Ch.229White Fleet vs. Red Fleet

# Naval Confrontation in the Aegean

“I never thought I’d end up involved in something like this.”

Meanwhile, Manstein, who had quickly gained Goebbels’ favor through Operation Sickle, was dispatched to Greece as part of the Italian support forces.

His mission was to work alongside Graziani, who had come as part of the Greek expeditionary force.

“Hahaha, Commander Manstein! What a pleasure to see you. They call you the Red Hero of Germany, don’t they?”

Don’t call me the Red Hero. It seriously makes me want to kill myself.

Manstein despised that title.

If this continued and Communist Germany collapsed, he would surely be hanged as a war criminal.

Looking at the mess in the Sudetenland, it was clear this war was doomed.

From the beginning, this suffocating Red-controlled Germany hardly felt like a country at all.

Things were so bad that he’d begun to think the Kaiser’s empire would have been better. What more could be said?

He could already envision a future where the stupid Allies would feed him to the gallows after spitting out what they themselves had created.

‘But there’s still a chance.’

Yes, there was still hope.

Bulgarian or Turkish forces were nearby, weren’t they? Perhaps he should leak this information to the Turkish side.

Then something suddenly occurred to him.

Are supplies getting through properly here?

“Commander Graziani. Are supplies coming through properly?”

“Don’t worry about that. Our Red Fleet controls the sea.”

Graziani pounded his chest and laughed heartily, telling Manstein to just trust them.

The Red Fleet, huh? The Red Fleet.

Given the Italian army’s record of poor performance, their Red Fleet was probably only comparable to a newly modernized nation’s fleet.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the Russian fleet also in the area? How did they plan to fight against the Russian fleet?

“What about the Russian Black Sea Fleet?”

Surely the Russian fleet would be there?

“Hahaha! Russia may have a strong army, but their navy is nothing special. They’ve added some aircraft carriers and battleships to their fleet, but they’re no match for us.”

How many times have you been trapped and blocked? Well, it doesn’t matter.

Whatever happens to the Italian navy doesn’t concern him anyway.

Then something suddenly occurred to him.

‘What if I just defect to Turkey?’

Manstein began plotting a new strategy to somehow return to the German Empire.

Meanwhile.

“Admiral! The Russian fleet has been spotted!”

“They’ve finally crawled out of the Black Sea! We’ll tear them apart!”

Admiral Inigo Campioni of the Italian Red Navy, supporting the Communist Italian Army’s expedition to Greece, encountered the Russian Black Sea Fleet commanded by Nikolai Kuznetsov in the Aegean Sea.

A new storm of war was brewing in the Aegean.

# # #

The German mainland was gradually being pushed back by the White wave.

With Goebbels failing to quickly deal with the Danubian Federation, his plans had gone awry, and with the White Army’s intervention, the war was essentially lost.

It’s rather pitiful.

This puts us in a somewhat unfortunate position too.

And if our enemies collapse too easily, and in the unlikely event that our Goebbels tries to flee or surrender, we won’t be able to use our nuclear weapons.

If Wilhelm II is right, the Junkers will surrender and make things easier. That would be truly unfortunate.

We need to clearly demonstrate Russia’s power. The only countries that might offer meaningful resistance would be the French Commune and Yugoslavia.

The French Commune has already been overthrown once, so it can’t happen again, and since the Commune members would certainly be executed by the government-in-exile if they surrendered, they absolutely won’t surrender. As for Yugoslavia, they’ll probably try to make peace by returning everything they took in World War I, true to their opportunistic nature.

But would the Danubian Federation and Bulgaria accept a peace treaty?

I don’t think they’d even accept unconditional surrender. They’ll probably just push through directly.

Then the enemy will be forced to resist.

Couldn’t we just eliminate Serbia, the axis of evil in Europe, with nuclear weapons?

“Then we’d be looking at destroying Paris and Belgrade.”

“Surely you don’t mean that new weapon?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t destroying those two cities demonstrate Russia’s power?”

“Your Majesty, even so, wouldn’t there be much criticism later if civilians die?”

Drozdovsky worries too much.

I’ve already thought about this.

“Of course, we won’t be directly responsible for using it. No one would pity Belgrade if it were destroyed, but in France’s case, we’ll have the government-in-exile request it and then use it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Honestly, the French government-in-exile doesn’t have the strength to reclaim their homeland and relies on us. Frankly speaking, if we present them with the choice between nuclear weapons or a peace treaty to minimize damage, what could the government-in-exile do? Looking at the possibilities, the French government-in-exile would rather sacrifice one city to reclaim their homeland.”

