"Sir, are we really going to fight?" On the USS Franklin, Smith was also advising Nimitz, "I'm not afraid of death, but if everyone dies here, I'm afraid you will have a hard time facing ...... in the future."

Nimitz nodded with a heavy face. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Although this wave achieved good results, the loss of aircraft was also extremely huge, with only 132 of the 260 aircraft released being recovered, a loss rate of nearly 50%. In contrast, 136 of the 182 German aircraft engaged in the attack were recovered, and the loss rate was much smaller than that of the American army, although if it was more than 25% by German standards, it would be considered a heavy loss.

"What do you think? Retreat? Nimitz shook his head, "We can't retreat, what if the enemy doesn't retreat and chase after us?" It was necessary to fight out this German fleet and buy time for the army to deploy in South America. The Army then buys time for the Navy to recover - assuming the war continues. ”

Smith nodded helplessly: the German planes had a longer range and the pilots were more elite, and they still had a chance to fight if they wanted to fight - there were still a full 4 hours before the sun went down!

"Keep the 225-degree course still, the fleet is moving at maximum speed, Wisconsin ......" Nimitz said, tears streaming down, "let the destroyer sink with a torpedo!" ”

After the first attack, after collecting the 48 planes provided by the reserve aircraft and Hewitt, the US military still had more than 140 planes left, and lost 43 planes in the air defense operation (nearly half of the pilots who fell into the water were rescued), and after the two phases were attacked, Nimitz still had more than 230 planes, and now the proportion of fighters has risen to 42%.

Before the fleet was recovered, the anti-aircraft fighters had been resupplied and re-launched, with enough space to accommodate all the aircraft.

Since the morning, the two battle groups of the United States and Germany have been approaching each other, and the distance between the two sides has been reduced to only about 600 kilometers. The only consolation for Nimitz was that the returning Hewitt fleet did not encounter the dreaded German submarines.

He said to Smith, "You see, the German submarines didn't attack Hewitt, they must still be following us." The enemy is not slow, and if I turn around now, I will run into them again at night. ”

Smith was stunned for a moment, then nodded subconsciously and said worriedly, "What are you going to do?" ”

"One more attack, and then we'll go to South Africa, go through Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, and leave all the aircraft carriers to Halsey and Ingram."

"What?" Smith was taken aback, "Why?" ”

"The President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected the Japanese peace bill, and according to what I know Hori Yoshi, he will immediately launch a large-scale attack -- the Combined Fleet has been resting for a long time and is relatively strong, so didn't he launch a large-scale attack after the last time the peace bill was rejected by us?"

"But all the way through?"

"It's okay, draw a few auxiliary cruisers from South Africa, as long as you stick to the edge of the Indian Ocean and don't provoke the Japanese-German base, it's not dangerous." Nimitz sighed, "Even if there's a threat, it's better than a head-numbing submarine ambush, right?" ”

"But such a big transfer, do you want to report to Admiral Jin first?"

"I'll report back when I'm done." Nimitz smiled miserably, "Maybe we'll all die here and won't be able to go back, and it's useless to talk more." ”

Nimitz's idea was very simple: if he could keep a fleet aircraft carrier, arrive at Pearl Harbor at that time, and combine it with two battleships and more than 10 escort aircraft carriers in the hands of the Pacific Fleet, plus the carrier-based aircraft pilots who have been painstakingly trained in the past few months, he would barely have the strength to fight in the face of the upcoming main force of the combined fleet. As for the Atlantic direction, with the arrival of the main German fleet in August, it will not help to have one more or one less aircraft carrier.

While Nimitz was wrestling with what to do next, Cranke was struggling to accommodate the returning assault group.

In accordance with his request, all the reconnaissance planes in the open sea flew to Rio and landed, and the remaining 20 or so air defense fighters quickly landed to replenish them, and the fighters reinforced by the air force either crashed in battle or made a forced landing on the sea surface and were rescued by destroyers.

Even so, it is impossible to accommodate all the more than 130 planes returning home. Fortunately, the aircraft carrier Jean-Barr is the largest of the three main aircraft carriers, which can accommodate nearly 80 aircraft, and the L-12 escort aircraft carrier can accommodate about 30 aircraft.

"Let the fighters in the rehoming strike group speed up their return and land first to replenish and make room for the attack aircraft."

This means that the next step of the operation is to carry out cross-transposition: the fighters of the previous round of air defense missions will perform escort missions, and the fighters of the previous round of escort will perform air defense missions.

Fortunately, there were more German pilots, and the reserve pilots on the Ise and King were tossed and turned on the Jean-Bar after falling overboard, and there were enough manpower to replace them.

