Schnewend expects that the British and American navies can assemble a fleet of up to 4 aircraft carriers (2 large and 2 small) and 5 battleships. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

His mind turned quickly, he thought more about the problem, and once this battle began, Britain and the United States could not move again in the direction of the Azores - this was much more important than a marine brigade and material equipment, and the greatest significance of the existence of the Azores was to form a rope around the neck of the British Empire, and the tighter and tighter it became. By the time the new Type 21 submarines enter service on a large scale, the end of the British Isles will come, and the Japanese capture of India will eventually act as a gravedigger for the British.

Rather than bothering with the Sea Lion plan and using 1 million troops to carry out a landing plan that is not necessarily successful, it is better to send 10,000 troops to South America to test the depth of the water, and let them continue to waste their power on other aspects after the United States has wasted its strength on homeland defense.

There is one thing that he thinks the Führer said is very right, the German and Italian navies are always going to compete with the British and American navies, and it is impossible to let Japan play with them every time, because that kind of growth is too slow, considering the amazing shipbuilding capacity of the United States, it is necessary to continue to fight with the United States, to fight with the United States first, to disrupt the rhythm of the other side, and it is absolutely impossible to let the other side form an overwhelming numerical superiority in warships.

However, when he thought of the Azores, he felt a little tricky, and after hesitating for a long time, he asked: "What if the main force of the navy is sent out to attack the Falklands, and Britain and the United States take the opportunity to attack the Azores?" ”

"That's a problem." Hoffman frowned, "But hope can't all be pinned on the fleet to help defend the islands, if every island needs the fleet to help defend it, and no amount of warships is enough, then I can still ask, what if the enemy feints to attack the Azores, but actually attacks the Canary Islands?" ”

Schneywind didn't have a good idea of that.

"In the end, the island needs to rely on its own strength to defend, at least until the support fleet arrives, the Azores is the island where we spend the most strength and invest the most, if we can't form a solid defense system, it will be a joke." "It's like you told me two days ago that there is a spy on the island, and that he has been leaking information since the day we occupied the Azores, but you have not been able to catch him," said Hoffmann dissatisfied. ”

Keitel knew that this black cauldron could not be carried by the navy, so he said rarely: "We didn't expect that there would be spies, and we didn't expect that this spy was actually a native of Portugal, and the Imperial Security Directorate made a mistake in the direction of counter-espionage at the beginning -- he put his main energy on the new landing personnel, thinking that we had mixed in spies among the engineers we brought into the Azores, and our efforts were in vain......

However, Keitel stopped at this point, and the General Security Bureau is a department directly under the Führer, accusing too many Führers of being unsightly.

"No, I have to let Bowman bother more, he is a layman who can't do intelligence, and he has a very keen sense of smell when he catches spies, much more sensitive than those so-called insiders." Hoffman was furious about this, "Some of our generals are not pedantic, but almost stupid, and until now they have refused to allow the General Security Service to intervene in military affairs, and they still want to engage in an army within an army and an independent kingdom!" Such a person, regardless of military rank, is immediately transferred to the reserve on the spot as soon as it is discovered. ”

It dawned on everyone why Raeder and the old marshal's generals had stepped aside, and the very important reason was that the old marshal refused to let the General Security Service intervene in naval affairs, and simply believed in the navy's own counterintelligence and surveillance agency, which had long been embarrassed after Canaris's hanging.

Yodel saw that the atmosphere was a little embarrassed, and quickly changed the topic and introduced the defense situation of the Azores: "After several months of construction, the Azores can now be described as impregnable. We deployed a total of 4 Marine brigades, including the Admiral Scheer, which served as a fixed battery after being stranded, with 47 guns of 280mm caliber or more, and more than 100 155mm heavy howitzers, and stockpiled enough ammunition for three battles;

In terms of air defense, after repeated transfers and losses supplementation, it now has more than 480 aircraft of various types, the three main island air defense towers are under construction, and it is expected that one will be completed every month in May, June, and July, with more than 300 anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of more than 88 mm, and three radar stations have been established relying on air defense towers;

The first phase of the project will be completed next week, with a reserve of 120,000 tons of various oils, and the second phase of the project will be completed in July, when the total storage capacity is 300,000 tons; We have built a new submarine supply base, and the large cavern was completed in August, which is expected to accommodate 6 submarines entering the cave at the same time, but now we can only use the shore replenishment method; More than 100 small warships, including S-boats, anti-submarine patrol boats, and minelayers, have also been deployed on the island......"

"Anti-submarine must continue to be tightened, I heard that British and American submarine activities are rampant?"