In other words, we won’t be directly detonating it. If we make it seem like we’re selling nuclear weapons at the request of the French government and have them drop it on Paris…

Since no one knows the power of nuclear weapons at this time, the Free French might ask us to drop the bomb in hopes of reclaiming their homeland.

No, we could even use French bombers.

Later, people might say, “Russia had such weapons!” This would be possible, and the Free French government-in-exile, which would later become the legitimate government, would be criticized for using such weapons on their own country.

Of course, we’d be criticized for providing such weapons, but the civilian massacre would have been led by their own government, so…

Thinking about it, it seems we should leave at least one Free French government in the homeland, even if it gets torn apart.

“Oh, indeed, that would minimize the blame on us.”

“Well, since we don’t know how the war will unfold, let’s observe for a while before deciding.”

I’m not a devil either. We could demonstrate our nuclear power by destroying an evacuated village.

Even if not that, we can still show how powerful nuclear weapons are.

Of course, this assumes the enemies surrender unconditionally, but for now, let’s just observe.

“Your Majesty, the Grand Duke has successfully occupied Poznan.”

“Not bad. That should earn him recognition from the White Army department.”

It seems Grand Duke Vladimir, who has now received his title, is doing his part well.

It’s been quite some time since he joined the White Army, but he’s now shedding his youthful appearance.

Belka is lonely now that she’s gone, and it’s quite boring with him also joining the White Army, but I’m quite pleased to hear that he’s performing well.

“Your Majesty, as expected, troops have been withdrawn from the Sudetenland and moved toward Berlin.”

More news coming in.

Although the enemy forces we’ll face have increased, it means Germany is in crisis.

They wouldn’t have withdrawn troops from the Sudetenland if they had any leeway.

“The encirclement of the Sudetenland will weaken.”

“On the other hand, we’ll have more enemy forces to deal with, but even with more troops, they won’t be able to stop our attacks coming from all directions.”

That’s right.

Our army alone outnumbers the combined German and French armies.

Of course, the enemies are holding out because they’re on the defensive, but they’re easily crumbling under our offensive.

“The German Imperial Army under the Kaiser is particularly at the forefront, killing the Reds.”

Things must be desperate if the remnants of the German Imperial Army are fighting.

That’s right. How can they reclaim their country by relying solely on foreign help?

The war is becoming too easy, and I feel somewhat conflicted about handing all of Germany over to the Kaiser.

But it would be too pitiful not to give them their homeland, seeing their zombie-like existence. Besides, with German cities being destroyed left and right by our rockets, there’s no reason not to give them their homeland.

“The Danubian Defense Force has also begun a counterattack.”

As they should. They need to do at least that much if we’re helping them.

They’ve been struggling hard to protect their interests, but the Danubian Federation was originally in a position to be attacked, so defending themselves is natural for them.

It’s unreasonable to expect gratitude.

So where are they counterattacking?

Is it the Sudetenland? Or perhaps Yugoslavia?

“Is it the Sudetenland? Or…”

“They’ve launched counterattacks in both the Sudetenland and Yugoslavia.”

They’ve begun counterattacks simultaneously? Hitler is truly impressive.

He must have seen an opportunity with Italy’s blunders.

“Well, Bulgaria alone couldn’t be expected to tear apart Serbia.”

Hitler has repeatedly called for the annihilation of Serbia in his pledges.

While liberating the German people is good, he’ll likely aim to kill Serbians first and simultaneously advance into southern Germany.

One thing is certain: Yugoslavia will now be torn apart like Austria-Hungary, and Serbia will disappear.

It will be difficult for them to be as lucky as in the original history.

If Italy falls, there will be no force anywhere to help Yugoslavia.

They’re already making a mess with the invasion of Greece anyway.

“What other news do we have?”

“Your Majesty, it seems our Black Sea Fleet and the Turkish Combined Fleet have finally entered the Aegean Sea.”

“The Aegean is currently firmly held by the Italian Navy, isn’t it?”

Even so, with the British Mediterranean Fleet gone, the Italian Navy seems to be acting like they own the place.

The Greek Navy would be completely overwhelmed by Italy.

“Yes. Even a rotten fish is still a fish—the Italian Navy is helping the army by supporting the Greek expedition after capturing the Greek Navy.”

Well, how will this play out?

A naval battle seems inevitable.

“So a naval battle is imminent.”

Given the location, the fleet fighting the Italian Red Fleet would certainly be the Black Sea Fleet.

I wonder if the Black Sea Fleet’s strength is even half that of the Red Fleet.

I’m not sure, but I know they’ve focused on building submarines.

