On April 10, Zeitzler hurried back to Berlin, at this time the air raid on the British Isles had entered the eighth day, and the final time of action was getting closer and closer, but the war would never come according to the plan, and he got an unexpected news as soon as he arrived at the headquarters of the base camp: Yesterday evening, the submarine that cooperated with the North Atlantic aircraft carrier formation encountered the US aircraft carrier group in the southwest of Greenland, and roughly judged that there were 3-4 aircraft carriers, 3-4 battleships and a group of light warships. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe U.S. military is very fast, so the submarine did not catch up with the pursuit, let alone the results of the battle.

This news immediately attracted great attention from the High Command, and Hoffman himself attached great importance to it. Today, the ship-based reconnaissance planes of the Broken Fleet did not find the enemy fleet after searching during the day, so the navy was a little nervous, and the army was also nervous. At the end of the day, reconnaissance planes in the Atlantic Ocean kept shuttling around, and colorful clouds changed and Atlantic inspectors flew in all directions, and there was a great posture of turning the North Atlantic upside down. Hoffman is very confident in this, although the North Atlantic Ocean is large, as long as you have the heart to look for it, you can definitely find it, if you can't find it today, it will be tomorrow, and if you can't find it tomorrow, it will be the day after tomorrow, and it will not deviate for too long. Moreover, the British and American fleets do not have any absolute superiority, so if they encounter a fight, what is there to worry about?

He was more concerned about the political trends and war patterns of Britain and the United States.

Cutting off the Anglo-Canadian route and attacking the British Isles is not only a military battle, but also a political battle, and the most important intentions are threefold: first, to knock the hardliners inside Britain and tell them not to think that the current confrontation between Germany across the sea has no other way than to break diplomatic relations; Second, to test the reliability of the Anglo-American alliance -- Britain and the United States have already had secret talks with Germany, and Hoffman does not believe that they do not know each other's small movements, and to see if the two enemies will have different dreams in the same bed; Third, verify the next policy direction of the United States.

Of course, it is impossible for Wallace to be replaced by such a big public news that it will be concealed, and it will inevitably reach Germany after a long time, and the top leaders of other national societies do not understand the difference between Wallace and Truman, but Hoffman sees it very clearly, even if he does not know the specific content of Wallace's speech on interrupting aid to Britain and the Soviet Union, as long as it is combined with the Joseph-Kennedy negotiation process and the personnel changes in the United States, he can guess the subtle change in the US position -- the peace conditions that Germany asked Joseph to bring back were rejected by Washington, and he advocated being tough on Germany. The faction that continues to maintain the war has the upper hand, so the battle must be fought. As for Truman, Hoffman knows better than everyone that he has a huge "hardliner" label on his forehead, and does he still use the Americans to tell himself again?

Under this premise, Hoffman wanted to see how determined the United States really was, or what kind of position or boundaries the Americans really had in terms of what they called "fighting to the end." Now it seems that the relationship between Britain and the United States has not yet broken down, and at least the fact that the Americans sent an aid fleet so quickly shows that the United States is still asking for a very high price -- as Joseph hinted at in the negotiations, if Germany does not give up Japan, the United States will not give up Britain.

This is to be expected, but the situation in Japan is a bit unexpected.

Cole recently sent a message to inform him of the situation in Japan: First, the Japanese side has an ambiguous attitude towards the Second Western Expedition, unlike the first time when it rushed to communicate with Germany to ask how much benefits it could get, but began to emphasize its own difficulties, such as the lack of warships and the fact that the situation in India is not yet stable, and so on, and the implication is that it may not be possible to make the trip in May. The second was about protection fees. The Japanese did not hide this point and refused to say it, but truthfully confessed and explained the benefits they had obtained, and informed the German side of the list of the quantities and types of materials obtained by the Soviet Union, hoping that Germany would understand and understand the difficulties of the Japanese side.

Forgiveness or notHofmann knows that needless to say, it is just a gesture, Japan is notoriously petty, this time to get 24 ships of supplies (more than 300,000 tons) should be overjoyed, Germany understands whether Japan will do this or not, he can't be angry with Japan for a little material, that pattern is too small.

The big intention of supporting Horikichi at the beginning was to hope that he could cut off the Soviet Union's foreign aid channel, and the other party did fulfill its promise, and Hofmann also knew about the news of negotiating 40% protection money, and he initially thought that Horiyoshi cut off the route to aid the Soviet Union and gave the Soviets an excuse. The Supreme Command, including Hoffman, all believed that the United States would never accept this dumb loss, and that this route would definitely be broken, but he did not expect the United States to still do so, which made him a little impressed by the tough stance of the Americans, and it was not easy to accuse Japan of anything -- could Japan not charge 40 percent of the toll fees specifically for Germany, or force Japan to do so, but Germany must be asked to compensate for the 40 percent? Then it was Germany's turn to be uncomfortable.

