On April 27, Keitel received a detailed battle report of the Panama campaign in Berlin, and was surprised by the overall process of Horikishi's successful destruction of the Panama Canal, the annihilation of the U.S. aircraft carrier formation, and the smooth retreat: it was not easy to do any of these three things, and Horiyoshi actually did all three things in one go, which made him quite moved, and immediately ran to report to Hoffman. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Have you verified the results? No exaggeration or misrepresentation? Seeing the overjoyed Keitel, Hoffman asked uncomfortably - the Japanese have a criminal record.

"After verification, both Martial and General Cranke vouch that the situation is true, and of course our losses are not small." Keitel flipped through the verification telegrams, "The loss rate of carrier-based pilots is more than 20 percent, the casualty rate of the Marine Brigade is nearly 40 percent, all heavy equipment and landing craft are basically abandoned - the brigade needs to be completely replenished to recover, the Commander Turst was shot and sunk, many warships, including Tirpitz and Richelieu, were damaged, and the casualties of naval officers and men except the pilots exceeded 500." ”

Then he added an account of the Japanese losses: "The Japanese side lost a little more, the pilot loss rate was nearly 25%, the loss of three capital ships of Mutsu, Hiei, Hayabusa and some small ships, and the rest of the battleships were also slightly damaged, but they successfully obtained the aircraft carrier Bayarn from the French." ”

"Mutsu sank?" Hoffman was a little surprised, looked down at the battle report, and said to himself, "It turns out that Mutsu and Hiei were seriously injured, and Horikichi used them to fill in the canal - this style of behavior is very different from that of ordinary Japanese." ”

Keitel nodded in agreement: "I can see that this general is very courageous, and of course, he also made a request to us: in view of Japan's weak industrial strength and shipbuilding capacity, we hope to get some compensation, such as the transfer or lease of the aircraft carrier Aquila to Japan." ”

Hoffman shook his head: "This can't be! After the sinking of the Europa and the wounded repair of Zeppelin, we are also short of aircraft carriers, and the only thing we can use at the moment is the Skyhawk - I can't transfer the only available aircraft carrier to Japan, and even if I do, Raeder won't agree. By the way, what is his attitude towards this war report? ”

"This ......," Keitel said before stopping.

"What's wrong with him? Got into trouble with you again? "I have reminded him many times that the navy serves the overall situation of the war, and that it is necessary not to think only from the perspective of the navy, but to obey the unified command of the Supreme High Command." Within the navy, in the future, the fleet, submarines, navy, marines, and island bases will be integrated into one, and we should not look at problems from a narrow perspective of the fleet. ”

"No, he talked to me once in the afternoon and euphemistically said that he might resign in the near future."

"Resign?" Hoffman's brows furrowed, this was an unexpected change, but he soon figured out why: this Panama battle Raeder was clearly opposed, thinking that it was too risky and radical, but he didn't have much say, the whole thing was carried out after direct consultation between Horikichi and Hoffman, it was the product of "over-the-top diplomacy", and now the Panama battle was not only won, but also won beautifully, and of course Raeder felt that his face was dull; Secondly, Raeder has always been quite critical of Ozawa's appointment, believing that it has broken the tradition of the German Navy, but in fact, from Mashal to ordinary officers and men, Ozawa's appointment can be accepted, and he does not feel that there is anything wrong with it; Last and least, with the strong addition of the Navy and the Marine Corps, the ship faction or surface ship faction represented by Raeder has changed from the only mainstream to a faction on a par with the submarine faction, the naval aviation faction, and the land warfare faction, and the right to speak has gradually declined, especially since several successive military operations have bypassed Raeder and directly ordered by the Supreme Command, which made the old marshal feel very disappointed.

In addition to the tense relationship with Keitel, Hoffman also knew that the relationship between Raeder and Marchar was also very general, Raeder was more conservative and always insisted on keeping the ship first, which was incompatible with Marshall, who was stable in the eyes of outsiders, but radical in the eyes of the old marshal; Originally, the commander of the aircraft carrier force, Frank, had a good relationship with the old marshal, but because of the conversion of a series of battleships into aircraft carriers, Frank was on the same front with Hoffmann and Speer, and he disagreed with the old marshal. Except for the Chief of the Naval Staff Flick, the rest of the Navy's top brass and Raeder have a vague separation, of course, they can still be harmonious on their faces.

"What do you think I should do?"

Keitel wanted to say that the Führer could accept his resignation and directly serve as the commander-in-chief of the navy, but the reason why Raeder first talked to him about his resignation was not without the intention of testing the Führer's tone, but he couldn't figure out Hoffman's true thoughts, and his words changed again: "This ...... I think we should do our best to keep it, Marshal Raeder is highly respected in the navy, and he ......"

