PS: I've finally finished writing about the naval battle in the South Pacific, and you'll see the monthly passes......

The Battle of the South Pacific in the Solomon Sea lasted less than a day before it ended, but its aftermath is further fermenting.

Although the warships of TF16\17 were almost sunk, the last planes released to attack desperately flew in the direction of New Guinea after completing the decisive attack, and then parachuted when the fuel ran out. The next day, after the Japanese fleet and the planes retreated, the US military dispatched a large number of PBY (Catalina seaplane) planes to search and rescue, and rescued more than 20 crew members or pilots from the sea one after another.

Japan's losses were still expanding, and late that night, the heavy cruiser Aoba, which was returning with the destroyer Shiyu, collided with an American submarine halfway and was caught in a torpedo unsuspectingly. At this point, only one of the four Aoba/Furutaka-class heavy cruisers built by Japan before the war was left with the Kinugasa.

Due to the time difference, Hoffman received the full briefing on the situation in the evening of the same day, and a similar telegram was sent from Cole, who was far away in Tokyo, but he was still suspicious of the letter, saying that Japan had a criminal record in such a matter as lying and concealing such information.

"Is this true?" Hoffman said to Raeder, who came to report, "Don't lie about the military like the Battle of Midway. ”

"This time it's true." Raeder smiled, "The Navy sent two generals to watch the battle and learn from the Japanese Mobile Fleet. They were involved in almost the entire battle, and after the war they interviewed the pilots of the Japanese attack planes, who now knew each other well, and also sent telegrams to confirm them. Of course, a warship of the rank below the cruiser, destroyer and below can be mistaken. But such a large target as an aircraft carrier and battleship will not be wrong. ”

Hoffman became excited: "That means that the American aircraft carrier formation was temporarily swept away?" ”

"I think so, Führer." Raeder couldn't suppress his excitement, "The Zeppelin will be put into service in January next year, the aviation forces in Richthofen have been doing a good job recently, accumulating actual combat experience, and the Eagle in the Italian direction can be put into service almost early next year, if we convert two more French warships into aviation battleships." In the next six months, the strength of the Imperial Navy will be greatly improved, and the balance of forces will also change. ”

Hoffman nodded: "If the Americans want to continue to maintain the situation in the Pacific Ocean, they must once again draw warships from the mainland and the Atlantic direction, which will affect their global strategic deployment." Not to mention that now many of their warships are adrift in the Atlantic, ready to land in North Africa......"

At this point, he immediately picked up the phone and called Dönitz: "Are all your lads available?" How many boats are there? ”

"That's right, just waiting for your order, a total of 34 submarines are currently in ambush in the direction of Northwest Africa." Dönitz reported confidently. "They're all waiting a little impatiently."

When the United States is intensively advancing Operation "Torch". Hoffman is also making various preparations for response, instructing Dönitz to transfer all the submarines in the Atlantic Ocean to fight in this direction is one of the countermeasures, and even temporarily reduce the ambush against the British merchant fleet for this goal, and now the submarine fleet has swelled to as many as 34, although it will be more in a few days, but Hoffman obviously cannot continue to wait.

"Tonight will make these lurking sea wolves difficult and keep Roosevelt awake." Hoffman did not hesitate to give the order, "The priority target is the transport ship." It either contains the U.S. Army or war materiel, without which the Americans cannot fight. Don't move those warships - they can't get ashore. ”

"As you wish, my Führer."

Not only could Roosevelt not be able to sleep, but from Australia to North America, from Halsey to Nimitz, all the senior US Navy generals who were closely related to the South Pacific were now unable to sleep in agony, and there was no market for concealing and lying about the US military system, and Halsey and Nimitz did not bother to do so, and after receiving farewell telegrams from Rear Admiral Lee on behalf of TF64 and Kincaid on behalf of TF16\17, Vice Admiral Halsey cried and scolded in the headquarters, "like a madman." The adjutant quietly removed all the bullets from his rifle for fear of danger, and it wasn't long before he heard a curse from inside: "Even this damn broken gun is against me......"

Hopkins only learned the news of the fiasco on the front line in the early morning of November 6, Washington time, and he immediately hurried to the president's office, and before he reached the door, he heard Roosevelt slap the table inside and roar: "It's not so cheap, if you lose the battle, you want to leave?" Do I have to pay for the next person? No, if you want to leave, you have to win the battle for me before I can resign! ”

When he entered, he found that Admiral Ernest Joseph King, Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, was also inside, and Admiral King was, of course, an iron-man man who had said something like this shortly after Pearl Harbor when Roosevelt appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy...... When things don't go well, they will come to find the turtle son. "Today is not good, Roosevelt has called Admiral King again.

