Losing a line of defense in one day, Nimitz was really speechless about the performance of the army. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

After a long silence, he asked, "Where are the third and fourth lines of defense of the army?" ”

Smith shook his head: "No, after the second line of defense, the plain of the east coast of Brazil will gradually widen, and it will be difficult to defend, and the army is currently trying to rely on the port of Seguru to deploy defenses, but I have a gut feeling that they can't stop the Germans here." ”

Nimitz smiled bitterly: "Just watching the Germans fight to El Salvador? ”

Smith sighed.

It is impossible to fight to El Salvador, the Germans have only a few troops, and the farther away from Rio, the farther away they are from their logistical supply bases, and the easier it is to be cut off from the back route, on the contrary, the shorter the logistics line of the US army, the further the defensive intensity and troop density will be.

In addition, it should not be ignored that as the German army advances further, the distance of the Luftwaffe covering the front will be further extended, while the distance of the US Army will continue to be shortened: in the first line of defense, German aircraft only need to fly more than 400 kilometers, while the American army will fly more than 800 kilometers; In the second line of defense, German aircraft need to fly more than 500 kilometers, while American land aviation needs to fly less than 700 kilometers; If it is advanced to the port of Seguru, it is completely reversed, the German aircraft need to fly more than 800 kilometers, and the American military only needs to fly 400 kilometers. Originally, there were more planes on the army than on the Germans, and if the distance was shortened, it would be possible to gather four or even five times as many planes at the same time.

"I don't plan to attack again, and the troops will rely on the supplies, equipment and defense lines left by the U.S. military to prepare for it." "Pushing further is clearly beyond our capabilities, and now that the U.S. Navy is eyeing this narrow, lengthy, and fragile line of attack at any moment, we should hold on until the main fleet and reinforcements arrive at home before attacking," Schoken explained. ”

On July 26, the Sauken cluster began its entrenchment deployment:

The main force of the 7th Panzer Division held Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding area to ensure the safety of its own bases and base camps;

The main force of the Flying Fortress Panzer Division (owing a Panzergrenadier Corps) was held at Kramps, about 200 kilometres northeast of Rio, where the terrain was open and the South Paraíba River depended on it, and there was a lot of room for manoeuvre;

The 508th Heavy Armoured Battalion and a Panzergrenadier Regiment held the area near Victoria as the second line of defense;

The 509th Heavy Armored Battalion cooperated with the 7th Marine Brigade (Ceylon Brigade) to hold the Linaris and Doshi River lines as the first line of defense;

the 8th Marine Brigade (Indian Brigade) held Florianópolis;

The 5th Marine Brigade (Bermuda Brigade) marched from Uruguay to the territory of the American Republic to hold Porto Alegre.

The 6th Marine Brigade (Falklands Brigade) continued to be stationed in Buenos Aires as the rearguard of the entire cluster.

In São Paulo, Brazil's largest city, and its port of Santos, Sauken has only the 7th Panzergrenadier Regiment and the 42nd Anti-Tank Battalion (which belongs to the 7th Panzer Division), but two Brazilian divisions are placed here, and there is another Brazilian division in Rio.

Pol asked puzzledly: "Sir, São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, why do you only arrange such a small number of troops (less than 5,000 people), although there are 2 Brazilian divisions to assist, but I am afraid that as soon as the US troops land, they will flee in the desert." ”

"I did it on purpose." Sauken smiled, "Our army has a limited number of troops, and it must be concentrated on the blade, if you look carefully at the map, what are the characteristics of São Paulo?" ”

Pohl and the others carefully pondered the map, and finally understood Sauken's intention: São Paulo is a city surrounded by mountains, with hills on three sides and a sea, although it borders the American Republic on land, but the road conditions are very poor, and there is a strip basin between the two hills along the northeast direction, connecting the city of São Paulo at one end and Rio at the other, and the wider the basin is towards the state of São Paulo, and the narrower the basin is the further to the state of Rio.

"On the surface, the landing of enemy troops in the state of São Paulo would make a breakthrough and cut off the connection between the two parts of our army (in the American Republic and in Brazil), but the transportation conditions in the state of São Paulo are not ideal, and I have never tried to maintain such a long supply line by land. Assuming that the enemy lands at Santos or even São Paulo, our troops can retreat on this basin and then allow the 7th Panzer Division to respond and build a defensive line. I don't need to win against the Americans, whether they come or not, I just have to hold on until the reinforcements arrive - for us, it's only five weeks! ”

Late that night, Patton and Roosevelt left El Salvador and headed south with the boarding battle group.