At 14:02, the first batch of returning fighters appeared in the field of vision, they did not know the situation of their own fleet, only knew to land on the L12 aircraft carrier as much as possible, and when they saw the empty appearance of the sea, many people exclaimed in the headphones: "What about the King?" What about the Ise? What about L11? ”

"Don't look for it! It's all sinking! Landing on L12 now! ”

"Quick!"

On the L12, all the ground crew, reserve pilots, and the spare staff officers of the commander tower all ran over to help.

Jean-Barr was doing a similar thing, all kinds of torpedoes, bombs, and fuel tanks were lined up in advance, and even Hintz himself was on the front line, and only Cranke and a few core staff officers were arranging the next step in formation.

The Germans now had a total of 159 aircraft, and considering that the American army still had two aircraft carriers and a good air power, he was determined to leave behind 64 fighters and send 95 aircraft to attack.

"Tell the Air Force to support our 16 more planes if possible."

After receiving Clark's telegram for help, the Air Force gritted its teeth and squeezed out another 16 fighters with auxiliary fuel tanks to fly over the fleet, and the German defense force finally reached 80, a figure that made Clark feel more comfortable.

At 14:37, the Ju-198 attack planes began to return home, and all of them were guided to land on the Jean-Bar, looking at the empty sea and the battleship still smoking, everyone knew what was happening, and their hearts were full of anger.

"Come on, brothers!" Hintz cheered on the deck of Jean-Bar, "The Americans can't hold on, it doesn't matter if we run out, the reinforcements arranged by the Führer will leave in a few days!" When the time comes, the South Atlantic will be ours! ”

"Long live the Führer!"

"If the army wins against the Russians, our navy will definitely be able to win against the Americans!"

"Long live the Navy!"

"Comrades-in-arms, success or failure is here, I'm sorry for everyone!" On the Franklin, Nimitz stepped out of the bridge and onto the deck, trying to cheer up the pilots, but didn't know what to say. These familiar and unfamiliar faces will embark on the journey in a few dozen minutes, and he doesn't know how many people he can come back! In a sense, he was sending these lads to death with his own hands.

"Sir, fight with the Germans, there is no bad seed in the United States!" A young pilot clenched his fists and shouted.

"Come back alive!" Nimitz shook hands and hugged them one by one with tears in his eyes, "No matter how late it is, I'm here waiting for you!" ”

"Sir, take care too!"

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff learned about the naval situation, and also knew that Admiral King was hospitalized again, and Nimitz was not there, and now Turner's temporary acting presiding over naval affairs.

Turner hesitated for a moment, and said with difficulty: "Even if General Nimitz wins this battle, the main fleet of the German army that is about to arrive is something he cannot afford, and the navy may have to enter a period of recuperation, waiting for the new aircraft carrier to enter service in October." I had already called the shipyard in the afternoon to urge me to speed up the progress again, but the shipyard said that it would only speed up by 5-7 days, and it would not be faster. ”

"What about the situation in South America?"

"The Navy dispatched a fleet last week to assist the Army in rushing supplies, amounting to nearly 300,000 tons. Tomorrow another batch of freighters will be released, the number of which is about 250,000 tons. "The next step is to rely on the Army to hold the northern front of South America, and the Navy wants to use strategic airlift to rush up to 5-6 divisions." ”

"How many troops does our army have in South America now?"

"11 divisional units, about 250,000 people." "But there are 7-80,000 troops that lack equipment and supplies. ”

"Then hurry up the shipment." Truman thought for a moment, "If you have 300,000 troops, do you have the confidence to hold out until October?" ”

"Then it depends on how many troops the enemy has?"

Donovan said: "According to various intelligence corroborations, this batch of German reinforcements may be between 10-120,000 people. ”

"The enemy army is currently close to 8-100,000 troops, and if you add another 10-120,000, there will be at least 200,000 people, and the Germans still have a naval advantage." Marshall smiled wryly, "I don't think the South American army can be less than 400,000, and the armored division can't be less than 5." ”

"Let's just follow this troop dispatch." Truman said to Turner, "I hope that the Navy can complete the dispatch of reinforcements and equipment before the arrival of the main German fleet, and all soldiers will go from the air!" Are you in trouble? ”

The latter nodded in agreement.

Truman glanced around, and the next three months were crucial for him, first, there was the last presidential debate; Second, the situation in South America will be clear; Third, there will be a presidential election in November.

Although he was ready to give up, the idea had not been communicated to the party's top brass and he had to coordinate with the bigwigs: withdrawing from the election, while more shocking than losing, was a face-saving approach for him. It could even be done a little more glorious: admit that it is not good to lead the war, take the initiative to take responsibility and withdraw from the election, but show that it will continue to fight against the axis of evil.

As for whether the next step is war or peace, or let Dewey have a headache -- do you think the president is so good?

At 15:38, the second wave of the US military attack group departed, and everyone was restless, waiting for fate to be announced.