"How many escort aircraft carriers will we have by the end of next month?"

"Not counting the Borg in the Far East, there are seven ships in total, but the president has promised to support the British five first. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"How many escort aircraft carriers does your country currently have?" Turner turned to Admiral Noble and asked.

"Only 3-4 ships." "One of the injured ships is being repaired, I don't know if it will be completed next month, there will be four after the repairs, otherwise it will be three," Noble explained.

Turner looked like a ghost and asked in surprise, "Why so little?" I remember that there were almost 20 escort aircraft carriers handed over to your country before and after, right? ”

"19 ships in total, to be exact." Noble reluctantly explained, "Eight ships were sunk in the North Sea campaign, six ships were sunk in a series of battles in Torch, North Africa, and the Indian Ocean, plus a few ships were hit by U-boats during the escort, and a few ships were sporadically lost, so far this is the only thing left." ”

Several bigwigs of the Joint Staff Committee frowned: Noble made a few understatements, and the small 200,000-ton warship was gone.

"Concentrate all the escort aircraft carriers we have, regardless of whether it is 10 or 11, drive to a suitable distance from the Azores, and then release all the planes above, leaving few or no escort aircraft, so that we can gather 200-220 aircraft and throw them into the second wave of attack (the first wave is a heavy bomber formation from the British), as for these merchant ships converted aircraft carriers are the bait we give to the enemy to eat, they like to bomb them and let them blow up, as much as possible to lure the enemy planes over, Every time they draw up their strength to deal with the escort carriers, they have less defense force on the island, and at this time......" Turner gestured with his hand, "those carrier-based aircraft on our aircraft carrier fleet, the real elite troops set off to attack the island, clear the obstacles, and create opportunities for the battleship shelling, as long as they can play a firepower similar to the Japanese devils on Kuah Island, the Germans are finished......"

"To this end, in addition to transferring all the escort aircraft carriers, I am also preparing to assemble all the aircraft carriers and battleships of the Atlantic Fleet." Turner read the list, "They include the three aircraft carriers USS Lexington (Essex-class), USS Independence, and USS Princeton (Independence-class), four battleships USS Iowa, USS Pennsylvania, USS Nevada, and USS Tennessee, plus 4-6 heavy cruisers in better condition with 203mm guns, and take on the shelling mission together." ”

In Turner's plan, the entire Azores offensive campaign was divided into 4 waves of fleets, namely:

Decoy fleet: 10-15 escort aircraft carriers with a number of destroyers;

Shelling Fleet: The core consisted of 8 battleships and 8 heavy cruisers;

Aircraft carrier fleet: 6 aircraft carriers plus some escort warships;

Landing fleet: prepare 2-3 marine divisions, of which 1 division is guaranteed for the first wave of landing.

Then the air attack wave was also divided into 3 times, the first was a heavy bomber formation; the second was a formation of carrier-based attack aircraft to escort the aircraft carrier; The third is the formation of carrier-based attack aircraft of the fleet aircraft carriers.

"But the three warships of Lexington, Iowa, and Princeton have not even completed sea trials."

"Hurry up and do it before the end of March." "It's a time of great war, with a lot of casualties every day, and the enemy won't give us a chance to take it in stride and do what it takes," Turner said. If it were me, I could have waited until all the warships on the slipway were finished and then went to the Germans to settle the score, but then Britain would be finished, and no amount of planes and warships would work. ”

A group of British generals, including Marshal Deere, rolled their eyes, feeling that Turner's words were really harsh, saying that "Britain will be finished first", as if the Americans were the saviors, but when they thought about it carefully, they felt that the Americans were not bragging--without the strong support of the Lend-Lease Act, Britain was indeed about to be finished.

Turner estimated the total number of 2 German aircraft carriers at 100-120 aircraft, plus the rapid stationing of land-based air forces, he believed that the Germans could assemble about 300 planes in the theater of operations, considering that land-based airfields were much more bomb-resistant than aircraft carriers, and considering that Germany would obtain about 100 reinforcements from the Spanish direction in case of emergency, so he planned to gather 500-600 planes to press over together -- the number of escort aircraft carriers was still a little less in his opinion, and it would be better if there were 20 - In this way, the decoy formation can form a group of about 400 planes, and the aircraft carrier formation can form a group of about 300 planes, which can steadily suppress the German planes on the island.

Although Turner has been fighting in the Pacific theater, this set of tactics is very different from that in the Pacific. The battle for the Pacific islands also relied on air forces, but because any Japanese plane and shell had to be transported from the mainland 6,000 kilometers away, and the American army could get reinforcements from Australia nearby, the American army had enough time to slowly wear out, but the Japanese could not afford to consume it. However, the situation in the Azores is just the opposite, the island is only 1,600 kilometers away from Spain and Portugal, but it is more than 4,000 kilometers away from the east coast of the United States.

