"What? Churchill stood up in surprise, "How's the convoy going?" ”

"The merchant ships are fine for the time being, but the escort warships have suffered great losses," Pound sighed after reading the telegram, "the Cumberland sinks, the Jamaica sinks, and the Sheffield is heavily damaged...... We lost 2 cruisers, 5 destroyers, 1 cruiser and 1 destroyer, Rear Admiral Burnett was martyred, and Colonel Sherbrooke was seriously wounded...... Of course, we also sank 2 German destroyers. ”

Everyone gasped: this loss has far exceeded their expectations, almost equal to the destruction of the backbone of the escort warships, and the escort fleet has 3 cruisers in one go, how many cruisers are there in the British Empire?

"Now the whole convoy is in danger, the remaining escort ships are very weak, and it is difficult to resist the heavy cruiser Hipper, and it is estimated that the Germans have more than that, at least Lützov or some other warships."

"How far is the fleet from the enemy?"

"Probably around 80 nautical miles, the fleet is currently retreating to the northwest, and it is now dark, and the Germans should not be able to detect it, but because of the speed, there is no guarantee that they will be able to get rid of them."

So far, the JW-51A fleet has not dared to disband, because the tragic encounter of the PQ-17 fleet after the early disbandment is still imminent, and the enemy situation report is also very clear, if the fleet is blocked again this time, whether it is disbanded or not, the final end will be more miserable.

"The fleet also reported an important news, the German dive bombers were able to cover the waters near Bear Island, and it was their newest He-218......" Pound said worriedly, "If this happens, we will have big trouble in the future." ”

Everyone felt very frustrated: the reason for taking the Arctic route was that the Germans could only put in horizontal bombers, and even if they wanted to bomb, the effect would not be good, if the German dive bombers could cover all the sea areas, the polar night stage could still rely on night and weather to cover a little, and entering the polar day stage would not be all death?

"What else can I do now?" Churchill frowned and asked, "Shall we quickly come up with a countermeasure to disperse and break out?" ”

"No! No way! "Marshal Pound was the first to shake his head like a rattle, and the last time he made the decision to disband the fleet and disperse to break through the siege, he was almost the finger of a thousand men when he was slaughtered, and now he said that he would not agree to this decision.

"Are you considering withdrawing first?" Admiral John Tovey, commander of the Home Fleet, advised, "The JW-51B fleet has just crossed Jan Mayen Island, where they have a stronger escort force, including the battleships Revenge (Sovereign), USS Glasgow (Southampton), HMS Active (escort carriers), 2 auxiliary cruisers, and 6 destroyers, which we can use to bring the fleet back." Weather forecasts indicate that the next few days will be relatively bad times and aircraft will be difficult to deploy - which objectively benefits the Royal Navy. ”

The idea of a scattered breakout was rejected on the spot, and now there were only two options: one was to turn the fleet around and head eastward to see if it could pass by the German warships and make a gamble of fate—either reach its destination or sink it gloriously; The other is for the fleet to retreat to the southwest, and then the JW-51B escort warships to accelerate forward, either to rescue the convoy directly, or to fight a naval battle with the Germans.

There are also people who have very vaguely pointed out that since the Arctic route is so unsafe, and Britain itself needs a lot of supplies, whether to stop the Arctic route and only consider asking the United States to send it to the Russians from the Pacific -- anyway, Japan has no sea power in the Far East at present.

The first option is that everyone is afraid to bet, it's okay to win the bet, what if the bet loses? Court-martialed? Then there is only the second one, in fact, the second is also a bet, the bet is that the German warships will not find the fleet before the arrival of the receiving fleet, what if it is discovered? -- No one wants to pierce this piece of paper.

Churchill pondered for a long time, and finally made a decision: "Since everyone agrees, let the JW-51B fleet temporarily stand by near Jan Mayen Island, and let the escort warships speed up and prepare to meet the Germans. ”

Marshal Pound barely squeezed out some smiles: "If this batch of German warships can be completely resolved, then the transportation safety of Norwegian waters will be guaranteed in the future." ”

After the issuance of the clear directive, the meeting returned to the discussion of the Maltese question, and after a heated exchange of opinions - in fact, it was a process of persuasion of Churchill - which ended in a relatively vague agreement: the Royal Navy could not provide support until the capital ships returned, and Malta was asked to defend itself on its own. As for the consequences of not being able to defend against it, everyone knows it and won't say it.

Churchill's face was ugly, but he could not go against almost everyone's opinion, so he hastily moved on to the next topic: the development of the war in the coming period.

