Washington, White House. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Mr. Roosevelt, the president of the American tyrant country, also received a war report from Admiral Ingersoll by telegram from the commander of the Atlantic Fleet--about 20% of the NR21 fleet's transport mission was successful, except for the ships bound for the Soviet Union, which are still safe and sound, and the rest of the transport ships have lost ninety percent!

"Hiss......"

Roosevelt gasped, even if he led a country full of local tyrants, he couldn't afford such a loss! Just one transport mission lost 2 million tons of ships and more than 600,000 tons of cargo. In addition, 3 battleships and 6 heavy cruisers were boarded!

Even the local tyrant country can't be defeated like this, and the money of the American tyrant is not blown by the wind, if it is defeated like this, it won't be long before it goes bankrupt.

The President of the United States lifted his big head and swept his sharp gaze over several uniformed people in the Oval Office, they were Admiral Lacey, Chief of Staff of the President, Admiral Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, and Chief of Naval Operations Ernesto. Admiral Kim, as well as Lieutenant General Arnold, Commander-in-Chief of Army Aviation.

"There's no way, is it?" Roosevelt asked.

As this question came out of the mouth of the President of the United States, the atmosphere in the Oval Office became extremely tense. If Churchill, Stalin and Emperor Hirohito of Japan heard Roosevelt's question now, they would have held their heads and were ready to cry!

Because there is still the second half of Roosevelt's words - then let the evil Nazis go!

If the Atlantic transport has only a 20% success rate, then the counterattack on the European continent will definitely be hopeless, and in the future it will only be bordered by the German Atlantic. The United States, on the other hand, took advantage of Germany's efforts to clean up Britain and the Soviet Union, and then went back and took the territory of the Pacific Ocean first, and then hanged the Japanese emperor, so that it could probably still fight against Germany, which ruled Europe, Africa, and India.

Now it can be said that the United States of America stands at the most important fork in the road in history, should it go west to clean up Japan, or insist on being the first in Europe and continue to embarrass Germany?

It seems that several generals have been immobilized, and no one is speechless -- this is related to the fate of the United States and the world in the next 100 years or even longer.

There was silence in the Oval Office, a dead silence. I don't know how long it took to hear the president's chief of staff, Admiral Raisi, speak.

"Mr. President, Sir Deere, head of the British military mission in Washington, D.C., was talking to me on the phone just now and came up with a plan to form a fleet of Atlantic clippers."

"Atlantic Clippers? Is it feasible? Roosevelt was immediately interested. Splitting the globe equally with Germany was a last resort, and he was not willing to do so.

"There is a certain feasibility." "The distance from the east coast of the United States to the port of Reykjavík in Iceland is about 2,300 nautical miles, and if the fleet can reach an average speed of 25 knots, it can be reached in as little as 92 hours," Admiral Lacey said. As long as our secrecy is in place, and we carry out small sailings, the Germans will probably not be able to detect it. ”

92 hours is, of course, a straight line, and may not be feasible in practice. But the European Combined Fleet was also afraid to sail straight from Gibraltar to the battlefield, which would leave the precious capital ship vulnerable to submarine ambushes.

Therefore, Admiral Lacey's analysis was basically correct, and it would be difficult for the European Combined European Fleet to intercept the troops and supplies sent to Britain by a small fleet of fast transport ships.

"So do we have that many fast carriers?" Roosevelt immediately asked.

"Not a lot at the moment." Ernesto. Admiral Kim replied, "Because our previous idea was to form a slow fleet. ”

The famous Freewheel and T2 tankers are both slow-moving boats, with the Freewheel only running 11 knots, the T2 being slightly faster, and the fastest of them running 16.5 knots.

One of the reasons why the United States built so many slow ships was to save costs and build them quickly and conveniently -- after all, the use of large marine boilers and steam turbines in fast ships is very expensive equipment, and the difficulty of production is relatively high, and it cannot be compared with the steam engine used by the free ship and the marine diesel engine used by most T2 tankers. Moreover, large boilers and steam turbines are the standard equipment of military ships (Germany has high-horsepower diesel engines that can be used on warships, but it is also very difficult to produce), if you take too much to build cargo ships and oil tankers, warships will not be enough.