In addition, Cole reported his speculation: the Japanese side may brew a larger military operation in mid-to-late May, the wind has already blown, and he does not know where to go, but he understands that it is dominated by the navy, and he is speculating whether Japan is preparing for a counteroffensive in the South Seas to seize Australia, but now the Japanese side is relatively tight, only saying that there is an operation but not the specific location, which makes him feel tricky. However, he held that this news was not groundless, still less a deliberate move by Japan to raise its asking price, and if he stood on this standpoint, he would be able to explain why Japan was not very enthusiastic about the Second Western Expedition -- there was certainly a contradiction between the two goals, and he hoped that the country would be psychologically prepared for this.

Hearing Keitel's complaint at the meeting that Japan was unruly and accusing Horikichi of not working hard enough, Hoffman laughed dumbly: The country is very pragmatic with each other, and it is impossible for both sides to reveal their most important strategic goals and directions, just as it is impossible for Germany to tell the Japanese side about the Caucasus campaign and the true purpose of the air raid on Britain, and it is completely normal for Japan to keep Germany secret about its next military action.

Although the 40% protection fee makes him feel surprised, he always feels that something is wrong, but at least the possibility of going north can be basically ruled out, and as for the southward advance, it is in line with the current logical system of Japan's dispatch of fleets to the Central Pacific to break diplomatic relations, and he can only do nothing about it. In the final analysis, Japan and Germany are only based on an alliance linked by interests, unlike Britain and the United States, which still have the most basic cultural identity, in other words, as long as the price given by the United States is high, he can sell Japan, and there will be no psychological burden at all, but unfortunately the Americans not only refused to pay a high price, but also chose to continue to fight with Germany, which made him a little annoyed.

Based on this state of affairs, not only can he not blame Japan, but on the contrary, he must continue to win over the other side, and all kinds of weapons and equipment can be sold as long as Japan is willing to pay for it, after all, it is rare for Japan to be in power by smart people now. In Hoffman's subconscious, he thought that Horikichi would not go to the South Seas, let alone occupy Australia and New Zealand - that was a completely thankless job, and he did not believe that the other party's shrewdness could not be seen, the other party must have deep intentions, and he must think more about various possibilities. Before the other party thinks about talking to Germany, there is no need to press too hard.

After the 40% protection fee, everyone had a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of Horikichi's business, and several admirals finally understood why they could only be generals and Horikichi could still be politicians - in essence, Ozawa and Tsukahara were pure soldiers, but Horiyoshi, who could do business and carry out a coup, was not.

"Very well, the American fleet is coming well!" Hoffman smiled slightly, "Fortunately, this fully shows the attitude of the Americans to sell blood and kidneys to aid Britain and the Soviet Union, shows that we have not yet hurt the Americans, and also shows that there are many fewer possibilities for us to choose the next strategic direction." ”

"That's how the matter with 2 SS American divisions passed?" Keitel was shocked, "Can the American people endure this?" Is there still a bit of democracy? Is there still a little bit of rebellion? ”

"It shows that we don't have a deep enough understanding of the democratic system in the United States, and we don't have a thorough understanding of the wealth of Americans."

"The British probably pinned their hopes on this American fleet." Yodel analyzed, "What will happen to the British when this fleet is destroyed?" ”

"It is the natural responsibility of the navy to defeat the fleet, but there is one thing I can't understand." The first deputy commander of the Navy, Dönitz, expressed doubt, "If Britain is so important, why are the Americans still sending a fleet to deal with Krankk at such a tense juncture?" Haven't they had enough of the division of troops? Or do they arrogantly think that with their 3-4 aircraft carriers they can eat 5 of our aircraft carriers? Where did the Americans get such confidence? ”

"You know there are 5 ships in total, but we are sent out in 2 groups, maybe the Americans think there is only one wave?" Keitel joked with a smile, "It's like they thought that Cranke only had 2 aircraft carriers and was confident that 4 would definitely be able to eat him, who knew that he would be killed back?" ”

Ozawa thought that it would be too scary to dispatch five aircraft carriers in one go, and that it would be easy to scare the Americans back, so he suggested that the first wave be dispatched with the three aircraft carriers USS Zeppelin, HMS Dunkirk, and HMS Hyuga as the main force, and that they were already fighting in the waters of the North Atlantic, while the second wave was a guerrilla fleet with the USS Jean-Bar and HMS King (integrated aircraft carriers) as the main force, and was just about to leave the Strait of Gibraltar to cooperate in operations in the North Atlantic.

For this campaign, Ozawa not only deployed two waves of fleets in front and behind, but also focused on deploying a large number of air forces in the Azores, France, and Spain according to cross-platform tactics, and planned to rely on the three oblique aircraft carriers Dunkirk, Hyuga, and Jean-Bar to play the role of force multipliers.

In other words, as long as the German fleet fought within the radiation range of the four points of the Azores, Brest (France), Lisbon (Portugal), and A Coruña (Spain), it could be supported by sufficient land-based forces at any time, and if the American fleet dared to enter the sea area surrounded by these four points, an almost endless air force would await them.

Hoffman looked at the time, and the hands were pointing to three o'clock in the afternoon, and he cleared his throat and said, "Gentlemen, I believe that the Navy will surprise us, just as Admiral Cranc has already given us." ”

As soon as his words fell, Dahlges came in and reported: "Report, 25 minutes ago, the reconnaissance plane spotted the enemy fleet and ...... 600 kilometers south-west of Reykjavík, Iceland."