Ch.230White Fleet vs. Red Fleet (2)

* * *

Bang! Boom! Kaboom!

For a while, the Red Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet fought fiercely, trading blows back and forth. Though the quality might have been comparable, the overwhelming difference in quantity meant that the Black Sea Fleet inevitably suffered greater losses when taking equal damage.

Nevertheless, the Black Sea Fleet continued to fight desperately against the Red Fleet for some time.

“Light cruiser Svetlana sunk!”

“Battleship Emperor Nicholas I has been hit!”

“The number of sinking destroyers is increasing!”

The damage was steadily accumulating.

Perhaps it’s about time.

Regrettably, the Black Sea Fleet would need time to rebuild after this. But so far, the strategy had gone smoothly.

“I can only apologize to the sailors who sacrificed themselves for victory, but we must carry on. Withdraw to the Bosphorus Strait!”

When the time came, Kuznetsov finally ordered the retreat.

The Black Sea Fleet withdrew, deliberately breaking formation to make it appear to the Red Fleet as if they were fleeing in an attempt to preserve their forces.

“Their army might be strong, but their navy is pathetic! At this rate, we could defeat their entire fleet even in a direct confrontation!”

Watching the enemy fleet retreat, Inigo Campioni laughed loudly from the bridge.

Indeed, while the Russians might have invested in their army, they likely hadn’t done the same for their fleet.

Whatever else happened, he could not allow those Slavic bastards to seize control of the Mediterranean.

He would crush them all while he had the chance.

“Admiral, they’re beginning to withdraw! Their flagship, the Anastasia battleship, has turned around!”

“Anastasia? We can’t miss this opportunity to conquer her. If our Red Fleet sinks the Anastasia battleship, it will boost the morale of the Red Front Army!”

The Red Fleet, excited by the thought of violating the Anastasia battleship, pursued it eagerly.

This cat-and-mouse chase between the Black Sea Fleet and the Red Fleet continued until they approached Constantinople.

“Hahaha! It seems they can’t abandon Constantinople after all. Destroy their fleet!”

At first, he was overjoyed at the thought of conquering a warship named after the Tsar.

“This is bad. Submarines from all directions!”

The secretly built Russian U-boat fleet had been lying in wait.

They were even equipped with oxygen torpedoes received from Japan, which Russia claimed as an ally.

Although the United States naval forces at this time lacked skill, and the torpedoes had no guidance systems and poor accuracy, they were still capable of hitting targets in a prepared setting.

And that wasn’t all.

“E-enemy air units spotted! Good heavens!”

The lookout trembled but refused to put down his telescope.

He needed to confirm with his own eyes if what he was seeing was real.

But there was no need for the lookout to verify.

Enemy aircraft were already approaching the Red Fleet, covering the sky.

“What on earth is—oh my God.”

The sailors of the Red Fleet looked up at the sky, their faces filled with despair.

The sky was completely covered with Russian aircraft.

It was almost as if dark clouds were gradually filling the blue sky.

The sailors finally realized they had walked straight into the tiger’s mouth.

Inigo Campioni assessed the situation coldly.

Yes, the Russian Black Sea Fleet had never been the real threat.

From the beginning, they had merely been bait to create this situation.

The Red Fleet had taken the bait completely and was now trapped.

If they remained passive, the Red Fleet might be reduced to nothing but a name.

“Their Black Sea Fleet was just the tip of the iceberg. The real threat was the torpedo bombers and submarines! It was bait! Withdraw! This is a trap!”

Why hadn’t he noticed this earlier?

Had he underestimated the Russian Navy too much?

This was no time for such thoughts. At this rate, everyone would die.

He had to save the fleet somehow.

“Fall back! Quickly! Turn the ships around! We must withdraw!”

“Full speed ahead!” “Our formation is breaking!”

The Italian Red Fleet, which had been pursuing the Russian Black Sea Fleet, now found itself in retreat with its formation in disarray.

But that was still better than everyone dying.

“We’ll have to accept some losses! We need to escape to the Mediterranean! If we don’t get out of here, we’re finished! We must reach Malta!”

Three hundred U-boats from the Russian United States Submarine Command and seven hundred torpedo bombers from the Russian White Air Force rushed to attack the Red Fleet from sea and sky.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“If you can’t hit them, dive down and make sure you do! Destroy that Red Fleet that dared to insult our Tsar!”

The White Air Force, trained and strengthened by White Army aces, showed no fear of death as they dove steeply to drop their bombs.

Boom! Kaboom!

“Mother Tsarina, hurrah!”

“Aaaah! How can we block all of that!”

The Italian sailors, terrified for their lives, fired every anti-aircraft gun they had toward the sky.

