Chapter 867 Streamlining and Not Simplifying

"It's quite...thick." Attlee held two file bags that were as thick as a finger. Attlee, who was born in 1883, is now about to be seventy-three years old.

While in the House of Commons, Churchill was long considered stubborn and dying. But now, Attlee is not much better than Churchill at that time, and it is inevitable that he will suffer from lack of energy as he gets older.

From the second half of his second term, Attlee also began to rely on the Cabinet Office to share the huge workload to reduce his own workload. To be fair, he had not worked at a high intensity for a long time.

Otherwise, how can the sleeping king of the next generation satisfy all departments in the United States? Not all voters are satisfied, though.

After forcing himself to read for a while, Attlee gave up and asked Norman Brooke directly, "Norman, do you have a more concise report, or do you know a general framework?"

"Yes, my dear Prime Minister." Norman Brooke was not surprised by Attlee's behavior. All of this was within his expectation, and he introduced directly, "The main purpose of Frank's report is to judge the trend of structural optimization of the Royal Navy. , as well as reducing military expenditures from the perspective of cost savings. Let’s talk about the Rendezvous-class aircraft carrier currently involved. I did a simple calculation. If we agree to the French’s arms sales request, we can save a lot of logistics expenses. In addition to being able to Once you get the money, you can also earn a modification fee.”

"Of course, the specific arms sales model still needs the opinion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Whether we modify it locally, or the French think they don't need help and take the aircraft carrier back for modification, the final number will be different."

"As for the First Sea Lord's report, although it is from a different angle, it is essentially the same thing." Norman Brooke picked up General Mountbatten's report again. "Essentially, it is the Royal Navy from its own perspective. The optimization plan given shows that General Mountbatten is still a very enlightened naval admiral, a respectable and professional naval leader."

Attlee nodded and heard Norman Brooke continue, "Respectfully, Prime Minister, first of all, let me briefly introduce the Royal Navy's streamlined integration plan in the next five to ten years, starting with aircraft carriers."

The Prime Minister remained silent and listened to Norman Brooke's introduction. Not to mention the battleships, even the newest battleship HMS Vanguard has now arrived in loyal Malaya. The remaining battleships of the Royal Navy are all in the Pacific Fleet. Logistics and maintenance were borne by the Malayan colony.

This allows the Royal Navy to still appear to be the framework of global navies ten years from 1945 to now. Although a number of warships have been dismantled and sold, the total tonnage is still over two million tons.

As for the aircraft carriers, in 1945, the Royal Navy included, but was not limited to, four Glory-class ships, two Eagle-class ships, two Vengeful-class ships, including fifteen Giant-class ships that had not yet been completed, a total of Twenty-three aircraft carriers.

At that time, there was the Malta class, and now the Queen class aircraft carrier has started construction, and the four Giant class improved Centaur class have also been retained and continued to be built. Counting this part, there are a total of twenty-nine aircraft carriers.

After the war, Britain encountered financial difficulties and continued to sell aircraft carriers to reduce the expenditure of the Royal Navy. However, financial pressure has eased over time, and there are still many aircraft carriers currently resident in ports.

"In the First Sea Lord's report, the Eagle class and Queen class must be retained. Although the Centaur class is slightly smaller than the Glorious class and the Vengeance class, due to its late construction, the issue of increased carrier-based aircraft was already taken into consideration. . Therefore, the modification potential is greater than that of the Glorious Class and the Grudge Class. But the Grudge Class, Glorious Class and Titan Class may be sold for the best result. Sealing them is not unacceptable, but it only delays the dismantling time."

Norman Brooke flipped through the streamlined and integrated section, then pushed it over and put it in front of Attlee and said, "Excluding the retirement fleet in the Malayan colony, the Royal Navy's battle sequence in the next five to ten years will be two to Three new aircraft carriers, two Queen-class ships, and four Centaur-class ships,

A varying number of undisassembled and sealed parts of the Vengeance, Glory, and Titan classes may be retained. "

"Then five to ten years from now, the Royal Navy's configuration will be like this: about ten aircraft carriers of all levels, as well as legacy aircraft carriers depending on the situation, four cruisers, about seventy destroyers, seventy frigates, and a varying number of Waiting for the submarine force. All this does not count the Pacific battleship fleet, which may have lost its combat effectiveness by then, with a tonnage of about 1.5 million tons. "

Norman Brooke played a trick here. As we all know, the battleship fleet of the Malayan colony is also very large, with a tonnage of nearly 600,000 tons. If the battleships with poor performance are placed in Malaya and continue to serve, the model will still continue. If this continues, the so-called streamlined integration will be out of the question. The size of the Royal Navy expected in this report ten years from now is likely to be the same as it is now.

