"We were supporting the Soviet transport fleet and were attacked again." In the White House, Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, pondering in front of a large-scale, high-definition map of the world, when he heard the words of his assistant.

When Marshall spoke, his face was expressionless and he was relatively calm, but his fingers were trembling slightly, and his mood was definitely not calm at this time.

It is no longer news that cargo ships supporting the Soviet Union have been repeatedly attacked, but this time is different.

In the past, attacks were on the Arctic route, almost after crossing the Bering Strait, and the most dangerous areas of the sea that were vulnerable to ambushes, but now?

In order to avoid an ambush on the Arctic route, the formation did not take the Arctic route, intending to reach the Soviet port in the Far East to unload its cargo and then transport it over by land.

As a result, in the southern waters of the Kamchatka Peninsula, they were suddenly attacked, which completely shattered their dreams, and the Far Eastern route was not easy to take!

What's next?

How to support the Soviet Union?

In particular, the most different thing from the past is that the number of submarines this time is quite huge.

"We have repeatedly studied the attacks on the Arctic route, and we can confirm that on the Arctic route, the number of underwater submarines is very small, no more than three, and maybe even one, because we have never seen two submarines appear at the same time, because the opponent's underwater navigation capabilities are particularly good, which makes us think that there may be three."

Marshall continued to give Roosevelt an analysis: "But in the southern part of Kamchatka, a large number of submarines were encountered, and we estimate that there are about twenty of them. They were like wolves, coming up to bite the cargo ship formation, and the warship that served as an escort was sunk at the first time. ”

The appearance of a huge number of German submarines in the North Pacific is definitely not good news for the United States.

Although until now, these submarines have been attacking cargo ship formations that are aiding the Soviet Union, but who knows if they will come to ambush the American fleet?

Moreover, under such rampant submarine activities, they can no longer continue to transfuse blood to the Soviet Union, then the Soviets will definitely not be able to hold on.

"That's really bad news." Taking a puff of his cigarette, he continued: "It's impossible to go by land, we can't take a ferry in Alaska, we have to open up the sea transportation line. ”

In World War II, there was a feat of road transport, that is, the huge fleet of cars on the Yunnan-Burma Highway, which supported the fighting of the Chongqing government, but how many kilometers was that?

If the United States were to cross the Bering Strait and transport directly from the United States to Moscow, it would have to cross more than half the world, and the distance would be more than 10 times that of this, and at least half of the entire convoy would have to transport fuel, which would be absolutely impossible.

It can't be transported by land, nor by air, because the United States does not have enough transport aircraft, and air transportation consumes no less resources than by land.

Therefore, it has to be a waterway, and it also needs to open up a sea transportation line.

"That's what Moscow meant." "The Soviets asked us to send in the Navy to escort their cargo ship formations," Secretary of State Hull said. ”

The strength of the Soviet Navy was weak, almost all of them were still the old family of the tsarist era, the main fleet was no longer on the Western Front, and the Far Eastern Fleet was not good at all, in this case, the USSR could only turn to the United States for help.

Hearing this, Roosevelt frowned: "No, we simply don't have enough navy to open this transportation line." ”

Now that the U.S. Navy is about to go toe-to-toe with the navies of the island countries, seeing that the navies of the island countries are about to take root in the Hawaiian Islands, where can they afford to provide escort ships to the Soviet Union?

"No, we don't have that many warships." Roosevelt said: "The convoy formation is up to the Soviet Navy itself. ”

If the last battleship had been guarding the formation, then the German submarines would have had a lot to worry about. It's just that how could the capital ships be supplied to the Soviets? Who knows if it's going to be accidentally worn out? The United States cannot afford to spend it.

"We can supply ships to the Soviets, and we will provide as many as we want to blow up and sink." Roosevelt said, "That's our biggest bottom line. ”

In later generations, the wolf pack tactics of the Germans were finally crushed by the Allies, as for the reason, there are many theories, such as the improvement of the Allied anti-submarine technology, such as the skillful operation of their captains, etc., but there is a simple calculation method in the back, the United States has a strong industrial base, and the cargo ships built are more than consumed, and the Americans can resist.

Now, the Americans can only use this means, and with the start of the war machine, the American industry has fully shifted to the wartime system, and the powerful industrial machine can be reproduced as much as it consumes.

The United States provides ships and supplies as many new ones as they wear out, and this is already the maximum.

"No, it's not enough, if we only provide ships, we still can't avoid this outcome." Admiral Nimitz said worriedly: "If you don't increase your anti-submarine forces, you can only send prey to the Germans." ”

As an admiral, Admiral Nimitz was an expert.

"But we must not provide the Soviets with an escort fleet, we don't have that many troops." Roosevelt said.

"Yes, we can't provide an escort fleet, but we can provide aviation." Admiral Nimitz said: "We can provide professional anti-submarine aircraft to the Soviets. If it is deployed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, it can take care of the sea area within 500 kilometers of the vicinity. ”

The United States is incomparably more advanced in science and technology, and how to detect underwater submarines is also a key point for them, and after research, they have developed a magnetic anomaly detector and equipped it on the PBY-5 "Catarina" seaplane.

The system was tested long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, with a PBY-5 taking off from Rhode Island and detecting a submarine, successfully validating the magnetic anomaly detector system.

Later, the Naval Research Laboratory confirmed that the radar system of the PBY-5 could receive and transmit electromagnetic pulses without the use of a bulky attached antenna system.

In addition to this magnetic anomaly detector system, there are also sonar buoys.

As in history, in 1941, the United States developed sonar buoys, but they were carried by airships, and even if the airships patrolled the targets, they did not have enough time and weapons to attack, and this was only the beginning, and it was still some time before it was put into practice.

In short, it is completely feasible for the United States to use aircraft for anti-submarine purposes.

"The Soviets simply did not have the right pilots to fly the equipment." Secretary of State Hull said on the side: "Their rookie pilots have all begun to go to the battlefield on the Western Front after hasty training, and if they want to be anti-submarine, they need at least dozens of aircraft members, and they can't find them at all." ”

"You can send us." Nimitz said: "We have an experienced crew, so if we just pack up with equipment and people to Kamchatka, the Soviets will not refuse." ”