Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

What sort of destroyers will we build? Diesel-driven, very long range submarine chasers

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Post-War Patrol Boats
The Milan-class submarine chasers will be an absurdly large group of some excellent ships with a highly specific task. These will not be ships optimised for operating alongside the fleet, escorting carriers or making dashing raids. Instead, these thirty-two knot ships will be focused entirely on hunting and killing enemy submarines. For this task they will mount four K-gun depth charge launchers, an overly large supply or charges, an ahead throwing ASW mortar in the 'B' position and a centreline mounted anti-submarine torpedo launcher with four tubes. All of this will be backed by reliable diesel engines producing 20,000 horsepower with enough fuel for extremely long sailing, enabling these small ships to chase submarines until long after the subs endurance gives out. A trio of dual 75mm, primarily for anti-air use, are the ships 'primary' gun armament, and its not quite an afterthought but its certainly secondary to the other elements.

The first tranche of these ships are laid down in May of 1950, the first six ships steel being cut across metropolitan France. A month later the next four go down as Super Cruisers finish their refits. In July, Japan makes another move in the direction of South Korea, intent on reuniting Joseon under their rule. We once again join an international force, but this time we can act only as observers, watching the Japanese forces make port and, functionally, take over. We lay down the third tranche of six Milan's in response. The last four go down in August and we expect that by January 1952 we will likely maintain the best submarine fleet and the best anti-submarine fleet in the world.

The world turns and January of 1951 arrives with little in the way of surprises. Germany completes the largest Armoured Cruiser ever built, the Blucher, which displaces more than 20,000 tons. Levasseur offers a new torpedo bomber that is slightly better than their current generation of torpedo bomber in most metrics, and we accept that one into service as well. We are interviewed and give noncommittal answers about who we see as our future foe. Italy continues to make very loud noises threatening us. We open a slew of airbases around the world, expanding anti-submarine patrols greatly and quietly activate most of our Mediterranean air groups.

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World Tensions
With many nations around the world eyeing each other warily, we welcome a massive influx of strength into our fleet and begin work on a new class of carrier that takes the lessons learned from the Republique Francaise's rebuild to construct a purpose-built angled deck carrier equipped to prioritise jet aircraft. With larger engines, an upgraded anti-air suit and a maximum of fifty two aircraft aboard, she will be the largest carrier built to date with 28,600 tons displaced.
Our scientists, hard at work, discover new, enhanced jet engines which will enable us to build heavier, longer ranged, more capable carrier-born aircraft. We are now able to envision a future that includes 'Jet Attackers', strike planes with remarkable speed and 'Heavy Jet Fighters', big brutish aircraft that will escort those strike planes.

What should our new aircraft prioritise?
[ ] Reliability
[ ] Speed
[ ] Range
[ ] Bomb Load
[ ] These new aircraft will be too large for our carriers - prioritise smaller aircraft
We are on the verge of war with Italy - what do we want from it?
[ ] To crush their fleet and abolish autocracy
[ ] To take Dalmatia and lose nothing
[ ] To test our new ships and new aircraft and accept a white peace when we can.

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Our tech looks like this rn:

What should our new aircraft prioritise? Reliability
We are on the verge of war with Italy - what do we want from it? To crush their fleet and abolish autocracy

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Noble Intentions
If the Italians choose war, then it will be a relatively simple matter for us to move the majority of our fleet into the Mediterranean, into the large, pre-prepared fleet bases at Toulon, Nice and Tunisia, and choke them. We will not let another war spiral out of our control - this time we must crush autocracy and be done with that barbarous system of government. It has already got its hooks in so many free nations.

Nonetheless we must still focus on our own issues as well. The government lays down another new plan for high-speed rail run as the 'TGV'. The 'Train à Grande Vitesse' will be the fastest, most comfortable train line in Metropolitan France and will be of great utility to commerce and industry as well as the individual consumer. It might take a decade or more to build but it is the next step in the modernisation of France.

We also develop a new system of rocket-propelled, air launched torpedoes, which will allow our torpedo bombers additional stand off range when attacking both surface and submerged targets. Of course, we cannot begin to rest on our laurels. The Minister of the Navy, hungry for success after the most recent building programs have produced forty modern, capable hulls well suited for all kinds of warfare, has another new proposal - build twenty more destroyers.

