Roosevelt emphasized: "Send a telegram to the front that Ick, George, and the principal officers must be withdrawn, and this defeat has nothing to do with them, and we cannot afford to lose this group of experienced officers who have fought with the German army, and who are of crucial importance to improving the combat effectiveness of the domestic troops." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Stingson asked, "At the current rate, how many days will it take to complete the retreat?" ”

"It can only last for another 5 days at most." Arnold cried with a sad face, "I have mobilized all the heavy bombers and transport planes in Africa to retreat, the total number is as high as more than 1,200, during this time the new domestic B-29 and C-47 continue to supply to the direction of Kenya, but the losses are too great, the proportion even exceeds the number of strategic air strikes against Germany." ”

In order to maintain this transport and supply line, the United States did not hesitate to stop supplying planes to Britain at the beginning of the year in order to fully meet its needs, and the total number of planes of various types transferred in the past few months was as high as more than 2,800, which is equivalent to stationing an Eighth Air Force in South Africa. The problem was that the route was so far away that German interceptions, wear and tear, equipment failures, pilot fatigue and bad weather were all killers.

In the past two days, braving the flames of war to forcibly rush to transport goods is also a complete way to quench thirst: all planes are no longer sending supplies to the front line, and planes that were previously dedicated to oil transportation have also been transferred to transport personnel, and the fuel stocks set up at the Zambian transit base are rapidly depleted, and five days is almost the limit of transportation. Arnold didn't dare to use it too hard, after all, he had to fly again from Lusaka, Zambia to South Africa, and if the transportation capacity was insufficient, it would mean that the troops that had been withdrawn with great difficulty would accumulate in Zambia -- nothing more than a place where they were captured.

The doubling of the number of German fighters in a short period of time also put unprecedented pressure on the airlift, causing the loss rate of the US military to increase sharply, and the loss of the fleet far exceeded the replenishment rate. After all, the US Army Aviation is not composed of supermen, and heavy bomber crews have suffered a large number of losses in Britain on the one hand, and in Africa on the other, which is not a small number for the powerful Americans.

Even in this way, almost all of the rescued soldiers were unarmed - the British could only take at least some machine guns and a small number of small-caliber guns with them in the Dunkirk retreat, and now in order to reduce the weight as much as possible, all supplies and equipment except for food, medicine, and rifles were abandoned, and they were even so urgent that they did not even have time to destroy. It was only then that everyone regretted that they had not retreated in time - at that time, in order to maintain a decent front, to give an account of the war in the Indian Ocean, to be able to rescue the British troops retreating from Egypt, and to avoid retreating to South Africa in the first battle, they had to maintain 100,000 troops in Kenya, but they still could not escape this fate.

"It would be nice to withdraw to South Africa." Stingson sighed, "There are enough supplies and equipment there, and there are relatively complete defenses to be able to rearm the troops. ”

The others shook their heads, obviously not optimistic: the fragile and long air passage did not know how many troops could be rescued in the end, these frightened soldiers needed at least a few months of rest and replenishment before they could go back to the battlefield, and the extremely high rate of battle losses in each division was completely the rhythm of complete reconstruction.

"What if...... I mean, if ......," Roosevelt asked, "the enemy will attack South Africa, will we be able to hold it?" ”

The crowd turned their attention to Marshall and Admiral King, who had recently teamed up to organize Operation Fulcrum, which revolved around the goal of reinforcing South Africa: the Army sent the 10th Army, commanded by Omar Nelson Bradley, to hold the Allied last bridgehead in Africa, while the Navy was escorted by the Southern Task Force, which was improvised under Rear Admiral Turner. The campaign was proposed by the two men at a high-level meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Roosevelt fell into a coma, and was finalized as soon as the president resumed his work.

This was undoubtedly a very risky operation, the escort fleet was under the full command of Rear Admiral Turner, and the entire fleet did not have a single regular aircraft carrier except for six escort carriers, and even the battleships only had two old-fashioned Queen Elizabeth classes. However, Turner gave full play to the characteristics of boldness and carefulness, believing that after the Caribbean and Panama campaigns, the Japanese and German navies, which had been fighting continuously, were also in urgent need of a break, and the operation could obtain a relatively ideal window of time. Once this point in time has passed, one should not expect another large-scale troop build-up to South Africa unless the strength of the British and American navies has recovered to fully overwhelm the axis.

In his opinion, with the current pace of shipbuilding and training in the country, a fundamental change in the balance of naval forces will take place no earlier than the spring of 1944 - he can afford to wait, but South Africa cannot afford to wait!

