Almost at the same time, Nimitz led the remnants of the catastrophe TF48 squadron quietly out of South Africa, carefully sticking to the edge of the Indian Ocean in the direction of Australia. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Compared to the tragic situation of retreating from the South Atlantic, the TF48 has now recovered a little, not only has the damaged Franklin been repaired as much as possible, but also the only two remaining escort carriers have been removed from the South African fleet, and four auxiliary cruisers have been replaced.

In addition to this, Nimitz also took the USS Wasp, which had been lying in South Africa for several months and had not been completely repaired, and the ship's maximum speed could only reach 18 knots, and the deck and hangar were almost unusable. This was left behind by Spruance's TF46 fleet in the last naval battle of the South Atlantic, and it was not a small wounded. Because of the lack of technical strength in South Africa, it can only be repaired to this extent after lying down for a long time. But Nimitz is still grateful, and now that the U.S. Navy has lost the vast majority of its aircraft carriers, it is very eager for such a warship that can still be repaired.

After receiving the information that the main Japanese fleet was preparing to attack Midway, his mood was very low, and he still regretted the battle not long ago -- the last decisive attack should not be fought, otherwise he would still have left a lot of crews and maybe two aircraft carriers. If this is the case, he now has a lot of room for manoeuvre, and he can completely go to the Indian Ocean to make a mess while the main force of the Japanese army advances eastward.

But there is no regret medicine in this world, and he believes that if he really has so much strength, Horikichi probably will not calmly release him into the Indian Ocean.

Nimitz guessed this correctly, in order to prevent the US military from making trouble again, Horiyoshi spent a lot of effort, deployed a lot of aircraft and reconnaissance forces, and deliberately left the 3rd air battle in the Indian Ocean, which could be completely blocked at the necessary moment. After the two ships Katsuragi and Aso were commissioned in October to form the Fifth Air Battle, he also considered placing them on the front line of the South Seas.

Now Nimitz only has one barely intact Franklin, and after transferring the South African crew and taking away the pilots who returned from the last injury (members of the TF46 fleet), he can barely muster 88 crews, which is not even the minimum requirement for an Essex-class, let alone arming the Wasp.

However, Nimitz knew that Hawaii still had a crew, and as long as the ship was pulled to Hawaii for repairs, planes and personnel were replaced, and two battleships of the Pacific Fleet and some escort aircraft carriers were added, it would still be a fleet with strength and potential -- at least the most powerful force in the US Navy at present.

Therefore, when China sent him a telegram to ask for his opinion on the Battle of Midway, he gave an opinion after painful thought: "The Pacific Fleet is to conceal itself near Pearl Harbor, preserve its strength, and only weaken the enemy fleet with the air force of the army and navy, and if Midway cannot be defended, it can retreat at the right time." ”

Truman frowned and asked, "General Nimitz thinks that a retreat from Midway should be made?" ”

"Yes! Before the retreat, it was proposed to weaken the Japanese fleet as much as possible with aviation forces. Turner reported to Truman, "The Japanese have dispatched all the main forces of the Combined Fleet, not to mention the current strength of the Pacific Fleet, even Admiral Nimitz's fleet is now intact and difficult to match." What's more, he has just set off from South Africa now, and there is no time at all. But it is a good idea to weaken the enemy with aviation forces, he enumerated the order of targets, oil tankers first, aircraft carriers second, cargo ships third, and then other warships? ”

"In this order?" Truman was a little puzzled, "Shouldn't we hit the aircraft carrier first?" ”

"The air force at Midway Island can fight aircraft carriers, but if my estimate is correct, after tonight, this airfield will be destroyed, and the distance between Midway Island and Hawaii is more than 2,000 kilometers, and the bombers that take off and fight can only be B-17 or B-29, and they are in a state of no escort, and it is a little more convenient to hit oil tankers than aircraft carriers -- our army's losses are small, enemy ships are easy to destroy, and the combined fleet has such a huge force, and the daily fuel consumption needs to reach 10,000 tons, and once there is no fuel, no matter how powerful the ships are, they can only obediently retreat."

"Will the enemy attack Hawaii? In the event of an attack, how should our army respond? ”

"Not in the short term. With more than 2,000 aircraft deployed, more than 100,000 ground troops, and reliable fortifications, the Combined Fleet cannot take down this island, and I even have some expectations that the enemy will attack, which will surely destroy their big teeth. ”

"But there's one thing that can't be overlooked." Lehi added, "If the enemy blockades Hawaii, we will have a very difficult time." The island is nearly 4,800 kilometers away from the nearest state of California, which is far more than the distance of long-range strategic airlift to the United Kingdom, and even if the latest long-range transport aircraft are used, they can only transport 6-8 tons of supplies at a time, and if they deduct the return fuel, the actual net increase in supplies for a single trip is only 2-3 tons at best -- in the short term, you can grit your teeth and fight hard, and in the long run, this kind of supply behavior is impossible to sustain. ”

"Assuming that there is no assistance from the mainland, how long can Hawaii sustain it."

