. One of the first steps toward this end is to abolish the Royal Navy Air Service and transfer it's resources, personnel and duties to a new group, the Fleet Air Arm, which will be underneath the RAF's control instead of the Royal Navy."
This idea is well received. With Trenchard and the Air Force finished, Mosley uses the brief silence to keep the momentum going.
Oswald Mosley
"Such ideas are most exciting to hear Trenchard and I have the utmost confidence that the RAF will successfully develop and implement them into the next war. Now, David Beatty and the Royal Navy may speak."
David Beatty
"Thank you Prime Minister. It is with great shame I mention the defeat at Jutland. That singular event perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with our naval doctrine. We need a new naval doctrine, even if the one we used was the right choice during the war, we can no longer hope to compete with Germany in the field of battleships. Even if we were to begin a massive fleet construction program, Germany will still have a bigger populace and economy and a several years head start. This problem is the Gordian Knot of the British Navy in the modern world. And like said knot, it can not be solved by simply building more titanic ships or pulling the knot harder. It can only be solved by looking at the problem from a new position, finding a previously unthought of solution. For Alexander, it was cutting the knot in half with his sword, for Britain, it is forging a bold, new way to wage war on the high seas. I believe sir Lyster, sir Henderson, sir Grenfell and I have talked and laboured extensively on this. To understand the merits of this doctrine I am to expound requires the ability to set aside one's biases to see what is best. This new doctrine shifts the focus of our navy from the vaunted dreadnoughts and battleships, from the idea that naval power is exclusively determined in number of guns, caliber length and tonnage displaced, of constructing and maintaining the biggest and largest ships, towards a less ostentatious but certainly more efficient fleet composition. Britain's navy, if she wishes to be successful in the coming conflicts, must place ultimate primacy on her carriers rather than her dreadnoughts. Aviation will fundamentally change how war is fought on the seas, as it has and will on every other front. With aviation advancing faster and faster, we will be able to build planes able to take off and land on carrier decks without ever touching the sea. We can make these planes faster, stronger, more agile and we can arm them with stronger, faster and more accurate torpedoes. Soon, the greatest danger to the enemies ships will no longer be the tremendous thundering of a dreadnought's salvo but of the hum of an airplane propeller and it's torpedo crashing into the sea. The HMS Hermes, still under construction, will serve as the basis for all future carriers. In addition, we must also take into account the power of the submarine. The ability of submersible craft to wreak havoc on the shipping tonnage of a nation must not be underestimated. We are all extremely lucky that Germany feared the intervention of the U.S. into the war and were unable to fully carry out their plan to starve Britain as they could not sink American ships too close to the Home Isles. Submarines must be developed, this will be easier than thought as the submarine's prime weapon, the torpedo, will also be in use by the naval air force and thus advancements in one field can benefit the other. The submarine can also remain hidden from the enemy and can infiltrate deep into enemy seas if need be. Submarines can also, if a situation demanded it, deal heavy or fatal damage to a larger ship, even a dreadnought. This shows we must also be vigilant for any advances in submarine technology by our enemies, especially from the Germans. To do so, we must develop our existing depth charges to be even more effective and accurate, able to penetrate the watery depths that enemy submarines will lurk at. The dreadnoughts, battleships and other ships will fulfill a purpose, that of serving as escorts and screens for the carriers. This doctrine of cooperation between carriers for winning naval engagements, submarines to strangle commerce and imports to a nation and destroyers to counteract enemy submarines shall be referred to as the Floating Fortress Doctrine. Unlike the dreadnought, which the term is incorrectly applied to, this doctrine forms a true fortress, with every ship and plane serving a purpose in the fleet just as every soldier and building serves one in a fortress and it's accompanying areas."
