Chapter 216: The French Navy in Disarray
Charles was once again playing hide-and-seek with the citizens of Paris. The next day, he took a day off to return home, but made sure to leave headquarters at a staggered time, slipping out through the back to avoid the crowds.
As he neared the town of Davois, he noticed a large group of people gathered at the entrance—his neighbors, most likely preparing a "hero's welcome" ceremony. With a sigh, Charles directed Major Laurent to take a different route, circling around the town to approach his house from the opposite side.
But even with this detour, Charles arrived home only to find he hadn't evaded everyone. Sitting on the modest couch in the parlor was a young officer with a brigadier general's insignia. Deyoka was engaged in a conversation with him.
Assuming he was an envoy from Gallieni, Charles, who was just about to remove his cap, placed it back on his head and saluted, saying, "General!"
The young brigadier looked slightly taken aback, setting down his coffee cup to greet Charles warmly. "You…you must be Charles. An honor! My name is Tijani."
Charles thought the name sounded familiar; it seemed he had heard it before.
"I'm Tijani, commander of the 2nd Special Artillery Division," the young officer explained.
"Ah," Charles replied, finally recognizing the name from his command briefings during the recent battle, where it had appeared more as a distant designation than an individual.
Deyoka smiled, amused. "General Tijani came to personally thank you for rescuing them."
Camille appeared from the kitchen. "The general was very kind. He even brought gifts!"
"It's the least I could do," Tijani replied humbly. "You have an exceptional son, Mr. Deyoka, Madam Bernard."
Camille beamed proudly. Praise for Charles, especially from a brigadier general, always delighted her.
She warmly invited Tijani to sit at the dining table, bringing out a freshly prepared pizza. Deyoka excused himself, leaving the table for Charles and Tijani. Though Charles knew Deyoka hadn't eaten, he also knew that his father intended to excuse himself politely, in case the conversation veered into military matters.
Tijani, without hesitation, reached for a slice and started eating enthusiastically. "This is wonderful, Madame Bernard," he praised loudly between bites. "I think I could eat the whole thing!"
"You're probably not used to it, General," Charles quipped, unimpressed by such an open show of appreciation.
Charles knew about Tijani's background as the only son of Welles, a powerful industrialist. As such, Tijani had probably grown up with nothing but the best and hardly had a reason to get excited over a simple pizza.
"Oh, but I am, Major," Tijani replied with a faint smile, continuing to chew his food. "I'm not quite the person you think I am."
"That's not surprising," Charles replied, unflinching. "For example, your family owns half the navy, yet you joined the army and even became a brigadier general!"
There was a hint of sarcasm in Charles's tone, a barely veiled message: Why not leave the army to real soldiers and stick to meddling with the navy?
Tijani wasn't offended. Instead, he gave a resigned smile. "Tell me, Major, do you think the French Navy has a future?"
"That's not my concern," Charles replied bluntly. "I'm with the army. I don't know much about the navy."
Tijani chuckled. "Nor do I, really. But I can tell you a few things I do know. There are two factions in our navy: one that advocates for the so-called 'green-water navy' and another that clings to the concept of a traditional, blue-water navy."
"A 'green-water navy'?" Charles echoed, genuinely intrigued.
He hadn't heard this term before. French naval history during both World Wars hadn't made a strong impression; the most notable moment being when French sailors scuttled their fleet to prevent its capture.
"Yes," Tijani continued as he ate, clearly enjoying the opportunity to explain. "The green-water navy's idea is to rely on small, fast torpedo boats as the core of the fleet. They believe these would be a low-cost solution to countering larger enemy ships."
Charles nodded, grasping the concept. It was essentially the idea of using smaller vessels to take on larger ones. It had its appeal: after all, even the mightiest battleship could be taken down by a single well-placed torpedo. And while torpedoes weren't particularly accurate at this stage, if a fleet of small, agile torpedo boats fired en masse…
(An illustration shows early torpedo boats, initially developed by the British. However, French naval strategists, feeling outclassed, embraced the green-water navy doctrine and began mass-producing these boats.)
"We've built at least 200 of these torpedo boats by now," Tijani went on. "The green-water faction believes they represent the future of naval warfare—until the British introduced the dreadnought, that is. Only then did they realize how far behind we were."
The dreadnought was the era's undisputed ruler of the seas. Its design focused on outfitting battleships with uniform, large-caliber main guns. This allowed for significantly more precise targeting: the ballistic trajectories for each main gun would be similar, allowing all of them to be adjusted using a single targeting solution.
"Now, we only have three dreadnoughts," Tijani remarked with a sad smile. "But the British have more than twenty, and the Germans at least ten. We've slipped far behind both of them, even though we were once the second most powerful navy in the world. And yet, we continue to waver. One day we're building torpedo boats, the next we're planning a new dreadnought."
Charles listened impassively, muttering a neutral "I see." The navy was clearly struggling to find a direction, torn between competing doctrines.
Tijani continued, "And it's the same story with submarines. There are three camps: some want steam-powered subs, others advocate for diesel engines, and still others insist on arming them with cannons so they can go head-to-head with enemy warships!"
(Illustration of a cannon-equipped submarine. France later built such a vessel in 1927, naming it the Surcouf, and classified it as a cruiser submarine.)
After taking a sip of milk, Tijani sighed in frustration. "France was the first country to achieve mechanical propulsion on submarines, the first to use electric motors for underwater travel, and the first to put torpedoes on submarines. And yet…?"
He shook his head and concluded, "We have no navy anymore. They're paralyzed, unable to accomplish anything."
"Isn't the army the same?" Charles interjected.
He was referring to the lack of direction and constant indecision. The army wasn't much better off; it, too, suffered from the French Third Republic's system of governance, which led to persistent ambivalence.
"I used to think the two were similar," Tijani admitted, pausing to look Charles in the eye. "But now I realize the army and navy are completely different worlds."
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