Roosevelt did not attend the Joint Chiefs of Staff operational discussion meeting that day, but when Marshall and Admiral King jointly came to report the battle plan to him the next day, he couldn't help frowning: Turner's plan looked a bit of a desperate decisive battle, and it was a matter of course, if it didn't, the British and American naval elite and fleet superiority in the Atlantic might not be completely preserved. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 He was hesitant to approve the plan.

Admiral King did not dare to urge Roosevelt, because the matter was very uncertain, and Turner privately told him several more dangerous situations: first, Gibraltar would be breached before the arrival of April 7, and the Mediterranean axis navy would swarm out, and even if the combined Japanese fleet was not considered, all the German and Italian navies together would not be an easy opponent to deal with; Second, when the Battle of the Azores was launched, the German fleet was not in port and was not detected, and when the Allied aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft were caught in a bitter battle with land-based aviation, the German aircraft carriers suddenly came out - it would be a replica of the Battle of Midway; Thirdly, Germany concentrated more than 400 aircraft in the Azores and was unable to overwhelm its opponents in terms of troops.

The first and third situations are okay, the Allies can immediately adopt evasive tactics after discovering it, and the big deal is that the plan is canceled, and it is more than enough for self-preservation. Only the second situation made Admiral Kim very worried, the more he pondered in bed at night, the more he felt that the Azores were very similar to the Battle of Midway, and even his own situation was a little worse than that of Yamamoto Fifty-six, the other side only wanted to destroy the American fleet and pretended to seize the island, Midway was completely a target that could be abandoned, and the real purpose of this battle was to seize the island, and the Azores could not give up at all.

If he makes a concerted effort to promote this matter, then his political future and prospects will be completely linked to the outcome of the war. He was a little cranky.

"Plan B is of vital importance." Roosevelt sighed, "If Plan B is successful, I will not hesitate to approve Plan A, but if not......"

"Then let's talk about it in detail, and by the way, look at the situation in Gibraltar." Admiral Kim hastened to add.

Marshall nodded, Admiral King's reaction was fast, and he grasped President Roosevelt's mood of gaining and losing, the Azores lost a lot of problems, but the desperate bet lost more problems. He asked Admiral King: "What do you think will happen if Plan B succeeds but does not carry out Plan A?" ”

"Well," said Admiral King, mused...... "if the Germans lose their fleet and can only use submarines and planes to break up the relationship, the danger will be much less, and our fleet will probably have to go around in a circle more, and then we will have more escort ships." ”

"What is the decision of the CMI on the subsequent construction of ships?"

"It's tough." As soon as Roosevelt heard about this, Admiral King opened his briefcase and reported it, his face frosty.

"According to the early battle damage and subsequent transportation needs, Admiralty experts believe that it is necessary to add 50 more Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers, 50 20,000-ton tankers, 6 Montana-class battleships, and 8 Iowa-class battleships."

Roosevelt frowned: "With so much more, can the slipway handle it?" ”

"No, so there must be a trade-off, they suggested, since Germany and Japan have no follow-up counterpart warships, the construction of 3 Alaska-class large cruisers is enough, as fleet operations generally turn to the form of aviation operations, heavy cruisers are not the most scarce, so the Baltimore-class, Oregon City-class follow-up heavy cruisers and all heavy cruisers of the Des Moines-class construction tasks are canceled, and the construction of Atlanta-class and Cleveland-class light cruisers is canceled, and a total of 28 light and heavy cruisers are expected to be reduced."

"What about aircraft carriers?"

"It will be built according to the existing plan, without increasing or decreasing." Admiral Kim sighed, "As long as it can be completed on schedule, we will not lack aircraft carriers in the coming year, but experienced carrier-based aircraft pilots." Although there are more than 1,000 carrier-based aircraft pilots on the list of the Admiralty who have completed complete training, more than 90 percent of them are rookies within six months of graduation, and less than 10 percent are experienced veterans. ”

"Where are the skilled pilots?"

"All sacrificed." Admiral King said helplessly, "I have been fighting for more than a year, and the pilots trained before the war lost a lot after the South Pacific Campaign, and then in the past few months, Halsey launched an offensive campaign and lost some more, and then lost some of them in the North Africa and Indian Ocean campaigns, and of course some people have grown up, and when I say inexperienced, I mainly mean the lack of pilots who participated in the battle of large fleets." ”

"That's not going to work." Roosevelt said worriedly, "How can an inexperienced pilot fight the enemy?" ”

"Experience can only be accumulated in battle, who else can we rely on without them?" "The Army has never fought before, and Ike sent me a telegram complaining that he understood that the Kenyan landings had been canceled due to the changing situation in the country, but that he wanted to ensure the supply of supplies in the African theater of operations," Marshall said. The Germans had occupied Somalia and were preparing to attack Kenya's Northeast Corridor, and aircraft reconnaissance showed that the Germans were able to get supplies from Mogadishu by nearby transport ships and ports. Ike's troops, except for the Anzac Division and the Germans, were all on the battlefield for the first time, and their hearts were very weak. ”

"How did the ANZAC evaluate the Germans?"

