The news of an air strike on the Bermuda airfield and the detection of the German fleet by F-13 ultra-long-range reconnaissance aircraft through the Bermuda-Nova Scotia blockade soon shocked Washington. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the White House cabinet room, the strong smell of coffee and cigarettes wafted through. The U.S. president, who had just sent off Mussolini, held an emergency military meeting overnight to discuss countermeasures, bringing together senior generals and key cabinet ministers. Vice President Wallace and representatives of Truman and Dewey, who are running for president, also appeared.

"Gentlemen," Roosevelt took a puff of his Camel cigarette—he had been banned from smoking since his stroke, though it seemed to be an exception today—and a sickly flush appeared on his face. "What do you think the Germans want to do? And how can we stop it? ”

"Mr. President," said the Chief of Staff of the President, William Brown. Leahy replied, "The Joint Chiefs of Staff study concluded that the German fleet breaking through the Bermuda-Nova Scotia blockade line was likely coming to attack our east coast...... It is likely that the fleet of the Germans will launch long-range missiles at the large cities on the east coast. ”

"But the East Coast is huge!" Roosevelt took a puff of his cigarette and said, "Can we make sure that all places are well guarded enough?" ”

"I can't." William. Leahy shook his head regretfully. The coastline of the east coast of the United States is three to four thousand kilometers long, so how can it be heavily guarded everywhere? And the Germans didn't want to come to shell, most of them didn't even have to send bombers, they only needed to launch missiles at sea 400-500 kilometers close to a certain place. ”

"Can you send planes to the airstrike?" Roosevelt asked again.

"This ...... The distance may be a little farther away. "William. Leahy glanced at Chief of Naval Operations Ernest Murphy. Admiral Kim.

Admiral King said: "Given that the German fleet is likely to use the cover of night to surprise up to 150 nautical miles (about 280 kilometers) and then quickly launch missiles, we are going to bomb targets 800-1,000 kilometers from the coastline." Moreover, the performance of the carrier-based aircraft of the Germans was relatively superior, and our medium bombers, SBD dive bombers, and TBF torpedo bombers could hardly pose a threat to the German fleet. The only F7F that worked was less than 200 F7Fs, and now most of the F7Fs have been transferred to Trinidad, with only 2 squadrons of F7Fs deployed on airfields in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

In addition, the recent poor weather in the North Atlantic, with strong winds and waves, and thick clouds in the air, is not conducive to bomber sorties. ”

The Battle of Bermuda in September was a heavy blow to the United States! Not only were their battleship forces almost devastating under German missile attack, but even the formidable American air power was rendered weak in the face of German naval aviation.

A large number of heavy and medium bombers lack the necessary anti-ship capabilities, while specialized anti-ship aircraft such as SBD and TBF of the Naval Aviation and Marine Corps are outdated and difficult to survive in front of the German Fokker 636. And the distance of 800-1000 km is also a little further for SBD and TBF.

The P47, P51, F4U and F6F, which can be used as combat bombs, cannot carry large enough bombs to attack targets at 800-1000 kilometers. So the only aircraft capable of attacking the German fleet approaching the east coast of the United States were a limited number of F7Fs.

To make matters worse, after the Battle of Bermuda, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff judged that the German target was Trinidad, so most of the F7Fs in service were transferred there, with only 2 squadrons of 24 F7Fs placed on the island of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Of course, it was impossible for a mere 24 F7Fs to threaten the German fleet, which was escorted by at least 200 Fokker 636s (in fact, there were only 192).

"What about aircraft carriers? And what about our aircraft carriers? Roosevelt asked.

The U.S. battleship force suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Bermuda, all the super battleships were sunk, but the aircraft carriers were not damaged - only the aircraft carriers were intact, and the losses of carrier-based pilots were still very heavy - and in late September and early October, two other Essex-class aircraft carriers entered service (one of which was repaired), so the number of large fleet aircraft carriers owned by the U.S. Navy now reached 11!

"The Enterprise and eight Essex-class ships are receiving carrier-based aircraft in Pensacola," said Ernest Brown. Kim replied, "There are also 2 Essex-class ships and 10 Independence-class ships that are on escort and break-up missions in the Pacific. ”

"Escort and blockade?" Roosevelt thought for a moment and asked, "Is it against Japan?" ”

"No, it's not." Ernest. Kim and William. Leahy glanced at each other, both with worried expressions.

