The result of the reconnaissance plane's report was normal, and Machar and the others finally relieved their hearts, thinking that it was only mid-October, and there were still two full weeks before the beginning of November, he was extremely anxious, and he wanted to let the second batch of troops reinforcing the Falklands on the way go faster, faster. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the one hand, he sent ground troops mainly to the 7th Armored Division and the 92nd Infantry Division, and they will form the South American Expeditionary Force (also known as the "Mandolfe Battle Cluster") together with the first two Marine Brigades that have arrived, and on the other hand, he also sent a whole aviation wing, but this time it is not an ordinary air wing, but a unit that has been stationed in the Mediterranean and North Africa directions, and has rich experience in naval attacks. Hoffman wanted to play an effective role as an unsinkable aircraft carrier on the Falklands, so he transferred it to the Navy as a system.

After the completion of the series of actions, the Falklands base will be officially put into operation, and the number is terrifyingly big - the German Empire's South America-South Atlantic Theater Joint Command, which sounds like it is at the same level as the Western Europe-North Atlantic Theater Joint Command (in fact, the latter is Germany's real Western Front Command, with the old marshal Rundstead as commander-in-chief), but in fact there is only about the size of the group army, with Machar concurrently serving as the commander-in-chief. Russian theater of operations, Middle East-Indian Ocean theater and other joint commands.

This is not Hoffman's hollowing out of word games or making a wish for the military system, but it has a profound intention. Since the outbreak of the world war, the scope of Germany's battlefield control has become too large, far exceeding the dispatch capacity of the General Staff, and it is not something that the Supreme Command can directly control. As the war progresses, the coordination of the army, navy, and air force has become more and more urgent, and the joint command form of the three services under the theater system can bring into play more synergistic effects; in particular, the forces of several peripheral theaters are already weak, and if friction breaks out again between the navy, the land, and the air force, the consequences will be unimaginable.

The South American-South Atlantic Theater, as a front-line theater against Britain and the United States, has few troops, but they are all elite. In addition to all kinds of commonly used aircraft, the aviation force also brought the latest ME-262 jet fighter, after several months of production adjustment, ME-262 production has been steadily rising, more and more excellent troops have begun to equip, put on the Falklands battlefield more deterrent, but also easier to stabilize the military morale of South American countries. After the political turmoil in Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia, and the military coup d'état in Paraguay a few days ago, coupled with the ambiguous and wavering Chile, which has now swept nearly half of South America by the forces that are moving closer to the Axis countries or showing goodwill, Hoffman urgently needs to give them a boost of confidence.

For example, Machar did a good job of slinging the Brazilian Navy and forcing the U.S. Navy to be a turtle, and now it is doing a good job of raiding Bermuda and deterring the East Coast -- Hoffman still doesn't understand that Machar is in trouble.

However, the days of jet domination were far from coming, and given the pressure of the P47\P51, and the continued efforts of Germany in the field of traditional propeller aircraft, Dr. Tanker's long-built TA-152 finally made significant progress - it was fully finalized in September, and if trial production went well, mass production could begin in the spring of 1944 - 10 months faster than in history, and more production volumes.

As for the DO-412 (purple electric reform), which has been subject to the engine and stumbled, it has finally looked forward to the dawn of hard work, and produced the first batch of 24 trial production models, which are undergoing rigorous testing and training, and everyone is relatively optimistic; Although the Gale Reform Project presided over by Jiro Horikoshi started the latest, because it absorbed the lessons of many models in the early stage and bypassed the big hole of the engine, the overall speed of progress was not slow, and the progress gap with the DO-412 has narrowed to about 4 months.

The industry has different views on which model should be used for the next generation of carrier-based aircraft. Zidian's interception ability is very good, which is more advantageous in air defense warfare; The performance of the Gale is very balanced in all aspects, and it is expected to have a relatively good performance in escort operations. Therefore, the navy and the air force have different opinions, but in any case, the high-level thinking is the same; in the future, it is best for the navy and air force to be used in common with each other, and the main air superiority fighters should not exceed three models at most, and when equipping, it is necessary to consider not only performance but also productivity.

In the morning, the US Army Air Force again dispatched a large number of heavy bombers to reconnoitre, and although the Axis fleet had left Bermuda, it was impossible to really go far because of the Bermuda defenders, so the exact location was still detected -- about 1,270 kilometers from the US mainland. However, to the surprise of everyone in the fleet, the US military did not launch a large-scale attack after discovering the location of the fleet as it did yesterday, which made several high-ranking officials puzzled. The mystery was not revealed until 3 p.m.

