On the afternoon of March 13, in the vast South Atlantic, a steel fleet was rapidly advancing in the direction of Cape Town, this fleet was the South Atlantic Squadron led by Spruance, or called the TF44 Task Force. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The TF44 task force has just set a record for the U.S. Navy, a journey of nearly 15,000 kilometers from the naval anchorage in Pisacek Bay to Cape Town, South Africa, and they arrived in only 18 days, including 2 days of refueling in Brazil, and the entire fleet spent only 16 days on the road when it was full, with an average speed of nearly 23 knots.

In order to speed up, Spruance did not carry any slow tankers or freighters, all relied on the support of fuel and materials on board, and the destroyers with a short cruising range relied on the fuel support of the large ships, and under such high-speed racing actions, the fleet ran out of fuel near Brazil, but fortunately, the quality of American manufacturing was good, and the fleet did not have any failures, and after replenishment, it still flew towards Cape Town, but it was still too late.

Rear Admiral Roddick, Chief of Staff of the Fleet, delivered a telegram to him: "Six days ago, submarines and planes from the South African side discovered the German fleet heading for South Georgia, which was about 2,700 kilometers away from the Cape of Good Hope, and it was suspected that they had sunk 2-3 freighters, but they were not sure, because all 2 submarines on anti-submarine missions had been sunk. ”

Spruance nodded: South Georgia is an annex island of the Falkland Islands, and the two islands are 1,500 kilometers apart, and the two islands that are horns of each other firmly block the waters around Cape Horn, blocking the key route of the U.S. Navy's two-ocean movement.

"Did the airstrikes bear fruit?"

"There were almost no results, the German fleet was too far from the coastline of South Africa, and at a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers at every turn, only the B-29 was capable of carrying out air strikes." Roddick thought for a moment, "The air team reported that the Germans had adopted a new type of fighter that was faster, more firepower, and worse than the previous Bf-219, and even worse, had a very fast climb, and they lost 2 B-29s that were trying to attack. ”

Roddick's new aircraft is the Do-412, a new generation carrier-based fighter adopted by Germany, whose forte is volleying, and the Do-412 will knock the B-29 down as soon as it tries to lower its altitude into the bombing course.

Spruance sighed: The sea area south of South Africa is too vast to be taken care of by shore-based air forces and submarines without a strong fleet.

"So, they can get to the Falkland Islands today or tomorrow?"

"Normally so." Roddick thought for a moment, "It may be another day late, but it's useless, Cape Town is still a full 6,500 kilometers away from Falkland Island, not to mention that our army still has to rest and replenish fuel, and no matter how fast it is, it can't catch up." ”

"This damn politics! Damn Wallace! Spruance slapped the railing hatefully, "If it weren't for the delay of those ten days, we would have been fully capable of intercepting this German fleet in the waters of South Africa, and we could have sent all the Germans on it to feed the fish. ”

"You can't be blamed for this......"

"You can't blame me, but such a good opportunity, alas......"

Spruance hugged his head angrily, if Wallace was in front of him, he would have the urge to beat him up, but that chance would never be gone - Wallace had been killed by a bullet, and Harry Truman had officially become the new vice president of the United States on the way south.

He didn't want to entangle the protection fee or not, he thought that this kind of thing could never be said, what he cared about was Wallace's rash public statement that he would re-examine the Anglo-American relationship and consider stopping the "huge cost and little effect" of the British aid operation, as soon as the news came out, Cunningham, who was in charge of the aircraft carrier force that night, secretly issued an order for the "British British ship", in order to prevent himself from getting in the way, and "locked" himself in the commander's cabin in the name of inviting him to play chess, and when Cunningham appeared with him again, everything had been settled, He had no second option but to report to Washington.

Is Cunningham to blame? Spruance felt that he couldn't say this, and he might do the same in the other person's position! Is it strange to make the joint staff committee that does not move the order? He felt that it was impossible to say that once the Royal Navy separated from the Anglo-American Combined Atlantic Fleet, the US Navy would only have 4 aircraft carriers left (3 Essex-class and 1 Independence-class), and no matter how they were matched, they would not be able to take care of both the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic. Fortunately, Vice President Truman was ruthless and resolute, and it took only three weeks to calm the entire situation, and President Roosevelt quickly obtained an understanding with the British side. If this were not the case, the TF44 fleet might not have been able to be dispatched by now -- let alone the German fleet on the return trip, it is estimated that the enemy would be able to swagger back to Madagascar.

"What is the situation of the enemy's forces?"

