"Didn't you say that the main formations of the enemy were staying near the Azores?"

"Yes, the bomber formations also tried to attack, but apparently failed. "Admiral King, who came to report www.biquge.info was equally furrowed and puzzled, "but one thing the telegram said was very certain, it was an aircraft carrier that attacked us, and it was a model that had never been seen before, and the strangest thing was that there was a huge drift. ”

"Can you get any specific information?"

"A little bit, the secret information on the French side said that the German side used the French battleship to rebuild, either Dunkirk or Jeanbar, our experts estimate that Dunkirk is more likely, this is not good news......" Two days ago, the aircraft carrier Brave (Essex class) has just been commissioned, and the officers and men of the Royal Navy are still undergoing final sea trials, Admiral Kim expected to form a further advantage over the main force of the Axis Fleet, but he did not expect the Germans to serve a new aircraft carrier, Now the ratio of aircraft carriers on both sides has changed from 6:4 to 7:5, and the ratio of battleships has changed from 7:5 to 7:6, and the gap between them is narrowing.

"Do we have any other aircraft carriers that we can use?"

"There are still Hornets and Wasps (Essex-class) that can be put into service in early next month, but they are scheduled to be put into service in the Pacific, and the necessary sea trials will be completed, and the real combat effectiveness will not be until early December."

Admiral Kim did not make it clear that the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft of these two warships have not yet been fully implemented, and except for less than one-third of the skilled officers and men who can be selected and transferred from among the pilots of the original Pacific Fleet, the rest of the troops must be selected from the country, but at present, except for the pilots who undertake training tasks, the rest have been transferred to the main fleet or escort aircraft carriers, and the joint element operation of the expedition to South America alone has occupied 1,200 pilots (groups). It is planned that when they are a little more mature, they will be transferred back to the fleet carriers from the escort carriers. Now that such a show has come out, not only has it lost the pilots of the four escort aircraft carriers at once, but it also means that once the main fleet fights with the German army, the loss of pilots will be even greater.

It is true that the United States still has thousands of carrier-based aircraft pilots who have obtained qualified take-off and landing certificates, but Admiral Kim knows too well what these rookies are, and if they do not carry out several missions properly and use the "natural elimination method" to screen out some candidates, they cannot be used at all, and they are also delivering food to people. Now the United States has introduced the assembly line training method that the United States is most proud of in the training of pilots: rookies who have completed training in batches first go to the real offshore aircraft carriers to adapt to the ship, so that they can understand the difference between sea take-off and landing and inland river paddle wheel take-off; After passing through, it will carry out low-intensity escort operations, such as transporting supplies from the east coast to the Caribbean, and then engage in high-intensity escort operations when it is mature, such as carrying out escort missions on the Anglo-Canadian route; Then engage in combat confrontation operations to join the escort aircraft carriers, and finally officially join the fleet aircraft carriers to participate in front-line operations.

The outline requires that the elimination rate at each pass should not be less than 25 percent, so that after passing the five levels, the chance of a pilot who has obtained a certificate of qualification to officially join the combat service of the fleet's aircraft carriers is about 25 percent -- about every 1,000 pilots can be equipped with enough personnel for two Essex-class aircraft carriers, and they can still maintain a certain combat effectiveness. The idea is really good, but the losses are really amazing, many pilots are eliminated without waiting for the final pass - for example, the NG215 fleet lost 150 pilots (groups) at once, and to make up more people can only reduce the qualification requirements for the previous gear, and finally the recursive effect of dominoes.

Another way to solve this difficulty is to send one more of these two aircraft carriers to the British, and the British carrier-based pilots probably have no great difficulty in getting another qualified carrier-based pilot, but since both of them are booked for Nimitz, Admiral King does not want to give them to the British unless he has to, which means that Nimitz will not get another Franklin until at least January next year -- this will be very unfavorable to the Pacific war situation.

"But the Anglo-Canadian route cannot be cut off, and it is about to enter winter, and air transportation will encounter more difficulties, and Great Britain cannot afford to endure too long." Roosevelt was worried, "Our delay in the launch of the Azores campaign has made it difficult for Churchill to parry, if we break our promise on the delivery of supplies, I am afraid that he will really be difficult to maintain, you don't want our soldiers to intervene in British domestic politics, right?" ”

"Intervention" actually means "assisting the coup d'état", of course Admiral Kim understands, and he strongly opposes doing so, he can't wait to get rid of this big burden, if he helps Qiu Fat to carry out a coup d'état, then the United States will have nothing to do with Great Britain at all.

"That can only allow Admiral Ingersoll to find an opportunity to fight the Germans, but the outcome is unpredictable."

Roosevelt said: "If the main fleet can hold off the other side and only let the escort formation attack the Falkland Islands, how sure do you think it ......?"

