At noon, the senior leaders of the Joint Staff Committee who received the battle report from the front were all dumbfounded, and Admiral Kim angrily slapped the table and angrily rebuked Fletcher: "We have the advantage of the number of aircraft, the advantage of being discovered by the enemy first, and the advantage of the range, but we have made a mess, I know that this person is not of great use!" ”

Marshall sighed: "What now?" Watching the Japanese and Germans go away? ”

"It's not going to work!" Roosevelt slammed the table and said with a grim expression, "Gentlemen, we must continue to strike at the Axis Fleet, no matter what the cost. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"However, the battleship formation has already made a request to retreat......"

Roosevelt stopped Admiral King, who was about to stop talking, and said decisively: "The battleship formation will let it retreat if it loses air cover, and whether there is a problem with Fletcher's command is also a matter of afterthought...... What do you think about this? ”

Marshall was speechless.

Arnold looked pleading, as if he wanted to leave more seeds for his army, but he couldn't say it - it was impossible to do nothing and watch the Axis fleet swagger away, right?

"Major General Cohen is already in Puerto Rico, and he has sent a telegram in favor of continuing the attack, and he reminds us of one thing." Lehi, who had not spoken, suddenly interjected, "This afternoon is the last chance to carry out air strikes on the enemy fleet, and by the time dawn tomorrow, the enemy will completely break out of the Caribbean." ”

"Where exactly is the enemy now?"

"The exact location is not clear, roughly in the area of La Tortuga, and now there are 18 hours until tomorrow dawn, and the enemy fleet can travel at least 700 kilometers." With the staff officers cooperating with the demonstration on the charts, it would be easy for everyone to see that the enemy fleet was at least 1,200 kilometres away from Puerto Rico early tomorrow morning -- which was completely beyond the scope of a strike.

"Are there any reinforcements today?" Roosevelt turned to Arnold and asked.

"There is another batch, but it will not arrive until the afternoon, and it is estimated that it will not be able to catch up with the air raid before dark."

"What about the Navy?" Roosevelt turned to Admiral King again.

"The Navy can't draw more troops, and the entire East Coast, except for the carrier-based aircraft pilots used in the original A+ plan, have not been used, and all other available land-based pilots have been mobilized, and I don't want to see them die with poor technical skills." Admiral King said bitterly, "There are still a lot of troops on the West Coast and Hawaii, but they are too far away. ”

Arnold was unhappy about this: why should the Army Airlines plunge all the pilots available to it into this bottomless pit of strangulation, while the Hainan Airlines could keep the hundreds of better pilots? Although he knew that this was approved by the president, he was just not happy.

Roosevelt seemed to see through his thoughts, and subconsciously explained: "This group of carrier-based aircraft pilots is the foundation of our rebuilding of the aircraft carrier formation, and the Navy will still have a steady stream of aircraft carriers in service in the next few months, but there must be no shortage of available pilots -- it turns out that we do not lack pilots, but we lack particularly good pilots with rich combat experience." ”

Everyone was gloomy, whether it was the Army Aviation or the Hainan Airlines, the biggest problem exposed was that the technical level of the pilots was inferior to the opponent, so Roosevelt was reluctant to take out the group of carrier-based aircraft pilots on the escort aircraft carrier to consume, and if these pilots fought again, the HNA would really break out.

"After the end of this campaign, the Army Air Force sent a group of outstanding pilots from the Eighth Air Force stationed in Britain to return to China, and at the same time asked the British side to provide at least 300 skilled pilots to assist the Eighth Air Force in the battle, and they had a large number of pilots who had been tested in the air battle of Britain." Roosevelt emphatically strengthened his tone, "As for the planes that the British need, we must provide them without reservation, whether they are F6F, F4U, P-47 or P-51, as compensation for the delay in the delivery of aircraft carriers to them, and I am sure Prime Minister Churchill will understand us." ”

The P-51 was originally developed by the United States at the invitation of the United Kingdom, and the performance indicators in all aspects are very mediocre, neither compared to the Army's P-47, nor the Navy's F4U, so it is not very popular, the Merlin engine was installed under the advice of the British side, but the performance has been reborn to improve, the US military is determined to equip itself first, and intends to use the outstanding advantages of the P-51 range to escort the bombers of the strategic air attack, because it has just entered the mass production stage, the number of production is less than the F6F, Therefore, the British side asked for assistance several times, but the Americans did not agree, and Roosevelt's remarks set the tone.

As for aircraft carriers, it was originally promised to give Britain two aircraft carriers in May, but now that the United States has exhausted its own aircraft carriers in the Atlantic direction, the urgency of the demand for aircraft carriers has once again increased, and Admiral King just wanted to mention the postponement of the delivery of aircraft carriers to Britain, but Roosevelt had already said it first, and he was greatly relieved.

