Britain and the United States had always been highly concerned about the whereabouts of the German and Italian fleets, and they were greatly relieved to hear that they had not appeared in the direction of India, but they turned to be more vigilant about the Axis attack on South Africa. Although the exact location www.biquge.info of the German-Italian fleet is not clear, the naval side has estimated that the German army will launch an attack on South Africa in early September based on the time when the German-Italian fleet passed through the Suez Canal.

This is generally bad news, but it is good news for the US military, which is interested in Operation Overlord - which means that they can rely on the South African direction to hold off the German-Italian fleet and deny it the opportunity to support the Azores. The Combined Fleet's attack on Australia and New Zealand deeply stung the Allied authorities, prompting them to start the evacuation of people in the direction of South Africa ahead of schedule, and no longer stupidly stand up to the coastal area to be beaten.

After careful discussions, in order to ensure that possible interference in the "Overlord" campaign was eliminated, Britain and the United States pretended not to know about the Axis' attack on South Africa, and waited for the enemy to attack, so as to prevent the German and Italian fleets from being frightened back. Convinced that the Axis fleet was not in the Mediterranean Sea or around the Azores, the transportation of supplies to Britain via the North Atlantic route returned to normal. Of course, the losses of the transport fleet continue - mainly from aircraft and submarines from the Azorean bases.

Now the Germans have formed a new way of thinking about dealing with the merchant fleet: one is a blockade, and the other is a breakdown. The blockade mainly relies on the main aircraft carrier formation, which is effective but not sustainable; The breakdown of diplomatic relations mainly relied on aircraft and submarines, and the effect was long-lasting, but it could not cut off the transportation lines, and at best it could only increase the losses of Britain and the United States.

In the operation of breaking the diplomatic relationship, the first large aircraft is dispatched to reconnoitre, to be positioned, and finally to summon and aircraft and submarines to carry out group attacks, covering the patrol area is the JU-290H upgraded from the JU-290C, which is faster (maximum speed 455 km / h) and has a longer range (nearly 6600 km), and the nose is equipped with the latest development of the sea search radar, and the patrol sea area can completely cover the Azores as the center, north to Greenland, west to Newfoundland, east to Ireland. The route between Britain and the United States has not slipped through the net, and it is simply invincible, becoming a new generation of feared "Atlantic surveillance".

Once the merchant fleet is discovered by the "Atlantic Monitor", it will enter the process of dealing with it: if it is close to the Azore, it will be attacked by joint attack aircraft, and if it is far away and there are submarines, the Seawolf troops will be notified in advance to deploy in ambush on the road that must be passed by the other side's route.

The American bomber was originally a tender project of the Ministry of Armaments, requiring that it could attack the east coast of the United States and return safely, so the range requirement was an almost perverted starting point of 13,000 kilometers, which greatly restricted the design of the airline, but after occupying the Azores and obtaining a reliable forward base, coupled with Hoffman's temporary lack of interest in strategic bombing of the United States, the "super bomb" was also far away, so the Ministry of Armaments used the American bomber project to bid for heavy bombers for other purposes.

On the basis of absorbing the relevant models of B-29 \ B-17 \ Lancaster, Germany's design concept and application of heavy bombers are more mature, and the main indicators have been changed to: more than 9000 kilometers of range, can carry 4 HS-293 anti-ship gliding bombs or 2 anti-ship bombs + 1 torpedo for sea attacks, the first to break out of the encirclement is the Me-264 of the Messerschmitt company, by July 36 have been deployed on the Atlantic coast of France, followed by the JU-488, The first batch of 16 aircraft was laid out in early August. Both aircraft have a range of 9,000 km with a load capacity of 5 tons.

According to the requirements, the two products were directly put into the Atlantic strangulation war, and in actual combat, the bid was confirmed by who had the most results and the most stable performance, and then became German strategic bombers.

From a practical point of view, the anti-ship effect of heavy bombers carrying torpedoes is not ideal -- the high-altitude drops are directly ineffective, and the low-altitude drops are easy to attack, and finally it was decided to use all HS-293 guided anti-ship bombs. After the bomb achieved outstanding results in the Battle of the Mediterranean, the Germans popularized its use on a large scale, but later found that the conditions for the use of guided bombs were too harsh: the requirements for controlling the airspace and the high requirements for the speed, evasion and anti-aircraft fire of the enemy ships were high, so they withdrew from the front-line team attacking enemy warships and focused on attacking the merchant fleet in the Atlantic - they were slow, large, and had almost no anti-aircraft firepower, which was the most convenient target for the HS-293.

