After nightfall, Ozawa adjusted the course to 25 degrees and slowed down to 17 knots, and after a night of running, the center of the fleet has now been shifted to a place 1,600 kilometers northeast of Bermuda and about 1,500 kilometers from Boston. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The reconnaissance planes that had been circling around Bermuda within 800 kilometres were clearly unable to capture the exact position of the German fleet.

Moreover, in order to prepare for the German assault, all the planes in the direction of Bermuda took off at more than 4 o'clock in the morning, and after a long search and patrol, by 9 o'clock, they had to go back to land and replenish fuel, and the search force was further reduced, Taylor let the B-24 search the position of about 1000 kilometers, and still reported that it found nothing, and the reconnaissance plane that took off from the east coast also reported that it did not find anything.

Now the nearest land airfields to the position of the Axis Fleet should be Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland Island in Canada, both of which are about 800 kilometers away from the fleet, but unfortunately, although the two islands have US Army Aviation deployment, but its energy is not aimed at this battle, the former is the main base of the Canadian Air Force, the US military has only stationed a small number of liaison officers, and the total number of planes on it has not broken 100, and the current route of the German fleet has gradually turned to 60 degrees, and the distance from Prince Edward Island is also widening.

Newfoundland is the core base of the Alliance, and the planes on it add up to more than 1,500, but this is useless, because there are more than 1,000 heavy transport aircraft, specializing in cross-sea strategic transportation, and more than 200 fighters, mainly used for the defense of the island, and the remaining more than 300 are attack aircraft of various types, mainly 4-engine heavy bombers, and there are not many attack aircraft against the sea, probably more than 100. The island has relatively well-developed defenses, with four twin 8-inch shore defense gun turrets, and two Canadian infantry divisions in charge of defensive duties, including the main force of the Canadian Navy fleet, which is almost impregnable from the Canadian point of view.

Since the German occupation of the Azores and the formation of an Atlantic black hole to cut off the main transatlantic route, the Anglo-Canadian route has become the only main route, and Newfoundland has become the starting point of this route - not only transatlantic shipping, but also transatlantic shipping, which has become more and more prosperous - the materials sent to Britain from South America, the United States, and Canada have been assembled here, and the personnel who have been evacuated from Britain have also been assembled here, and all kinds of personnel, materials, troops, and ships have converged into the prosperous music of the allies.

German intelligence had long noticed the peculiarity of Newfoundland, and sent agents through submarines to gather information on three occasions, and the information obtained was not complete, but it alone was surprising enough:

Newfoundland handles about 4 million to 5 million tons of supplies every month, and about 2 million tons are sent abroad, including fuel, food, munitions and equipment. Since the island does not share a border with the North American mainland, all supplies are sent by sea, and there are many ships, with an average daily detention of more than 100 ships, and there are large quantities of transportation and storage operations. This was mainly due to the strength of the German army, and the freighters of the general South American countries were afraid of losses and did not dare to undertake the transportation operations to the United Kingdom, so they only transported the goods to Newfoundland, and then relied on the fleets of the United States and Canada for transportation.

From a shipping point of view, this is also advantageous, as South American freighters are basically small and not fast, exhausted to Newfoundland, and unthinkable to go to England. The U.S. and Canadian fleets have now been replaced by all Victory ships, an upgraded version of the freewheel, which is faster and has a larger tonnage than the freewheel, and the construction of the freeship has been basically terminated, so its proportion in the fleet is getting lower and lower. The main products that need to be stored and transported ashore are agricultural products and military supplies, and American-made military equipment can be loaded directly on the Victory ship and directly join the fleet.

To manage the vast fleet, the American, British, and Canadian authorities formed a Joint Maritime Authority Committee, and although Britain sent an admiral to serve as chairman, the power was undoubtedly in the hands of the Americans.

Newfoundland also has a Joint Shipping Management Committee, which is responsible for coordinating strategic transatlantic airlifts, not to mention being almost entirely in the hands of the U.S. Army Airlines, with the former commander of the 8th Air Force, Lt. Gen. Carl Spartz, as chairman and supreme commander, who also serves as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army Air on the island of Newfoundland.

Although the 8th Air Force's strategic air raids in Europe ended in heavy losses, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Independent Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that there was no major problem with his command and that it was not the result of a simple intelligence leak, so he escaped without any danger. Looking at the commander of the US Army Aviation, he was the only one who had experience in commanding, dispatching, and marshalling large formations, and was relatively familiar with the British side, so he was determined to take up this role. The surviving officers and men of the 8th Air Force have also changed from strategic bombing to strategic airlift executors, and the morale of the entire force has gradually begun to recover.

