"Sir, a telegram from the European Combined Fleet Command: Operation 'Queen of the Amazons' begins now. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

A fleet staff officer handed the telegram he had just received to Helmut on the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin". Admiral Haye. The latter is now the commander of the 1st Fleet under the Combined European Fleet, and also serves as the commander of the 10th Task Force.

The current European Combined Fleet has a total of 9 sub-fleets, of which the 9th Fleet is stationed in the Far East, and its headquarters is located in Cam Ranh Bay in the Kingdom of Japanese Vietnam (this country is a puppet state established by Japan after the occupation of French Indochina, and the ultimate goal is, of course, the integration of Japan and Vietnam); The 8th Fleet is stationed in the Indian Ocean, with its headquarters in Mumbai; The 7th Fleet was stationed in the Mediterranean, with its headquarters in Piraeus, near Athens, Greece; The 6th Fleet is responsible for the Baltic, North and Norwegian Seas, with its headquarters in the German port of Kiel; The 5th Fleet is responsible for the Caribbean Sea and the waters around Guyana, with its headquarters in Cayenne, Guyana; The 4th Fleet is responsible for the North Atlantic, with its headquarters in Porto Sangra in the Azores; The 3rd Fleet is responsible for the South Atlantic, with its headquarters in Puyala, in the Cape Verde Islands; The 2nd Fleet and the 1st Fleet are the mobile forces of the European Combined Fleet, and they are also the main forces, and the large fleet aircraft carriers and capital battleships are basically placed in these two fleets, of which the home port of the 2nd Fleet is in Brest, France, and the home port of the 1st Fleet is in Gibraltar, Spain.

However, if the European Community wants to launch an offensive in South America, it is not possible to place the home ports of the two mobile fleets in Europe, Gibraltar is more than 3,100 nautical miles from the Caribbean Sea, and Brest is more than 3,300 nautical miles. Even if you run a high speed of 20 knots in a straight line, it will take several days for the fleet to rush to the theater of operations (the Atlantic theater is full of American submarines, and it is impossible to walk in a straight line, so it actually takes longer), which is very delayed.

So to start a war in the Caribbean, the home port of the mobile fleet had to be moved to South America. In German-controlled Guyana, however, there was no suitable place for the Grand Fleet home port - Cayenne, Barramalipo, and Georgetown all had ports, but they were all on the Atlantic coast, and there were no bays or wide channels to anchor the Grand Fleet.

And these three places are too close to U.S.-controlled Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago for easy night attacks by B-17s and B-24s. Therefore, Kesselring and Lütjans only placed a 5th Fleet in Guyana with a patrol group, a lightning strike group, a submarine group, a shore-based aviation force, and a shore artillery unit (the EC Navy now has an independent submarine command, and all submarines responsible for breaking diplomatic relations are under its direct jurisdiction, but the submarines whose main task is anti-ship and reconnaissance are formed into submarine groups, which are under the jurisdiction of the fleets of each command).

Therefore, if Germany wants to make big moves in South America and the Caribbean, it must find a large home port for the main forces of the European Combined Fleet (1st Fleet, 2nd Fleet). The port of Belém, located at the mouth of the Tocantins River in the Amazon estuary, is probably the only suitable port.

Although the port of Belém is not located at the mouth of the Amazon River, it has always been a transshipment port for maritime trade in the Amazon Basin, through which agricultural products from the Amazon Basin are exported to the rest of the world. As a result, the port facilities of Belém are relatively good, with a total length of more than 1,500 meters in the port and 9 general cargo terminals, 1 grain terminal and 1 oil tanker terminal. The maximum water depth of the port is 9.2 meters, which is enough to moor large surface ships.

In addition, the port of Belém is an inland port, and outside the port is a very wide estuary of the Tocantins River (several tens of kilometers wide), which is equivalent to a large bay, enough to "swallow" the entire combined European fleet. At the same time, as long as several tens of kilometers of anti-submarine nets are arranged at the mouth of the big river and carefully patrolled by submarines and seaplanes, we can avoid being attacked by US submarines.

Moreover, the distance between the port of Belém and the Caribbean Sea is just right, around 1,000 nautical miles. For the B-17 and B-24 of the Americans, the distance was far enough. And for a fleet advancing at a speed of 20 knots, even taking into account the anti-submarine routes, 70-80 hours can reach the front line.

Therefore, the capture of Belém is the first step in attacking the US mainland from the Caribbean Sea - even if it cannot go to the end, the strategic significance of taking Belém is beyond doubt!

Therefore, the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, convinced that Japan and the United States would engage in a decisive battle to the death in the Hawaiian Islands, immediately formulated a plan for "Operation Queen Amazon" aimed at seizing the port of Belém and taking control of the area at the mouth of the Amazon River.