Although the German army improved the wireless frequency, it would not be long before the Allies improved the electronic countermeasure technology, and finally abolished the wireless, directly upgraded the use of wired, and installed the head of the bomb TV guidance, which can observe the real-time situation of the battlefield through the wire, and facilitate the control personnel to see the situation below clearly at high altitude and in bad weather, and realize the aircraft to carry out air strikes at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters. Although the weight of the bomb has increased to more than 900 kg, it is still more than enough for both the ME-264 and the Ju-488 to carry 4 HS-293Ds.

Because escort aircraft carriers often take off fighter jets to drive away the "Atlantic surveillance", the German army used land-based aircraft to forcibly reconnoiter after the AR-352 carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft (Caiyun Reform) was put into use, and the AR-352 not only flew fast but also flew far, often using the tactics of provoking the line of fire, so that all the Allied carrier-based fighters trying to catch up were out of reach.

Once the reconnaissance plane discovers that the merchant fleet does not have an escort aircraft carrier, while it is responsible for continuous tracking, it directly summons heavy bombers to use gliding bombs to attack, one by one; If an escort carrier is found, the submarine is used to ambush it first, knock it out, and then do the same the next day.

Under the joint strangulation of German submarines and aircraft, the loss rate of British and American merchant ships skyrocketed, basically stabilizing at 30-35%. The United States is desperately ramping up the manufacture of free wheels, hoping to offset the losses with more ships and cargo, but the ships and supplies can continue to increase, and the sailors and personnel on the fleet cannot be stacked. The losses of the Eighth Air Force were only 15-20%, which was already unbearable, and in the face of the fleet's loss rate of 30%, it means that the probability of successfully completing 10 voyages and retreating with a whole body is no more than 3%!

Even so, in order to make up for the backlog of material needs in the previous months, the relevant transportation has to be pushed forward head-on--the demand for 1 million tons of refined oil supplies every month alone will cost people their lives.

However, the German army could not find a better way to deal with the strategic airlift of Britain and the United States for the time being, and as the preparations for the "Overlord" campaign were in full swing, the strategic airlift entered a saturation stage, and tens of thousands of British workers, army, navy, and pilots arrived in the United States from Britain to participate in preparations for war, or to receive equipment for training, or to devote themselves to targeted training for the US military, or to put into vigorous large-scale production.

In the major shipyards on the east coast, the workers could not stop at all, rushing to work on the Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier like crazy, the construction speed was constantly refreshed, the relevant construction period was updated almost every hour, and the supervision party also quietly relaxed the quality requirements of the project, and let go of the flaws that were not principled and decisive. They thought that the quality standards had been temporarily lowered for the sake of quantity, but they did not understand that in the minds of Admiral King and Turner, these tens of millions of dollars worth of escort carriers were nothing more than cheap consumables for the Overlord Campaign—that it was unnecessary for the destined warships to pay too much attention to quality.

The training of carrier-based aircraft pilots for these 50 aircraft carriers is also proceeding at a rapid pace, and after the addition of a large number of British pilots, skilled manpower is still very insufficient, and those rookie pilots who have just obtained qualified take-off and landing certificates have also been stuffed into the escort queue, and the requirements for them are very simple, they must ensure that they master the essentials of take-off and operations, and can take off from the escort aircraft carriers and participate in operations.

A novice pilot named George Bush asked, "Sir, what should I do if I land after the battle?" With so many aircraft carriers and planes, they may not be able to find their way home by then. ”

"If you're sure, find a random aircraft carrier to land on - as long as it's an Allied aircraft carrier."

"What if you're not sure? Landing in such a small place always feels like a struggle. ”

The commander shrugged his shoulders: "Then let's parachute, I hope there is a destroyer that will just pick you up......"

Washington is increasing its weight on the scales of war, and the forces and materials that are being carried out in Operation Overlord are becoming more and more tilted.

At this moment, Nimitz, who was resting at Pearl Harbor, found himself in a dilemma: from the perspective of operational requirements and situation, he should deal with the main force of Horiyoshi's Combined Fleet; But judging from the domestic requirements, he should be more cautious. Admiral Kim sent him a telegram, although there was no sentence of "protect the ship first", but he could understand the implication between the lines: once the Azores direction suffered a heavy setback, the Pacific Fleet was the only hope for the US Navy to turn over, so Nimitz should control Halsey, not Meng Lang.

In fact, Halsey's reckless personality was only an illusion, and this guy was more treacherous than anyone else, and whoever believed his nonsense was sure to be fooled into not finding the north - that is, he advised Nimitz to be cautious and wait for the Independence-class light carriers from Cape Horn to join the main force of the fleet.

Since the Australian direction has been informing the United Fleet that it has 5-6 aircraft carriers, Nimitz, who was deceived by intelligence, combined his own strength, Admiral King's hints and Halsey's suggestion, and finally made a decision not to attack for the time being, waiting for domestic reinforcements to arrive and converge.

He didn't know that at this time, Horiyoshi was also waiting for the return of the two light aircraft carriers under Tsunoda. (To be continued.) )