I Became a Tycoon During World War I: Saving France from the Start

Chapter 624: Asymmetric Naval Tactics

Charles did not answer Wells directly. Instead, he countered with a question: "Mr. Wells, before I continue, I want to confirm one thing—do you have a reliable research and development team?"

"Of course, General," Wells answered confidently. "I have a team fully under my control. Not even the military has the authority to interfere."

Charles nodded.

This was a trait of private-ownership nations—weapon patents and technical knowledge were often in the hands of powerful industrialists, not the state.

And those capitalists weren't fools. They knew that by clinging tightly to their proprietary technologies, they could sell a bag of screws for $90,000 or a single artillery shell for $800,000—just like modern-day America.

So, they went to extreme lengths to maintain secrecy, even if that meant some of their own had to be "suicided" for the cause.

"In that case, I believe we should improve fire control systems," Charles said. "The fire control system currently used on our warships is dual-axis stabilized, correct?"

"Yes," Wells replied, his eyes briefly widening with surprise. Charles knew about dual-axis stabilization?

Then again, it made sense.

Charles wasn't just a general—he was also a genius inventor. He had recently designed landing craft and amphibious boats, and had done in-depth work on torpedoes. Knowing about dual-axis fire control wasn't that surprising.

Charles gave the answer directly: "We should invest in developing a tri-axis stabilization system to improve our gunfire accuracy."

"Tri-axis stabilization?" Wells blinked. This made him admire Charles even more. As someone who had spent a lifetime in shipbuilding, even he hadn't heard of that.

"Yes," Charles said, taking a sip of wine to ease his throat. "We all know that pitch and yaw affect gun accuracy. So a dual-axis system isn't enough—not by a long shot."

Wells looked at Charles with awe. "Pitch" was still being studied in terms of its effect on naval gunnery. Even among engineers, knowledge of it was limited—yet Charles knew.

What Wells didn't know was that Charles was intentionally misleading him.

The third axis that truly affected accuracy wasn't pitch—it was roll.

After the war, the Germans mistakenly believed pitch was the issue, which led to negligible improvements. It took them six more years to realize that roll was the real culprit.

Charles did this to keep one card hidden.

He understood that capitalists were inherently profit-driven. Expecting them to be "loyal" was naïve—if not outright foolish.

So Charles needed to bait the hook—leak enough technical details to keep the capitalists or engineers loyal, or at least dependent.

Even more importantly, if the British or Germans caught wind of this, they'd be misled into focusing on pitch instead of roll.

And when the time was right, Charles could deliver the final blow: "Oh, why don't we try targeting 'roll' instead of pitch?"

That wouldn't take long to implement, and the improvement would be immediate. And all the while, Charles would hold the initiative.

Wells nodded thoughtfully. "If we can develop this system, it really could lead to a qualitative leap in our navy. A warship that shoots accurately is worth two, maybe even three, that can't."

This was the difference between landing hits and missing entirely. In naval combat, it could allow the French Navy to field one ship as powerful as two or three enemy vessels.

On a limited shipbuilding budget, it was the only way to boost real combat strength.

But Wells then slowly shook his head, speaking heavily: "It sounds feasible, General. But developing it will take time. Once it's complete, we'll still need to retrofit every ship with the new system. That'll also take time. Especially for the main guns of battleships—upgrading those could be extremely difficult, maybe even impossible."

Too late to quench a fire with distant water.

By comparison, shifting strategic focus to Toulon still seemed more practical.

"We'll only upgrade the destroyers," Charles cut in.

"Only the destroyers?" Wells frowned.

That would simplify things, yes, but destroyers weren't made to go head-to-head with battleships. Would accuracy even matter?

(Note: At this time, destroyers were relatively small, with light-caliber guns that couldn't do serious damage to battleships.)

"Have you heard of asymmetric warfare?" Charles asked calmly.

Wells was completely baffled. He was a businessman—he understood shipbuilding, but not battlefield strategy, and certainly not something as obscure as "asymmetric warfare."

"In simple terms," Charles explained, "asymmetric warfare means focusing on enhancing one particular advantage to the point that you can completely destroy a corresponding arm of the enemy's force. Once they lose that arm, they're forced into a passive state, and their overall combat effectiveness collapses."

Wells seemed to understand—partially.

"But this doesn't seem to relate to our confrontation with the Royal Navy."

Charles offered a reminder: "If we only upgrade destroyers, then they'll have more accurate gunnery and advanced torpedoes. That gives us overwhelming superiority against British destroyers and torpedo boats."

Wells suddenly got it. "General, you mean we could use our destroyers to wipe out the Royal Navy's destroyers and torpedo forces?"

"Exactly," Charles nodded, then added, "And that isn't hard to achieve, is it?"

Wells hesitated briefly, then answered firmly: "Not hard. Our destroyers are faster than battleships. We can always fight outside their range. If the British deploy their destroyers to chase us, we can sink them using our superior gunnery and torpedoes."

"Then," Charles smiled faintly, "imagine the Royal Navy losing most of its destroyers and torpedo boats. What happens next?"

Wells lit up. "Then we can use our destroyers and torpedo boats to swarm their battleships and cruisers!"

The logic was clear. At this time, battleships were extremely vulnerable to torpedo boats. No matter how strong or modern a battleship was, a single well-placed torpedo could be fatal.

And those massive cannons on battleships were ill-suited for targeting small, fast torpedo boats. Trying to hit them was like shooting mosquitoes with cannons—wasteful and ineffective. Even if they managed to sink a few, France could afford the losses.

Destroyers were the natural enemies of torpedo boats. They were fast, and their medium-caliber guns were ideal for taking them out.

But if the French destroyers utterly dominated and eliminated British destroyers, it would be like the first domino falling—triggering a chain reaction that could lead to the collapse of the seemingly invincible Royal Navy.

Wells leapt to his feet, excitement written all over his face. His breathing became labored.

It really did seem like a brilliant strategy—simple, yet highly effective.

But he quickly sobered. "But General, what if the British use a long-range blockade strategy like they did with the Germans? We may not be able to use this asymmetric tactic."

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