"Okay," Helmut. Admiral Haye took the telegram and looked at it, then ordered, "Give the order to the 10-4 heavy cruiser group and the 10-9 amphibious assault group, the landing operation will begin now." At the same time, carrier-based aircraft are ready to strike! ”

The capture of Belém was not easy, as the port of Belém was a port retracted inland, 100 kilometres from the mouth of the Tocantins River. The 10-9th Amphibious Assault Group, which was responsible for the landing, and the 10-4th Heavy Cruiser Group, which was responsible for covering the landing, had to venture deep into the estuary, and if they were not able to do so, they were attacked by torpedo boats and mines. And the whole process is estimated to take several days or even a week!

In this process, it is difficult to say whether the US Navy will rush out of the Caribbean Sea and insert a pole.

Therefore, the main force of Task Force 10 must always be vigilant and prepare for a decisive battle in the air and sea!

……

"Mr. President, our embassy in Brazil reports that a German fleet has entered the Tocantins River and is advancing towards the port of Belém. In addition, this morning, the German carrier-based aircraft dropped more than 100,000 leaflets over the city of Belém. ”

White House, Cabinet Room, Secretary of State Cordell. Hull was reporting to Roosevelt on the situation in Brazil.

"Do you know the contents of the flyer?" Roosevelt took a drag on his Camel cigarette and asked.

"It's about the Republic of Amazon. The Germans claimed to be liberators, and the purpose of the invasion was to return the land plundered by the whites to the Indians and Indo-European mestizos. So they will support a party of the Amazon National Party to create a state that represents the interests of the Amazon nation in the Amazon basin and Guyana region in northern Brazil. In addition, the Germans pledged to divide the land of the Amazon basin equally among Indians and Indo-Europeans......"

Roosevelt took a few more puffs of his cigarette and then looked at William. Admiral Leahy. The latter smiled bitterly and said, "Mr. President, now the main forces of the navy are near the Hawaiian Islands, and there are no troops to support Brazil. ”

Although the strength of the US Navy is very strong, the current European Navy is not a vegetarian. Both battleships and large fleet aircraft carriers are ahead of the United States in quantity and quality.

Moreover, the shipbuilding capacity of Europe is not much worse than that of the United States, and now the three "cheap ships" represented by the "Kesselring" class light aircraft carriers, the "Munich" class air defense cruisers and the 1936 D-type destroyers are being mass-produced at an accelerated pace.

If you want to fight for the number of ships, Europe will not suffer like Japan!

In addition, there is little difference between Europeans and Americans in two decisive aspects, carrier-based aircraft and carrier-based pilots.

Now the main carrier-based fighters of the United States, the F4U and F6F, have no advantage over the Fw-190T and Fokker Zero D of the Europeans.

The United States now has about 4,000 carrier-based pilots (captains), and they are the essence of the air force that has been carefully cultivated since the outbreak of the war.

It is estimated that there will be no less than 2,000 pilots in Europe who can fly carrier-based aircraft...... And that's just the number of German carrier-based pilots, not counting the unreliable British pilots, otherwise the number would have been around 2500.

Although not as much as the United States (the United States has a lot of gas and no land battlefields, so it can get most of the good pilots who fly single-engine planes on board), but there are Ju288s and various remote-controlled anti-ship gliding bombs/missiles on the European side, and the anti-ship means are much sharper than dive bombers and torpedo planes.

So do not concentrate the main forces of the Navy, William. Leahy and Ernest. Kim didn't dare to go to a decisive battle with the European Combined Fleet.

"Then we should at least make sure to keep the Germans out of the Caribbean, right?" Roosevelt did not dare to ask too much now, after all, he had little presidency left, and he was satisfied that he could ensure that Japan would be defeated before he left office. Therefore, in the Caribbean direction, it is still mainly defensive.

"Yes, Mr. President." Ernest. Kim replied, "Although the port of Belém can be used to house the Grand Fleet, the infrastructure is poor, and it will take several months to build it before it can become a stronghold for a decisive battle. In addition, Germany needed time to solve the USSR. Therefore, we believe that the final decisive battle in the Caribbean-Atlantic theater will take place in 1945-1946. ”

Roosevelt said to himself: Thank God, he will no longer be the president of the United States by then!

"Can you win?" Roosevelt asked.

"Yes!"

"By what?"

"Battleship!" Ernest. Kim said, "With 5 Montana-class battleships and 6 Iowa-class battleships under construction!" ”

"Oh?" Roosevelt extinguished the cigarette butt in a ceramic ashtray, "I thought the current Navy was based on aircraft carriers. ”

"Mr. President," Ernest said. King explained, "Before the Battle of Christmas Island, most of the Navy personnel thought so too. But in the Battle of Christmas Island, our fleet was left there for Japanese planes to bomb, and as a result, dozens of ships that could be produced quickly were exchanged for hundreds of the best Japanese pilots. The results of this engagement showed that aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft alone could not defeat a surface fleet with strong anti-aircraft firepower, but would result in a large loss of valuable carrier-based aircraft pilots. Thus, the Navy considered the battleship to be not obsolete, and as long as it had adequate anti-aircraft cover, it remained a deadly threat. In 1945-1946, we will defeat Germany with 6 powerful Iowa-class battleships and 5 even more powerful Montana-class battleships! ”