"Yes, in the past few months, we have lost 11 merchant ships or transport ships, but we have also sunk more than 20 submarines, both the United Kingdom and the United States." Schnewand did not dare to be careless, "There may be more than 30 British and American submarines in this sea area, and the Navy intends to send more Ju-290 patrol aircraft to daily anti-submarine operations." ”

"The anti-submarine forces and the submarine forces should communicate more, listen to how our submarines evade anti-submarine forces, I have given you all the materials, merchant ships, equipment, materials, and personnel you want, and even do not hesitate to stop the Atlantic barrier project, and if you don't do it well, you will not be able to explain it to the German people." Hoffman thought for a moment and asked, "How many mines have been buried?" ”

"There are about 20,000-30,000 ......"

"Not enough, far from enough." He waved his hand, "Add 10 times more, 300,000." ”

"But in this way, the Azores will completely become a military base in the future, and there will be no more people to live in."

"Resident? Who wants to live? Hoffman roared, "The Azores are now the key noose to hang the British, and in the future it will be the forward position against the United States, and I am also going to move the V-2 rockets there in the future, this is the most important military base in the whole of Europe, and you actually told me that you want to live there?" ”

Everyone could only look at the new Chief of the General Staff of the Navy with sympathetic eyes, with a constant cold sweat on his forehead.

"Who is the Supreme Commander on the island now?"

"Admiral Weiss."

"Very good, give Weiss an order, when the surface defense system is basically completed, go underground and dig a tunnel...... Also, it will help us to get my experience in defending the islands on the Pacific front through Admiral Horikichi. Hoffman smiled, "Although the Japanese have been defeated repeatedly, after all, they have seen the landing battles of the United States, so it is good to refer to them." ”

Everyone nodded in unison.

"If there are no problems, please prepare a springboard plan according to this policy. In the African direction, the British and American troops in Kenya must be completely wiped out before July 15, and at the same time, the occupation of Kenya and Tanganyika must be completed, and the transport ships will use the preparation time of the first two months to hoard supplies on the island of Madagascar, and the British and American arms captured in Africa will not need to be put into storage, and will be sent directly to Argentina at that time; On the naval side, after Machar's fleet completed its rest and replenishment, the joint submarine force immediately relied on the Azores route to Britain and Canada to break diplomatic relations, and prepared in a month's time, so that Churchill's life could not be too easy; Now that the jets have been exposed, next month we will find a way to transfer more than 100 planes to the Azores to participate in air defense and kill the prestige of British and American heavy bombers. ”

At the end of the meeting, Zeitzler reported on the situation on the Eastern Front: "Due to the heavy amount of rain on the Eastern Front this year and the long grouting period, Field Marshal Manstein wanted to postpone the execution of the third phase of the Spring Awakening Campaign until after May 17. ”

"Yes, what are the specific difficulties?"

"Moder offered to add 400 tanks and 600 aircraft."

Hoffman laughed secretly: This is Moder's old problem, when there is a big event, he will reach out for equipment, and if he doesn't give it, he will call it every day. However, now the Third Reich is much wider than in history, and this thing is basically a week's output, and he agreed without thinking about it, and said: "Strengthen these forces to Marshal Weix's Army Group East, let them end their rest and join the middle to fight once, since they want to deceive Stalin, it will be the same, and the General Staff of the Army will be responsible for cross-theater coordination." ”

When he heard that he could get more troops and supplies, Zeitzler agreed with great satisfaction.

As soon as the meeting of the High Command was over, Hoffmann summoned Ribbentrop, who had returned from Paris, and asked: "What about the secret negotiations with the French?" ”

Petain was still hesitant, but Darlan was tempted. Ribbentrop explained, "Pétain's hesitation was that we never landed in England, which he considered to be the biggest danger and made every effort to make a landing as soon as possible. ”

"It's a good idea, it's a good idea, but I'm not going to land...... Don't starve the British half to death, the ghost will rashly touch the nails. Hoffman sneered.

"Do you want to encourage Darlan to get rid of ......?" Ribbentrop didn't say anything more, but Hoffman understood what he meant: the implication was to let Darlan take his place.

"Don't ......," said Hoffman, after a moment of silence, "young people are prone to impulsiveness, and if Darlan is persuaded by us in a few words, and will be easily persuaded by Americans in the future, it is better to find a calm and reliable politician." ”

Youngster? Ribbentrop was stunned for a moment, looking at the Führer's age and thinking about Darlan's appearance, how could he not link the word "young man" with the latter: the French naval chief was in his sixties, and he was eight years older than the Führer, and no matter what criteria were used, he could not be equated with young people, except when he was with Petain, Darlan, who was in his 60s, could only be regarded as a small character. (To be continued.) )