However, the Americans were obviously too nervous and exaggerated, and after receiving two batches of supplies, the total number of German aircraft carriers and carrier-based planes only reached 80, while the total number of land-based troops was only more than 120, including more than 10 water reconnaissance planes, and the number of planes was only 200 when it was full.

Everyone was silently thinking that after the end of this battle, no matter whether the Azores could be defeated or not, at least the 10 escort aircraft carriers and a large number of carrier-based aircraft pilots in the decoy fleet would be finished, and then the losses of the fleet aircraft carrier pilots would not be light. Several generals privately summed up that at least half of the pilots would be killed or injured -- they were not ordinary pilots, they were all carrier-based pilots with the highest training difficulty and training costs, and they could not recover at all without six to nine months of recuperation. But they also thought that Turner's thinking was correct, and without this force, they would not be afraid of the losses and simply not fight the Azores.

Seeing that no one spoke for a long time after Turner's introduction, Marshall had no choice but to break the deadlock and ask, "What about General Turner's plan?" You can discuss it. ”

"This ......" Admiral Ingersoll did not expect such a "grandiose" plan in advance, and did not want to easily refute Turner's train of thought for a while, so he asked tactfully, "Are there other plans?" I mean plans that sacrifice a little less. ”

"It's Plan A that takes into account the worst-case scenario, and Plan B." Turner explained, "It is to dispatch superior aircraft carrier formations to destroy the main German fleet in advance, at least to kill those two aircraft carriers, so that a lot of losses will be reduced when launching an offensive campaign." ”

Marshall turned to Spruance: "Is Plan B viable?" ”

The latter thought for a moment: "The aircraft carriers that can be used immediately now are 3 British armored aircraft carriers and the INS Independence, and the battleships have two George V-class, two Queen Elizabeth-class, plus one Pennsylvania, which is enough in terms of troops, but it is not easy to catch the Germans......"

Marshall nodded, turned his gaze to Admiral King, and asked him what he thought - only if Admiral King nodded and made up his mind, the plan could be carried out.

Admiral Kim didn't say anything directly, but asked Turner, "How long do you expect it to take to complete all the preparations?" ”

"Today is March 1st, if you hurry up, a month of preparation time is enough, on March 31, the fleet, the army, supplies, and transport ships will complete the assembly, set off on April 1, depending on the weather and tide conditions, launch an offensive on April 7 or 8, land successfully within one day, control the situation within three days, and strive to end the campaign within ten days." Turner's grand plan came at a good time, and the landing force was almost ready-made - the combat forces were prepared for the Kenya landing.

"So we have a month to spare?" Admiral Kim pondered for a moment and then said, "Plan A can continue to be demonstrated and refined, but the relevant preparations must be planned first, and Plan B will be implemented immediately tomorrow." ”

As soon as Admiral King made a decision, Ingersoll also breathed a sigh of relief, and Turner also nodded in agreement, and the British side thought that this was a positive and safe plan, so it was unanimously approved - as long as Roosevelt nodded, Spruance would be able to lead the team from tomorrow.

"Also......," interjected Turner, "in order to prevent the Axis Navy in the Mediterranean from rushing out in the meantime, the British will need to be mined in the Strait of Gibraltar." ”

"This?" Noble hesitated, "Spain and Portugal are still neutral countries, will they directly lay mines?" ……”

While everyone was still talking, an emergency report suddenly came: an hour ago, at 8 o'clock local time, the German army suddenly began to attack the fortress of Gibraltar, at least 200 guns of more than 150mm caliber opened fire, the airport fell into a sea of fire, most of the planes were unscathed because they were hiding in bunkers, and the British fortress artillery returned fire fiercely, and the current personnel losses are not large, and the rest of the results are unknown......

"Gentlemen, the Germans have already done it, do you still hesitate to lay mines?" Admiral King glanced disapprenantly at the British delegation.

Noble agreed: "I immediately inform the defenders to lay mines and prepare to seal the strait." ”

Just as the meeting was about to be announced, another piece of news poured in: "The HX-148 flotilla departing from Canada reported that they were attacked by German aircraft 400 nautical miles northeast of Newfoundland, losing 4 merchant ships, 2 escort destroyers and 1 auxiliary cruiser...... Due to safety concerns, the fleet was to be disbanded and the ships sailed alone, still heading for Britain. ”

"German aircraft carrier formations! This must be a German aircraft carrier formation! ”

Noble cried with a sad face: now even if the injured escort carrier can be repaired, there will only be 3 usable escort carriers in a short time.

Spruance stood up "Ho", "I will set out tomorrow with the fleet to encircle and suppress this batch of miscellaneous ......" (to be continued.) )