"You're not telling the truth, it's not good, it's not a bureaucratic tilt in peacetime, we have to look at things from a position that is really beneficial to the war." Hoffman straightened his face and disciplined Keitel one after another, "He's still hesitating, but I can't hesitate." If he does offer me to resign, I will accept it. Of course, he had a special credit for the revival of the German Navy, and he was able to use his spare time in other areas after retiring from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, such as the post of Naval Adviser. ”

Keitel thought that he would be wrong again just now, and the Führer's attitude was much more resolute, and he hurriedly remedied: "According to the method of the army and the air force, you can personally serve as the commander-in-chief of the navy." ”

Hoffman was noncommittal about this, and explained: "The position of Flick's chief of naval staff should also be changed, his personality is more suitable for cultivating naval reserve talents or undertaking monitoring tasks, we need a chief of staff who is intelligent, can see the problem from an overall and strategic height, and can come up with high-level moves, strange moves, and clever moves, and do not stick to the rules and always follow the rules of honest people - that is the only thing that the Royal Navy can do, let Otto Schnewend return to the chief of the naval staff, and Kumetz has a soft personality, Let him manage the Baltic Fleet and related bases. ”

Otto Schnewingd, who had previously served as Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, was highly regarded, but because of his relationship with Raeder, he switched to the position of commander of the titular High Seas Fleet and was succeeded by Raeder's henchman Frick, who was in fact inferior in seniority to Marcial (he had only been promoted to rear admiral in October 1937, a year before him), and the position became awkward - he simply had no control over Marcal and Crank. In the Baltic direction, because the Red Navy did not have the strength, Germany did not send the main naval force, at most it did some transport, escort, and anti-submarine work, which Hoffman believed was suitable for Kumetz's personality.

Keitel's heart was shocked: the Führer was a sign that he was going to strike at the independent kingdom of the navy.

Sure enough, after thinking for a moment, Hoffmann came up with a package of adjustments: henceforth he would also serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, with Dönitz, Richthofen, and Mashal as first, second, and third deputy commanders respectively, and then Witzel (Admiral, in charge of armaments), Schnewingd (Admiral, Chief of the General Staff), Cranke (Admiral), and Weiss (Admiral, Commander of the Marine Corps) would form a Standing Council of the Navy.

"In the future, the day-to-day work of the Navy will be presided over by Marshal Dönitz." Hoffmann thought for a moment and then added, "He probably had little energy to juggle submarines, and promoted Hans-Georg von Fredberg to vice admiral and take charge of the day-to-day affairs of the submarine force, and he was originally the second commander of submarines anyway." ”

Keitel was naturally overjoyed by this result: after the adjustment, the navy will no longer be an independent kingdom that cannot be penetrated by a needle, but will be included in the unified management of the Supreme Command, which means that the Wehrmacht has achieved great unification, and he, the chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Command, is no longer an ornament, in a sense, the Supreme Command can give full play to the advantages of centralization more than the Americans' Joint Chiefs of Staff system, after all, the United States does not have a chief of general staff to control the three services. This system had even higher authority than the Great General Staff under Ludendorff during World War I, which at that time did not have a navy.

"Now you are the real Chief of the General Staff above the Chiefs of Staff." Hoffman said uneasily, "Although I have forcibly integrated the various branches of the armed forces through various methods and given you higher authority, I will also put forward higher requirements for the joint operations of the three services in the future, and the authority of the Supreme Command cannot rely on power alone, but mainly in ability and coordination, and must rely on achievements to speak, I hope you can think carefully about the next step of the work, and in the future, the Supreme Command can hold an executive meeting of the chief of staff to decide on the policy of major campaigns." ”

"Yes, Führer!" Keitel was grateful for this and stood respectfully.

"What is the situation on the Eastern Front now?"

"Everything is going well: in the direction of the Caucasus Mountains, all enemy resistance was cleared, and more than 100,000 Russian troops were eliminated in total; On the right flank in the direction of Grozny, our army surrounded 6 divisions and 3 brigades, about 40,000 people, and has basically cleared the enemy's resistance, the main force of the Red Army is retreating to the Astrakhan line, and the entire South Caucasus Plain has fallen into the hands of our army, and more than 200,000 enemy troops have been eliminated in the process of pursuit; On the left flank, in the direction of the Don meander, we have pushed the Russians through the meanders of the Don and restored the front to the level it was at last September. The only regret is that the enemy's Don Front retreated too quickly, and the middle road cluster did not destroy many enemy troops, and the overall total number of enemies destroyed was more than 400,000, which was more than 100,000 less than the campaign was supposed to be, and of course our losses were reduced accordingly. ”

Hoffman nodded with satisfaction: "This is not bad, the set goal of the first stage of the Spring Awakening campaign has been basically achieved, don't think about killing the enemy at once, that's impossible, I have patience and Stalin slowly wear up, is the front line stopping now?" ”

"Stopped, the grout period has arrived, the roads are muddy, and in order to protect the precious armored forces, Field Marshal Manstein stopped the pursuit five days ago and began to prepare for the second phase of the battle, which, if all goes well, will be launched in two weeks."

"Good, I have faith in him." (To be continued.) )