Now it is the turn of the US military to get nervous: Dutch Guiana is a territory controlled by Britain and the United States after the outbreak of the European War, and its strength is very weak, and British Guiana itself is not strong in terms of land strength, even Venezuela, which the United States attaches the most importance to, is more than a regiment. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Although the total number of Anglo-American-Dutch Allied land forces combined exceeded 6,000 men, judging from past results and the current situation, it seems that they may not be able to defeat the German army in the early 2,000s. If the troops are not replenished as soon as possible, not to mention Dutch Guiana and British Guiana, even Venezuela may not be able to hold on -- it is impossible for the German army to occupy Venezuela, but it can completely defeat the British and American troops.

"How many days does it take to land in Venezuela at the earliest?"

"At least three more days." Admiral King added, "It is impossible for the Germans to reach Venezuela in three days, and we are completely sure that we will land before the enemy, but now the fleet is too risky to say this, and in the event of a surprise attack by the Germans during our landing, we will suffer heavy losses -- even if we have the cover of the main fleet, we will not be able to protect it thoroughly." ”

Admiral Jin's remarks made it clear that the safety of the army was not guaranteed, and all the army generals frowned when they heard this. Devers, who was commanding at the front, sent a telegram thinking that he could take a risk, but this overly aggressive attitude was not only disapproved of by Eisenhower, but also by Marshall himself.

"How sure is the Navy of victory over the Axis fleet?" Faced with the delay in making a decision, Roosevelt himself felt a little impatient and simply asked Admiral King directly.

"If the naval battle is fought in the Caribbean, in the middle of Venezuela and Haiti, our army should have a 60% chance of victory, because the fleet is not only stronger in size, but also supported by land and aviation on the north and south flanks; If it is spread out in the waters near Guyana, the probability of victory between our army and the enemy will be 50% to 50%, and this side will have a slight advantage, depending on who can detect the enemy first; However, in other seas, the situation is not easy to say. Admiral King explained, "It's not that we can't defeat the Germans, but it's that if the enemy doesn't engage us with a single shot, it's even more troublesome -- how can we explain the situation if the main fleet goes south and the enemy takes the opportunity to attack the mainland?" ”

As soon as he said this, everyone began to hesitate again: The Combined Fleet's air raid on New York has only passed, and if the mainland is attacked again, it will not be a matter of dignified explanation, and someone in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the government must be responsible for this, and if it is not done well, someone at the top will step down.

Roosevelt's face was cloudy, and he said in an accentuated tone: "The Navy must find a way to intercept the enemy fleet and not let them attack the East Coast again......"

"So we need an obvious target for the Germans to bite calmly, which is the strategy adopted by Nimitz in the Battle of Tarawa."

"Bait for the Army and the Landing Fleet?"

Admiral Kim was silent, but wrote a big "yes!" on his face with his expression.

The final decision was made by the Germans on behalf of the Americans: at 5 p.m., the defenders of Paramaribo, an important port city north of Dutch Guiana, surrendered, and the whole city fell into German hands. The whole battle was extremely easy, and an armored battalion and a panzergrenadier battalion quickly routed the British, American, and Dutch colonial forces in front of them with high-speed assault and air-ground tactics.

Among the navies of the world, there is only one that can play such skillful air-ground coordination skills as the German Navy, because the German Marine Corps and Navy carrier-based aircraft pilots are all transferred to the military, the former is the formation of the army armored forces transferred to the navy, the latter is the transfer of the air force into a formation, and the air-ground cooperation is to play blitzkrieg. As for the British and American troops, which are less than 2,000 people, they are naturally vulnerable to a sudden miniature "blitzkrieg".

The crowd was shocked that in just two days and one night, the Dutch Guiana defenders were finished, and the speed was so frightening that if the time went on any longer, it would be feared that in two days there would be big trouble in British Guiana, after all, Paramaribo was less than 400 kilometers away from George Town, the largest port city in northern British Guiana.

Due to the tense situation, after repeated deliberations, the meeting decided to implement the First Amendment proposed by Turner, the army and transport forces went to Port-au-Prince for refuge, and Admiral Ingersoll led the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to quickly attack and prepare to destroy the Axis Fleet......

The Washington authorities never expected that Machar on the other side was even more anxious than them -- "Intelligence says that a large US fleet has been found heading south?" ”

"This was sent by U-764, and the location where it collided with the US fleet was roughly in the Cuban Strait, and the time was this morning.

"It's coming so fast!" Machar looked at the charts and humorously said, "It seems that it really hurts the Americans." ”

"Are you ready for battle?" Ozawa asked.

Machar shook his head: "I won't be stupid enough to fight the Americans here, this is their backyard ......"

Although Ozawa had the heart to fight, Machar had his own considerations: although the Führer insisted that the Axis Fleet must have the ability and determination to confront the Anglo-American Atlantic Fleet head-on, it was not stupid to hit the door and fight hard, which was not in line with his character.

"Tease the Americans first, tomorrow the army units will prepare to board the ships and retreat, and the mobile fleet will march to the northwest to see where the Americans are."

In the early morning of 9 October, the Axis fleet split into two groups, one advancing northwest and preparing to meet the American fleet, while the other intensified to recover the Marines, which had been planned to fight Venezuela but had apparently failed.

At noon, the distance between the vanguard of the two opposing fleets had been shortened to more than 1,200 kilometers, and at 3 p.m., the atmosphere aboard the New Jersey suddenly became tense, and the reconnaissance fleet reported to the flagship that it had discovered an enemy reconnaissance plane: "The position of our troops has been exposed......

"Why don't the air defense fighters knock down the enemy troops?" Admiral Ingersoll scolded, "Well, the enemy knows where we are, but we don't know where the enemy is, and these bastard fighter pilots are fully responsible." ”

"Sir, our fighters can't catch up with enemy reconnaissance planes."

"It's not scientific! Enemy scouts are indeed fast, but F6F can catch them. "Now even a high-ranking general like Ingersoll who does not know much about aviation operations knows that there is a water reconnaissance aircraft with exceptionally good flight performance in the Axis, and the envious naval authorities have ordered to step up research and development, but unfortunately they have no clue.

"But this is not a water reconnaissance, it is a new carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft launched by the enemy." Turner's brow furrowed, "Hell, why do we always run into strange things." ”

Of course, the F6Fs couldn't catch the enemy plane, because it was an AR-352 known for its speed and range, and the pilots who returned to the mothership proudly declared: "All the American fighters are eating dust and ...... after me" (to be continued). )