ps:This chapter was repeated once because of the starting point system.,I'll fill in the new content in the afternoon.,I won't let you pay more.,Undecided can be modified and then ordered.,Please forgive me for the inconvenience......

In principle, the commander of the entire fleet must have been the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Ingersoll, there is no doubt about it. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info, but the most critical aircraft carrier fleet commander is really a bit difficult to choose right now. Turner himself is fascinated by this position, and Admiral King showed an eager expression as soon as he said it just now, but he is not qualified enough - now he is only a major general, and the commander of the mobile fleet commanding up to five aircraft carriers must at least be a vice admiral, and Admiral King has always positioned Turner as the formulation and soul of the overall battle plan, and he is not suitable to rush to the front line as the main general.

When Admiral King said this, he actually had a candidate in mind, that is, Vice Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr., who had recently fought hard in the Pacific Theater, but Halsey was now the commander of the Pacific Fleet, and he had not communicated with the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Nimitz, in advance, so he could not say it rashly, but after speaking, he glanced at the other party meaningfully, and the meaning was obvious-I hope that Nimitz would enthusiastically recommend it, so that he could nod his head and let him go immediately.

Nimitz understood Admiral King's hint and did speak as the former expected, but Admiral King's words caught him off guard: "I have someone to recommend, he is Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher." ”

Hearing an answer that was not a standard script, Admiral Kim paused for a moment and subconsciously asked, "Why don't you recommend Halsey?" ”

"First, he had just completed the Battle of Aleutian and was on his way back to Australia, and it was too late to take command of the East Coast; Second, the Pacific Theater is currently inseparable from Halsey, where there is also an aircraft carrier fleet to command; Third, Vice Admiral Fletcher has recovered from his injuries, and he himself has served as the commander of the aircraft carrier fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, so he is relatively familiar with the Japanese fleet and tactics, and he has not made any mistakes in command......"

Roosevelt's eyes lit up, he was very familiar with Halsey, and he had a very good relationship with him: when Halsey was still the captain of a destroyer, he was ordered to take over the newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt, and the young assistant secretary hoped to have a good time driving a destroyer. He was very impressed and impressed by this fierce general, but now that the battle of the Atlantic was at stake, he did not dare to hand over his remaining strength to an overly brave general. Although there are still more than a dozen aircraft carriers lying on the slipway of the United States, even if all the aircraft carriers in his hands are now sunk, the US Navy will be able to pull up the team again in less than half a year to fight again, but the successive losses have pierced Roosevelt's heart, and he does not want to take such a risk again - Fletcher is at least much more stable than Halsey.

"But he's out of luck." Admiral King's words blurted out, he personally had nothing to do with Fletcher, but those prejudices accumulated over a long period of time are indeed not easy to eliminate, not to mention that the navy is a rather superstitious place.

"It used to be bad luck, but after a few hits in a row, I realized that his luck was not bad." After Nimitz's reminder, Admiral King reacted: Halsey lost all his capital ships in the Battle of the South Pacific, Spruance was defeated by the Germans in the recent Battle of the North Atlantic, and if Fletcher lost only one aircraft carrier in the Coral Sea and Midway battles was unlucky, it is indeed a bit of a double standard.

Roosevelt turned his gaze to his most trusted confidant, Lehi, who nodded knowingly: "I think I can let him try." Ingersoll also nodded in approval of the candidate.

But when the president turned his gaze to Admiral King, of course, the latter could only nod his head - because most of the top brass had expressed their support for Fletcher, he could not continue to be the villain, and he did not want to simply judge a vice admiral based on his personal likes and dislikes, so the appointment was decided on the spot.

Then Turner frowned and asked another question: "Originally, it was planned to operate later this month, and all five of our aircraft carriers could be put into use, but now the Japanese have suddenly killed, and the two aircraft carriers Yorktown and Bellaulwood have not yet completed sea trials, what should I do?" To or without it? ”

The two warships were operated by experienced officers and men, all of whom Spruance used destroyers to transport them back at the cost of giving up the damaged ship and running away quickly; if anyone had never seen what a sardine can looked like before, the destroyer that Spruance brought back that day was a vivid portrayal -- thousands of surviving naval officers and sailors were densely packed on eight destroyers, not to mention beds, and there was no place to lie down! The vast majority of officers and soldiers, including Spruance, gritted their teeth and came all the way back! In the past, the US military ridiculed Japan for using destroyers to transport personnel and supplies to Kuah Island as the "Tokyo Express," but now it is the turn of the Americans themselves, and they have the ability to laugh at themselves, and they soon took the resounding name of "sardine train."

