I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 1010: Demonstration

Main battlefield 150 kilometers east of Malta.

Major General Avis paced anxiously within the command center of "Duncan."

(The image above shows the former Dreadnought "Duncan." Compared to the "London-class," its main improvement is the reduction in frontal armor thickness to increase speed, though only up to 19 knots.)

"No news yet?" Avis asked.

"No, General," the communication officer replied. "I think they’ve likely been defeated and surrendered, as the telegram said."

"Impossible! The main force of the French Army is before us," Avis doubted. "How could they defeat the detachment and force it to surrender? That fleet consists of three battleships and two battlecruisers!"

The communication officer didn’t know how to respond.

Though they received the final telegram sent before the surrender of "Prince of Wales" and "Queen," Major General Avis refused to believe it.

At that moment, a staff member by the radio reported loudly, "General, a telegram from General Winter."

Major General Avis’s expression relaxed, "I knew it."

Finally, there was contact; there must have been a problem with the radio during the battle.

He rushed forward a few steps to take the telegram.

But after glancing at its content, Major General Avis froze.

It read:

"Although I am reluctant to say this, it’s a truth we must acknowledge, Avis."

"We cannot defeat the French fleet. We misjudged the situation and made a grave error."

"Now, the fleet has nowhere to go. Surrender, Avis. Continuing the fight is meaningless."

Major General Avis’s face changed. He asked the communication officer, "Is it confirmed to be from General Winter?"

"Yes, General," the communication officer replied. "We have verified the identity."

Major General Avis’s face darkened, and he replied:

"You’ve already become a disgraceful traitor, so there’s nothing more to say!"

"Tell the French, we won’t be like you."

"I will lead the forces to continue fighting until victory!"

General Winter replied: "You don’t know what has happened. Shire says he will demonstrate it to you."

"Demonstrate?" Major General Avis was puzzled, "What demonstration?"

Suddenly, the lookout on the mast shouted, "Aircraft, enemy aircraft!"

Major General Avis stuck his head out to look, spotting twenty-odd small black dots in the sky, arranged in a triangular formation and heading towards the fleet.

"Is this the so-called ’Shire demonstration’?" Major General Avis sneered, "Do they plan to penetrate our armor with machine guns?"

General Winter’s telegram arrived just in time:

"I know what you’re thinking. You assume these planes only have machine guns. But that’s not the case; they are bombers, carrying bombs."

"Each time they bomb, it’s equivalent to being hit by enemy naval guns."

"No, in fact, their damage is more severe, much more severe than guns."

Major General Avis’s face slightly changed as he turned his gaze again to the sky, with the black dots growing larger, remaining skeptical.

Are they bombers?

Bombers carrying bombs?

Impossible, even if they are bombers, their bombs would rarely hit a warship, as long as the ship begins evasive maneuvers.

"Full speed ahead!" Major General Avis ordered.

"Full speed ahead."

"Full speed ahead!"

...

The crew relayed the orders down the line.

Perhaps Major General Avis was right.

Previous bombers like "Caproni" could also carry bombs to attack warships, but even in level flight with a bomb, they’d have an error of at least 200 meters, 300 meters, and the error increases with altitude.

And the warship was moving at 19 knots per hour on the sea, able to execute evasive maneuvers.

Under these circumstances, for bombers to hit or even destroy the thick-skinned battleships was indeed wishful thinking.

But this thinking was outdated.

The next moment, Major General Avis was astonished to see those bombers high above diving swiftly towards the warship.

Machine guns and cannons spoke in unison across the warship, with all anti-aircraft fire activated, yet to no avail.

Next, amidst the deafening engine noises, bombs were dropped one after another, exploding into water columns tens of meters high nearby.

Though these three bombs didn’t hit, they still left Major General Avis shocked.

The fall point was only a dozen meters from the warship. Such accuracy was unquestionably "precision bombing." How did they achieve it?

"Boom! Boom!" Two loud explosions.

Taken by surprise, Major General Avis was knocked to the ground by the violent shaking, and the glass on one side of the command cabin shattered with a crash, falling everywhere.

A flying shard cut across Major General Avis’s face, leaving a thin, long scar, and red blood flowed down his cheeks like tears.

But Major General Avis was oblivious, still shaken by the precision of the enemy bombers.

He finally understood what General Winter’s detached fleet had encountered.

Now, what befell General Winter had fallen onto himself.

Major General Avis struggled to get up from the ground, noticing the sky was filled with planes—both "Camel" and "Jenny A."

They relentlessly pursued the seaplanes, shooting them down one after another, leaving the sea scattered with wreckage and debris in just moments.

The pilots’ blood and bodies even attracted sharks, who fought over the corpses in the water, leaving no escape for the rare survivors from their jaws.

Then the fighters shifted their target, gliding effortlessly past the warship’s sides, and amidst the sound of machine guns, dense bullets struck the armor, ringing with a "clang, clang."

Finally extending to the "bang, bang" of the gunners.

Before the gunners could react, they had been busy loading shells the previous second, only to fall to the deck in agony, bearing numerous gruesome wounds.

Major General Avis watched, stunned and speechless.

The communication officer stumbled forward to bring him General Winter’s telegram.

"Now you know what’s going on," General Winter asked:

"Please believe they haven’t used all their strength. This time, the bombs used for bombing are only 50 kilograms; they have bombs of 250 kilograms, even 500 kilograms."

"Moreover, there are torpedoes. Yes, their aircraft can also release torpedoes."

"You know what that means for the warship!"

Major General Avis sighed deeply. Having fought for decades, he considered himself well-versed in naval warfare.

But he had never imagined a situation like this:

The enemy’s assault came from another dimension, the air.

And the warships were powerless to retaliate!

(Note: From the advent of aircraft carriers onto the battlefield, combat modes shifted to "multidimensional." During World War II, many naval guns and secondary guns were dismantled to be replaced with anti-aircraft fire. In modern times, the primary task of destroyers became air defense, followed by anti-submarine operations, and finally anti-ship action, which is typically handled by carrier-based aircraft, rarely involving ship-to-ship confrontations on the sea.)