"More than 70 percent, but if the enemy still has combat power over Bermuda, we have to prepare the cost of 20,000 casualties and 500 aircraft." At this time, the U.S. military did not know the arrival of the second batch of reinforcements of the German army, and it was still measured by two marine brigades and about 150-200 aircraft, and the total strength of the two marine brigades was nearly 16,000, and the lessons of the two battles of Tarawa and Bermuda had just passed, and the United States knew that it had no advantage in land warfare, so it was very humble to mention the standard of 20,000 casualties, which was actually a great improvement compared with the two battles before and after. But it is enough for the bigwigs of the Joint Participation Association to jump to their feet: if you hit an overseas island, you will lose 20,000, and if you land on the European continent in the future, in the face of 5 million elite German troops, how much does the US military plan to die? 5 million? 10 million? Everyone was worried at the thought of this terrible prospect, but no one would break it.

As soon as he heard the figure of 20,000, Roosevelt also frowned - this means that even if he wins, it will at least mean that 3-4 divisions will have to be pulled back for reconstruction, and then there is the Azore, if Falkland will lose 20,000, the Azores battle will not be less than 100,000 anyway, but can he not fight because of heavy casualties? Isn't that right in the hands of the enemy?

He gritted his teeth: "You are responsible for drawing up a mature adjustment plan: the main fleet will deal with the Axis fleet that has broken the Anglo-Canadian route - whether it is the enemy's detachment or the main fleet, and the newly acquired aircraft carriers of the British are also required to complete sea trials as soon as possible and join the operation; The convoy went to seize the Falkland Islands, and if it really had to bear the loss of 20,000 + 500 aircraft, I think it would be possible to send some more forces. ”

Admiral King knew that Roosevelt had made up his mind, so he nodded in approval.

When the top-secret telegram was received from Admiral King, the Atlantic Fleet was resting and replenishing on the east coast, and it was really mixed news for Admiral Ingersoll: the good news was that the British said that the Brave could complete the sea trials and participate in the war ahead of schedule from November, and at the same time there were new aircraft that could be supplied to the fleet -- the F6F-5 fighter was officially installed, which was faster and more efficient in climbing than the F6F-3 used before, and had a slight advantage in performance over the German main fighter BF-219, The TBF torpedo bomber was also upgraded to the TBM-2600 (universal version) with R-20-3 engines, which increased speed and range;

The worry is that the Germans have increased their troops again, and the intelligence also says that the enemy has a new carrier-based aircraft, and the strength does not seem to be weak, and the performance of the SB2C used to replace the SBD dive bomber on their side is still unsatisfactory, although this aircraft known as the "Hell Dive" has also begun to learn from the Japanese practice and began to take the idea of integrating dive bombing and torpedo attack. But in addition to its weight (7.8 tons), it was almost useless, and was scolded half to death by front-line pilots, who preferred to use a slightly improved and upgraded SBD-5 rather than SB2C.

Historically, the U.S. Navy has always had an advantage after the Battle of Midway, so the immature SB2C can be pushed down, waiting for slow improvement and eventually replacing the SBD, and now it is in a weak position on the scene, and the weight of the voice on the front line is very heavy, Turner said strongly, "If you dare to equip the aircraft carrier force with this kind of 'hell plane', he will order his subordinates to push them all into the sea when he goes to sea, as many as he wants!" It's better to lose a plane in vain than to lose a person in vain! ”

Admiral Ingersoll and the Chiefs of Staff knew that Turner could do what he said, and they couldn't do anything about it, because the British refused to use SB2C after they got the aircraft carrier Brave, they only needed SBD - even if it was eliminated by the Americans. Besides, there was Admiral King covering Turner, and no one dared to touch half of the latter's hair. In the end, the helpless Curtis Company could only knock out teeth and swallow blood, and recycle the first batch of SB2C from the factory as scrap, losing more than $4 million in vain, while the SBD production line of Douglas Company, which was originally about to be shut down, continued to run at full speed, and Turner was extremely tall in their eyes - "a real naval backbone responsible for his subordinates!" ”

With this delay, the Atlantic Fleet's departure was nearly four days late. Then the Richelieu and the Dunkirk continued to rage in the Atlantic, not to mention the merchant ships flying the British and American flags, even the neutral merchant ships heading to Britain had to obediently stop the ship for inspection, no matter what the materials, as long as they were needed by Germany, they were all detained by Hintz as "transporting strategic materials in violation of the Neutrality Act" and were seized and transferred to the Azores; Even if the Azores didn't need it, as long as Britain needed it, it would be taken by Hintz and shipped back to the country or given to Spain and Portugal and still sold for a good price - besides, there are still things in the world that the British need and are not "strategic goods"?

Of course, the ship will not be confiscated, and the shipowner will be given a German Navy seizure certificate in the end, so that they can explain to the cargo owner, otherwise who will continue to transport it next time?

Grain, wool, timber, cloth, ore, beef, and all the supplies that flowed like water were collected, and the pensions and incentives of the marines were settled...... (To be continued.) )