They say it’s cost-effective. Instead, they seem to have done something with the budget allocated for the air force.

How will this naval battle turn out?

I told them not to push too hard.

We could also make Italy or the French Commune surrender with our land forces and then seize their fleets. But wouldn’t that mean fewer fleets to capture later?

No, that’s not right.

If we lose, we can capture them with our land forces and take all the fleets from the Commune and Italy to rebuild the Black Sea Fleet.

# # #

The Aegean Sea

With British forces withdrawn, the Italian Navy was running rampant in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas like a fish in water.

The rebuilt Russian Black Sea Fleet couldn’t just stand by and watch.

After all, this was the navy of a country claiming to be the legitimate successor to Rome.

They couldn’t coexist under the same sky, so this naval battle was inevitable.

Unlike in the original history, the Italian Red Navy now had three aircraft carriers and had received significant investment, making it quite powerful.

One reason their army was pushed back was because of investments in the navy.

They had three aircraft carriers—Aquila, Sparviero, and Cavour—along with 6 battleships, 170 destroyers, 100 submarines, and 24 cruisers.

The Italian Red Navy had taken over as the navy of the Red Front after the People’s Navy (Volksmarine) of the Free Socialist Republic of Germany was beaten by the mainland fleet while trying to harass the retreating Allied forces, leaving them with only submarines.

In the original history, Italy could only mobilize two Conte di Cavour-class battleships during World War II, but now the two Giulio Cesare-class ships that should have been under renovation had already been completed, and the Littorio-class ships that should have been in the final stages of construction were also finished.

On the other hand, the Russian Black Sea Fleet facing the Red Fleet wasn’t particularly strong.

It consisted of two newly built Yekaterina-class aircraft carriers, three Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleships, 10 cruisers, 60 destroyers, and 80 submarines.

If the Baltic Fleet and the small Pacific Fleet were added, they might stand a chance, but in the current situation, that was impossible, and the Black Sea Fleet alone was significantly outmatched by the Italian Red Navy.

Even with the Turkish Navy joining forces, the power difference remained.

If the British Mediterranean Fleet were still there, they would have won overwhelmingly, but on the surface, this looked like it would be a very difficult battle.

Admiral Inigo Campioni of the Red Navy was so confident that he laughed when he received the report from his lookout.

“Hahaha! They’ve come to face us with just that? Without the British Mediterranean Fleet or the Baltic Fleet? Alone? Good! We’ll capture them before the Baltic Fleet arrives!”

“Their flagship is the battleship Anastasia. Named after their Tsar.”

“Oh? They’re using a battleship as their flagship? And named after the Tsar?”

Inigo Campioni’s eyes sparkled at the young staff officer’s words.

The battleship Anastasia. A ship named after the Tsar who dared to call himself the Emperor of Eastern Rome.

For Italy’s ambition to create a Red Rome, this ship had to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Black Sea Fleet was also making thorough preparations for battle.

“The Turkish fleet has joined us.”

“Have we located the enemy fleet?”

Admiral Kuznetsov asked in a spirited voice.

Despite being numerically inferior, they already had a pre-arranged strategy, so there was nothing they couldn’t handle.

“Yes. They’ve spotted us too.”

With the British Mediterranean Fleet gone, the Italians were acting like they owned the place.

“It’s laughable how the Italians are acting like they own the Mediterranean now that the British have withdrawn. But that ends today! We must destroy the Italian Navy in this battle. Are we ready?”

“Yes. The J2 rocket launchers have already been set up in Constantinople, and the Army Air Force’s torpedo bombers are also ready!”

“The submarine command reports that the U-boat fleet is also prepared!”

Who would be crazy enough to fight head-on with such inferior forces?

Unfortunately for the Italians, the Black Sea Fleet had no such intention.

Of course, at first, they had to hope that the Italian Red Fleet would be as pathetically easy to lure as their army.

So the Black Sea Fleet and the Turkish Combined Fleet pretended not to see the Italian fleet and recklessly rushed into the Aegean Sea according to plan.

“Distance: 10,000 meters!”

BOOM!

Naturally, they had to take a hit from the Italian Red Fleet.

The Red Fleet, having scored a direct hit, gradually closed the distance while dismissing the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

“Good, we need to lure them in first. We’ll fight with full force initially! Fire as soon as the firing solutions are calculated!”

The Black Sea Fleet, having retired all its old ships and been newly organized, looked impressive on the surface but was far too weak compared to the Red Fleet.

“Turn starboard! All main guns, commence firing!”

BOOM! BOOM!

The Black Sea Fleet’s 15-inch main guns also spewed fire, determined to face the Red Fleet.