After asking, I learned that both Halsey and Nimitz had submitted their resignations early this morning, and in the face of the resignation of the two admirals in order to assume responsibility, Roosevelt of course naturally rejected it, but Hopkins still did not expect that the president's emotions would be so violent -- even after receiving the telegram from Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt's anger at that time was not as strong as it is today.

As a politician, Hopkins knew that Roosevelt was protecting his men, after all, this defeat was too heavy, and the impact even exceeded Pearl Harbor: Pearl Harbor lost and there was an excuse for Japan's sneak attack, and this Battle of the Solomon Sea was completely an open confrontation between the two sides, Japan used a little strategy, but the United States was not completely without a chance, and it is of course debatable whether Nimitz and Halsey's command was problematic in this way. In addition, the defeat in this campaign occurred after the great victory at Midway, and after the victory at Midway, everyone thought that Japan was no longer to be worried, but they did not expect that in just five months, the Japanese not only immediately returned the color, but also gave the navy an even more ugly record -- three fleets in a row were destroyed in one day, and the United States became an aircraft carrier-free navy in a short period of time.

It took a few more questions to understand the root cause of Roosevelt's anger: Army Chief of Staff Marshall, on behalf of the Army, questioned the situation of the war, believing that it was not the right time for the Navy to break out such a major battle in the Pacific Ocean at a time when the war in North Africa was about to begin. Hopkins saw this very clearly, the army by no means thought that the navy should fight this battle, but because when the navy Nimitz and the army MacArthur were fighting fiercely for the command of the counteroffensive in the southwest Pacific region, Roosevelt finally made a decision to let Nimitz take command after reluctance to coordinate.

Admiral King was also annoyed by this, but he thought about the problem from a different angle: Nimitz and Halsey were certainly responsible for the defeat of the war, but they could not be replaced as soon as they lost, and the army's attitude of jumping up immediately in the face of the defeat in the battle made him feel very uncomfortable - was MacArthur so good? If it's good, don't you have a bad record of losing to the Philippines?

Seeing Hopkins come in, Roosevelt restrained his anger, reluctantly greeted and exchanged a few pleasantries, everyone had their own thoughts, and no one spoke for two minutes, and the office remained awkwardly silent. It took half a day for Roosevelt to break the calm: "Harry, you're not a soldier, what do you think I should do with this?" ”

Hopkins looked at Admiral Kim, who wanted to speak, and after thinking for a while, he said: "I agree with your idea, there is no universal victorious general in the world, Nimitz and Admiral Halsey may have made such and such mistakes in command, but this is inevitable, and there are not many people in our navy who can do a better job than them." It is not advisable to change people as soon as the battle is lost! What's more, can the Navy put forward more and better command talents? Who can guarantee that the newcomers will do a better job than the others? ”

"But some people from the outside world say that the reason why the Japanese are so effective in this campaign is entirely because they have replaced a new commander-in-chief of the navy and a commander of ......the fleet," Roosevelt said irritably, "and there are a few well-informed people who think that we should also learn from the Japanese way, and they lost the substitution after Midway, and they won this time." ”

"Then......," Hopkins sneered, "I'll ask them to follow Yamamoto's example, recommend candidates, and bet their political careers on this general." If 50 members of the Senate and House of Representatives are willing to support a certain admiral and promise that if he loses and he will quit politics, we might as well give the long-awaited general a chance......"

Of course, there is no need to think about it, no politician is willing to bet his political life on the victorious general, especially at this grim moment, who dares to say that the person who can turn the tide is the one I am optimistic about? Roosevelt and Admiral King laughed heartily when they heard this, and they tacitly acknowledged that the tide and rumors of substitutions could be dealt with in this way.

Suddenly, the adjutant hurriedly handed over the latest information, and Hopkins, who was closest to the presidential adviser, took it and took a cursory glance at it.

"Harry, what's the bad news?" Seeing Hopkins' face turn worse after reading the briefing, the perceptive Roosevelt immediately noticed it.

"It's not good." Hopkins handed over the information, "I suggest that the next phase of the war needs to be rearranged and considered as a whole. (To be continued.) )