The detailed battle report Hoffman had carefully read it three times, and he nodded: "Considering the results and significance of the battle, this loss is completely within an acceptable range, and I congratulate the Navy!" You have achieved a great victory! Where is the fleet now? ”

"It's 950 kilometers southwest of Iceland, more than 1,400 nautical miles from the Azores, so if nothing else, you can reach it in four days."

"Arrange for the Scharnhorst to take the wounded officers and men to Spain for emergency repairs and treatment."

"To Spain? Not going to France? Raeder was a little puzzled, "The French ship maintenance strength is stronger than the Spanish......"

"How can there be an excuse to get Franco to agree to the deployment of troops and fighter units in the north without going to Spain?" Hoffman smiled strangely, "This is indispensable, the occupation of the Azores will definitely cause an uproar among the Portuguese, Salazar may fall to the British and Americans, and he must use enough tanks and planes to sober him up and know that the end of opposing us is not good." Of course, Ribbentrop will make a trip to Lisbon and give the Portuguese a little bit of goodness by the way - this gesture still needs to be there. ”

He sighed and explained: "The Scharnhorst can only be repaired briefly in Spain, and the overhaul still has to go back to the mainland or Italy, and I am not at ease in France." Taking this opportunity, let it be repaired according to the standards of the Gneisenau, and replaced with 380mm naval guns, I will give you 8 months, materials and workers, you go to Speer. Aircraft carriers have proved their worth in this battle, and a consensus should be formed on building a naval formation navy with aircraft carriers as the core rather than battleships as the core, and the next step is to carry out more and more perfect operational exploration. ”

"Yes, Führer." Raeder knew that this sentence was addressed to the aircraft carrier Aquila, which was about to be completed and put into service and incorporated into the Mediterranean Fleet, "We have accumulated a lot of experience this time, and I will let the Mediterranean Fleet learn and master these tactical details as soon as possible, and if necessary, transfer some personnel from the North Sea Fleet." ”

Roosevelt received the exact news from the British side a whole day late, but he could not sit still after learning the details: in just one week, the Royal Navy lost 300,000 tons of warships and more than 200 aircraft, including three battleships supported by the American Atlantic Fleet. To make matters worse, the main German fleet entered the Atlantic and disappeared.

"So, the Royal Navy doesn't have any capital ships on the mainland?" Admiral Kim asked, "Can you still hold your homeland?" ”

"At present, the home fleet has no other capital ships except a few treaty-class cruisers and light cruisers, as well as 2 escort carriers, so although the prime minister knows that it is difficult to speak, he still urgently hopes that your country will increase assistance." Admiral Percy Noble, head of the British naval mission to Washington and a member of the US-UK Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a low voice, "We are in great difficulty at the moment, and there is no difficulty in holding our homeland, but the situation is very serious in the short term." ”

It was rare for the British to be so humble, and Roosevelt didn't say much, Admiral King asked with a strong anger: "What do you want?" ”

"We want high-performance aircraft - this campaign is not so much a defeat by the German Navy as by the Luftwaffe." "We captured a German naval pilot, who confessed that he was from the Air Force and had only been transferred to the Navy a few months earlier – all of their active officers and men were from the Air Force, and the commander of the Navy was Air Force General Richthofen. The results of real combat proved that the German aircraft carrier has high-performance carrier-based aircraft, which is stronger than all the models in our hands. Taking fighters as an example, the only one that can match it is the Spitfire (referring to the land-based Spitfire, the sea Spitfire performance is relatively poor), but the range is only half of the opponent's, so the Royal Navy has suffered great losses. The officers and men of the German Navy who fought with us this time were all elite air force elites, and the captured guy was an ace pilot with more than 20 shot down records, and he admitted that his level was only average, and our pilots were generally not strong and experienced......"

Roosevelt and Admiral King understood: the Royal Navy was inferior in equipment and personnel in poor quality, hence this fiasco. Losing the battle is not a problem, the key is to lose a bit miserably.

"Given that the Axis powers are currently advancing the exchange of equipment, it is likely that these German aircraft will also fall into the hands of Japan, so ......"

Admiral Kim couldn't listen anymore, interrupted the other party's speech, and asked dryly: "How many planes do you need?" ”

"We need 200 of the latest Super F4F, 100 each of F4U, SBD and TBF, especially the latter two hope to be licensed for production - we are ready to completely eliminate backward models such as Skuas, Swordfish, Great Mackerel, and Sea Hurricane...... "Britain was tormented by the short-legged Spitfire this time, and under Fraser's suggestion, it took a fancy to the F4U in the US Navy at a glance.

