On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt delivered a public speech to the nation in a deep tone, acknowledging the reality of the Axis Fleet attack and calling on the people to strengthen unity, maintain stability, and obey commands. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

“…… The United States has never been more in need of further unity", and he also spoke lightly about the losses, "Although we lost some warships in the previous period, we also dealt a heavy blow to the enemy, sinking the Japanese Navy's battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, the German Navy's Scharnhorst, Admiral Scher, Zeppelin, Europa aircraft carrier, and other warships...... Recaptured the Aleutian Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the islands of New Guinea, repelled enemy attempts to attack Australia and South Africa, and defended the free world. What's more, the United States has the most powerful industry in the world, and we can easily replenish these losses that the enemy simply cannot afford...... If the enemy dares to drop a bomb on the east coast, we will make them pay a heavy price, and we will drop 1,000, 10,000 bombs on the heads of Germany and Japan in the future! ”

After listening to all the speeches on the radio, Horikichi turned off the radio with a "snap", his English was very good, and he could fully understand what Roosevelt was saying, which was much stronger in the Japanese Navy than in the United States, they basically knew English, and some of them could even reach the level of diplomats, while almost no one in the American Navy knew Japanese.

The grass deer on the side smiled and said, "Sir, the hornet's nest you poked is now so enraged that even the queen bee is forced to come out to speak, although her mouth is full of bragging." ”

Horikichi, the commander, usually has a good sense of humor, and he doesn't have much of a show, so the atmosphere in the fleet is very relaxed, and everyone can joke. Hearing the chief of staff say this, the young staff officers on the side couldn't help but laugh.

"Very good, that's what it is." Horikichi nodded with satisfaction, "Where is the fleet now?" ”

"It's 1,400 nautical miles from the east coast of the U.S. and about 1,000 nautical miles from Bermuda."

"What's the catch of the reconnaissance plane?"

"We sent 4 waves of 72 sorties of reconnaissance planes before and after, and the Germans sent 3 waves of more than 50 sorties, and we didn't find anything, the vicinity was empty, there was nothing. There were also no reports from German submarines. By the way......" Cao Lu Ren seemed to remember something, "those new water reconnaissance planes are very useful, and the pilots are full of praise." ”

The new aircraft in the mouth of Kusaka is the AR-372, which is the German version of Aichi's "Ruiyun" water reconnaissance, which encountered many difficulties in the development of Japan, and after being introduced to Germany, the idea of dive bombing was canceled, the fuselage structure was simplified and strengthened, and the design requirements were quickly met after being matched with the German BMW801G engine. With a top speed of over 475 km/h (75 km/h faster than the AR-272), a range of 2,500 km (500 km farther than the AR-272), two 20mm aviation cannons and one 13mm rear-firing machine gun (much more powerful than the AR-272 with only one 7.92mm aviation machine gun), it entered service last month. During the period in Europe, the equipment of the combined fleet was comprehensively upgraded in all aspects, not only radios, radars, and carrier-based aircraft were all replaced with new ones, but even water reconnaissance was not left behind, and the AR-372 got 6 as soon as it came out.

"That's fine, keep moving forward, and at sunset, we'll turn due south-southwest."

"Due south? Not going to the East Coast anymore? Grass Deer asked in surprise.

"Hehe, don't go...... Let the Americans be busy for a while, and you can't just give a warning and go to fight, that would not be very friendly, and you should leave enough time for the Americans to respond. We went to the South Atlantic to break diplomatic relations. In other words, I haven't learned the craft of breaking friendships, and I don't know if it's difficult to learn. ”

"Hah......" A bunch of staff officers laughed again.

Although it was strange for the commander to suddenly change course, everyone thought it was normal, and there were so many step-by-step things in a war. After receiving the order, the German fleet was also obviously relieved from top to bottom, and the Berlin side clearly stipulated that it would be under the unified command of Hori Ikichi in this battle, so there were deficiencies in the understanding of many guidelines by Marcal and others, but fortunately, the commander of the aircraft carrier formation of the North Sea Fleet is now Ozawa, and the other formations have Japanese advisory groups, and this situation is not serious.

Martial is impeccable in obedience, but he has always had doubts about going to the east coast to attack, especially the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Aquila, in fact, is the first time to participate in large-scale operations, although the pilots of carrier-based aircraft are all top-notch, most of the naval officers and men on board are also experienced, many of them have been transferred directly from the Europa, and their skills are absolutely excellent, but he is vaguely worried about the run-in, for fear that there will be problems in the fierce battle. Originally, he wanted to go to South America to break diplomatic relations near South America last time, but he was beaten back by Spruance, and he was full of expectations for this new start.