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Destroyer Program 1952
Although technically beginning in 1951, DP52 is a concerted effort to widen the available capabilities of our anti-submarine and fleet escort forces. The first step is to lay down ten more of the advanced Milan diesel-powered anti-submarine warfare ships. Then we begin the design of something truly new: the Elan-class.

At 3,500 tons these will not only be the largest destroyers we have ever built, they will also be as large as some historical Protected Cruisers that have served with the Marine National. 1,200 tons of modern oil turbines will produce almost 60,000 horsepower, driving the ships at a comfortable 33 knots under almost any conditions. Eight 125mm, dual-purpose, autoloaded guns will be mounted in four twin turrets as a primary surface and anti-air armament, while four torpedo tubes amidships will be capable of both anti-surface and anti-submarine duties. Four radar directed twin 57mm autocannons in electrically trained turrets round out the principal anti-aircraft armament, while the anti-sub suite has rockets, advanced sonar, depth charges and throwers. The ship even carries racks for twenty sea mines.

Ten of the new class are laid down in December of 1951, with principal construction occurring in 1952.

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The Day the World Stood Still
We have long maintained good relations with our Serb and Croat neighbours in the Balkans, trying to avoid internecine war that might affect our managed allies in Greece and Albania. It has been good for the region, and good for France as well. However, Italy and their damn Dalmatian holdings are once against making noises that could easily be interpreted as sabre rattling. We tell them in no uncertain words that they should sit down and shut up, unless they want a French patrol group operating in the Adriatic. They tell us to try it. So we do, sending Toulon (Bois Bellau-class) and Jean-Jacques Roussea (Republique Francaise-class) and a host of escorts to demonstrate French capabilities not far from Bari. We will see whether the Italians respond in kind.

We also begin work on a new scout cruiser, the Surcouf-class. Incorporating lessons of the past, this lightly armoured scout and patrol ship will fit every asset we can manage. Twin 150mm main guns, a 75mm AA battery, Sonar, Radar, and eighty mines will make her a fine ship for deployment overseas or acting as a command ship for light forces. At 9,900 tons she will not be a cheap division leader, but she will be excellent in the role.

And once again technology changes our plans - or perhaps planes. While we have previously seen helicopters and an interesting experimental, a clunky and unstable creature incapable of operating with much utility, we have recently been demonstrated several kinds that could, if we put the work in, carry ASW torpedoes for attacking submarines. Its pushed to the back of our mind however as we are presented with three prototype Heavy Jet Fighters of which we are supposed to select just one. We eventually settle on the Farman F.256 and its four fixed cannons, its 700 kilometre range and its 1,100km/h maximum speed.

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The world is on the brink of a flare of major wars, Japan and Russia have set upon each other with vicious intent, and we are facing massive unrest at home. How should we manage this? (Choose as many as you think necessary)
[ ] Reduce spending, cutting construction where possible and cancelling upcoming build plans
[ ] Reduce active air groups outside of hot spots, cutting spending on maintaining squadrons.
[ ] Reduce active warships and send some older ships to the yards.
[ ] Reduce spending on technological development.
[ ] Something Else.

How should we manage this? Reduce active warships and send some older ships to the yards, Reduce active air groups outside of hot spots, cutting spending on maintaining squadrons.

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Budget Control
June of 1952 see's a massive reorganisation. Mostly this involves the distribution of anti-submarine assets around the world as well as the deployment of submarines to the Mediterranean in greater numbers. We also scrap a number of older ships including our first prototype diesel corvettes, some aging destroyers and several other, larger ships are placed in reserve until money becomes available to refit them. The liberal government follows this by reducing our budget overall which is frustrating, but at least we were already seeking ways to cut costs.

Twenty-five aging torpedo boat destroyers go to the yards, old 1,500 tonners from the mid-1910's. Even with this reduction, once the current set of 20 in our yards reach commission in a year, we will still have the second largest destroyer fleet in the world second only to the Americans. Of course, a matter of months later, we go to war with Italy.

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The Duce
Though he is not the first leader of 'fascist' Italy, the man giving an announcement of the declaration of War in Rome today on a chilly September morning will hopefully be the last. Jet interceptors are already tangling with Italian heavy bombers over the alps as large ground based radar stations detect and vector their charges onto deadly strike aircraft before they can release their payloads onto Nice, Toulon, Marseille. Meanwhile, the Marine Nationale puts to sea.