"F4U can be provided to you first, SBD and TBF are also no problem, and you can also produce if you want, but what does Super F4F mean?" Roosevelt asked.

"It was a new aircraft that was developed not long ago, which is faster and better than the F4F, and it seems to be larger."

"That's the latest design of the aircraft, codenamed F6F, which is still on the eve of mass production, and the number we have ourselves does not exceed 100, including many experimental models, so ......" Admiral Kim hurriedly refused, "We can't provide it for the time being." ”

"When?" Noble hurriedly asked.

Admiral Kim looked at Roosevelt's attitude, gritted his teeth, and said in a very painful tone: "The first batch will be provided in June, and it will be delivered within three months -- this is already sacrificing our own equipment speed." ”

Noble didn't dare to bargain, and hurriedly agreed: "Thank you very much, we are grateful for the deep friendship of the American people!" ”

"What are you going to do now?" Roosevelt asked worriedly, "Britain's shipping may be seriously damaged, and Prime Minister Churchill is particularly concerned about fuel supplies in his telegram to me, saying that the current reserves of crude oil will not last more than three months, even with the measures to save money." ”

"We are ready to assemble the capital ships in our hands first, including 2 Elizabeth-class battleships, 2 George V-class battleships, 2 Tejour-class aircraft carriers, 1 Indomitable, plus your country's Pennsylvania and Independence, so that we have a fleet core of 5 battleships, 3 fleet aircraft carriers and 1 light aircraft carrier." Noble added, "We will not let the Germans get too proud for long, we will destroy them all as soon as possible, and we will be as careful as possible to reduce the size and number of ships before destroying them, but we will not stop them completely, especially the transportation of fuel." ”

Roosevelt looked at Admiral King, who nodded slightly, believing that this level of strength was enough to overwhelm the German fleet—and not to expect him to draw more capital ships in the Pacific.

"In addition, in order to ensure the safety of the route, we also need 20 escort aircraft carriers to undertake anti-submarine missions." Noble smiled bitterly, "After the destruction of the super-secret, we were temporarily unable to accurately decipher the enemy's intelligence, and the tonnage loss of ships still tended to rise: in November, the merchant ship lost more than 750,000 tons of tonnage; in December, 830,000 tons; in January, 970,000 tons; Since February, it has exceeded 600,000 tons ......"

This figure is not exaggerated, in addition to the loss of normal shipping in the Atlantic, in the Battle of the Indian Ocean, the Battle of the Barents Sea, the Allies lost a lot of civilian tonnage, plus the losses in the first two years, even with the British and American efforts to start construction, the total net loss of tonnage has exceeded 4 million tons - equivalent to one-fifth of the 20 million tons of civilian tonnage that Britain had before the war, and considering that the total tonnage also includes many inland or offshore vessels that are not suitable for the sea, British ocean capacity has been roughly reduced by half (of course, these are not all British ships) , all up to the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia.

"20?" Admiral Jin's eyes widened, he couldn't help it, and he burst out with a foul word, "Why don't you go and grab it?" ”

Even Roosevelt, who had always been generous and almost responsive to the British, was taken aback by the figure.

Noble, of course, did not dare to take into account Admiral King's attitude, he explained: "This time, a total of eight escort aircraft carriers have been lost, and in addition, in order to contain the submarine offensive, it is necessary to further increase the escort efforts." Now that the main force of the German Navy has broken through into the Atlantic, it is only afraid that the loss of merchant ships will be very large in the coming period, and some routes will be completely interrupted, so a large number of escort aircraft carriers are needed. ”

"We can't get so many warships, and the Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier is still under large-scale construction, and it will take at least 3-6 months before it can be put into service." Admiral Kim flatly rejected this, "Even if the Casablanca-class is built one after another, 20 ships is a big number." ”

"How much can you offer now?"

"I can only give you 2-3 Borg-class ships at most, and 1-2 others at most." Seeing that the president's gaze was cast again, Admiral Kim stubbornly said, "I will try to give you five ships within one month, and another five ships in the second quarter." ”

According to the "Lend-Lease Act" arrangement, the United States will give Britain a series of escort aircraft carriers, and the original idea was to give all the Borg-class to the British, but they did not expect them to be so useless, and the newly built escort aircraft carriers have not yet been completed, and the British have already lost eight of them in one go -- this is a 10,000-ton ship, not a cabbage.

"5 ships will do! That's fine, too! Noble is saddened to find himself today a beggar who begs for help, "because of the urgency for fuel shipments, we also need some large tanker ......" (to be continued). )