Although the fourth period of activity of U-boats has not yet arrived, the US military has already felt this -- in the two months since the cessation of material deliveries to Britain, ship losses have begun to appear again, losing seven ships in the Caribbean Sea in June alone, and not a single submarine has been sunk. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The seven ships carried all the military supplies needed by the South American Army, totaling nearly 100,000 tons, and this loss not only made the army angry, but also made the navy lose face, and even slowed down the deployment progress of the army. The promised deployment of a second batch of troops to South America, six divisions, was delayed.

Patton held the two most combat-effective units of the US Army's 1st Division (1st Red Division) and 1st Cavalry Division (Armored Division), but he suffered from insufficient logistics, poor transportation capacity, and incomplete equipment, and could only be stationed in Venezuela and British Guiana (only these two places had enough fuel to supply troops), so angry that he sent telegrams back to China every day to scold his mother.

Therefore, when urgently transferring troops, Nimitz drew on his experience and proposed the use of strategic airlift to transport personnel, which hit it off with the top management of the army aviation: Originally, it was said that since there was no need to maintain strategic airlift in the future, the army aviation funds could be reduced and used more for ground troops, but Nimitz's proposal was exactly in Arnold's hands -- the army aviation funds could not be reduced, but could only be expanded.

Marshall and Eisenhower were also quite helpless about this: the loss point and equipment were nothing, so they were lost on the Anglo-Canadian route, but if a shipload of army officers and soldiers fell into the sea to feed the fish, how would they fight in the future? It was agreed to use strategic airlift to renew troops in the Recife region.

Privately, however, Turner disagreed with Admiral King: "If we had to use strategic airlift forces in places like the Caribbean and Central America, the battle for Brazil would have been lost without fighting." ”

This sentence sounds harsh, but Turner's presentation of data is enough to refute people speechless, and he does not consider the comparison of virtue and combat effectiveness, and simply uses materials to deduce the conclusion:

"A German will ship with a carrying capacity of 14,000 tons, if all of it is changed to air transportation, it needs to be transported by 1,000 planes once, and it can carry out up to 3 strategic airlift missions of 1,000 planes a week, and it can transport 12 ships of materials every month.

In the face of the data, Admiral Kim reluctantly accepted this conclusion, but told Turner not to make a noise, and the land-sea relationship has finally eased up, but the tension cannot escalate again.

However, strategic airlift can only solve the problem of the transportation of personnel, light equipment, and general materials, and cannot solve the problem of transporting heavy equipment and large-scale materials; whether or not the South American war can be won, the navy will of course bear the brunt, and the army will bear the heavy responsibility -- how can we win the war without materials and equipment?

So Nimitz was nervous about this telegram, and after pondering for a moment, he asked the chief of staff, Lieutenant General William Smith: "Suppose this submarine informed the Germans of our coming, what would you do if you were in that position?" ”

William Smith was the commander of the cruiser squadron at the Battle of Midway, and after Nimitz was transferred to the post of commander of the Atlantic Fleet, he was also transferred to serve as vice admiral's chief of staff.

Smith pondered for a moment and then said: "I don't know what the Germans will choose, but if I am in this position, I will definitely send a reconnaissance plane to see it clearly, and then decide what to do next according to the movement of our army." If we land in Recife or El Salvador, the German fleet will be concerned about the superiority of our army in land and manpower, and should wait for the opportunity; If our troops try to land in Rio or Santos (the main port of São Paulo state), the Germans can either take the initiative to meet them, or use land-based aviation and submarine forces to weaken our forces first and then engage in a decisive naval battle. ”

Hearing these words, Nimitz looked thoughtful: it was obviously impossible to land in Rio or Santos, because the ships of the fleet had no landing force except supplies; However, if it is only for the purpose of safely delivering materials to Hong Kong, it is not in line with Nimitz's idea of fighting a war as soon as possible.

"I'm still thinking about fighting the Germans as soon as possible." Nimitz sighed, "The British have handed over those 2 armored aircraft carriers, and the two sides are very close to signing an armistice, once the German main fleet is familiar with and masters the 2 aircraft carriers, they will soon be coming in the direction of South America." This window will not be very long, and I expect the German fleet to be in full swing in August. ”

"You mean, if we don't attack the current German fleet, we'll be flanked by the enemy next month?" Smith shrugged, "But now the initiative is not in the hands of our army, even if I am willing to go to Rio or Santos, the Germans will have to retreat further south, and they can completely avoid us." ”

Nimitz laughed: "The point is that the Germans don't necessarily know that we don't have a landing force, and I can completely put on a landing posture to lure the other side into taking the bait." ”

"What if you don't take the bait?" "Although Montero fell to the Germans, the Germans did not necessarily have to defend Rio or Santos. ”

"Then I'll attack Florianópolis, the Germans can not care about the life or death of the Brazilians, not even the Germans of the American Republics, right?"

