"To be honest, I'm not happy with the outcome of today's attack. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 At night, Ozawa complained to Mashal while analyzing the enemy situation with everyone in the war room, "Our army dispatched more than 200 planes, successfully found the opponent and found all the targets, and only achieved 4 light aircraft carriers and a few cruisers, which disappointed me, I thought that at least one more Essex-class regular aircraft carrier should be killed, so that we would face much less threat next......"

Cranke nodded, he felt the same way, but he said it tactfully: "The battlefield is changing rapidly, and the commander of the attack group can only choose the way he thinks is most appropriate, mainly because he is not aware of the situation that has happened to the rear fleet......"

Machar disagreed: "I asked Frank, he did not know about the attack on the mothership when he launched the attack, and the anti-aircraft fire of the enemy cruiser was very fierce, and the anti-aircraft fire on the aircraft carrier made people feel that they were facing a hedgehog...... He also said that if he had known about the situation at the time, he might have opted for more aggressive tactics. But I don't think we can rush for quick success for the time being, this group of pilots is the elite that we have cultivated with great difficulty, and the losses are too great to recover, the ship...... The Führer and Minister Speer always have a way, and it is said that there are now more than 10 aircraft carriers lying on the slipway waiting to be commissioned, and I think that the biggest gap in the future is not the ships, but the sailors and pilots, so we must keep every good officer and soldier. ”

Ozawa nodded slightly, and did not continue to discuss this matter, in this respect he and the German generals had a difference in philosophy, the Germans believed that the first thing to do was to save themselves and then talk about destroying the enemy, and he believed that the enemy should be destroyed first and then to save themselves - this is also the thinking of most Japanese generals. However, this line of thinking was criticized by Horiyoshi for ignoring the human factor, especially the insufficient reserve of good pilots in the Combined Fleet. Ozawa accepted this criticism, but he believed that this problem did not exist in Germany at all—the Führer, who was also the commander-in-chief of the three services, the air force could provide a steady stream of pilots, and in terms of the abundance of reserves, there might not be a naval country like Germany. However, he often does not understand what the Germans think, Machar's attitude is not isolated, and even the Führer himself thinks so, so it is naturally inconvenient for him as an outsider to point fingers.

Cranke immediately diverted the topic: "How will the battle be arranged tomorrow?" Assuming that our troops move eastward as planned, it is expected that the gap between the fleet and the fleet will be narrowed to less than 400 kilometers tomorrow morning, and the carrier-based aircraft of this ship will also be fully manned after replenishment. In this way, we have 3 aircraft carriers, the enemy is also 3, the enemy has land aviation, we also have a part of the land-based forces on the island of Newfoundland, plus the quality of the pilots surpasses the enemy, I think there is a complete fight. ”

"Where is the fleet of ships carrying captive freighters now?"

"There are still more than 1,300 kilometers from the Azores, and it will enter the Azorean air defense circle early tomorrow morning, which is relatively safe, and if nothing else, it will be able to reach the Azores on the evening of December 5."

"This is one less big trouble, so that the Hipper can leave the escort mission and join the escort of the broken fleet, and the Lüzov and the warships Oi, Kitakami and other warships will continue to escort the fleet." Ozawa looked at the chart and knocked it more than 400 kilometers south-east of Newfoundland, "I suggest that tomorrow the main force of the fleet leave Newfoundland Island and arrive and change out, and appropriately distance itself from the US forces. ”

"What if the Americans don't chase?"

Ozawa naturally agreed to continue fighting, he estimated that the Americans had lost at least half of their planes, and believed that the enemy would be empty with only aircraft carriers and no planes, but in fact Cunningham had lost more than 60% of his planes. He laughed and said: "I have been very inspired by the Führer's strategy this time...... It would be best if the enemy did not come, and we could take advantage of the situation to attack Cape Verde and destroy all the battleships and escort aircraft carriers there -- the dispatch of three fleet aircraft carriers would be fully certain to deal with the dozen or so escort carriers. ”

Machar and Cranke exchanged glances and agreed that the proposal was feasible, and the staff and advisers were also active in making calculations: the first possibility was a successful assault, which would wipe out at least 70% of the enemy forces in Cape Verde; The second is that the enemy army flees, so that at least the siege of Cape Verde is relieved; The third is Cunningham's pursuit - the battlefield will be far from the North American continent, which means that both sides will put aside land-based aircraft support to fight hard-to-head battles, and everyone thinks that the 3vs3 victory is more than 70%.

