world of warships french battleships suck

At a meeting on OctoChurchill once again raised the issue, at one point threatening to take some sort of action himself if his views were ignored by Admiralty officers. The Royal Navy was by this time stretched almost to the limit, having to protect the Atlantic convoys supplying Britain and as well fielding a fleet to take on the German and Italian navies.

The Admiralty hesitated, delayed, and even ignored written pleas from the Prime Minister. It was meant to give them pause, or at the very least buy time for England to send other reinforcements and supplies so that they might have a fighting chance of meeting Japan on something like equal terms. Churchill began pressuring the Admiralty to implement a pet project of his, namely to send a squadron of three modern battleships to Malaya to act as a deterrent against Japan. With the occupation of French Indochina in July 1940, the Japanese were getting uncomfortably close to British possessions in the Far East and their lifeline to Australia, and rising tensions with the United States clearly indicated armed conflict was inevitable.

(Read more stories and historical accounts from the Pacific Theater inside WWII History magazine.) Churchill’s Pet Project Indeed, Singapore was expected to hold out alone for at least a hundred days before help could be expected. The thinking was that in the event of war in the South Pacific, there would be time to send ships halfway around the world to meet whatever situation presented itself. A few lesser ships of cruiser and destroyer size were stationed there to show the flag, with the valuable battleships and aircraft carriers kept close to home. Eventually a first-class facility was completed, including the two largest dry docks in the Pacific outside of the American base at Pearl Harbor.īut Britain did not have enough modern ships available to station a full-time fleet thousands of miles from home, especially once the life-and-death struggle with Germany began in 1939. Money was scarce in the Depression and the armed services were forced to scrape for every penny. During the 1920s and 1930s Great Britain built up its Far East defenses steadily if slowly, centering around Singapore as its primary naval base in the Pacific area.

World of warships french battleships suck