The torpedo bomber formations blackened the sky so thoroughly that even children could hit them, and the anti-aircraft fire did bring down some aircraft.

But each fallen plane was immediately replaced by another.

The White Army pilots, who were like premium members of the Tsar’s fan club, were as fanatical as communists. They showed no fear of anti-aircraft fire, diving to close range to deliver their torpedoes.

The bombers, not to be outdone, opened their bomb bays and poured aviation bombs onto the Red Navy, demonstrating the full might of the Russian United States.

Adding to this were rockets fired from launch platforms installed in Constantinople.

At sea, oxygen torpedoes—modified versions of those obtained from Japan—were launched at the Red Fleet.

Boom! Kaboom!

The battleship Littorio, hit by an oxygen torpedo, split in two with a thunderous roar, folding like a waffle before sinking.

“Battleship Littorio sunk! Aircraft carrier Aquila heavily damaged!”

Inigo Campioni, receiving reports from the lookout on the flagship cruiser Trento, could only sigh.

Was this the true extent of Russian national power?

This wasn’t a failure of the Italian fleet or the Red Fleet.

It was simply that Russia’s national power was overwhelmingly strong.

How could anyone fight against that torpedo bomber formation covering the sky?

With just a few bombs hitting the bridge or ammunition storage, a ship would be destroyed. Who would have the courage to fight?

There was no chance of victory. This was a disaster.

A disaster pouring from the sky. A white wave was engulfing the Red Fleet.

The overwhelming numbers caused the Red Fleet to lose its will to fight.

And it wasn’t just the sky. Somehow the Russians had built so many submarines that despite their terrible accuracy, just one hit from their torpedoes could split a ship in two.

Then the second and third attack waves began.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat

“Damn it, how can they have so many planes!”

“What is our air force doing?”

Many warships were destroyed, and even sailors who had manned machine guns jumped into the sea, making anti-aircraft fire essentially meaningless.

Aircraft carriers? They had been sunk early on, making it impossible to deploy carrier-based aircraft.

Sailors who jumped into the sea to save their lives were burned alive as spilled oil caught fire.

Naturally, the Trento, where Inigo Campioni was stationed, was not immune to attacks from enemy torpedo bombers and submarines.

“That looks like the flagship! Let’s destroy it!”

A Russian bomber opened its bomb bay, and a massive piece of metal fell, penetrating the flagship Trento.

The Trento helplessly surrendered to the metal projectile, and with a thunderous roar, the massive hull began to sink into the sea.

With no time or opportunity to escape from the sinking flagship, Inigo Campioni’s last words were simple and direct:

“What a fucking way to wage war.”

Boom!

With those words, Inigo Campioni—who in the original timeline had been purged for refusing to cooperate with the Italian Social Republic—met his death at sea.

This battle, which would be remembered as the Battle of the Aegean, resulted in a near-perfect victory for Russia, though not without some losses.

With Italy fighting the naval battle alone, the French Commune’s fleet had no opportunity to join forces with the Red Fleet and remained trapped in its own ports.

Having secured naval supremacy, the Russian Black Sea Fleet, joined by the Baltic Fleet which had departed earlier to merge in the Mediterranean, prevented the French Commune from daring to venture out.

“Ah, we actually won this.”

Meanwhile, Anastasia, who had planned to strengthen her fleet by stripping the defeated enemy’s navy, could only feel perplexed.

* * *

Moscow, Russian United States

The Battle of the Aegean was heavily publicized within Russia.

Naturally so. With naval supremacy secured in a single battle, they could now freely operate in the Mediterranean.

“Don’t let a single Red set foot on the mainland! Guard it like iron!”

With the British Mediterranean Fleet withdrawn due to Britain’s obsession with creating a shield around their island using the Royal Navy to prevent mainland invasion, the Mediterranean had essentially become a Russian sea.

This news was conveyed to the Russian people, boosting morale by portraying the war as a holy crusade in which Russia held the advantage.

[Italian Red Navy Annihilated in a Single Battle! Black Sea Fleet Secures Mediterranean Naval Supremacy!]

[Baltic Fleet Joins Black Sea Fleet in Mediterranean!]

[Victory Attributed to White Air Force and U-boat Performance!]

[Naval Minister Kolchak: The Mediterranean Will Become a Russian Lake]

It wasn’t just the navy.

After all, the army had to step in to force Communist Germany to surrender. Naturally, the army’s victories were also publicized.

[White Army Led by the Tsarina Occupies Hindenburg in Communist Germany!]

[Sudetenland Strongly Resists the Red Wave with Support from His Imperial Majesty]

Everywhere you looked, there was news to make Russians swell with national pride.

Like the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, the powerful White Army was advancing to seize European hegemony!

Those who had worried about a repeat of World War I finally entered an era of national pride.