"Then we must consider retreating the Marines......," Crake mused, "and consider having the Skyhawk and the landing fleet withdraw together, as the two sides are about the same speed anyway." ”

"You can consider using the Skyhawk as bait, with shore-based aviation as an escort, and the enemy attack planes will gather and annihilate them, and the key tomorrow is reconnaissance, and whoever discovers it first will be more advantageous......" There is a second batch of Azorean reinforcement aircraft transferred from today, especially the arrival of 48 Fw-190A8 specially equipped with extra-large transfer special fuel tanks at the request of the fleet, which has increased a lot of confidence for Ozawa, and in order to strengthen the combat force in the direction of Newfoundland, after HNA put the pre-production model of Do-412 into front-line use, the Air Force also fought, The first batch of eight Ta-152s that rolled off the assembly line was also sent to Newfoundland, hoping to test the results in real combat. The range of the Ta-152 is basically the same as that of the Do-412, and it can be easily transferred after hanging the auxiliary fuel tank.

After two hours of deliberation, the fleet reached a consensus and sent a telegram to the Berlin side.

Upon learning the news that 4 light aircraft carriers and 6 light cruisers were lost in one day, everyone in the war room of the Washington Joint Chiefs of Staff also gasped: The main force of the Cunningham fleet is basically still there, but the losses of other warships are so serious that it is a little difficult to set up a complete wheeled air defense array now, and if it is not for the second aircraft carrier group to set off to reinforce Cunningham, everyone is not optimistic about the prospects of this battle.

Admiral King and Ingram also sighed again and again: although there were still more than 20 Cleveland-class cruisers lying on the slipway waiting to be completed and launched, although they were destined to be fiercely attacked by the enemy when used as air defense cruisers, and although the loss of so many warships and even battleships was almost numb, the speed of 6 ships a day still made them shake their heads.

Admiral Kim said in a hoarse voice: "Let the injured Bataan and 2 light cruisers be withdrawn as soon as possible, and the Navy may need to build more Cleveland-class cruisers with an additional budget, at least 1 dozen ......."

"It's easy to talk about the budget, as long as you can win, it's not a problem." Marshall hesitated and asked, "The question now is how to fight next?" ”

"Are Matthew's paratroopers ready?"

A staff officer answered: "All of them are in place before this evening, and they can be used to set off at any time." ”

Ingram nodded approvingly: "I suggest that we first recover Newfoundland, or should we be airborne tomorrow and use army aviation and ground forces to extinguish the German marines and entangle the Germans......"

Hearing the Navy's suggestion not to open fire directly the next day, Eisenhower raised his head in astonishment: "Then won't the German fleet just run away?" ”

"Believe me, they can't run so fast, unless they don't intend to take back those thousands of marines and landing convoys, they can't survive without the cover of an aircraft carrier formation or battleship formation, and ......," Ingram stressed, "There is still some distance between the reinforcement fleet and General Cunningham's existing forces, and tomorrow morning the two sides will not be able to form a joint force and will not be able to exert the maximum effect, a delay of 1-2 days will be quite beneficial to us, once the army establishes a solid area of control, This means that the land airline will be able to re-establish the airport on the island of Newfoundland - and the offensive and defensive momentum will be reversed immediately! ”

Arnold nodded: "Yes, if there is Newfoundland Island as a base, the effect of the army aviation will be better." ”

Marshall's face sank, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Let Matthew fight, the Canadians are too bad to fight, I am ashamed of them, Newfoundland Island has been controlled by the Germans for a long time, and the impact is too bad, and it must be recaptured as soon as possible." ”

At 2 o'clock in the morning, the roar of the engines on the Maine Air Base resounded, and Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway and the officers and men of the three main regiments of the 101st Airborne Division boarded the transport plane in turn, although Marshall made it clear that he did not need Ridgway to risk his life again, but the latter insisted on going - the commander must be with his boys, and when he saw Lieutenant General Ridgway and Major General William C. Lee fully armed and led the way on the transport plane (not the same plane, to prevent accidents together), all the officers and men of the 101st Division cheered, Even the ground crew next to it and other officers and men of the army aviation also applauded, and the troops immediately had the backbone and their morale was greatly boosted!

Speaking of which, the chiefs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were fed up and annoyed by the lame performance of the Canadians: on the island of Newfoundland, Canada had two infantry divisions, and the armor and artillery were complete, but they were defeated by the Germans, who were far outnumbered by them. So far, the Canadians have not only ceded the entire port of St. John's and numerous airports, supply hubs, and a 40-kilometer-deep strip to the Germans, but have also suffered more than 6,000 casualties themselves, desperately sending telegrams begging for reinforcements to Washington.

This incident also indirectly affected their perception of Eisenhower, thinking that Ike bragged that the Canadians in Africa had good combat effectiveness, and resolutely gave up the opportunity for the American troops to retreat and let the Canadians withdraw first.

In fact, Eisenhower felt wronged: Canada did not have many troops in total, the best two divisions were old and powerful forces that existed before the war, all of which were sent to Africa to participate in the war, and the slightly inferior troops were arranged by the Canadians to defend at home, and the third-rate troops placed on Newfoundland were already third-rate troops, how could their performance be used to measure the combat effectiveness of the Canadian troops in the African campaign? It's obviously not the same thing!