After looking at the map, Truman touched his head and asked, "Gentlemen, I don't know about the Navy, but I want to ask a small question." Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoCan we ignore the German forces on the Anglo-Canadian route, concentrate the two fleets in the north and south, gather the superior forces of 7 aircraft carriers, and try to eat the German fleet hanging around Brazil first? Solve one is one, give the Congress, give the people a little confidence......"

Everyone was silent after listening to this, and after a long time, Li Hai spoke: "Your Excellency's strategy is very good, but unfortunately it can't be done at present. ”

"Why?"

"Now General Cunningham has 2 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships in his hands, if we don't care about the Anglo-Canadian route and the life and death of the British, I dare not guarantee that he will fully obey the order, maybe he will ...... halfway through" Lehi made a turn-around gesture, suggesting that Cunningham might run away halfway.

"Damn it!" Truman immediately reacted and asked unwillingly, "What if Cunningham is removed and someone else is on it?" ”

"It would have to be British, at least, and I don't think Prime Minister Churchill would say yes." Li Hai explained, "Cunningham and the prime minister have not been very good, the latter once had the idea of replacing him, but because the current situation in Britain is very dangerous, and His Excellency the prime minister is also under great pressure, the removal order cannot pass the hurdle of Marshal Pound, let alone the pressure of the government and the opposition." ”

Truman nodded and understood: Now that some people in Britain accuse Churchill of being a dog of the United States, and that they are destroying the British Empire, it will be really troublesome if they force Britain to change the sky, and sinking a German detachment is better than nothing compared to the overall situation of Britain -- he did not know about Churchill's arrangement of a coup d'état.

However, he did not give up, and asked: "If I can persuade Prime Minister Churchill to temporarily transfer the fleet to Brazil for war, and then return to the division to solve the problem of the Anglo-Canadian route, how much time do you think it will take to delay in the meantime?" ”

"It takes at least 45 days for the fleet to go back and forth, and the time to destroy the enemy is not necessarily, if it is fast, it will be done in one day, and if it is slow, it can be sharpened for a month, I think it will be at least no less than 2 months, and it may take 3 months."

"I understand that the UK-Canada route needs to be prepared for a disruption of at least three months." Truman thought for a moment, "You continue to arrange for General Spruance to attack, and I will report to the president today to see if he can agree with my idea." If I agree, I plan to fly to London tomorrow and personally communicate with Prime Minister Churchill and Field Marshal Pound, and try to get them to agree with this strategy! We cannot afford to lose the war all the time, and we must bring hope and confidence to the people of the two countries. ”

"If that's the case, will you allow me to accompany you tomorrow?" Lehi offered to ask.

"That's the best, I don't understand a lot of military issues, so I just ask for advice."

After Truman left, everyone in the Joint Chiefs of Staff nodded their heads and thought that His Excellency the Vice President was good, that he was resolute in his work, that he was willing to listen to everyone's opinions, and that he was rarely willing to take responsibility.

Admiral King concluded: "If the British can really hold out for three months, we will seize the opportunity to eat this detachment, and perhaps the whole situation will be reversed." ”

Roosevelt also thought that Truman's suggestion was feasible and explained: "You can also disclose the matter of the $50 billion national debt to Prime Minister Churchill and win the support of the British side." ”

"So, your country wants to fight a war near Brazil first?" Churchill was also surprised by the dazzling political struggle within the United States, and Truman came with sincerity this time, and the ideas he put forward were also very feasible, and he was somewhat moved.

What made him even happier was that the United States not only promised to continue to aid Britain, but also took the initiative to reveal that it had obtained a special treasury bond of $50 billion, which made him believe that the so-called "interruption of aid to Britain" was only Wallace's own idea and did not represent the mainstream opinion of the United States -- this would greatly reduce the political pressure he was facing.

Marshal Pound was also a veteran naval figure, so he naturally knew the necessity of gathering to encircle and intercept the German fleet. He said: "I agree with this idea in principle, but three months is too long, and if it had not been for the interruption of the import of supplies caused by the Battle of Newfoundland, we could have held out for three months, but now I am afraid we can only hold on for two months." ”

After a night of bargaining, the two sides finally agreed that the Cunningham fleet would have no more than 75 days to return to the Anglo-Canadian route, and that the United States would put the USS Hancock and USS Bennington (both of which were of the Essex class) into combat at that time, which had been put into service in May.

Marshal Pound said: "By May, our army's Indefatigable (Grudge-class) will also be put into service, and the Lion (Lion-class) battleship may also be expected to be put into service, even if the Germans have 1-2 more capital ships, the combined naval forces of the two countries will still be overwhelming, and when the time comes, we will fight a general decisive battle, and we will strive to keep the Germans on the European continent!" ”

Lehi silently calculated that if this was the case, the Anglo-American combined fleet would have 6 aircraft carriers and 5 battleships in June, which would have a certain advantage over the strength of the German Navy's 4 aircraft carriers and 5 battleships (neither side counted the fleets of Spruance and Crank), and finally reached an agreement.