Soon after, Henderson, Lyster and Grenfell elaborate more on the "Floating Fortress" doctrine. Explaining how battleships are expensive to construct and that Germany will not stand for it. How pursuing this naval arms race of battleships with Germany would bankrupt Britain and plunge them into another depression, one potentially worse then the one currently experienced. They also explain how battleships and large cruisers are obvious targets for the enemy, more so than a carrier due to their established mythos while the carrier has none. They expand on the reasons why naval aircraft would become more deadly than anything before it and the need to advance anti-air defenses for both land and naval forces. The old guard are less enthusiastic towards this line of thinking than the army was to Fuller's. However, Mosley's approval and commendation of Beatty and his colleagues sway them over and soon they come to understand the merits of what they are saying. Trenchard fully supports this strategy. In the previous years he has had to vehemently defend the air force from budget cuts and being absorbed into other branches, which would destroy its independence as well as having to work vigorously to establish and entrench an esprit de corps for the Air Force. He views increasing the importance of aviation of the Air Force in field of naval combat would further help the Air Force command the respect and attention the other branches maintained.
With everyone having said their piece, Mosley announces that conference is over and that all in the room could return to their work except for Fuller, Beatty and Trenchard.
Oswald Mosley
"Gentlemen, I commend you for the excellent job you did today. Due to your efforts, Britain is another step closer to regaining what is her's. I also wish to inform I have been in contact with several scientists. Men such as John Ambrose Fleming, Oliver Joseph Lodge, Lewis Fry Richardson, Albert Beaumont Wood, Robert Watson Watt, and Édouard Branly as well as the Royal Society. They have all been working om several different versions and pieces of technology, the use of radio waves to detect enemy planes as well as improve current radio transmitters to allow more efficient communication and the use of sonic vibrations to detect enemy submarines. I have asked if they could combine their efforts to develop advanced radio and sonic detection systems. They all agreed and I am setting up the buildings and gathering the resources they require as we speak. Soon, you will have advanced submarine detection capabilities and communication from the front to high command will become much faster and early plane detection systems will help us fend off any potential bombing campaigns. I believe the combination of all the ideas of war into a two phrases. Cyclonic Conflict for the strategy and Whirlwind Warfare for the tactics. You are now dismissed."
The men are pleased by this news and return to their jobs. About 2 or so hours have passed since they first met and Mosley has other things to do. He has been working continuously with Chambers and Kitson to improve the economic situation as well as to increase the power of the Prime Minister. With the economy recovering, his successful attempts at demonstrating the power Britain still possessed, and the world famous London Conference have all led to even faster rising level of nationalism and loyalty to the country and to Mosley himself. Many view Mosley as the bringer of a new Golden Age for Britain and its people. He is extremely popular with the military as he has always advocated against reducing the military and shrinking the Defense Budget. Within a year's time, Mosley could call a snap election to increase the Victorian Union's numbers in the House of Commons dramatically . Mosley is determined to shatter the democratic elements of British society. In time, the people would learn to view him and the King as the ultimate authority on all matters. As he enters his office, he notices something on his desk, something that had not been there before. He approaches it and realises it is a book with a message on top. Mosley reads it.
"My dear friend Mosley, I sincerely hope you enjoy this book. It is a most fascinating look at the destitute state of Paris and, by extension, the Commune as a whole. Hopefully, this book can serve as an apology for my neglect of your birthday. The book is written by an English man going by the name P.S Burton. However this seems to simply be a pseudonym and not his actual name as I could not find any P.S Burton. I will write to you if I discover this author. I hope all is well with Cynthia as well as Vivien and Nicholas.
Sincerely,
Henry"
He looks at the book. The title reads "Down and Out in Paris". It appears to be intriguing and so he begins to read it. As he flips through the pages, he engrosses himself in the personal accounts of P.S Burton within France. The high crime rate, widespread destitution, poverty and famine, the inept Communard police forces, and the general volatile state of the city. He lays the book down, knowing he cannot finish the approximately 130 pages in a single sitting, not with his job. He swears to finish it as quickly as he can and once done, to find out who this P.S Burton really is. Mosley could find use for a man of such talents.