"The enemy troops have been airborne on a large scale, with a strength of nearly 3,000 troops, and there are land-based aircraft to control the field in the air, and the firepower is fierce, and the headquarters is in urgent need of air cover......" After receiving the telegram, Machar, Ozawa, and Cranke knew that the fleet was in trouble, and now the situation was very uncomfortable -- if carrier-based aircraft were not sent to support, the Marine Corps would easily be able to gain a foothold by the enemy airborne troops without air cover; If you go to the rescue, it will greatly consume carrier-based aircraft, although the fleet has a lot of spare aircraft, but the number is not unlimited, any aircraft and ammunition must be used sparingly, if you fight the enemy's army aviation with all the troops, what to do when the American fleet comes up? When the time comes, the fleet will not be able to win, the marines will not be able to run, and everyone will only be served in one pot.

This was the second major mistake made by Mashal, the first of which was not taking the opportunity to eat the vanguard of the American army in the Caribbean. He originally hoped to use the Marines to force the American fleet and landing force to show up first, and he could use planes to fight a round, but now the United States has used airborne troops to contain his attempts, and the Axis has become difficult to ride.

In order to solve this difficulty, he pondered for a while and said: "The fleet is temporarily unable to provide air support, and I hope that the marines will use their armored forces to launch a counterattack after dark and drive the enemy into the sea." ”

Cranke advised him: "If the American airborne troops can gain a foothold in Bermuda, they will send more airborne troops down tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and one day we will not be able to resist it, and we must think of a way to retreat." ”

"Pull the main fleet over to pick it up?"

"Use the darkness of the night to pull the artillery fleet over, and let the destroyers pick up the marines, no, the same method as the Combined Fleet retreats on Kuah Island." Cranke smiled bitterly, "As for the equipment, you can only give up, saving people is important." ”

"Tokyo Express?" Mashal knows it all.

Ozawa nodded a little embarrassed, but his suggestion was different from Crank's, he suggested abandoning these three battalions of marines, allowing them to attract the attention of the American army, and the fleet taking advantage of the night to turn to the northwest, and then find a way to attack the continental United States, which would be more shocking than saving people, and then turn back to South America - he thought that the strategy of luring the enemy north and forcing the American army to divide its forces had been completed, and these battalions could be decisively abandoned.

Machar shook his head: "This can't be done, it doesn't matter if you give up your equipment, people must be rescued, saving people is of great significance, there are many heroes of the Battle of Holm, I can't easily throw them on Bermuda Island, otherwise I won't be able to explain to the army in the future, once the enemy captures a large number of marines, it will also be a great blow to our army." ”

"Another day of waiting, there are 3 battalions on the island, as well as armored forces, and the enemy is about 3,000 men, I think the Marines have the strength to fight, but tomorrow night to consider preparing to respond, today we still have to move positions to avoid being ......discovered by the enemy," Frank made a compromise opinion.

Of course, this compromise is also not ideal, and it is nothing more than delaying the situation for another day to see the situation, and Machar has a fluke mentality about this, and agrees to this approach. Although Ozawa was willing to oppose it, he could not think of a way to get rid of it quickly without giving up the Marines, so he agreed to take a second look at the situation, and maybe a miracle would happen - what if the Marines wiped out the Americans at night?

"Tubu!" It's anti-aircraft fire roaring.

"Snort!" As soon as you hear such an ugly sound, you know that MG42 is firing.

While the fleet hierarchy was deliberating on what to do, the fighting on Bermuda was heating up.

Although the Marine Corps portrayed the situation in the telegram as serious, they were not merciless in the fight, and Ridgway's 82nd Airborne Division suffered enough during the landing: because the island of Bermuda was too small, some of the troops were directly blown into the sea by the wind when they were airborne, and many people hung up like this inexplicably, and the lucky ones who swam to the shore lost almost half their lives, and the troops that successfully parachuted on land had no ability to fight back at first because they did not get equipment. They were swept to the ground like leaves swept away by the German fire, and the most damage to them was not the most famous German 88mm anti-aircraft gun or tank No. 4, but the MG42 machine gun and the main equipment of the anti-aircraft Whirlwind. Especially in the latter, many airborne troops were directly in the air by the blazing 20mm shells in two before they landed, and the scene was extremely bloody.

Although the Germans also received heavy air attacks, they were desperately attacking under heavy artillery fire, bent on killing all the American airborne troops.

It wasn't until the equipment was given and the Army planes desperately covered that the airborne division gained a foothold in the southern part of the island, and when the muffled sound of Bazooka sounded, it often meant that the German armored forces were being blocked.

The intensity of the battle was much more than Li Qiwei expected, and the situation was several times worse than he expected, and in just one afternoon he lost 2 battalion commanders and 4 company commanders, and the airdrop team of nearly 3,000 people finally gathered together in its entirety, and the rest of the people either fell into the sea and died, or were killed by the Germans, or they did not know where they were hiding - fortunately, the island was full of British and American residents, and the lone paratroopers could still get some treatment and cover. (To be continued.) )