Norman Brooke was an honest man, and if Prime Minister Attlee raised objections at this time, he would definitely tell the truth. But the great prime minister didn’t ask, so there was no need for him to say that the so-called streamlining and integration couldn’t reduce even one ton.

Although Prime Minister Attlee is much more enlightened than Churchill, he is still a prime minister from the old era. He has also seen the days when the British Empire commanded the world and declared war on Germany with its colonies, dominions, and dozens of political units.

The streamlined plan of half a million tons was enough to satisfy him. He was not yet mentally prepared for the Royal Navy to become a second-rate navy. After hearing this, he said with satisfaction, "In this way, the cost of the Royal Navy will be greatly reduced, and it can also Maintain normal updates?”

"It is true, dear Prime Minister, that most of the Glory, Vengeance and Titan classes will disappear from the current combat sequence. It can be said that General Mountbatten is bleeding in his heart."

"There is no way around it. Wartime is different from peacetime. After World War I, the Royal Navy faced a similar situation."

"Yes, many battleships were sold at that time, just like aircraft carriers are sold today." When Attlee mentioned the past of selling off battleships after World War I, Norman Brooke deeply agreed. At that time, that was it. At this moment.

The new aircraft carrier that is about to start construction is larger than the Queen class which has not been in service for a long time. From this point of view, there is really no need to reserve aircraft carriers below the Vengeance class. The Ministry of the Navy has come up with professional opinions. The potential for modification is not great, but the modification The cost is not small.

Compared with the big guys in the future, although the Vengeful Class has a tonnage of 30,000 tons, it can only be called a little guy.

"So, Norman, you think there's nothing wrong with selling the Vengeance class?" Attlee looked to Norman Brooke for advice.

"Dear Prime Minister, this is a tough decision you made alone." Norman Brooke started joking, "Of course if you ask me, this is a good way to save costs. We can propose to add some additional conditions, For example, the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, help the French do more inspections to prevent dangerous goods from flowing into Algeria, and the rest is up to the French themselves."

"You're right. This is an additional condition that costs nothing and can earn the gratitude of the French." Unknowingly, Prime Minister Attlee had already recognized in his heart that this arms sale was extremely important to France.

To whom is it unimportant? Even if Prime Minister Attlee has made a decision, the work is not over yet in order to try his best to eliminate interference.

Finance Minister Gaitske is a cabinet member who is very wary of France's European integration. He hates hearing about the ideal of the United States of Europe, so Frank's words changed.

France's idea of ​​integrating Europe is certainly worthy of vigilance, but it can be clearly seen that the circles that insist on the Algerian war and European integration are not one and the same.

"Dear Minister, these two things cannot be done at the same time. If Algeria can be part of France and undergo European integration, then the entire Commonwealth can join European integration. If this is the case, of course we in the UK will have no problem. The Commonwealth is much stronger than the French community."

Gaitske attaches great importance to or is very wary of the issue of European integration. Frank knows this very well and uses this as an entry point.

The finance minister who was most likely to object felt that this was indeed the case, and his position was quietly changing.

In the next cabinet discussion, the discussion of whether to sell the aircraft carrier to France has turned into what is the right price to make France feel the warmth from Britain.

Although the Revenge-class has sufficient tonnage, the fact that the modification potential is not great and the cost is not small still makes the cabinet restrain the idea of ​​attacking France, which has been a traditional friendship for seven hundred years.

Everything was discussed based on the professional evaluation produced by the Ministry of Finance. Based on the cost plus discounts, the two Rendezvous-class aircraft carriers would not be considered a loss at 20 million pounds. At that time, the exchange rate of pounds to dollars was still 1:4.2, and now it is still 1 to 4.2. It has become one to two point eight. The French cannot bear the losses on the exchange rate.

This offer was directly notified to the French. After Prime Minister Attlee met with George Pidour, he also proposed additional conditions that had been discussed before. Britain would help at both ends of the Mediterranean, but Britain could not solve all problems. Contraband from other places, such as Yugoslavia, must be dealt with by the French themselves.

"Sometimes, like the Americans, we have to criticize France." Attlee also mentioned his difficulties to George Pidour in private.

But at the same time, George Pidour is reassured that Britain's intention to help France has not changed since the end of World War II. Only the unity of Britain and France can protect the interests of both countries.

"What is the traditional friendship between Britain and France?" Alan Wilson lay directly in Ingrid Bergman's arms, enjoying the luxury hardware of the Swedish car on the back of his head.

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