On March 26, Truman returned to Washington in high spirits and said to the General of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Gentlemen, I have communicated with the British, and they have agreed to stand on their own for 75 days, beginning on April 1, during which General Cunningham will promise to cooperate with our troops!" ”

The crowd applauded enthusiastically, April 1 was almost the day when the two new warships could be commissioned, and if they could assemble seven aircraft carriers and five battleships in the South Atlantic, they believed that there was a good chance that they would catch this daring German fleet.

"Where is he now?"

"The exact location is not very clear, but yesterday they attacked Rio de Janeiro...... "Admiral Kim smiled wryly, "it was another night attack, and our troops could not defend it." However, General Spruance moved quickly, and we estimate that he was about 1,000 kilometers away from the enemy fleet. ”

"Will he run to Argentina?"

"Possibly, the loading and unloading of the Argentine side I think should have been completed, unless he does not want the transports to go back to the Mediterranean alone, he must go south to Buenos Aires, and Spruance is waiting on the way to the south...... If it is normal, it is possible to engage the enemy around March 28. ”

"Very good, give the Germans a little color, there will be retribution for doing too many bad things."

The joint chiefs of staff had a good estimate, the distance between the Spruance fleet and the Cracock fleet was about 1,100 kilometers, and the former knew that the latter existed, but he did not know the exact location, so he could only wait for the opponent to return to Argentina, while the latter did not know that the Americans had followed him.

But there is one thing that the Americans did not expect that the extremely bold Cranke did not retract after a vote as they thought, and the whole army after the bombing of Rio de Janeiro did not feel very enjoyable, and he also planned to continue to go north with the fleet to do a vote to see if he could break diplomatic relations in the Caribbean direction, and if not, it would be good to bomb the US military aviation bases in the three eastern states of Brazil -- Mantofil and Worrall's analysis reminded him that it was appropriate to add some blockage to the Americans.

As for fuel consumption, he is not worried at all, it is a big deal to go to the French in Dakar, West Africa to make up for a little, after winning the last Battle of Cape Verde, the French army has admired Germany so much, the Petain government is very cooperative, and the fuel is not handy? And in the South Atlantic, dangling to contain the British and American forces and sight, there is also the full consideration of the head of state, but the delivery of Argentine materials back to China is not particularly important. Therefore, as the Krank's fleet continued to move north, the distance between him and the TF44 fleet continued to widen.

Taking advantage of the thaw in the Caspian Sea and the arrival of follow-up reinforcements, Malinovsky on the east bank continued to send reinforcements to the west bank, and by March 29, the total strength of the Red Army in Transcaucasia was nearly 300,000. The offensive group blocked the Iranian line with nearly 80,000 troops, and the rest of the forces swept unscrupulously in the Transcaucasus, where the Turks had deployed about 12 divisions and 4 brigades before the battle, and even included two more valuable armored divisions, but under the relentless sweep of the Red Army, 6 divisions suffered a devastating blow, 3 divisions and 2 brigades were scattered, and only the other 3 divisions and 2 brigades suffered minor losses and returned home.

Turkey not only lost nearly 150,000 troops and related materials, equipment, and supplies, but also lost most of the Transcaucasian land occupied since the dispatch of troops, and even the Ardahan and Kars lines in the northeast of Turkey were severely plundered by the Red Army. vented all the pent-up anger in the past few years. The political commissars either couldn't stop the rebels, or they simply didn't want to stop them, and they tossed around casually. On the contrary, Chernyakhovsky himself was very sober, and did not go to Poti, Batumi and other cities along the Black Sea, where there were Axis naval forces, and the Romanian gunboats were not a joke; Second, the Iranians did not move, and it is strange to say that the Red Army did not attack, and the Iranians and even the Germans had no intention of attacking, and the two sides maintained a state of sit-down warfare in the border area. As for the line of the Caucasus Mountains, he did not rush to attack.

He thought very clearly that the attack on Turkey was tacitly tolerated and even connived at by the Germans, so he turned a blind eye to his own actions, and even the bombers only dealt with the Red Army on the Caspian Sea and the east coast, and the Transcaucasia hardly came, but it was not easy to cross the Caucasus to fight the German troops in the South Caucasus, and he had to rest and replenish and gather forces before he could confidently launch an attack. He believes that the ideal time for an attack will be after April 5 at least.

Zhukov agreed with him and said that he would give him another 50,000 troops and 2 tank brigades to support him!