This point of view finally impressed Admiral Kim, and it just so happened that both the army and the escort aircraft carriers were ready-made - the forces that were supposed to be prepared for the assault on the Azores had no chance of being implemented in the short term anyway. Marshall also agreed with the idea after thinking about it, and for the sake of safety, the whole operation was divided into two parts: the fleet first went to Brazil, and then decided on the next move according to the situation, and then went from Brazil to South Africa after ensuring safety, and the troop projection was also divided into several times, and only one division was placed at a time. As things stand, after the capture of Madagascar, the focus of the Axis is still on Kenya, and the likelihood of a near-term landing operation against South Africa has further decreased after the landing of German Marines in Tanganyika.

"Everything is going well at the moment, the fleet has just left the Brazilian port, and it will be in Cape Town in about 15-16 days, the road is calm, combined with today's intelligence analysis, I don't think that the main force of the enemy will be encountered in the short term." Admiral Kim expressed cautious optimism.

In fact, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were not without objections to the deployment of troops to South Africa, such as the distance was too long, the battlefield was not decisive, and the naval strength had not yet been restored. However, there is one thing that everyone unanimously admits: South Africa, an important bridgehead, must not be lost, and once it is lost, the United States will completely retreat to the American continent, which will not only mean a huge military defeat, but will also bring about political passivity -- how can the morale of the people continue to fight if they lose their troops and territory one after another?

"After the landing of the 10th Army and the withdrawal of personnel from the African theater, the South African Army is relatively strong, with a total strength of 300,000 troops (including 200,000 in South Africa's native troops), and the supply of materials is relatively sufficient -- this is a favorable condition for the defense of South Africa." Marshall carefully analyzed the situation, "After the end of the war in Kenya, the enemy had three ways to attack South Africa, two by land and one by sea. ”

"The first land route is to occupy Tanganyika and then go around the west side of Lake Malawi into Zambia, take Rhodesia and then attack South Africa from the north, the overall distance of this road is more than 2,500 kilometers, the transportation is inconvenient, the supply is difficult, we think that the Germans will not choose, at most send a small number of troops to infiltrate Zambia to occupy it;

The second land route is to go around the east side of Lake Malawi through Portuguese Mozambique, and then cross the entire Mozambique to attack the northeast of South Africa, regardless of whether the Portuguese agree to the entry of the German army, from the distance point of view, the route is almost 2500 kilometers, the only advantage is that the supply is relatively convenient, the Germans can use the Mozambican port to supply nearby, we think that this road is very unlikely to be chosen;

The third is by sea, with Madagascar as a base and landing on the east coast of South Africa -- Durban, for example, is an ideal port, and I think this is the most likely. But even the east coast of South Africa, which is more than 1,500 kilometers away from Madagascar, the enemy cannot count on land-based airfields for cover, and all supplies and convoys must go through the Mozambique Channel or detour from the sea off Madagascar, which I think is beyond the logistical capabilities of the Germans at this stage.

They have just occupied Madagascar, and they are short of supplies and supplies, and most of them need to be transported from the mainland - the distance is more than 13,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to our transportation from the east coast to Cape Town, and from the past intelligence and the analysis of German and Italian industrial and logistical capabilities, I do not think they have the ability to maintain more than 100,000 troops in the short term. The most crucial point was that Africa was not the core of the Axis, and the Germans could not and did not bother to devote too many troops to Africa because they were not willing to invest too many troops on Africa - otherwise they would not have landed a mere 20,000 men at Tanganyika. ”

Roosevelt was dazed by Marshall's words, but the last sentence was clearly understood, and he asked: "Do you judge that it is impossible for the enemy to attack South Africa?" ”

Marshall pondered for a while and said: "To be exact, we do not have offensive capabilities in the short term, and it is difficult to say in the medium and long term, but we don't have to be afraid, the distance between the supply lines of the two sides is roughly equal, our transportation capacity is several times that of the Germans, and we can afford to fight a war of attrition!" Moreover, Germany still has a heavyweight opponent like Russia in a land war, and we only need to distract ourselves from part of the Pacific theater, and the center of gravity and strategic path choices of the two sides are completely different. I would have liked that the enemy would attack South Africa so that there would be a chance to give them a head-on blow. ”

Admiral King added: "If the enemy wants to attack South Africa, the most likely is to use 4-6 months to stock up supplies in Madagascar, and then use the island as a base to launch an attack." Therefore, I initially thought that the enemy would not attack South Africa on a large scale for the time being, but there would probably be no less small-scale attacks and harassments, and the most extreme situation would be at the border between South Africa and Mozambique, which was closest to Madagascar, and a small control territory would be established with a small number of troops, but from the perspective of the German army's cautious attitude, this possibility was very small. ”

Roosevelt nodded: "I am relieved that South Africa is not in danger in the short term, and the troops retreating from Kenya still need to rely on this base for supply and rest." However, we cannot remain indifferent to the dominance of Germany and Japan in the Indian Ocean, and we must find ways to weaken it. ”

But Admiral Kim's subsequent words made his heart tug again...... (To be continued.) )