If the weather permits, strategic air transport is generally twice a week, about Monday to take off to the United Kingdom, Tuesday to unload, Wednesday to overhaul supplies, Thursday back to Newfoundland, Friday and Saturday in Newfoundland to rest and replenish, Sunday to rest, and then continue next Monday; Under special circumstances, it should be performed 3 times, flying on Monday and returning on Tuesday: flying on Wednesday and returning on Thursday; Fly on Friday and return on Saturday; Sunday rest and replenishment - this is an extreme reduction in maintenance time, but this situation has only happened twice, and most of the time only twice, because there is always a bad weather once a week in winter.

Sparts also trained more than 300 fighter pilots for the U.S. Army Aviation that lacked skilled pilots, plus the British fighter pilots joined, Arnold got nearly 500 experienced fighter pilots, which greatly solved the urgent need, so that he passed the most difficult time after the Caribbean War, but the first Battle of Bermuda made him lose more than 100 people (groups), and now there are more than 20,000 pilots (groups) on the Army Airlines' books, and an average of nearly 1,000 new ones per month, However, there are less than 5,000 front-line elites (groups) who have really fought and experienced, more than half of them are still distributed in the Pacific Ocean, more than 800 are distributed in the Caribbean and South America, and less than 2,000 veterans on the North American continent are carrying out tasks with more than 10,000 recruits.

Due to the continuous and massive losses of the pilots of the US Navy, especially the carrier-based aircraft, the total number of pilots (groups) is about the same as that of the Army Airlines, and the level of proficiency is even lower, let alone seen, and there are less than 600 LV-5 pilots who are responsible for the operation of the fleet aircraft carriers, and only more than 1,000 LV-4 pilots who can take on the combat mission of escorting aircraft carriers. Although this number is still very impressive compared with the major powers in the world -- for example, the total number of pilots (groups) of Japan's first-line carrier-based aircraft is less than 400, but the gap in level is too great, and the top 100 pilots in the United States can only rank in the last 100 of the 400 pilots in Japan.

In contrast, the Luftwaffe and the German Navy have only half of the pilots (groups) of the US military, but more than 80% of the pilots have combat experience, of which more than 90% of the pilots have more than one combat experience because most of the pilots are dispatched from the Luftwaffe. However, the training of Japanese and German reserve pilots is far inferior to that of the US military, and the US Army and Navy add more than 1,000 pilots every month, while Germany has a total of only 1,000, while Japan's total is less than 500. In other words, the reserve of the United States alone is equal to the integration of the Axis, and if you add the forces of Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, even without taking into account the Soviet Union, the reserve force is twice as large as the Axis.

Therefore, the current idea of the construction of the pilot team of the Axis and the alliance is completely different: the US Army and Navy are required to fight for attrition under the pressure of huge casualties, and strive to use 3 or even 4 rookie pilots to fight for 1 Japanese and German elite pilot; On the one hand, Germany strives to increase the number of pilots, and on the other hand, it pursues to use quality superiority over quantitative superiority; Japan, which had no quality and was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of quantity, could only hope to speed up the training of its ranks -- but Horiyoshi's strategy of turning the air force reserve into an officer was rejected by the conservatives without hesitation.

"The latest submarine reconnaissance found that due to the activity of our army's broken fleet, the Anglo-Canadian route has been completely cut off recently, and a large number of ships are stranded on the island of Newfoundland, the total number may have accumulated to 300, and only a small number of South American ships will return after unloading."

After listening to Crank's introduction, Ozawa nodded: "That is, the main danger of the fleet now is to bump into planes taking off from Newfoundland and ships returning home?" ”

"Yes, this is our most dangerous time, and if we are discovered by the enemy, we may lose all our efforts......"

Machar shook his head: "It's impossible to give up all the previous achievements, but you will suffer a lot of losses, I don't know what General Ozawa thinks?" ”

"We're going to need some luck......," Ozawa nodded, "what options do you have if we find out?" ”

"If you can't attack Newfoundland, you can only turn around and move southeast, to destroy the Anglo-American fleet in the direction of Cape Verde." "I believe that the enemy aircraft carrier group must have received information to go to Bermuda to intercept us, and if we are exposed, then we can only turn around and kill the carbines......"

"I hope there will be luck in the Battle of Pearl Harbor......" Ozawa thought for a moment and gave the order, "The fleet course turns to 75 degrees, the speed of the aircraft carrier formation increases to 24 knots, and if our troops are not exposed before 14 o'clock in the afternoon, the carrier-based aircraft will send out an air attack, otherwise...... The whole army is back! (To be continued.) )