"Two fleet aircraft carriers, the model is unknown, it is speculated that one of them was modified from a battleship hull, with a strangely shaped beveled deck, and there are no light aircraft carriers or escort carriers; 1 battle cruiser, Scharnhorst-class (Gneisenau); 1 heavy cruiser, Hipper-class (Seidlitz); There are also 8 destroyers, but 4 of them are odd and not of the usual type, and are suspected to be newly built - yes, the Hedgehog-class built with Z-class hulls. The other 39 freighters - all Victory, we guess were Chinese ships captured in the Battle of Newfoundland, many of which were even painted with the logos of American ships; By the way, there are also a bunch of S-boats, probably 18-20 of them. ”

"Let Lu Airlines send us a copy of the reconnaissance photos as much as possible today, and I will make a specific judgment." Spruance asked, "Do you have any more mature combat plans?" ”

"It is definitely not a good idea to take the initiative to break into this fleet, firstly, we have no marines, and secondly, there are many Luftwaffe planes on the Falkland Islands, and the preliminary estimate is that there are about 200-240 planes, which is a hard bone to gnaw, the most ideal way is to hide it and wait for the German fleet to return to Madagascar and then carry out a surprise attack and destroy it in one fell swoop!" Roddick shrugged his shoulders, "The Germans have a large number of freighters, and they will definitely not be able to run fast, so it is still easy to catch up with them, my plan is to let the South African Army Airlines take off non-stop reconnaissance, and once the German fleet is found, this fleet will immediately set off in pursuit." In addition, the fleet hid in Cape Town to rest and avoid startling the snakes. ”

Spruance nodded slightly: The TF44 fleet currently has 4 aircraft carriers, including the USS Bunker Hill, the USS Wasp (Essex-class), the USS San Jacinto (Independence-class), the USS Unicorn, 1 battleship - USS Iowa, and 4 anti-aircraft light cruisers. In terms of strength, it overwhelmed the German fleet and could fight a battle. Since there were no heavy cruisers, there were few light cruisers, and the fleet had 6 tactical formations with a total of 24 Fletcher-class destroyers, as well as 12 corvettes, although he did not bring PT torpedo boats with him, as the Germans did.

After Kennedy became famous, a large number of young men were willing to apply to serve in torpedo boats, but unfortunately American torpedoes were not good, and even the power of torpedo boats and submarine forces was much worse, especially the troops that used MK14 torpedoes, which were almost repeated battles. There is often a Japanese merchant ship returning to Hong Kong with an unexploded torpedo stuck in its shell, just like a whale with a whaling fork inserted in its body, trembling and terrifying, and the largest Japanese freighter has 4 on its body! And then the Japanese Navy's battle report is also very interesting, calling this called "Captured American torpedoes!" "And then I was happy to wait for it to be dismantled and reused—a torpedo was worth a lot.

In the words of the front-line officers and soldiers of the American Army: "We fucking suspect that the American torpedo designer is a German spy or a Japanese spy, and we have seen fewer torpedoes that can explode than German dumb mines in our lives!" The most reliable performance of this thing is its unreliability! Rear Admiral Lockwood, who was in charge of the submarine force, was unhappy with the torpedo problem: "If the Ordnance Bureau cannot provide us with a torpedo that can successfully ram an enemy ship and explode, then let the Naval Shipping Department design a hook for us so that we can hook off the steel plates of the enemy's ship." ”

By the beginning of 1944, the United States switched to the worse performance of the MK18 (the fortification is equivalent to 70% of the MK14) finally achieved the goal of relative reliability, but it was too late, Horiyoshi mastered the combined fleet and began to attach great importance to escort and anti-submarine, not only used more escort aircraft carriers, but also intensively deployed the introduction of Atlantic Condor FW-200C or Japan's unique Type II large boats on the islands of Southeast Asia, with advanced radar to scan the surrounding waters, the use of aviation anti-submarine, However, the snorkel technology of American submarines was inferior to that of Germany, so the losses in the breaking of diplomatic relations on the South China Sea were very large, and the results were far less brilliant than in history.

As for Spruance bringing so many destroyers and frigates, it was obvious that he had learned the lessons of the Battle of Cape Verde, and the endless S-boats that appeared in the night during that battle made the US military suffer enough, and the post-war experience summary and campaign reflection came to a conclusion: the number of destroyers, frigates and other light auxiliary warships was insufficient to allow the German army to take advantage of it, and the main fleet must increase the density of escorts in the future. As a result, destroyers and frigates are now being built with joy, and the order for the Fletcher destroyer alone is more than 200, which is 1 times larger than the overall plan for the entire axis and the construction plan of the active belt (which may not be completed).

Admiral Crank, who once again led the Falklands detachment independently, could not have imagined that the American fleet had arrived in South Africa and was ready to shoot his black gun, and he was still methodically releasing troops, equipment and supplies on South Georgia, according to the requirements, South Georgia would deploy a battalion of surveillance troops and 16 water reconnaissance aircraft (Ar-372), after which he would lead the fleet to the Falklands......