"If the Japanese army does not attack and only blockades, it can hold out for at least half a year; If the Japanese attack and a fierce conflict breaks out, it is difficult to say, it is possible to 3 months, it may be 1 month or even less. Turner smiled wryly, "Hawaii has a decent military strength, and it also has a considerable naval maintenance and construction force, but this is all based on the assistance provided by the rear, and this island can't produce even a plane, a tank, a shell, or a ton of fuel." ”

"You don't have to worry about one thing, the Japanese fleet will not last 3 months." Lehi comforted Truman, "The Japanese mainland is more than 7,000 kilometers away from Hawaii, and it is possible to replenish and transport 10-150,000 tons of supplies, but it is impossible for Japan to maintain a supply line so far for a long time, which greatly exceeds Japan's national strength." It is most likely that the Japanese army hopes to use Midway as a fortress and base for its advance, and then accumulate supplies and troops on it, and then set out from here to attack Hawaii, so that it can be sure. Therefore, General Turner suggested that the Japanese army should be continuously depleted by air forces, and even if our army abandoned Midway and was occupied by the enemy, it could not stop the air raid on Midway and make it impossible to build. ”

"But we can't maintain both a powerful air strike force in the Pacific and an equally powerful air force in South America." Admiral Arnold complained, "In order to meet the President's request for the deployment of 3,000 combat aircraft to South America, I am trying to find a way to draw forces, some of them even from the West Coast, and if the West Coast is to maintain this size according to you, I don't know where so many troops will come from." ”

Truman was shocked: "There are so few planes in our army? I remember you said that the United States could build 100,000 planes a year at full capacity, and now there is no need to aid Britain and the Soviet Union, and we can use all these 100,000 planes ourselves, how can it not be enough? ”

Arnold smiled wryly and listed a string of data:

"First of all, there are no 100,000 aircraft, and now the maximum is 8-90,000 aircraft, if you exclude some backward models and training aircraft such as P-38 \ P-39 \ P-61, the overall output is about 70,000 units, about two-thirds of which are given to the army and one-third to the navy.

Second, it was never the number of aircraft manufactured that determined the size of the air force, but the qualified pilots, and before the army entered the war, it had no more than 3,000 qualified pilots on active duty, and after the Pearl Harbor incident, retired crews and reservists were urgently recruited, and by the end of 1942, the total scale exceeded 10,000 units. But since the beginning of that year, we have also suffered astonishing losses, losing nearly 7,000 units in the German strategic bombing, at least 9,000 units in the Caribbean, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Iceland, the South Atlantic, etc., 2,000 units in many strategic airlifts and Hump airlifts, more than 6,000 units in the battles for the Pacific front, and then no less than 2,000 units due to the fall of Britain, India, Brazil, etc.; We lost more than 1,000 units during training, drills, transitions and other processes...... In summary, the overall loss is close to 2.8 units.

Finally, the current distribution of land aviation is extremely wide. On the East Coast, we have about 8000 crews, more than half of which are fighters; In Central America and the Caribbean, it has more than 4,000 crews, and the proportion of fighters is more than one-third; South America is ready to arrange 3,000 units; 2,000 units of strategic airlift pinched by the command; 3,000 units in Newfoundland and Canada; more than 1,000 units in the direction of South Africa; There are more than 5,000 units on the front line of Australia and New Zealand and the front line of the Pacific Islands, distributed in Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and other vast areas; The Aleutian Islands have nearly 1,000 units on the first line; We also have 4,000 units on the West Coast and Hawaii, and a total of 31,000 units. The use of troops had reached the limit to the point that the vast interior of the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains to the Tennessee River, was the size of all of Western Europe with less than 2,000 units. Of course, there are another 5,000 units currently being trained, and not counting these reserve units, our total strength is about 33,000 units. This force is definitely not small, we think it is larger than the combined army aviation of the Three Kingdoms Axis. ”

Truman breathed a sigh of relief at the last number, but Arnold's next sentence made his heart tug.

"We estimate that the Luftwaffe has 20,000 crews (actually less than 17,000), the Italian Air Force has 5,000 crews (actually only more than 3,000), and the Japanese Army Aviation has 7,000 crews (actually more than 5,000), but although they are small in number, they have a lot ......of combat experience, Germany maintains a large front-line force on the Eastern Front, fighting every day, and the experienced crews are probably more than 75% (actually 68%), the Italian Air Force and the Japanese Army Air Force are a little worse, at least half, what about us" Arnold smiled wryly and reported a number, "If you don't eliminate strategic airlift, about 20% have experience, and if you exclude strategic airlift, only about 15% have actual combat experience, what should I do?" It'......s not a pilot who can fly a plane and land it successfully."