Basil Henry Liddell Hart, One of the Premier Theorists Underneath Mosley, as Seen in the Great War, 1916
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Bernard Law Montgomery, One of Britain's Most Skilled Commanders, 1925
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William Edmund Ironside, One of Britain's Most Distinguished Commanders, Famous for His Service Underneath the British Expeditionary Force to the Russian Whites, 1921
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Alan Francis Brooke, A Talented Artillery Commander, Renowned for Integrating the French Creeping Barrage System into the British Army at the Battle of Vierzon, 1910
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Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, A Masterful British Commanding Officer Who Displayed His Talents in the Mesopotamian Campaign Against the Ottomans. Despite Limited Forces Due to Problems in France, He Achieved Routine Success Against Larger Ottoman Forces and Almost Seized Baghdad But Was Ultimately Defeated When the Massive German Counter Attack Began in 1918 After France Surrendered, 1923
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Hugh Montague Trenchard, First Head of the Royal Air Force and Primary Advocate Against Its Opponents in the Years to Come Following Its Creation, 1919
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Arthur Travers Harris, A High Ranking Staff Member in the Cranwell Royal Air Force College and Essential Co-Creator of Strategic Destruction, Gaining Inspiration From Herman Göring's Use Of Heavy Bombings to Suppress Native Revolts in Mittleafrika, Much to the Dismay of Statthalter Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, 1915
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Arthur Lumley St. George Lyster , Captain of the HMS Danae and a Member of the Greenwich Royal Naval College as Well as a Vocal Advocate For Carrier Primacy in the Royal Navy, 1921
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Andrew Browne Cunningham, Commander of the British 1st Destroyer Flotilla and the Destroyer Base HMS Lochinvar, He Gained Respect For His Excellent Service in the Mediterranean, His Assistance During the Bordeaux Evacuations, and His Navigation of the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Guinea to Ward of German Attempts to Annex British and French Colonies in West Africa Such as Guinea, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast, 1925
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Charles Edward Madden, British Admiral and a Skilled Commander. Leader of the 1st and 3rd Battle Squadrons, He Escaped Certain Death When an Illness Struck Him Just Over a Week Before the Battle of Jutland. If He Had Not Been Recovering From His Illness at Home He Would've Died Along With Jellicoe When His Ship Exploded ,1922
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Chapter 12: The Art of War
May 17, 1925
All the general staff of the three major branches of the British military are gathered. J. F. C. Fuller leads the Army, David Beatty is head of the Royal Navy and Hugh Trenchard represents the Royal Air Force.
They all have their best men with them today, hoping to put their best foot forward.
Fuller brings Liddell Hart, Bernard Montgomery, Edmund "Tiny" Ironside, Alan "Shrapnel" Brooke, Archibald Wavell, John "Tiger Gort" Vereker, Claude "The Auk" Auchinleck and a plethora of officers from the Camberley Staff College.
Beatty brings Reginald Henderson, Russel Grenfell, Lumley Lyster, Charles Madden, Herbert Richmond, Andrew "ABC' Cunningham, Reginald Drax and numerous naval officers of the Greenwich Royal Navy College.
Trenchard brings Arthur Harris, Hugh Dowding and Charles Portal as well as several other theorists and pilots from the Cranwell Royal Air Force College.
All have rehearsed and prepared their speaking points and are ready to deliver them.
Mosley joins the men into the conference room. As the men sit down in their respective groups, Mosley is the first to speak, standing in an elevated position, equidistant to all the groups, signifying his superiority and respect to all branches.
Oswald Mosley
"Gentlemen, today we are here to discuss the strategies, tactics, operational procedures, technological and doctrinal innovations, potential synergy between the branches and, of course, the direction, focus, and goals of Britain in the coming decades. Let us discuss the issues with vigor and passion but also with the tact and courtesy necessary to keep a proper pace and to prevent senseless bickering. Now, the Army underneath J. F. C. Fuller may take the floor."