It was precisely because of this act that when he returned home to pursue his responsibility, neither Lehi, Admiral King, Ingersoll, nor the British were busy saying good things to him and helping him pass the interrogatories of the Senate and House of Representatives -- the reason is simple: it is okay if the warship is lost, and there is something on the slipway of the United States, but if the well-trained officers and men are lost, it will be really troublesome.

"Maybe we need to take a risk...... Although I still have to listen to General Fletcher's opinion, I recommend that it is best to bring all 5 ships. Admiral King explained, "The Japanese only left the Strait of Gibraltar yesterday evening, and if they really want to attack us, it will take at least 5-7 days to arrive according to the time calculation, and we still have 3 days to intensify the sea trials, I believe that these good boys can complete the subjects and pull out to fight, and I am also very confident in our warships." ”

In times of emergency, everything naturally cannot be done in a step-by-step manner as in peacetime.

Everyone nodded: 5 aircraft carriers and 3 aircraft carriers give people a different feeling, although the Battle of Midway the United States defeated the main Japanese force with 3 aircraft carriers and eliminated 4 enemy aircraft carriers, but that operation took advantage of the code-breaking - after the super secret was destroyed, Britain and the United States reluctantly rebuilt the code-breaking agency, but now they are completely blind to the Axis code, and they don't know anything.

Since it was a fleet operation, Turner proposed that the operation be carried out without a slow, low-defense escort carrier, so that the rookie pilots could concentrate on training - a proposal that was also approved.

"Last question...... Admiral King's face became solemn, "do we need to issue notices or notices to the population to remind them of the Japanese fleet attacking?" ”

All eyes were on Roosevelt, and the issue was too important for the president to decide. Roosevelt thought for three minutes, and finally said slowly: "Let's not talk about the Japanese fleet, which will cause unnecessary panic among the people, we should first raise the level of defense, strengthen the patrols of the National Guard and other combat readiness work, and then issue a notice after confirming that the Japanese fleet is rushing towards the mainland." ”

Be!

The next morning, Fletcher flew non-stop from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and he was very excited about his re-activation, and when the urgent telegram was sent to him the previous night, he had hardly slept all night, and his mind was full of the previous battles, and although the telegram was vague, he knew that this time the action and duty would be more than his previous battles.

Early in the morning, he first went to the White House to meet the president, and then went to the Admiralty non-stop to meet with the admirals, although Admiral King did not treat him very well before, but this time he still voted in favor of his appointment, Fletcher is not a stunned young man like Halsey, naturally he has to express his gratitude, judging from the harmonious atmosphere when the two sides met, it seems that it is difficult to imagine that the two were strangers a few months ago.

After the courtesy visit, the High Command consisting of Ingersoll, Fletcher, and Turner began to operate in full force, and in only three minutes they agreed that the battleship Iowa would be the general flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, with Ingersoll in command; The USS Lexington was the flagship of the carrier group, with Fletcher in command.

"How are you going to fight?"

Instead of rushing to answer Ingersoll's question, Fletcher asked, "Do you think the Japanese or the Germans would dare to land?" ”

"I don't believe it, they're crazy to do it! Let's not talk about whether they can land successfully or not, even if they are lucky enough to find a beach and land successfully, their warships and infantry will soon be torn to pieces by our shore-based defense forces......"

However, when he said this, Ingersoll felt somewhat unconfident, because the Air Force told him that at present, there are only about 2,000 planes that can be directly put into combat on the east coast, and the Navy still has some naval air force in several major ports and naval bases, and there are probably nearly 1,000 aircraft. It sounds like a lot, but the coastline of more than 2,000 nautical miles is still full of loopholes, and except for New York, Washington and other large cities that have sufficient anti-aircraft guns and other air defense measures, the air defense force in the rest of the area is quite small. Because the United States never expected itself to be subjected to a large-scale air attack, the air defense and defense of the homeland were carried out relatively poorly, and even the lighting control was not implemented until now - this is in stark contrast to the United Kingdom!

"Passive defense is useless...... "Fletcher shook his head, "5 Japanese aircraft carriers, about 300 aircraft can attack, of which proportional proportion, there will be about 120 fighters, 180 attack aircraft that can carry bombs, the fleet commander usually leaves 40 aircraft to cover the aircraft carrier battle group, so that the Japanese devils can put 260 forces into the attack, if they raid a strong stronghold like New York, Washington, Norfolk they are dead, but if they hit Miami, Florida, What about a place like Savannah?

Fletcher asked, and the cold sweat and false sweat on Ingersoll's forehead kept coming out, and these places could not stop the surprise attack of 260 planes...... (To be continued.) )