Chapter 536 Malice
Ya Er’s famous saying: The Russian Empire has only two allies, the army and the navy.
From now on, the air force will be added.
In the competition with George, Nicholas Jr. was at an absolute disadvantage. He had no experience in commanding air force operations, and he didn't even know the role of aircraft.
“Can you tell the difference between these two planes?”
George showed two photos to little Nicholas, proudly.
Nicholas came over to watch with little Nikolai, and everyone came to find fault.
The photos taken in the 10s are a bit blurry in details and cannot be seen clearly.
Both aircraft have four engines, and there is no difference at all in appearance.
“These two aircraft are transport aircraft and bombers respectively. Their functions and roles are completely different. If you don’t understand them, you can’t really bring out the strength of the air force. What’s more, you know how the air force should cooperate with the army. ”
Little Nikolai's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. Not to mention open-ground coordination, he had not yet understood the coordination of continuous battles.
This is also thanks to George's outstanding performance in previous Rivno exercises, otherwise the Russian army is still torn between infantry and artillery coordination and human sea tactics.
But there is no need to belittle oneself, because other countries are not much better.
The German army, currently known as "the best in the world", only truly understood the coordination of infantry and artillery after fighting in the middle of the World War.
"The Air Force is far more complicated than you think. There are more than a dozen types of aerial bombs. If you want to command the Air Force in combat, you must first understand all of these."
George beat little Nikolay to pieces. No one in the world knows the Air Force better than George.
In order to prove the role of the air force to Nicholas, George held an airborne demonstration for the two Nicholas in Tsarskoye Selo, a suburb of St. Petersburg.
The parachute was not George’s invention. As early as 1306 AD, during the coronation ceremony of an emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, an acrobat used a giant paper umbrella to jump from a high wall, safe and sound. , which was the earliest practice of skydiving.
Tsarskoe Selo, a suburb of St. Petersburg, has only one transport plane and one runway, which George prepared for Nikolai's escape.
Nicola was brave enough to try new things and wanted to experience it personally by flying, but George and little Nicholas resolutely stopped him.
Although George believed in the safety of the transport plane, he still did not want Nikolai to take risks unless necessary.
Little Nicholas did not dare to get on the plane because of his fear of heights.
The performance was very successful, but Nicholas was curious, what is the meaning of this?
“This transport plane can carry 40 people and fly 800 kilometers. If it departs from Rivne, it can fly to Vienna.”
George made an understatement.
"Forty people are a bit too few. It's okay to cause damage-"
Little Nicholas was too lazy to use his brain, leaving thinking and other things to smart people like George.
"There are 40 people in a plane, what if it is 100 planes?"
George is patient. If it is 4,000 people, he can launch a surprise attack.
Little Nicholas was dumbfounded, feeling that the command of the Air Force should still be fought for.
"Even if we succeed in sending people there, they will be besieged by the Austrians. They will still load them all with bombs and level Vienna."
Nicholas was so murderous that neither he nor Nicholas Jr. seemed to notice. Now, Rivne is only 850 kilometers away from Berlin.
"Razing to the ground is not impossible. We have an incendiary bomb specially used for arson, which can ignite steel." George has many tricks, and when it comes to chemistry, the Russians are experts.
“How much does such a plane cost?”
Nicholas finally asked the most crucial question.
Vladivostok sold the plane to the Americans for millions of dollars.
If the Russian Empire uses it for itself, the price will be at least 50% off.
The bomber was much larger than the small planes used for performances, and it looked not cheap. Nikolai calculated the cost and felt it hurt.
Money is never enough.
"Let's pull up the framework first, and the number of aircraft can be slowly filled."
George is not in a hurry, the Air Force's investment is not much less than that of the Navy.
Although the unit price of aircraft is much cheaper than that of battleships, the quantity is not the same.
The Russian Empire has two batches of all-heavy artillery battleships, with a total of only 8 ships.
If you form an air force, the purchase of aircraft is in units of hundreds. Throwing hundreds of millions of rubles into it will not even make a splash.
Nikolai's first batch of funds for the Air Force was only 40 million rubles, which was not enough to repair the airport.
Although fighter jets do not have high requirements for airports, transport aircraft and bombers have very high requirements for airport runways. If the airport runway does not meet the requirements, the aircraft will be destroyed and people will be killed.
After the beginning of spring, another group of Russian troops will retire.
This group of Russian soldiers George is going to be converted into engineering troops, and they will all be pulled out to build roads. Not only roads and airports must be built, but the railways must also be maintained and upgraded.
200,000 Russian troops retire in one year. In the eyes of outsiders, they are simply prodigal. The soldiers who have trained so hard are retired before they have even been on the battlefield. Only the Russian Empire can be so wealthy.
Now the results are finally visible. The extra 200,000 engineering troops every year will not only improve the infrastructure level of the Russian Empire, but they are also reserve forces and can be converted into regular troops at any time, which has many benefits.
For the Air Force to form a combat capability, don’t even think about it for a year or two. George’s most important task in the short term is the joint military exercises in the Baltic Sea.
Tirpitz attached great importance to military exercises and sent two "Nassau" ships to participate in the exercises and personally led the team.
George also personally led the team. There were also two battleships participating in the exercise. Unfortunately, both were Dreadnoughts. One was the "Borodino" No. 5 ship "Victory" and the other was the Japanese The only survivor of the Russian war, the "Tron Prince".
"Borodino" was optimized and produced on the basis of "Crown Prince". The two battleships look similar in appearance. "Crown Prince" is painted in white, and "Victory" The hull of the ship is black and the chimney is yellow. Compared with the two "Nassau" ships, it is indeed a bit incompetent.
But when it comes to small warships, the Russian Empire has the upper hand.
After George became Minister of the Navy, the Baltic Fleet focused mainly on light cruisers. Currently, there are 11 light cruisers in service in the Baltic Fleet.
The performance parameters of the light cruisers of the Baltic Fleet are similar to those of the Siberian Fleet. The advantage is fierce firepower and fast speed. The weakness is weak armor and low survivability. It is commonly known as thin skin but big stuffing.
On the first day of the exercise, both George and Tirpitz deliberately hid their clumsiness. The participating troops performed quite well and all projects were successfully completed.
In the evening, the participating fleet docked at the Kronstadt military port near St. Petersburg. Nicholas sent troops to work, and Tirpitz finally felt the deep malice of the Russian Empire.
(End of this chapter)