J. F. C. Fuller
"Thank you your Excellency. As we all know, the army needs a major overhaul. The outdated tactics of the early years of the war cost us dearly. It wasn't until late 1917 that commanders and generals finally understood some of the tactics needed to fight effectively in that truly modern war, but by that time it was too late. Even Field Marshall Haig, for all his efforts, could not turn the war in our favour, even the victory at Lyon was not enough. With this costly and terrible lesson, I believe the General Staff and I have reached several conclusions that will benefit the army. The first of these is to develop a large and powerful tank corps, emphasising speed, decisive breakthroughs and the encirclement of enemy forces. This will be crucial to our success in our continental endeavors as most of our foes will have numerically superior armies. We will have to take inspiration from Napoleon, especially his victories at Austerlitz, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Clausewitz and many other military geniuses. Defeat in Detail, mass mobility, armored breakthroughs, superior firepower and rapid encirclement will be essential to ensuring sustained success without incurring abhorrent butcher's bills like in the Great War or, as I prefer to call it, the Seminal Aberration. We must also expand the NCO corps so as to exercise effective control over the massive armies of the modern age. Individual initiative and deviation from certain aspects of the overall strategic plan to achieve meaningful tactical success must not only be allowed but encouraged. The radio and its coming advancements will help generals and field marshals maintain efficient and tight control and communication with the front-line and to react in real time, even faster than the telephone. However, even if this becomes so widespread as to allow obsessive direction of all forces, this should not be pursued or desired. Men at the front-line, officers and infantry, must be allowed to make their own decisions. We cannot account for everything and an insistence that we can or should will lead to unnecessary bloodshed. A doctrine of autonomy, if you will. We must also seek to improve our understanding of the three C's of warfare, Command, Control and Communication, or C3 for short as well as the 9 Principles of War: Direction, Concentration, Distribution, Determination, Surprise, Endurance, Mobility, Offensive Action and Security. These 9 Principles do not stand on their own but instead overlap, forming the Law of Economy of Force. Furthermore, the 9 Principles are joined into 3 groups with 3 principles each, the Principles of Control are 1, 4 and 7, the Principles of Pressure are 2, 5 and 8, and the Principles of Resistance are 3, 6 and 9. Improving our understanding of these concepts will allow us a better view of the battlefield in its entirety."
Fuller, Hart, and Montgomery are the primary advocates of these radical views and alterations to warfare, with Ironside being the first of the old guard to embrace it. With these 4 men combining their efforts, they manage to sway the majority of the room to their viewpoint, with the last few naysayers being suppressed when Mosley assures he intends to fully back these ideas. After this, the rest of the army staff go up and express the needs for proper recruitment tactics, improvement of mobilisation speed and efficiency as well as research and development of more advanced technologies to improve the amphibious capabilities of the army. With the army staff having finished with everything they desired to speak about, Mosley once again calls the attention of all involved.
Oswald Mosley
"Most impressive and convincing Mister Fuller. With that done, the Royal Air Force under Hugh Trenchard shall now take the floor."
Hugh Trenchard
"Thank you Sir Mosley. With the advent of the fighter plane came the introduction to entirely alien dimension of warfare, the skies. No longer is it sufficient to hold land and naval superiority; one must maintain control of the land, the seas and the skies if he is to ensure that his men can operate with impunity. At the moment, military aviation as whole is in its infancy, only just over a decade ago was it ushered into the world. Despite its complications and uncertainties, military aviation holds the potential to completely shift the way war is fought. With the introduction of stronger engines, we will soon see the debut of heavier-than-air aircraft into practical military use. With these larger and more powerful planes, we can begin to develop even heavier payloads for our bombers. This opens up gateways to a new way to weaken an enemies' war effort and morale of their citizenry without even moving our ground troops. It is something Arthur Harris, Charles Portal, the rest of my colleagues, and I have spent many hours if not days theorising about. We were having difficulties reaching a name until it dawned on me, the perfect moniker for this idea of aerial warfare, Strategic Bombing. Harris, however, felt it was far to modest and kind for our enemies and instead favoured Strategic Destruction and we as whole agree. This idea would mean the development of advanced bomber craft capable of carrying extremely heavy and frighteningly destructive payloads and travelling the long distances required to strike the industrial heartland of the enemy. It would also mean developing fighters capable of escorting the bombers to their target and back to base. With this, we will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies'. They will wonder will dreadful uncertainty whether or not the towns and cities of their people are safe from our righteous fury."