At the start of the war, the two fleets compare as follows:
- We maintain more gun armed capital ships, although the Italian ships are generally larger, more modern and more heavily gunned. However, we have the advantage in carrier forces by a significant margin. The Italian carrier Sirio, 42,000 tons, is of some concern but if she is taken out of the picture it will be almost free reign for our air forces.
- Our destroyer forces are significant, especially since many of their hulls are older and smaller. However, the Italian corvette and sloop forces provide a massive force for mining, even if many ships only carry a handful of mines each. We should begin work on cheap minesweepers to counter this.
- Our submarine forces are fewer in number and far superior in quality. The most recent boat in the Italian fleet is almost a decade old, and many are far older than that.

As we move into November, we prepare for a series of measured strikes against Italian port facilities and fleet operations areas in the Adriatic, Ionian and Tyrrhenian Sea. The first comes early on the 13th of October, as the Mediterranean fleet puts to sea in four measured, escorted battle groups. Group 1 is a scouting group of older Super Cruisers and Battleships, group two is the Bois Bellau large carrier and the Commandant Teste small carrier, group 3 is almost identical to 2, containing the Toulon and the Sirocco while group 4 is the large carriers Republique Francaise and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the small carriers Dixmunde and Foudre and a collection of modern Super Cruisers including the advanced Triomphante and Indomptable. Strike packages are prepared across every carrier, ready to launch at the first sign of the Italian fleet.

First contact is made via radar at 0600, with dawn still half an hour away. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is first to launch her strike, her and her companion putting sixty-four aircraft into the air including twenty-one escorting fighters. This uncoordinated strike, allowed to launch peicemeal so that as many planes could get on target as fast as possible, begins attacking enemy ships at 0640. The next strikes come over the following hours, arriving together in massive packs, props buzzing, canopies glinting, dive bombers plunging from the sky and torpedo bombers speeding across the surface.
The first enemy aircraft aren't seen until 0750, a sextet of Italian jet fighters streaking over the Jean-Jacques Rousseau aiming to release a deadly payload on the carrier. The first real damage doesn't come until 0940, when Bois Bellau recieves a 1400lb bomb amidships which sets her aviation fuel alight. Sprinklers kick into action, flooding the hanger deck with water and foam. Twenty minutes later the fire is out and the carrier begins a short sail to Toulon to make port. At 1130 hours, Group 1 begins shelling an Italian air base outside Imperia, keen to be something more than a bystander to an air war.

As the ships return to port in Nice, to lick their wounds and count their dead, the Super Cruiser Furieux, one of the oldest ships in the battle line, is hit by a pair of 1500lb bombs. Somehow, almost miraculously, both are duds.

The post-battle assessment is, in many ways, dire:
- 170 French aircraft of the Aeronavale were lost in the course of the battle, many of them taking irreplaceable air crews with them. The worst losses were amongst the torpedo bombers, too slow and too vulnerable to modern AA defences, with 22 shot down by surface fire and a further 19 lost to air combat. Fully half of all our air losses were had in air combat, Italian jet fighters far more capable in a dog fight than the older French props.
- Two thirds of the Italian air fleet was jet powered, and while this reduced the capacity of their strikes, it meant that they were much more capable in air to air combat even with a combat load slung beneath them. No Italian torpedo bombers were sighted at all, and very few medium bombers as well.
- In terms of lasting damage, very little was actually done. Both the French and Italian fleets lost a destroyer, and the air base at Imperia was shelled into rubble. The Vipsanio Agrippa was hit by three torpedoes and four bombs and did not sink, though she will require much in the way of repairs. The French carrier force suffered much worse than the Italian did, despite the greater weight of strikes. It seems a rethink of doctrine is needed.

Outside of that brutal battle, we do at least catch and sink twelve submarines. Their superiority in numbers will not last long.

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There is a clear failing in our aircraft doctrine. We are three months from our first Jet Attack prototype and we will likely be replacing our Light Jet Fighter at the first opportunity in order to maintain parity. However, our carriers are clearly not ready for modern air war; We need a new doctrine with which to equip them:
[ ] Prioritise LJF and our fastest strike aircraft on carriers
[ ] Prioritise LJF solely on carriers
[ ] Prioritise our fastest strike aircraft on carriers
[ ] Other; write-in