"This ......," Smith mused, "is theoretically possible, but can we negotiate with the Army and send us a division, even if we have to put on a landing posture." ”

Nimitz had just nodded in approval of this judgment when he received a second telegram in the cold.

The second was sent by Clark, informing that the southern region of Mato Grosso had declared independence and applied to join the republics of the Americas, and that the contradictions between the north and south of Mato Grosso had been not small, and that the south had been trying to establish an independent state for many years, and this time it was better, so he directly declared independence and joined the republics of the Americas, and then the telegram also mentioned in passing: The Bolivian government demanded to recover the lost territory on the grounds that it had been deceived and coerced by the Brazilian government in the settlement of the Acre region, and not only sent troops to invade the Acre region, Volleys also invaded the territory of the state of Mato Grosso.

Nimitz and Smith couldn't help but sigh: after the Brazilian expeditionary division was wiped out by the Germans, Brazil was in a dangerous state, and after the Montero coup d'état, the division and turmoil between the North and South Brazil, the whole of South America was on the verge of collapse, and the Bolivian operation was only the tip of the iceberg.

Prior to that, Argentina had signed treaties establishing diplomatic relations with the American republics and had acquired more than 10,000 square kilometres of land originally belonging to Brazil, and then reached agreements with Bolivia and Paraguay to take more than 20,000 square kilometres each. In this way, the Argentine territory will be expanded by almost 60,000 square kilometers. In the future, however, Argentina will no longer be bordered by Brazil, and the American Republic will become a country that is separated between Brazil and Argentina.

The reason why Paraguay is willing to cede more than 20,000 square kilometers of land to Argentina is because it can obtain nearly 60,000 square kilometers of land from Bolivia and Mato Grosso do Sul, and Bolivia is willing to obediently cede nearly 40,000 square kilometers of land to its neighbors because Argentina, Germany, Paraguay, and the American Republic support it to recover the Acre region, which covers an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers, and to "move freely" in the Mato Grosso Norte region.

In other words, all the countries bordering Brazil have taken advantage of the territorial change, and the only one who pays is Brazil.

Brazil first lost more than 800,000 square kilometers of land in the four southern states, and then lost at least 200,000 square kilometers of land to Bolivia and Paraguay -- but neither faction in Brazil can afford to take care of it at present.

After this continues, all South American countries will have to benefit from Brazil, and no matter how strong the United States is, it will not be able to fight against all the countries in South America, and the sky can only clean up the American republics and German forces. In Nimitz's eyes, even if Brazil can be reunited with the support of the United States, it will not be as large as it once used to be in the foreseeable future.

Smith asked in a low voice, "Do you think the army will be able to drive the Germans into the sea after this batch of equipment and supplies is brought ashore?" ”

The reconnaissance sent by the Recife Army Air yesterday made it very clear: the German fleet was not found near Rio, but the German troops had basically landed in the rebel states, and the current intelligence showed that the number of German troops was about 70,000-80,000 (actually 60,000).

It stands to reason that there were originally three American divisions near Recife, but this time four new divisions were reinforced, and there were four additional divisions along the northern coast, and the total strength of the American army exceeded 200,000 men, which was completely overwhelming, and Nimitz should have been full of confidence. But somehow, his performance was greatly unexpected, and he only whispered: "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure." If Patton or Ridgway were here and could have brought together the main forces and pushed them through, I think the chance of winning would be more than 65 percent, but with only seven divisions at the moment, I really dare not say who will lose and who will win. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to calmly wait for the army to deploy troops, and I could only hope that they would be able to rely on their existing strength to fight the war, so my heart was hesitant and uneasy, and this was the root cause of my failure to consider launching an amphibious landing campaign. ”

Smithton was stunned.

"Although I know that this is mean to the Army, the Battle of Cape Verde was enough to change all belief in the Army - two divisions of nearly 40,000 men could not take Cape Verde, which was held by only 5,000 men, and after that, all the comparisons of forces and the prediction of victory became unreliable. In the same way, the navy is not fighting well, everyone is repeatedly frustrated and deflated, and no one should laugh at anyone. ”

After thinking about it and feeling that it was too pessimistic and desperate to say this, Nimitz added: "But if you can't beat it, won't you fight it?" If you can't fight, you have to learn from the enemy, improve your tactics, work hard to improve and grit your teeth to resist, we also fought very poorly at the beginning during the War of Independence, and finally turned it around little by little, I believe there will be a chance, the Germans are not invulnerable monsters. ”