“Extra! Extra!”

“Yes, this is war, and this is Russia!”

“Finally, the era of our Russia has arrived!”

“God save the Tsar!”

While Russians were intoxicated with victory, a group of disheveled-looking Asians sat in a Moscow teahouse among the celebrating Russians.

Their leader was Mao Zedong, accompanied by his close associates.

“Comrade Mao Zedong, the war situation seems to be turning in Russia’s favor.”

“Of course. The Tsar is a hero among heroes.”

He had wanted to become such a hero himself.

But he had been deceived by Renya Mutaguchi of Japan and lost an army of 2 million men.

And Chiang Kai-shek had swallowed up his remaining forces.

Mao had known too little about his opponent.

Who would have thought that Renya Mutaguchi was the foremost military genius in the Japanese military, envied even by his peers? No wonder Japan had been so confident.

To win on the battlefield with a force only one-tenth the size of the enemy’s—perhaps Mao had overestimated the warlords’ armies.

They were nothing but a ragtag bunch, and Renya Mutaguchi was a military genius recognized even by the Tsar. There was no way Mao could have won.

Although Chiang Kai-shek had consolidated power, the situation was not good.

He had heard that Chiang was fortifying defensive lines, but if Chiang defeated Japan, China would be unified under him.

The Central Plains, already a hellscape, would fall into even greater misery.

To prevent this, the Tsar’s help was desperately needed.

“Somehow I must meet the Tsar. Japan is merely a rival, but Chiang Kai-shek, who is no different from an imperialist, would be dangerous if he swallowed China. China develops best when divided. If he unifies China, he’ll turn it into an imperialist state.”

“Would that be possible in Chiang Kai-shek’s current position?”

“That’s my point—a man unqualified to dream of imperialism will only lead China to further ruin. Wouldn’t the Tsar prefer to support me rather than someone who constantly calls for the recovery of Manchuria? Besides, we now cannot survive without Russian support.”

Recovery of Manchuria, occupation of Mongolia, occupation of Tibet—Chiang Kai-shek was always shouting about these things despite his inadequacy.

Isn’t it unreasonable to call Manchu lands the ancient territory of China?

Unlike in the original timeline, Mao Zedong, who had become a federalist and anarchist, believed that China should succeed the Han nation rather than the Manchu Qing Dynasty and occupy its territories.

Yes, the Ming Dynasty, the nation of the Han people.

China should succeed the Ming Dynasty and occupy its lands, not covet Manchu territories, which would mean conflict with neighboring countries.

So he decided to somehow meet the Tsarina.

Around this time, Beria, who had been searching for Mao Zedong with the Okhrana under the Tsar’s secret orders, finally found him here.

“Are you Mao Zedong?”

“I am Mao Zedong.”

“We are from the Okhrana. Come with us quietly.”

It seems the inevitable has finally come.

Mao steeled himself for China’s future hegemony.

* * *

The war situation remained favorable for Russia.

How could Communist Germany, weaker than Nazi Germany, possibly stop the wave of steel?

Even if they fought sincerely, they probably couldn’t win, and the wave of steel covering the land before the Red German forces, already bogged down in the Sudetenland, would likely destroy their will to fight.

“This is insane. The Russian tanks are covering the entire land.”

“If those things roll in, not just Germany but our France will be in danger too!”

“Why did we even start this war?”

The Communist German army was simply powerless before us.

True to their communist nature, some stubborn ones tried to face the armored wave with insufficient firepower, but they ended up crushed under the tank wave, turning into bloody pulp—appropriately red for communists.

Yes, if our soldiers had to struggle at all…

“Clear away these communist corpses! Should the Tsarina walk on a path littered with Red bodies?”

“Hurry and clear them!”

“Damn these bastards. They should have surrendered. Stubborn like insects.”

“Even in death, they’re a nuisance to us.”

It was just a matter of clearing away communist corpses for me.

They attacked so desperately that there were more dead bodies than prisoners.

The German Imperial Army moving from the north seemed to be cooperating with the Junkers and reclaiming territory.

From what I occasionally heard, our army truly treated the communists like insects. I realized how effective our anti-communist education had been.

The corpses needed to be cleared away anyway.

Well, at least we were advancing steadily on land, and I heard the results of the battle with the Red Fleet had just come in.

I could hear about the outcome of the Battle of the Aegean from the front lines.

“Ah, we actually won this.”

The result was victory.

They had sunk most of the Italian Red Fleet to the bottom of the Aegean and destroyed the flagship of fleet commander Inigo Campioni.

This feels both good and somewhat disappointing.

I had planned to strip all the defeated nations’ fleets after the war to transform our naval power to the level of the Russian Empire era.

That’s a bit regrettable.