Ozawa's plan was well thought out, and the tactics that Frank and Martial considered were to rush overnight, relying on the high speed of the aircraft carrier group to attack Newfoundland Island, so that they could attack the island at dawn, but Ozawa thought it was inappropriate, so that although the first wave of attacks could take the lead, the fleet would immediately face a British and American counterattack, and although the raid on Newfoundland and the attack on Pearl Harbor were consistent as a whole, they were different in details:

First, the goal of attacking Pearl Harbor is mainly to attack the US fleet, so it is necessary to strive for a preemptive strike and first paralyze the US airfield and air defense forces at Pearl Harbor, but Newfoundland Island is much larger than Pearl Harbor, and the airfield and planes are also much larger than Pearl Harbor, and the first attack cannot guarantee the destruction of the enemy airfield, plus there is a base on Prince Edward Island next to it, once the US army counterattacks, the power is not trivial, but it is much safer to attack in the evening, and even if the US army counterattacks, the Axis Fleet will not be found at night. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In other words, an attack in the evening is better than an early morning attack in the better interest in preserving the fleet, and it is far easier for the U.S. military to build these transport planes and reproduce a lot of supplies than it is for the Axis to rebuild a fleet.

Second, the Pearl Harbor operation was a sneak attack in peacetime, and the US military was defenseless, and although the attack on Newfoundland was sudden, it was at least wartime, and it was a base port where heavy troops were stationed, and it was illusory to pin hope completely on the defenselessness of the other side.

Third, Newfoundland is such a large volume, it is difficult to completely solve it by relying on aviation alone, and it is necessary to introduce an artillery fleet and even consider landing operations, but the artillery formation and landing formation will definitely not be able to run so fast with the aircraft carrier, and if it is bombed refreshingly in the morning, can you still count on the shelling or landing in the afternoon? Pearl Harbor did not have such a landing operation.

Ozawa's suggestion was considered and accepted by Marchar and Crank, who resolved to attack according to this schedule.

Since the beginning of the morning, nervousness has permeated the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, and everyone has a feeling of waiting for fate to be announced, Mashal laughed, pretending to comfort everyone easily: "Don't be nervous, even if you can't beat the enemy of Newfoundland, you can't do anything to us, as long as Roosevelt still sends supplies to Churchill, Newfoundland will always be a soft underbelly, if it doesn't work this time, there will be a ...... next time."

Only Cranke knew that the chief's fists were clenched when he spoke just now, and his inner anxiety was evident.

The uneasiness also permeated the war room of the Joint Staff Committee, everyone's faces were tense, the air seemed to freeze, Admiral Jin had lost his temper twice in a row because of a trivial matter, but no one blamed him, everyone knew that the pressure on his body was too great.

"What if you can't find the German fleet?"

Ingram did not directly answer Marshall's question, but said: "Within 1,200 kilometers of the east coast and within 1,000 kilometers around Bermuda, the search has basically been completed, and two planes have been arranged to search for the important suspect area...... Personally, I think the former is the most likely thing. ”

"Where does the Navy judge where the enemy will be?"

Ingram smiled bitterly: "If you draw a circle centered on the last determination of the position of the enemy fleet at 17 o'clock yesterday, the enemy fleet can travel about 400-500 kilometers in one night, which means that the possible distribution range is 800-900 kilometers in a circle with a diameter of 800-900 kilometers, which is almost equivalent to nearly one-twelfth of the territory of the United States. ”

Everyone looked at each other, at first glance 800-900 kilometers seemed inconspicuous, but the real circle is extraordinary.

Hewitt interjected: "It is very likely that the German fleet evaded yesterday afternoon after being discovered by our reconnaissance plane, and maneuvered in other directions......"

This was a very natural reaction, Admiral Jin nodded: "At least the reconnaissance planes have determined that there are no enemy fleets within two distances, even if we can't find them, they can't attack us in the short term. ”

Since the first round of reconnaissance occupied the vast majority of reconnaissance planes, there were not many planes that could immediately carry out the second round of reconnaissance, and this time the focus was on the long-range search that must rely on the four reconnaissance planes returning home, Arnold said that the second round of reconnaissance would not be released until about 12 noon, and in view of the fact that there was still an afternoon for searching, everyone expressed cautious optimism.

At 10:17, Cunningham sent a telegram to Washington, informing him of the fleet's position, which was now less than 1,000 kilometers from Bermuda, and that the fleet's reconnaissance planes had also not found it. Everyone felt a little settled in their hearts, and when the aircraft carrier formation arrived, they would have more advantages in the next battle.

At 11:24, Turner sent a telegram to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informing him of the battle on Saar Island, saying that the Germans launched a night attack and counterattack last night, but were repelled by the army, and the three infantry regiments of the 5th Division of the Army all landed on the island, and now they have controlled half of the island. The progress of the operation was somewhat satisfactory, but the army losses exceeded expectations, the first regiment lost more than 50%, the second and third regiments, and the engineer battalion combined with the loss rate of nearly 30%, and the division commander MacDonald planned to send the supplementary battalion to reinforce as well.

