Fuel oil, which was very valuable to the Axis Fleet, was not necessarily for the French Guiana authorities, because not far from the vicinity of French Guiana was Venezuela, as the largest and most important oil producer in South America, Venezuela's oil resources were not only abundant, but also extremely cheap -- the country's oil was mainly viscous heavy oil, and its quality was far inferior to that of light oil from the Texas producing area, and it was not very convenient to extract, extract, and refine, but it was a good target for heavy oil for ships. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In just one day and one night, the Axis fleet had replenished all the fuel it had consumed to stir up waves in the Brazilian seas, and was now in good condition again. The attack on Brazil was of great significance, not only successfully striking a blow to the prestige of the United States and striking a blow to Brazil, the largest American dogleg, but also allowing the battleship units, including several newly formed battleships Veneto, to enjoy a very valuable opportunity to shoot targets with live ammunition.

The losses of the fleet were negligible, in addition to the losses of surface ships, a total of 31 aircraft were lost, which were quickly compensated for with reserve aircraft, most of the downed pilots were rescued, and the missing or killed pilots (groups) totaled 12 people, which was insignificant compared to the 60% overstaffing of carrier-based aircraft pilot units.

"What now? Do you have a hard fight with the Germans? "On board the Atlantic Fleet flagship, the USS New Jersey (Iowa had always been scheduled for the Pacific Fleet, so although it had been formed earlier, it had never served as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet), the fleet commander, Admiral Ingersoll, paced back and forth restlessly in Commander Tower.

Of course, there was a reason for his irritability, for the "joint elements" plan had not yet been written, and the Axis Navy had completely disrupted its plans and steps -- the idea of taking French Guiana without a bloody attack had come to naught, and the fleet was likely to come face to face with the Germans.

"Let's fight, I don't think the Germans are terrible." Turner, who served as the chief of staff of the fleet, shrugged his shoulders and said, "It is much more advantageous to fight near French Guiana than near the Falklands, and we can also count on friendly forces in the direction of Venezuela to assist." ”

Ingersoll shook his head: "It's not like you can fight if you want to, why should the Germans go to war with us here?" ”

As he spoke, the confidential staff officer handed over the latest information, and Ingersoll looked green when he saw it: the intelligence showed that the German ground forces had landed on a large scale, and it seemed that there was an attempt to invade Dutch Guiana (present-day Suriname).

Turner was furious: "The enemy either doesn't even know that we have rushed to the Caribbean, or is so bold that he thinks the U.S. Navy can't beat him?" ”

Ingersoll silently said that the Atlantic Fleet was now in a very awkward position: on the one hand, it was not possible to divide its forces to attack French Guiana -- what if the Axis Fleet suddenly appeared and stabbed the landing fleet, the landing fleet and the main fleet could only be sure, and this limited the fleet's ability to maneuver; On the other hand, the landing force should not be too small, intelligence shows that the size of the German army landed is more than 2,000 people, including armored battalions, and if the landing force does not show sufficient strength, it will simply be sent to death.

Turner shook his head: "In order to successfully win a landing battle, you must first obtain sea supremacy, and at present, the fleet cannot obtain sea supremacy by dragging the landing fleet, and it must act separately." ”

"There is no way to divide the troops, what if the main force is in the air, but the enemy fleet goes to attack the landing fleet?" Ingersoll's face was full of sadness, "Then how will you face the army in the future?" As for covering the landing fleet's advance one by one, it was not a good idea, and this group of German lunatics could have flipped a shot and bypassed South America to attack the United States proper. How can the Germans ignore French Guiana, and can we sit idly by and ignore our homeland? ”

This time Turner is not in a rut: there are almost no powerful warships on the mainland, and last time the Japanese fleet only dared to sneak to New York at night, and if the German and Italian fleets used naval guns to bathe the east coast, the consequences would be unimaginable, not to mention that Admiral Ingersoll's big head could not withstand it, and the president might be bombed down.

"The joint element operation must be significantly modified......," Turner thought for a moment, "and it was originally planned to wait for the Army to control the whole scene before using the Navy to deliver the final blow, but now that the situation has changed significantly, the Navy must attack before we can talk about the next move, and it is obvious that we cannot fight a war with the burden of a landing force." And the huge transport force also slowed down the speed of the march, otherwise how could the enemy take the lead? ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Divide the troops! The landing force and the transport fleet went to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to avoid the limelight, and the main fleet attacked, first clearing the enemy fleet, and then the enemy's remaining land forces would not be difficult to deal with. There is another possibility......" Turner smiled, "The enemy may get information that our transport troops are hiding in Port-au-Prince, they know that this is a trap, but because the bait is too fragrant, they may not be able to resist swallowing it, and it will ...... at that time"

Ingersoll gasped, and now he finally knew why Admiral King relied on Turner for strategic planning, this guy had a huge amount of money, and he didn't look like a major general -- this was to lure the enemy into the bait with three army divisions along with the command system, more than 60,000 people, nearly 400,000 tons of transport ships, and supporting escort aircraft carriers.

"Do you want to communicate with the Army first?"

"Send it to Admiral King, and let him communicate with General Marshall, which is beyond our purview."

On October 8, the Joint Chiefs of Staff convened an emergency meeting to discuss the First Amendment to the Joint Element Operation submitted by Turner, and Admiral King of course strongly agreed with this, and the Army generals represented by Marshall were obviously a little nervous about themselves acting as bait: in Turner's plan, the Army fleet would only go to Port-au-Prince to avoid the limelight, and would not go ashore, in case the German army attacked and the Atlantic fleet did not intercept it, it was completely passively beaten; Taking 10,000 steps back, even if they didn't care about the delay and let more than 60,000 people go ashore first, the ships they were on could not go ashore, and the Germans only needed to blow up and sink these ships, which would completely destroy the army's follow-up battle plan.

With this misgiving, the Army was hesitant to make up its mind, and Eisenhower proposed the Second Amendment: the landing fleet would not go to Port-au-Prince, which was full of dangers, but turn around and go to Havana, Cuba, to take refuge from the limelight. Admiral King didn't say anything, but in his heart he deeply despised the cowardice of the army, and in addition, this suggestion was put forward by the "escaped general" Eisenhower, and he was even more unaccustomed to it.

But the situation waited for no one, and at noon a telegram came from the front in Dutch Guiana: the German ground forces in French Guiana were attacking in a big way, and our troops were outnumbered and forced to retreat...... (To be continued.) )