"It's hard to fight ......," Marshall squeezed out a smile that was more ugly than crying, "The opponent commander is Guderian, who is considered one of the three best armored commanders in the German army, and his subordinates are all elites who have been fighting in the north and south since the Polish campaign. ”

"Send him another batch of supplies, don't worry about the loss of ships, it's not easy for him to fight alone there." Roosevelt stared at Admiral King, "The American people must hear good news, not always words like 'defeat, retreat, loss,' even if Ike can hold his ground." ”

Admiral Kim gritted his teeth and agreed. Marshall also breathed a sigh of relief, and Roosevelt set the tone for the African theater -- to be able to hold on is to win.

"I have just received a piece of information that there has been a change of power within Germany: Field Marshal Milch, who is suspected of being Jewish, the former No. 2 man in the Air Force, has been appointed Deputy Minister of Armaments, assisting Speer in his work and concurrently serving as the leader of the Reich Labor Front; Field Marshal Hugo-Sperler, the former commander of the Air Force on the Western Front, was dismissed by Hitler from his post and appointed as the chief adviser of the air force in name only, and there is also news that Hitler was not very satisfied with the commander-in-chief of the navy, Raeder, and gradually evaded his power. Roosevelt asked, "What do you think you can decipher?" ”

Admiral King did not pay much attention to this, and Marshall said: "This should be a step by Hitler to further strengthen the centralization of power, he is purging those generals who do not obey his will, and one day he will be eaten by this power." ”

Marshall was right about one thing, Hoffman was indeed strengthening the centralization of power, but not his own power, he was strengthening Speer's power. The Ministry of Armaments is the most important department in Germany, known as the small cabinet, Speer is not only known as the head of the economy, but also one of the four giants under the head of the party, with a prominent position, in the further promotion of mobilization and integration of the production system, Robert Ley, the leader of the Reich Labor Front, relying on his old qualifications for many years, does not sell Speer's battle, and refuses to distribute all the labor force uniformly.

In addition to this, Robert Ley was a very die-hard anti-Semite, and he offended Hoffman for the second time by explicitly and covertly resisting Hoffman's "new approach" to the Jews. He instructed Baumann to go and check on the man's condition, and if he had no major problems, he could arrange another position, but after the investigation, it turned out that this was still a big corrupt person: before the outbreak of the war, Robert Ley used his own car factory to encourage ordinary Germans to pay in advance to buy cars that had not yet begun production, and when the buyers after the advance payment waited for the cars to be put into production, the war broke out, and the car factory was changed to produce tanks and motorcycles urgently needed at the front, and finally all this money went into Ley's pocket, The total revenue is about 100 million marks.

Bowman immediately disposed of the guy with vigorous and resolute means, and returned the advance in question, which, although not much financially good, greatly consolidated the Führer's prestige. After Robert Ley's execution, everyone thought that Speer would take on the post himself, but he suddenly nominated Milch for this position, and by the way, offered to give him the position of deputy minister - because Milch had a lot of contact with Speer in the work of prisoner of war placement, worked hard in the custody of prisoners of war and the organization of the labor force, and was recognized for his comprehensive and efficient execution ability. Hoffmann also knew that Speer did not want to take too much power over him, so he immediately agreed to the relevant personnel changes. As a result, Milch was also the second major figure after Field Marshal Blomburg (who served as commander-in-chief of the reserve army) to make a comeback and return to the central stage.

Marshal Hugo-Sperler made many mistakes during this period, and at first in order to compete for commander-in-chief of the Air Force, he looked down on the junior Jeshunek and repeatedly resisted him; Later, contrary to Hoffman's instructions, he was reluctant to hand over the aircraft to the night fighter unit; Recently, he openly and covertly resisted the transfer of Air Force pilots to HNA...... The accumulation of all these deeds made Hoffmann lose patience with him and he was dismissed outright, while Air General Hans-Jürgen-Stumpf was promoted to general and succeeded Speer in charge of the Western Air Force because of his strong command and support of the Southern Front.

Raeder's problem is more complicated, after the Battle of the North Sea, Richthofen thought that he was barely qualified to serve as the commander of the naval aviation, but not as the commander of the aircraft carrier formation, and because his military rank was higher than that of the fleet commander Machar, there would be problems in the command process, and he thought that there was no suitable candidate for the navy at present, combined with the performance of the Japanese advisory group headed by Ozawa, he recommended to Hoffman that Ozawa temporarily serve as the commander of the aircraft carrier formation, but this recommendation and appointment caused Raeder's dissatisfaction, So the appointment is deadlocked. (To be continued.) )