They also reported to Roosevelt a few days ago on the blockade of Germany (Puerto Montt-Buenos Aires route) and escort missions by American aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

"Mr. President," William. Leahy reminded Roosevelt that "at the moment the main task of the Pacific Fleet, in addition to supporting operations in the Hawaiian Islands, is to confront the German Navy in the southeast Pacific to support our operations in Chile." ”

"Oh, I remember." Roosevelt also shook his head with a wry smile, he had a good memory, and he became a little forgetful after the stroke.

Roosevelt asked, "That is, we have nothing to do with the German warships that are ready to fire missiles at New York, Washington, or Boston?" ”

"We can send B24 and B17," said Admiral Arnold, commander of army aviation, "and the range of the P51 and P47 is also sufficient for escort." Moreover, according to the intelligence we have, the Germans do not have much ammunition on their missile ships, and launching a maximum of a few dozen missiles at a time will not cause much damage to such large cities as New York, Washington and Boston......"

The judgment "not much damage" is based on the constant missile attacks on Boston these days. Since the number of German Me264F missile bombers responsible for attacking Boston was only 36, the number of Reaper-2B missiles that hit Boston every day was only about 20, and the result was nothing more than "demolishing" ten or eight houses and piggybacking on killing more than a dozen to dozens of Yankees. For a world war, this loss is really insignificant.

"Okay then." Roosevelt glanced around the cabinet room, then nodded, "Bring a state of emergency to the big cities on the East Coast, and at the same time exclude warplanes from intercepting enemy fleets and missiles as much as possible." ”

……

Oct. 10 at 1 a.m.

In the missile hangar (hangar) of the USS Max, which was running wildly at sea at a full speed of 26 knots, several missilemen slowly pushed a V1B cruise missile on a four-wheeled cart onto the elevator. With the help of the hydraulic oil pump, the missile was slowly raised to the deck, and the howling deck wind blew, and a missile soldier guarding the missile was shaken a few times by the wind, and hurriedly pulled the handle of the missile car.

"Hans, be careful."

A sergeant yelled at the missileman who was nearly blown down by the wind, and then led the way to the missile cart in the direction of a missile launcher on the bow flight deck. A V1B cruise missile with a pair of short wings and an even shorter tail was already placed on the missile launcher. About 10 meters behind the missile launcher, there is also a steel plate that is erected to resist the missile's tail flame. Behind the baffle, there are spare ammunition arranged in four rows, each row of 10.

All the ammunition was placed on a special four-wheeled cart, and the four wheels of the cart were stuck in the bayonet mounted on the flight deck. Behind each platoon stands eight missilemen, a missile launch squad dedicated to launching V1B cruise missiles.

Each Kesselring-class missile carrier has 16 such missile squads, and the 4 missile squads share a hydraulic catapult launcher (it is a catapult modification, the original Kesselring-class aircraft carrier had 2 catapults, and the number doubled to 4 hydraulic catapult launchers after the Kesselring-class aircraft carrier was converted into a missile carrier). These launchers can also be used to launch missiles instead of hydraulic ejection by external booster rockets), and when carrying out the launch operation, four teams take turns to start the missiles, load the missiles on the launchers and launch them.

According to the results of the training, as long as the two missile squads do not make mistakes, they can make one launcher launch 10 V1B cruise missiles in one hour, while four launchers on one missile carrier can project 40 V1B cruise missiles in one hour.

In addition, each missile launcher is also equipped with a fire-extinguishing detachment, and the hose and water cannon are ready at any time to not only extinguish the fire caused by the failed launch, but also to spray water to cool down the overheated launcher to ensure that the launch can continue.

"Sir, Max and Anthony. The Fokker reported that the missile launch operation was ready and ready for launch. ”

Inside the bridge of the aircraft carrier Kesselring, the flagship of Task Force 23, the gunners staff loudly reported to Rear Admiral Mayer on the readiness for missile launches.

Mayer looked back at the nautical officer, who replied: "It's about 10 nautical miles from point X, and it will be in place in 23 minutes." ”

Mayer looked at aviation staff officer Hersman Jr., who was using the telephone to communicate with a Bv138E maritime early warning aircraft in the air. He put down the telephone receiver and said to Major General Mayer: "Sir, there is no large enemy fleet within 200 nautical miles of point X, and the launch site is safe. ”

Major General Mayer breathed a sigh of relief, although it was now night, but it could not be ruled out that the American night bombers also had the ability to deal with surface targets. If the American planes launch a high-intensity horizontal bombardment as they did during the day, even if they fail to damage the aircraft carrier, it will seriously affect the missile launch operation.

From now on, as long as there are 3 and a half hours without a large number of American planes to disturb you, New York City will be drowned in a rain of missiles!