Hearing that the war on the island was so stalemate, Marshall and other army bigwigs were also full of helplessness, so they could only ask Eisenhower: "When will the 3rd Army Division to support Cape Verde arrive?" ”

"Arrive in ...... tomorrow afternoon," Eisenhower sighed, "I originally planned to take the Dakar by the way after fighting Cape Verde, but now it seems that it is difficult, and the army forces mobilized are not enough, do you want to reinforce another division?" ”

"Then there won't be enough troops in the Brazilian direction." Marshall was also helpless, and the good joint element operation finally became a Cape Verdean refueling tactic, so he had to say, "Dakar will be delayed a little longer, and when the third batch of troops depart, as long as Cape Verde is taken, Dakar will still be easy to take." ”

At 11:53, Taylor, who was in command at the front, informed Arnold that the second round of reconnaissance planes had taken off one after another, and that the focus of this reconnaissance was on movements within 1,000 nautical miles northeast of Bermuda.

At this moment, the nervousness of everyone on the USS Zeppelin was even greater than that of the Washington Joint Chiefs of Staff, and at a high speed of 24 knots, the aircraft carrier formation was only 300 nautical miles away from the island of Newfoundland, and it was at a point where it could be discovered at any time, and the ground crew of the fleet had completed the preparation of all the aircraft, and the auxiliary fuel tanks and bombs were all available, just waiting for the order to attack.

Ozawa stood in front of the porthole of the command tower, motionless and thoughtfully looking at the sea; A large number of staff officers behind him were doing the act of looking at their watches and looking at the wall clock, which was already their subconscious conditioned reflex, everyone had never felt that the hours had passed so long, everyone was silently praying in their hearts, hoping that the fleet could have luck, Cranke sighed: "If I can speed up the time by 1 hour, I would rather live 10 years less......"

"It's coming, there's still 2 hours."

"Sir, there is an important enemy situation report...... At 12:43, a voice suddenly broke the silence and came from the radar room.

"What's the matter?" Machar felt that his voice was trembling slightly, and his whole nerves couldn't help but tense up in an all-round way, he instinctively didn't want to hear any enemy briefings, but he had to pay attention to them.

"The radar detected a ship approaching 50 kilometers in the direction of the fleet...... It may encounter our army, and it may be too late to avoid the route, but the other party is not fast, and the preliminary judgment is that it is a freighter. ”

"Buzz", everyone felt like the world was spinning.

Ozawa gritted his teeth and gave the order: "Dispatch 3 groups of carrier-based aircraft!" It must be sunk in the first place! It must not be allowed to send a signal! ”

The 12 HE-218 dive bombers quickly made the fastest sortie, and when they saw the attack aircraft group quickly rise into the air, everyone's hearts seemed to be in their throats.

This audacious freighter is a Chilean ship, because of Chile's neutral status, the captain intentionally or unintentionally ignored the warning issued by the US military that the German fleet was approaching and suspending departures, and still wanted to go back as soon as possible, and now the United States has a great demand for Chilean supplies, and every transportation is very profitable, and because of Chile's status as a neutral country, neither the Axis nor the alliance will take Chile well, and the small life is quite comfortable.

The Chilean sailors cheered when they saw a plane passing over the ship and lowering the altitude, and it was rare to encounter an airplane in the vast sea, and suddenly a sailor exclaimed: "Iron Cross, this is a German plane......

Everyone was amazed, when did the German planes fly here?

"Is there a German fleet nearby?"

"Probably."

"Do you need to report the Americans?"

As soon as this question came out, it immediately caused controversy, some people said yes, some people said not to meddle in things, until the captain heard the voice and walked out, and he was also stunned when he saw this scene.

Just as they hesitated, 12 dive bombers had already swooped down with a roar, "boom", this freighter of no more than 6,000 tons ate eight 500-kilogram aerial bombs in a row within half a minute, and was blown to pieces, it really sank no longer sink, and the poor captain did not even have time to send out the "SOS" signal.

"The good news is that the ship was blown up and sunk as if there was no signal, and the bad news is that it was a Chilean ship...... Chile is also a neutral country. ”

"It's good to sink it, who knows if the Chileans will tell the Americans about sinking this kind of thing......" Machar waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "It's good to say that it was a mistake, and let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do it afterwards, and it's a big deal to send them a few planes and a few tanks for compensation." ”

With this thrilling episode, time flies a lot faster

By the time the hour hand reached 2 o'clock, all the staff officers stood up and waited for the battle order to be issued.

Mashal gave the order with great ambition: "Now, I declare that the critical battle has officially begun, and the whole army will assault ......"

"Long live Germany! Long live the Führer! (To be continued.) )