In the early morning of December 3, Marshall received a crying telegram from Ridgway, reporting to him that the 101st airborne landing did not encounter the expected fierce attack by the German ground forces, but was killed by the German aircraft group, at least more than half of the aircraft and one-third of the paratroopers were shot down (the proportion of transport planes is higher), this is still because the German planes arrived at the scene late, the airdrop has begun to be a fluke, and some of the brave 101st Airborne Division soldiers also performed well, even if the transport plane was hit and crashed, they also struggled to jump out of the cabin, otherwise the 101st Airborne Division will lose its combat effectiveness without waiting for the landing. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

But the losses did exist, nearly 200 C46\C47\C54 transport planes crashed, so that a lot of equipment could not be airdropped before they knew where they were scattered, and the troops gathered around Li Qiwei relied on the help and assistance of the Canadians to tide over the difficulties. It was even worse after dawn, the Germans took off a group of bombers to clean up the scene, and the 101st Airborne Division had not been able to assemble its troops with bombs and machine guns.

This telegram made the people of the Joint Staff Association shocked and angry, this airborne landing was an unprecedented large-scale effort, a total of more than 300 transport planes and more than 180 P51 troops were dispatched, and three airborne regiments were thrown down at one time, and now one regiment has been lost before the battle has begun, this is the most elite airborne corps -- it is simply digging into Marshall's heart! was so angry that he almost wanted to slap Arnold in the face, but after thinking about it, he finally held back: the latter is not easy, he works day and night, not only his hair is gray, but also the lively and cheerful and smiling "happy Arnold" has long been gone. As the commander-in-chief of the army aviation, Arnold is actually not able to command so finely, arranging personnel, mobilizing aircraft, and coordinating the actions of the army and the army is where he comes in; if he directly extends his hand to battlefield decision-making and tactical command, then he is not the commander-in-chief of the army aviation but at best the commander of the air force......

"The second batch of fighters was just sent out, I thought that the German carrier-based aircraft could attack after dawn, but I didn't expect it to ...... so soon" Arnold sighed, full of regret, "I was careless, now it seems that there are German airfields and planes on Newfoundland!" Yesterday it was clear that the reconnaissance plane and the Canadians reported that the planes were carrier-based aircraft......"

"It should have been repaired by the Germans overnight...... They lost two aircraft carriers and temporarily transferred part of their aircraft to the island. Marshall waved his hand to show that he did not want to listen to this kind of afterthought-like explanation, "Now the problem must be solved as soon as possible, and the army aviation must immediately dispatch bombers to bomb the German airfield!" ”

"The bombers were ready, but yesterday's decision was to strike the German fleet first, which ......," Arnold turned his gaze to Admiral King.

The latter was speechless for a while, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "Let the reconnaissance planes see how many enemy planes there are on Newfoundland, where the enemy fleet is, and what if the bombing airfields are patronized here, and the Germans escape there?" ”

The news of the reconnaissance planes was quickly reported back, and the Army Airlines dispatched a total of 8 reconnaissance planes, 3 of which lost contact, and were estimated to have been intercepted and shot down, and one reported that the Germans had dispatched new planes, and then the escort fighters who returned described the Germans as having more than 100 planes, and the pilots insisted that many of them were Fw-190s. Hearing the news of the Fw-190 on the island, Arnold's face changed even more, no wonder the reconnaissance machine was on the road, the Fw-190 often intercepted 4 bombers on the Azores. But there is a misunderstanding here, the reconnaissance plane is talking about the new plane, and the escort fighter is talking about the Fw-190, but in fact the two cannot be equated -- even if the Fw-190 was the first time it appeared on the island of Newfoundland, and it was actually the Ta-152 that intercepted the reconnaissance plane, but unfortunately it was shot down and it is impossible to describe this anymore.

“Fw-190？” Eisenhower's eyes widened, "Can this thing be shipped?" Or is this a reinforcement drawn from the Azores by the enemy? How can they fly so far? ”

"Bringing a few more drop tanks should do the trick...... Isn't the P51 nearly 3,000 kilometers long after loading the auxiliary fuel tank? "In fact, the Fw-190 ultra-long-range transition is not easy, in addition to the fuel expansion to 700 liters, more than 75% of the ammunition is unloaded and 3 transfer auxiliary fuel tanks are installed - 500 liters under the belly, one under each wing of 200 liters, and then the MW50 and GM-1 where the drug system is usually installed are also temporarily unloaded and carried nearly 150 liters of fuel, relying on these external more than 1,000 liters of fuel, The Fw-190, which originally had a range of only more than 1,000 kilometers, was extended to more than 2,600 kilometers. It's not a carefully selected elite, and you can't complete such a difficult ultra-long transition.

The news sent back by the other five reconnaissance planes was not very good: they had not yet found the German aircraft carrier formation, but they found that the number of ships in the port of St. John's was relatively small, and that there was a fleet of ships moving more than 150 kilometers southeast of the port, judging by the size, some of them were capital ships, and some of them seemed to be transport or landing fleets -- the overall speed was not fast, only about 15 knots.