This proposal immediately resonates with most if not all in the room. Both on a practical and symbolic level, it is very appealing. Fuller eagerly stands up to speak.
J. F. C Fuller
"Trenchard, I believe I speak on behalf of all in this room that your proposal is a most sound one. The vile communists and dastardly Huns will be drowned in a sea of hellfire and brimstone delivered from the British Isles!"
The room erupts into cheering. Only Mosley's commanding presence and voice manages to calm them down, back to the stoic and professional composure that they began with. Fuller begins to speak again
J. F. C. Fuller
"But we must also not forget another role the air force must fulfill, that being the assistance of ground forces on a tactical level. These very same bombing capabilities can be scaled down from destroying cities to destroying fortifications, troops, bases and any other objects or persons that seek to oppose our forces."
Hugh Dowding stands up and begins to speak.
Hugh Dowding
"I concur. As much as I agree with the merits of strategic destruction, I also believe we must not forget the most crucially important role the air force played in the Great War, assistance of ground troops. From carrying out reconnaissance runs to detailing where the next artillery bombardment should be directed towards, to dropping bombs onto enemy troops, the airplane proved it is capable of working in synchronous harmony to achieve fantastically destructive results. Development of more agile planes with a shorter range and smaller payloads, designed not lay waste to an unsuspecting town but instead to a hapless enemy battalion, will help us achieve great success. This doctrine of air support in close proximity to ground forces is extremely important. I believe we can refer to it as Close Air Support?"
The room sounds in agreement.
Hugh Dowding
"The challenge is in balancing these two approaches to ensure neither is ignored. This should not prove to be too difficult as both rely on the use of bombing ground targets to achieve goals. One is strategic, the other is tactical."
Hugh Trenchard
"I agree wholeheartedly! We must also reinforce the idea that the RAF is an independent organisation, deserving as much respect and freedom as the Army and Navy. One of the first steps toward this end is to abolish the Royal Navy Air Service and transfer it's resources, personnel and duties to a new group, the Fleet Air Arm, which will be underneath the RAF's control instead of the Royal Navy."
This idea is well received. With Trenchard and the Air Force finished, Mosley uses the brief silence to keep the momentum going.
Oswald Mosley
"Such ideas are most exciting to hear Trenchard and I have the utmost confidence that the RAF will successfully develop and implement them into the next war. Now, David Beatty and the Royal Navy may speak."
David Beatty
"Thank you Prime Minister. It is with great shame I mention the defeat at Jutland. That singular event perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with our naval doctrine. We need a new naval doctrine, even if the one we used was the right choice during the war, we can no longer hope to compete with Germany in the field of battleships. Even if we were to begin a massive fleet construction program, Germany will still have a bigger populace and economy and a several years head start. This problem is the Gordian Knot of the British Navy in the modern world. And like said knot, it can not be solved by simply building more titanic ships or pulling the knot harder. It can only be solved by looking at the problem from a new position, finding a previously unthought of solution. For Alexander, it was cutting the knot in half with his sword, for Britain, it is forging a bold, new way to wage war on the high seas. I believe sir Lyster, sir Henderson, sir Grenfell and I have talked and laboured extensively on this. To understand the merits of this doctrine I am to expound requires the ability to set aside one's biases to see what is best. This new doctrine shifts the focus of our navy from the vaunted dreadnoughts and battleships, from the idea that naval power is exclusively determined in number of guns, caliber length and tonnage displaced, of constructing and maintaining the biggest and largest ships, towards a less ostentatious but certainly more efficient fleet composition. Britain's navy, if she wishes to be successful in the coming conflicts, must place ultimate primacy on her carriers rather than her dreadnoughts. Aviation will fundamentally change how war is fought on the seas, as it has and will on every other front. With aviation advancing faster and faster, we will be able to build planes able to take off and land on carrier decks without ever touching the sea. We can make these planes faster, stronger, more agile and we can arm them with stronger, faster and more accurate torpedoes. Soon, the