In the early morning of August 13, in the waters of the Mid-Atlantic, a large fleet was advancing south-west, this fleet had the best force on the planet, and the main force included nine battleships (battle cruisers), namely two Nagato-class, four Kongo-class, one Bismarck-class, one Richelieu-class, and one Dunkirk-class; 4 fleet carriers (Shozuru, Zuizuru, Hayabusa, Skyhawk), in addition to a large number of cruisers, destroyers, and accompanying transports.

The entire Axis Combined Fleet was divided into two echelons, with the German echelon in front and the Japanese echelon behind, each echelon was centered by an aircraft carrier formation, and the left and right flanks were escort formations composed of battleships and heavy cruisers, with a distance of more than 150 kilometers between the front and rear.

On 13, 14, and 15 April, for three days in a row, the fleet found nothing, neither enemy ships nor merchant ships, and the US Katrina water reconnaissance planes released from Bermuda flew as far as 500 kilometers from the fleet, and the Axis fleet sent water reconnaissance planes as far as 400 kilometers from the island, but neither side found anything. At the same time that the Axis Fleet was turning south, the Atlantic Fleet under the command of Ingersoll had basically arrived at the designated position, and also found nothing. However, Ingersoll and Fletcher did not dare to take it lightly and maintained high-intensity reconnaissance patrols, and the Atlantic Fleet also had many newly commissioned warships, and the two sides were invariably strengthening their actual combat. But they never dreamed that the Axis Fleet, which was constantly "clamoring" to attack the east coast, was heading towards the Central Atlantic, and it was getting farther and farther away from them.

After Roosevelt's speech, the United States homeland defense was officially mobilized, and the streets and alleys were full of craze for digging air-raid shelters and sheltering bomb holes, scouts and volunteers began to vigorously publicize, and doctors and nurses all arrived on duty to practice emergency first aid. The government did not bother those who insisted on retreating inland for fear of the attack, but still dispatched police to maintain traffic order and provide sufficient fuel to various gas stations along the route to ensure all kinds of traffic needs.

Local radio broadcasts Roosevelt's speeches and government notices over and over again, spreading the word about responding to an attack and encouraging people to respond calmly — and that's not a big deal.

The American people have always had a tradition of bringing their own weapons, men with guns in various communities spontaneously organized convoys and pickets to conduct night patrols, logistics departments went crazy to transport antiaircraft guns by trucks and trains, the National Guard conducted intensive training overnight, many recruits who could not even walk properly learned to operate antiaircraft guns in a good way -- I don't know if they could get a plane, and for the first time, major cities organized night fire drills and light control, and the results were actually quite good. When listening to the following reflection of the general public's understanding and support for raising the level of defense, a number of high-ranking officials, including Roosevelt, could not help but laugh: The "Notice" of the Axis has improved the free and loose habits of Americans a lot, and I don't know whether to issue a big medal to Horiyoshi and others.

However, the news from the African theater was not very good, Eisenhower reported that the Germans had new equipment and could see themselves accurately at night, and the troops were caught off guard by the night attack of German tanks, losing more than 3,000 troops and nearly 100 various tank vehicles, half of which were American soldiers, and he asked the country to develop targeted products as soon as possible; He once again stressed that the US armored forces, especially the tanks, were no match for the German army, and there was nothing to be done in the face of the Tiger tanks, and asked the country to pay close attention to the production of heavy tanks that could be compared with them; It was also reported that the losses of medium tactical bombers were heavy and that he hoped to be replenished with another 100-200 aircraft, but he remained confident that he could hold out on to Mombasa for at least another month or more.

Roosevelt could not come up with good heavy tanks and night vision equipment, nor could he send him bombers, so he could only encourage him to fight steadily and buy time.

In the early morning of April 16, the huge Axis fleet sailed less than 500 kilometers from the Antilles in Central America.

"Sir, the reconnaissance planes have discovered that they have found a large number of merchant ships in the waters ahead, and there are ...... flying the flags of Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Brazil, and other countries."

"Alright, let's go on a killing spree...... I've warned them that the entire Atlantic Ocean is a war zone, and they just won't listen, so what can I do? ”

At 7 o'clock, a large number of He-218s began to attack, and Machar was stunned to find that the previous experience of breaking diplomatic relations was no longer needed this time - the planes were far faster than the warships.

The first victim was the 4,500-ton passenger and cargo ship Amazon, which was accurately destroyed by a bomb at 8:15 a.m.

But this was of no avail, and the only way to escape from the He-218, which had a speed of up to 300 knots, was basically a matter of luck. (To be continued.) )