"The Germans are thinking about retreating." Ingram read the telegram carefully, thought for a long time, and came to a conclusion.

"Why?"

"First, the airborne division was not subjected to large-scale sniper fire from the Germans when it landed, indicating that the enemy had retreated more ground forces; Second, the flotilla left port and did not travel with the German aircraft carrier group,......" Ingram thought about it, and felt that he could not talk too much, so he added, "It is also possible that the German aircraft carrier group secretly went south to find our aircraft carrier forces to fight, they have at least 2 full aircraft carriers and do not know that our reinforcements have departed, and the enemy commander will mistakenly think that there is still the strength to destroy our army." ”

Admiral Kim nodded: If there are no reinforcements, just the strength in Cunningham's hands is indeed inferior to the German army, and the balance of forces between the two sides is different after adding reinforcements, and the most difficult place now is to choose the target to attack and fight Newfoundland? Hit the transport fleet? Or stay and fight the aircraft carrier group?

"Admiral Cunningham reports: The fleet reconnaissance planes have not found the enemy force in their field of vision, and the fleet is currently about 550 kilometers directly south of Prince Edward Island, and there are still 600 kilometers to reinforce the fleet, and the two armies are expected to converge this evening, and he hopes that the army aviation will continue to weaken the German air force during this period......"

Marshall sighed: "This can't be done, the Germans are leaving, the Cunningham fleet is in the south, the distance between the two sides is at least 1200 kilometers, if the Germans are determined to retreat, then we have no chance to ......"

"If you don't go this way, you can't do it, he is not strong enough, and he can only overwhelm the opponent after the two sides converge and form 5 aircraft carriers."

"Now that the situation is clear, it is estimated that the aircraft carriers of the two sides will not be able to fight today, so let's focus on attacking the other two targets." Admiral Kim turned his head to Arnold, "How about attacking the German convoy?" ”

"Yes, hit the port or the fleet first?"

"Hit the fleet first, the port is estimated to be the next wave of German troops to retreat, can Matthew lead people to entangle them first?" Admiral King looked at Marshall, "You can't let the Germans go like that, is Newfoundland a place where they can come and go when they want?" ”

"Or a two-pronged approach? Part of the short-range aircraft cooperated with the airborne division to attack the German troops on the island, and part of the long-range aircraft went to attack the transport fleet? Yesterday, Admiral King and Arnold agreed to spend an additional 500 planes in addition to the normally arranged attack aircraft group -- 300 of them for the Army Airlines and 200 for the Hainan Airlines. Arnold gritted his teeth and agreed, he no longer knew how many planes were thrown in after the war, but he felt that Newfoundland was like a huge meat grinder, constantly throwing planes and pilots into it and strangling.

Yesterday Cunningham lost 50 percent of its pilots, and most of the few outstanding carrier-based pilots left in the British Empire were consumed, and in addition to the training instructors and some pilots with actual combat experience on the Hornet and San Jacinto, who are currently coming to reinforce them, the Royal Navy will soon face the same terrible situation as the US Navy's skilled pilots being cut off. Admiral Kim had approached Nimitz to bring 60 skilled carrier-based pilots from the Pacific Fleet when he came to serve in the Atlantic Fleet, and Cunningham didn't know where the next wave of excellent pilots would be, and would he also be drawn from the Air Force like the Germans?

At 10 o'clock, the U.S. troops, who had arrived in advance, began to attack Newfoundland Island, and the 101st Airborne Division and the Canadian Infantry Division finally looked forward to the long-awaited reinforcements. Although the Airborne Division was very embarrassed after landing, the Canadian Army was still very happy when it heard that it was Li Qiwei, a Bermuda hero, who led the team, and not only gave part of its equipment to the 101st Airborne Division, but also took the initiative to help Li Qiwei collect many stragglers of the 101st Airborne Division.

Ridgway asked MacDonald strangely: "I see that you have a lot of troops and complete equipment, why did you come here?" ”

MacDonald was a little embarrassed, so he just talked about naval artillery and air force, and he understood without saying a word to Ridgway -- the Canadians were not confident, and he didn't say anything, but held MacDonald's hand: "Look, now that I'm here to reinforce your army, the Army Airlines planes will soon continue to support us, so let's work together to wipe out the Germans!" ”

The Canadian and U.S. forces, who had summoned up the remnants of the remnants, joined forces to launch a massive counterattack. In terms of strength, they far surpassed the German army, not to mention the newly joined 101 Airborne Division, the two Canadian divisions alone have nearly 20,000 horses, and the total strength of the German army before and after is only 3,000, and the current combat strength on the island is only more than 2,000 after retreating a battalion at night and the combat losses of the previous few days, while the enemy they face plus the 101st Airborne Division is more than 26,000, and the ratio of troops is almost nearly 13:1, and the Allies have the absolute upper hand.