In the Pacific Theater, Vice Admiral Halsey tried to attack Rabaul after taking Lae and Bougainville Island, although he had carried out carpet bombing on Rabaul in advance, but the effect was not ideal, and there were still a large number of Japanese army units on it, and the "Sakura" suicide missile scared the Americans a lot, 36 Sakura joined forces to attack, in addition to sinking the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (Northampton class, displacement 9000 tons) and the USS Indianapolis heavy cruiser (Portland class, displacement of 10,000 tons), 4 LSTs were also killed, and the only result of the American army, in addition to destroying the Japanese surface fortifications, also sank the battleship Yamashiro, which had been seriously damaged in the previous air raids and was unable to move, and this time it was finally completely reimbursed. But the other warships under the command of the Mikawa Army hid far away and did not let the Americans find out.

Realizing the strength of Rabaul's defensive capability, coupled with the fact that the high-intensity offensive that began in late December had lasted for more than a month, and that all sides were exhausted, the U.S. military decided to suspend the exploratory offensive and temporarily pull all the troops back to Australia to rest and recuperate, and Rabaul was handed over to the Army Aviation to polish again.

After repeated efforts by the British side, the United States agreed to release one battleship George V and two Radiance-class aircraft carriers to return from the Pacific Theater first, because the United States finally relieved itself in terms of forces -- the aircraft carrier Essex will arrive in Australia around 15 February to reinforce the Pacific Fleet, the light aircraft carrier USS Independence will also arrive in Australia for reinforcements in early March, and the battleship Iowa will join the Pacific Fleet in early April.

The U.S. military is preparing to attack again around mid-April, and even if the three British capital ships are removed, the strength of the Pacific Fleet will not be affected, and it still has four fleet carriers: including the Essex, the Saratoga, the Independence, and the British Brilliant.

Churchill knew that the follow-up forces of the U.S. Navy would continue to come: in late February, the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton (Independence-class) would enter service and be scheduled to join the Atlantic Fleet; In the same month, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (Essex-class) will be commissioned, scheduled to join the Pacific Fleet - the Americans said that if the Lexington could arrive at the Pacific Fleet by April, the Tejas would be returned to Britain; In March, the third ship of the Independence class will enter service, which is the reserve strength of the Pacific Fleet...... Over time, the U.S. Navy will have aircraft carriers or battleships put into service almost every month in the future. In addition, stimulated by the Japanese super battleships, the Montana-class battleships, which are more powerful than the Iowa class, have completed the review of drawings and the review of costs, and will lay the first keel at the end of March at the earliest.

However, the Pacific Fleet caused great controversy in choosing the target for another attack, probably because it was shocked by the Japanese position in Rabaul, Halsey wanted to attack the Gilbert Islands first, MacArthur emphasized that the Philippines should be attacked while the main force of the Combined Fleet was away, and Nimitz considered going to attack Dutch Indonesia in an effort to block the Combined Fleet's way back to the South Seas -- no one wanted to gnaw on the hard bone of Rabaul first.

Of course, the Americans agreed that the release of a battleship George V and two Tejas class aircraft carriers was not for the Royal Navy to return home for a vacation, and President Roosevelt hoped that these troops, along with the soon-to-be-repaired Indomitable aircraft carrier and a number of other warships, would be able to relieve Kenya's Allied crisis, even if it would be good to escort a group of transports. If that doesn't work, let the British send a batch of supplies and planes to South Africa, because the situation in Africa is really bad.

This required Churchill to refuse, and did not dare to refuse, not only because there were at least nearly 30,000 British troops in the African theater, but also because the situation in Africa had become the way it was, and the British Empire had no shirkable responsibility - if the British had not rashly proposed to pull the troops of the Torch Project to land in Egypt, how could there have been such a heavy defeat and such intractable difficulties at present? Although President Roosevelt did not say anything, Churchill knew that a number of high-ranking American officials, including Stimson and Marshall, had quite a lot of criticism against him, and the "Asia First" faction, including Admiral King, Nimitz, MacArthur, and others, was even more unpleasant to the British, and he could only endure it for the sake of the overall situation.

The heads of state of the two countries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the two countries, and the principal high-level leaders of the African theater have exchanged views on African issues on many occasions, and both sides have the same goal -- the situation in Africa must be restored! But there were different ideas about how to redeem it, and there was no one way to balance it, which was very nerve-wracking to Churchill, so he had to put the topic on the table for discussion, or at least to form a voice within the British Empire. (To be continued.) )