greatest danger to the enemies ships will no longer be the tremendous thundering of a dreadnought's salvo but of the hum of an airplane propeller and it's torpedo crashing into the sea. The HMS Hermes, still under construction, will serve as the basis for all future carriers. In addition, we must also take into account the power of the submarine. The ability of submersible craft to wreak havoc on the shipping tonnage of a nation must not be underestimated. We are all extremely lucky that Germany feared the intervention of the U.S. into the war and were unable to fully carry out their plan to starve Britain as they could not sink American ships too close to the Home Isles. Submarines must be developed, this will be easier than thought as the submarine's prime weapon, the torpedo, will also be in use by the naval air force and thus advancements in one field can benefit the other. The submarine can also remain hidden from the enemy and can infiltrate deep into enemy seas if need be. Submarines can also, if a situation demanded it, deal heavy or fatal damage to a larger ship, even a dreadnought. This shows we must also be vigilant for any advances in submarine technology by our enemies, especially from the Germans. To do so, we must develop our existing depth charges to be even more effective and accurate, able to penetrate the watery depths that enemy submarines will lurk at. The dreadnoughts, battleships and other ships will fulfill a purpose, that of serving as escorts and screens for the carriers. This doctrine of cooperation between carriers for winning naval engagements, submarines to strangle commerce and imports to a nation and destroyers to counteract enemy submarines shall be referred to as the Floating Fortress Doctrine. Unlike the dreadnought, which the term is incorrectly applied to, this doctrine forms a true fortress, with every ship and plane serving a purpose in the fleet just as every soldier and building serves one in a fortress and it's accompanying areas."
Soon after, Henderson, Lyster and Grenfell elaborate more on the "Floating Fortress" doctrine. Explaining how battleships are expensive to construct and that Germany will not stand for it. How pursuing this naval arms race of battleships with Germany would bankrupt Britain and plunge them into another depression, one potentially worse then the one currently experienced. They also explain how battleships and large cruisers are obvious targets for the enemy, more so than a carrier due to their established mythos while the carrier has none. They expand on the reasons why naval aircraft would become more deadly than anything before it and the need to advance anti-air defenses for both land and naval forces. The old guard are less enthusiastic towards this line of thinking than the army was to Fuller's. However, Mosley's approval and commendation of Beatty and his colleagues sway them over and soon they come to understand the merits of what they are saying. Trenchard fully supports this strategy. In the previous years he has had to vehemently defend the air force from budget cuts and being absorbed into other branches, which would destroy its independence as well as having to work vigorously to establish and entrench an esprit de corps for the Air Force. He views increasing the importance of aviation of the Air Force in field of naval combat would further help the Air Force command the respect and attention the other branches maintained.
With everyone having said their piece, Mosley announces that conference is over and that all in the room could return to their work except for Fuller, Beatty and Trenchard.
Oswald Mosley
"Gentlemen, I commend you for the excellent job you did today. Due to your efforts, Britain is another step closer to regaining what is her's. I also wish to inform I have been in contact with several scientists. Men such as John Ambrose Fleming, Oliver Joseph Lodge, Lewis Fry Richardson, Albert Beaumont Wood, Robert Watson Watt, and Édouard Branly as well as the Royal Society. They have all been working om several different versions and pieces of technology, the use of radio waves to detect enemy planes as well as improve current radio transmitters to allow more efficient communication and the use of sonic vibrations to detect enemy submarines. I have asked if they could combine their efforts to develop advanced radio and sonic detection systems. They all agreed and I am setting up the buildings and gathering the resources they require as we speak. Soon, you will have advanced submarine detection capabilities and communication from the front to high command will become much faster and early plane detection systems will help us fend off any potential bombing campaigns. I believe the combination of all the ideas of war into a two phrases. Cyclonic Conflict for the strategy and Whirlwind Warfare for the tactics. You are now dismissed."