Patton was greatly annoyed by the loss of two lines of defense in a row, and although this was a deployment arranged by Clark and had nothing to do with him, he still regarded it as a great shame for the Fifth Army: the Germans landed in Rio and were routed by one division, and under successive advances, almost another division was routed, and before the battle was fought, both divisions were missing (although most of the personnel were still there), but they completely lost their spirit. He asked the chief of staff, Major General Macmillan, to reorganize them in El Salvador in an attempt to recover, and then gave a death order to the Army's 6th Infantry Division, which was defending Port Seguru: "Hold the line of Port Seguru and not take half a step back!" You must fight to the last man with one shot! ”

Together with Major General Roosevelt, he himself led the Fifth Army Assault Group, consisting of two infantry regiments of the 1st Infantry Division, three armored battalions and three artillery battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division, to prepare for the landing. Of course, all the personnel were drawn from these two divisions, but the equipment, especially the heavy equipment, was all drawn from the other divisions.

Of course, Patton's transfer was not done on a whim, but he believed that the current establishment of the US Army's divisions, especially the armored divisions, was not reasonable enough, and he hoped that they would be reorganized according to his own wishes -- the Joint Chiefs of Staff would obviously not accept his idea, so he had no choice but to build an armored division within the scope of his authority that he considered qualified to be equipped with troops.

If Sauken were to see the formation of this assault group, he would definitely exclaim: one armored regiment, one artillery regiment and two infantry regiments (most of the American imperialist infantry regiments were equipped with armored vehicles, close to the German panzergrenadier regiments) and other specialized battalions -- this is not the 1944 type of German armored division?

Although the United States is the world's leading manufacturer of armored forces, the Americans are very self-aware and know that they are by no means the world's number one armored power, and they have learned from Germany when organizing armored divisions, but they have added a unique improvement from the United States -- this improvement has changed the original advantages.

The first armored division of the U.S. army is called the 1942 type armored division, with Patton's second armored division as a typical example, under the armored brigade and infantry regiment, the former has 9 tank battalions (more than 6,000 people), the latter has 3 armored infantry battalions (more than 2,000 people), if you apply the German standard, you will find that the American armored brigade is larger than 2 German armored regiments, and its infantry regiment strength is weaker than the German armored grenadier regiment, which is equivalent to shoehorning into 2 tank regiments in an armored division but only one infantry regiment that is not satisfied, The formation looks majestic, but in fact it is extremely bloated -- the armored regiment without the cooperation of infantry on the vast battlefield is a target.

Later, the U.S. military learned a lesson, improved the establishment of tank battalions, and drew up the 1943 type, called the light armored division, with 3 armored battalions, 3 armored infantry battalions and 3 armored artillery battalions (the number of each battalion is larger than the 1942 type), the whole division has more than 10,000 people, if the German standard is applied, it is a standard three-three armored division - 1 armored regiment + 1 infantry regiment + 1 artillery regiment, although it is not as good as the German 1943 or 1944 formation, but it can be regarded as an armored division that can operate normally.

A 1943 armored division is composed of 3 battle groups, each battle group includes 1 armored battalion, 1 infantry battalion and 1 artillery battalion, and the whole division is divided into 3 battle groups, called A battle group, B battle group, and R battle group (reserve), on the surface, this battle group seems to be very powerful, there are tanks, infantry and artillery, and any German regiment alone has the power to fight. Any German armored division that collides with an American regiment-level battle group is crushed without suspense, and two are too, but if three battle groups are on the same page, what is the purpose of a separate reserve battle group?

With the appearance of the SS Type 1944 units on the Soviet-German battlefield, some American generals felt a deep crisis: not to mention the equipment of the German Type 1944 troops, this strength alone has completely crushed the American armored divisions. More importantly, Patton believed that there were too few infantry in the U.S. armored division, and that if such a unit was used in an offensive campaign, it would be difficult to expand the battlefield without supporting infantry to follow up; If invested in a defensive campaign, the battlefield is not wide enough due to the lack of infantry.

In history, after the successful landing of Normandy, the U.S. army also encountered the problem of insufficient infantry, and the shortage of first-line infantry in many armored divisions and infantry divisions could not be replenished for even 5 months, completely relying on the strong air suppression of the U.S. army and the coordination of British troops (too many infantry and few armored troops in the British army) and hard support, coupled with the fact that in the later period, German armored divisions were generally insufficient in establishment, strength, and supply, and could not give enough casualties to the U.S. army.

But now it's different, the Flying Fortress Division is a proper 4-unit Type 1944 unit, and the 7th Armored Division is a standard 4-unit Type 1943 unit, neither of which is a good bone to gnaw. In desperation, Patton had no choice but to come up with the idea of flexible transfer, using the two infantry regiments of the 1st Red Division, the armored regiment and the artillery regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division as the backbone, plus other sporadic professional battalions and command headquarters, a total of more than 20,000 people, to temporarily set up the US 1944 Type Unit. The overall strength and the Flying Fortress Division are basically half a catty.

After leaving Hong Kong, the ambitious Patton sent a telegram to Nimitz, thanking him for "speaking up" for himself, and throwing out a question that caught Nimitz off guard: Why are we going to fight St. Paul? Shouldn't we have beaten Victoria and cut off the Germans?