Now everyone can clearly feel that the president is not confident in continuing to carry out the A+ campaign to retake the Azores, and they are relieved when they think about it: if the German pilots deployed in the Azores are as elite as the Axis aircraft carrier formation this time, I am afraid that the original plan is still too optimistic about the comparative estimate of troops, not to mention the collapse of several aircraft carriers, the paralysis of paralysis, and the decline of offensive strength instead of increasing, and forcibly fighting the Azores campaign again is to send them to death.

"When will the B-29 long-range bomber be put into service? I heard that such an aircraft has a long range? ”

Arnold nodded: "It can exceed 5,000 kilometers, Boeing's Wichita factory is working overtime to do everything, and it is expected that the first production model will roll off the assembly line early next month." ”

"Hurry up production, training, equipment, I would like to see this aircraft take off from Newfoundland to bomb the Azores from the beginning of July." Roosevelt slammed his fist on the table, "Even if we can't retake the Azores for a while, we can't make the Germans comfortable using it, we will paralyze it with constant bombing." If Newfoundland's airfields and defenses aren't working now, we need to expand and improve them as soon as possible. ”

Arnold paused for a moment, he thought that the president would ask for the B-29 to be deployed to the United Kingdom, but he didn't expect it to be replaced by Canada in the end, and after thinking about it, he felt normal: if the B-29 is put into large-scale air strikes, the fuel consumption will be very large, and it will form additional fuel pressure on the United Kingdom, and it will be much better to deploy it in Newfoundland, Canada, not only to facilitate maintenance and supply, but also to bring more trouble to the British, at least Canada still has a lot of pilots and ground crew.

"The main target of this afternoon's offensive is still the enemy's aircraft carrier formation, and we will strive to sink or damage another enemy fleet carrier." After explaining the overall situation, Roosevelt continued in an unquestioning tone, "The combined shipbuilding capacity of Japan and Germany is not half of ours, and Great Britain also has a good shipbuilding capacity, we can fully afford these losses, but it is difficult for the enemy to replenish them, and we can accept two for one, three for one, or even four for one, and when the battle is over, we will hold a systematic evaluation and demonstration meeting to discuss the number and plan of additional aircraft carrier construction." ”

"Gentlemen, cheer up and do a good job of the things at hand bit by bit, we must have confidence in victory, but we must be fully mentally prepared for the complexity, twists and turns, and long-term nature of the final victory. The American people, of course, are afraid of defeat, but they are even more afraid of succumbing to the obscenity of the Nazis! ”

Roosevelt said a lot, and almost the entire discussion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was about it, and he made a decision about the afternoon battle in a few words, but he said a lot about the political, economic, military, and allied relations in the coming period -- Stimson knew his hardships, and at the moment the senior generals, including Marshall, Admiral King, and others, were somewhat lacking in confidence, and the president had to relieve them of pressure, he had to strengthen their confidence, and if necessary, he had to help them share their responsibilities.

The failure of the Panama campaign seems irreparable, and even if one or two more warships can be sunk in the afternoon, it will only save some face, and Congress, the people, and various political groups will certainly attack after learning the news of the Panama campaign, and this time the responsibility is too great for a mere lieutenant general to bear, and Roosevelt must personally intervene -- otherwise, the board will be hit on the top level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Kimmel and Lieutenant General Short are a lesson from the past.

There were all human spirits here, and they couldn't hear the encouragement and protection in Roosevelt's words, and they stood up one by one and replied loudly: "Yes!" ”

At 12:43, Mitsuo Fuchida led the formation back to the mothership and landed in turn, and when he saw the Hayabusa missing, he immediately became anxious: "Sir! What's going on with Hayabusa? Sunk? ”

"Not yet, but it's pretty much there."

"Hey!" He slapped the railing indignantly, gave a general account of the attack, and then said with some shame, "This blow made many mistakes, the first was the mistake of letting go of the Brilliant; The second is that there is too much focus on safety when attacking, and some technical moves are not brought into play, so that ......"

Tsukahara waved his hand to stop his self-blame: "No, you did a good job and met my requirements. One attack wave has severely damaged and sunk 4 enemy aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers and some destroyers, this is very brilliant, you don't feel guilty for the heavy damage of the Hayabusa, it has nothing to do with you. In addition, I think you have done a good job of paying attention to safety, paying attention to protecting the lives of pilots, and the battle damage of this sortie is slightly more than 12 percent, and I think it is a very remarkable success compared to the battle losses and results, and of course it would be better if the losses were less -- we must change the attitude of the previous resolute attack. Because there are many enemy aircraft carriers, but we are the only pilots who can sink aircraft carriers. ”

Mitsuo Fuchida nodded silently: This Panama campaign has been fought repeatedly, and the pilot losses are not small, and the Japanese Navy has basically been unable to find skilled aircraft carrier pilots except for a group of pilots on Socotra Island. (To be continued.) )