The men are pleased by this news and return to their jobs. About 2 or so hours have passed since they first met and Mosley has other things to do. He has been working continuously with Chambers and Kitson to improve the economic situation as well as to increase the power of the Prime Minister. With the economy recovering, his successful attempts at demonstrating the power Britain still possessed, and the world famous London Conference have all led to even faster rising level of nationalism and loyalty to the country and to Mosley himself. Many view Mosley as the bringer of a new Golden Age for Britain and its people. He is extremely popular with the military as he has always advocated against reducing the military and shrinking the Defense Budget. Within a year's time, Mosley could call a snap election to increase the Victorian Union's numbers in the House of Commons dramatically . Mosley is determined to shatter the democratic elements of British society. In time, the people would learn to view him and the King as the ultimate authority on all matters. As he enters his office, he notices something on his desk, something that had not been there before. He approaches it and realises it is a book with a message on top. Mosley reads it.
"My dear friend Mosley, I sincerely hope you enjoy this book. It is a most fascinating look at the destitute state of Paris and, by extension, the Commune as a whole. Hopefully, this book can serve as an apology for my neglect of your birthday. The book is written by an English man going by the name P.S Burton. However this seems to simply be a pseudonym and not his actual name as I could not find any P.S Burton. I will write to you if I discover this author. I hope all is well with Cynthia as well as Vivien and Nicholas.
Sincerely,
Henry"
He looks at the book. The title reads "Down and Out in Paris". It appears to be intriguing and so he begins to read it. As he flips through the pages, he engrosses himself in the personal accounts of P.S Burton within France. The high crime rate, widespread destitution, poverty and famine, the inept Communard police forces, and the general volatile state of the city. He lays the book down, knowing he cannot finish the approximately 130 pages in a single sitting, not with his job. He swears to finish it as quickly as he can and once done, to find out who this P.S Burton really is. Mosley could find use for a man of such talents.
Basil Henry Liddell Hart, One of the Premier Theorists Underneath Mosley, as Seen in the Great War, 1916
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Bernard Law Montgomery, One of Britain's Most Skilled Commanders, 1925
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William Edmund Ironside, One of Britain's Most Distinguished Commanders, Famous for His Service Underneath the British Expeditionary Force to the Russian Whites, 1921
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Alan Francis Brooke, A Talented Artillery Commander, Renowned for Integrating the French Creeping Barrage System into the British Army at the Battle of Vierzon, 1910
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Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, A Masterful British Commanding Officer Who Displayed His Talents in the Mesopotamian Campaign Against the Ottomans. Despite Limited Forces Due to Problems in France, He Achieved Routine Success Against Larger Ottoman Forces and Almost Seized Baghdad But Was Ultimately Defeated When the Massive German Counter Attack Began in 1918 After France Surrendered, 1923
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Hugh Montague Trenchard, First Head of the Royal Air Force and Primary Advocate Against Its Opponents in the Years to Come Following Its Creation, 1919
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Arthur Travers Harris, A High Ranking Staff Member in the Cranwell Royal Air Force College and Essential Co-Creator of Strategic Destruction, Gaining Inspiration From Herman Göring's Use Of Heavy Bombings to Suppress Native Revolts in Mittleafrika, Much to the Dismay of Statthalter Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, 1915
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Arthur Lumley St. George Lyster , Captain of the HMS Danae and a Member of the Greenwich Royal Naval College as Well as a Vocal Advocate For Carrier Primacy in the Royal Navy, 1921
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Andrew Browne Cunningham, Commander of the British 1st Destroyer Flotilla and the Destroyer Base HMS Lochinvar, He Gained Respect For His Excellent Service in the Mediterranean, His Assistance During the Bordeaux Evacuations, and His Navigation of the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Guinea to Ward of German Attempts to Annex British and French Colonies in West Africa Such as Guinea, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast, 1925
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Charles Edward Madden, British Admiral and a Skilled Commander. Leader of the 1st and 3rd Battle Squadrons, He Escaped Certain Death When an Illness Struck Him Just Over a Week Before the Battle of Jutland. If He Had Not Been Recovering From His Illness at Home He Would've Died Along With Jellicoe When His Ship Exploded ,1922
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- Lord_Vespasian
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