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The Allied high command was shocked by the results of Operation Konrad.

The French and British press even commented on the situation as follows:

“It’s the worst.”

But they soon regained their composure.

“In the east, the northern giant, the Tsardom of Rus, is building up its strength, and in the south, the Kingdom of Italy (which changed its name after the occupation of Rome) and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia are still holding out.”

They even held the vast sea firmly in their grasp. In the end, they thought, the empire would wither and die.

But alas, the Allies were not destined to laugh even on the sea.

October 1, 1915

From Amsterdam, the main port of the High Seas Fleet, and Havana, the capital of New Spain, hundreds of Imperial warships began to move, spewing black smoke.

“Originally, we were going to move after securing the complete neutrality of the Kingdom of Scandinavia, but…”

Their reaction to our proposal was lukewarm. Did they doubt our victory after seeing Japan’s participation? Or perhaps… did they make some kind of deal with the Allies?

I don’t know. But we can’t afford to miss this last chance to have a fleet battle.

Yes. The ‘fleet battle’ that the Imperial Navy had been so eager for since the beginning of the war was about to begin.

Of course, I didn’t unleash the Imperial Navy, a pack of hounds thirsty for a fleet battle, without a reason.

‘But if it’s not now, the Imperial Navy will become useless.’

Even now, the colonial fleets of Britain and France were tied down in the Eastern colonies.

This was because light cruisers and destroyers had carried out commerce raiding operations far more successfully than initially expected.

But with Japan’s participation, the Eastern colonies could not hold them back forever.

Countless colonial fleets would flood into the European theater. If they arrived in the European theater, we would no longer be able to match them in the North Sea.

Before that happens, we must concentrate all our forces in the North Sea at once and inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy.

If we fail, the Imperial Navy will lose its very reason for existence.

‘But the situation itself isn’t bad.’

Fortunately, thanks to Operation Rosencrantz, the strength of the colonial fleets was concentrated in one place.

Only if we’re lucky… but we have a dagger ready to stab the British in the back.

Of course, I was well aware that this alone was not enough. A 1 to 1.5 power difference cannot be easily overcome. I intend to give the enemy a big shock.

Naturally, Allied intelligence detected this large-scale and organized movement of the Imperial Navy.

If you ask how they detected it… it would have been more difficult to miss hundreds of warships moving all at once.

There were even civilians openly welcoming the departing warships.

The Allies were on high alert due to this large-scale and organized movement of the Imperial Navy.

The Imperial High Seas Fleet alone was enough to shake the British Empire’s naval blockade.

Even more so if Operation Rosencrantz succeeded and the colonial fleets joined the Imperial High Seas Fleet.

To make matters worse, the only element in which the Allies overwhelmed the Imperial forces was numerical superiority.

The two nations’ fleets had a similar number of ships, but the British battleships were, embarrassingly, qualitatively inferior to the Imperial battleships.

Most experts favored the Imperator Franz over the Queen Elizabeth, the pride of each fleet.

Although the British usually denied this result and claimed that their Queen Elizabeth was the strongest battleship, this time, due to the situation, they began to consider how to resolve it.

“Embarrassingly… it is impossible to crush the Empire with our current strength.”

Of course, the British military had not failed to prepare for this situation. Realizing that it was difficult to achieve a ‘certain victory’ against the Imperial forces with their existing strength alone, they created the Franco-British Allied Naval Command.

And they appointed a man named John Jellicoe as the commander of the Anglo-French Allied Fleet Command…

“Hmph…”

John Jellicoe thought with a cigar in his mouth. Something that should not have happened had happened. The British Empire had to always be great.

No. To be precise, it was destined to be great. At least at sea, there should be no compromise on this greatness.

But what is the situation now? For the first time since defeating the Iberian bastards, the British Empire was experiencing the humiliation of being ‘at risk’ of losing naval superiority to a continental power, albeit for a very short time.

“How is the return of the colonial fleets progressing?”

“Currently, the fleets of Canada and the Australian Commonwealth have departed for the mainland, and the Indian fleet will return as soon as it succeeds in capturing the Imperial Javanese islands.”

It’s the worst. John Jellicoe frowned.

“Does that mean that it will take at least two weeks for them to arrive?! If the Imperial forces take any action during that long time, our homeland will be in danger!”

“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Admiral Jellicoe.”

Whether he knew Jellicoe’s feelings or not, the Frenchman, Émile Guépratte, sitting on the desk, was making leisurely noises.

“If we were to attack, this power difference might feel threatening enough, but it is the Empire that is launching the offensive. We just need to defend against the Imperial forces’ attack.”

I don’t want to admit what that nonchalant Frenchman is saying, but it’s true. The Allies are the ones defending. If we just hold out, we have a good chance of winning, no, we can definitely win.

“Of course, I know that very well. But… I just don’t like it. The fact that we are being pushed back by those Imperial bastards at sea.”

I asked the admiral sitting across from me, Franz von Hipper.

“How do you feel about leading the largest fleet in Imperial history?”

“Haha, this is, this is a little nerve-wracking. Thank you very much for giving me this glorious opportunity, Your Majesty.”

Of course. He should be grateful. Because of the weight I gave him, he, not Reinhard Scheer, took command of this great fleet (Tolle Flotte).

Of course, at first, I considered appointing Admiral Reinhard Scheer as commander, following the previous timeline, but… entrusting the same position to someone who had already failed felt like entrusting a cat with a fish.

“Let me ask you one thing. Does the High Seas Fleet qualitatively overwhelm the combined fleet of Britain and France?”

He pondered for a moment. Then, with a confident expression, he replied.

“Yes. From the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, the Imperator Franz, a state-of-the-art battleship equipped with 15-inch guns. Our Imperial Imperator Franz has overwhelmed the British state-of-the-art battleship Queen Elizabeth, and will never be pushed back by her.”

Good answer. I smiled slightly.

“Then, before the battle with the British bastards, may I offer you some advice?”

“Yes. Of course. But what exactly are you going to advise…?”

Ahem. I cleared my throat once and opened my mouth.

“Currently, our Imperial forces have proven the value of aircraft.”

The status of the Air Force, which departed from Vienna and reached Rome without being caught in the enemy’s surveillance network even once, was higher than ever. The achievements of the Air Force Association were now comparable to those of the Fleet Association.

“…Please get to the point.”

“Let’s use seaplane carriers in this battle.”

“Seaplane carriers… are you talking about?”

Yes. Seaplane carriers. Ships that appeared in the transitional period of aircraft carriers. Since they operate seaplanes instead of aircraft, they have the advantage of being relatively inexpensive to operate.

If you ask where to get the seaplanes to be mounted on the seaplane carriers, Crown Prince August did a great job.

“Yes. I officially propose to modify the remaining transport ships and equip them with seaplanes made with the newly developed Fokker Eindecker.”

Of course, I had no intention of carrying out dive bombing or torpedo attacks using aircraft from the start. There’s no way that kind of thing is possible with current aircraft technology.

But even in this era, there is exactly one area where aircraft are overwhelmingly superior to battleships. He seems to have vaguely noticed this as well.

“Certainly… if we have seaplane carriers, we can scout enemies much further away.”

That’s right.

“It’s like a blind man versus a Mongol in an archery contest. The result is obvious, isn’t it?”