Another reason was that the Americans did not anticipate that the Germans would now have a firm grip on the Atlantic Ocean, and that the slow fleet would not be able to reach Britain through the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

"How many clippers are there now?" Roosevelt pressed further.

"At present, we have three main types of clippers, the first is cruise ships and passenger ships, there are sixteen ships such as Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Queen of India, Queen of Britain and Normandy; The second category is fast transport ships converted from warships, mainly converted from flat-deck destroyers, and there are dozens of them, but the tonnage of these ships is very small; The third category is aircraft carriers. ”

"Aircraft carriers?" Roosevelt was stunned.

Fast cruise ships converted from peacedeck destroyers, he knows, the former is mainly used to transport troops, and the latter is used to deliver supplies and troops to the front-line islands. But Ernesto. King's mention of aircraft carriers was beyond his expectations.

"An aircraft carrier is also a vessel with a considerable carrying capacity that can be used to transport aircraft and vehicles." Ernesto. King replied, "We can move the Vespa and the Raider from the Pacific back to the Atlantic as vehicle and aircraft carriers." In addition, the British have 2 aircraft carriers converted from large cruise ships, the Aquitania and the Burrengallia, which have a much more powerful carrying capacity and can carry not only aircraft and vehicles, but also large quantities of ammunition and bulk cargo. ”

Roosevelt nodded again and again, and his brow, which had been tightly wrung up, gradually relaxed. It seems that the United States can continue to meddle in the war in Europe, at least the problem of transportation is not unsolvable. Now there are several large cruise ships that can transport troops, and it is tens of thousands for one trip, and transporting troops is not a problem. There are also 5 aircraft carriers that can transport vehicles and ammunition, and the problem is not very big, the only thing that is somewhat troublesome is the transportation of oil.

"What about the tanker?" Roosevelt asked, "We don't have fast tankers, do we?" ”

"We have T2 tankers that can run 16.5 knots, which is considered fast." Ernesto. Kim frowned and said, "If you want a faster tanker, you have to take the power system of the warship under construction." ”

There are several types of T2 tankers, the largest of which has a full tonnage of more than 22,000 tons and can carry about 10,000 tons of oil, and the horsepower of the main engine is more than 12,000 horses, and the maximum speed is about 16 knots. If you want a ship of this class to have a high speed of 25-30 knots, the main engine power needs to reach 6-70,000 horsepower (the size of civilian ships is more focused on reducing drag in order to save fuel and main engine power, so you can achieve a faster speed with a smaller main engine), which is almost the main engine of a destroyer.

In other words, if the United States builds a fast T2 tanker or a similar cargo ship, it has to build one less destroyer.

"So what to do before the fast tanker is built?" Roosevelt thought for a moment and asked, "What can we do to transport fuel to England?" ”

"It can only be smuggled."

"Smuggling?"

Ernest. Jin nodded and said: "There is still a probability that a single T2 will sail to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean under the flag of a neutral country, after all, the North Atlantic Ocean is very vast, and the weather is bad enough now." ”

A fleet of several hundred ships would certainly be easier to detect than a single steamer, and if the Germans had only submarines to attack the North Atlantic shipping lanes, it would have been advantageous to form a convoy of convoys, but now the Germans could use a powerful formation of battleships to attack. Then the large convoy will be wiped out if it is not done well! In contrast, it is safer for a small fleet to go out even on a single ship.

"If you are a single ship, what should you do if you meet a German cruiser?" Roosevelt's brow furrowed again.

Ernest. Kim shrugged, "It's hard to say, it's possible that even the oil on the ship will go to the Germans!" ”

At this time, Lieutenant General Arnold of the Army Aviation shouted, "General! Are you saying that more than 20,000 tons of oil tankers and 10,000 tons of expensive C3 fuel oil were thrown on the Atlantic Ocean and let the Germans rob them? ”

"Yes." Ernest. Kim nodded and said, "The Germans can't grab it all, and I estimate that about 50% of the oil tankers will arrive safely." ”

"And what about the remaining 50%?"

Ernest. Kim spread his hands helplessly, "It is possible that it will be burned, or it may be snatched away by the Germans." ”

What he meant was that if the crew was unwilling to put up the inevitable fatal resistance, then both the ship and the oil were the property of the Germans. On the question of whether to resist, the US Navy Department has no choice, and it is impossible for the US Navy Department to issue an order for the crew of the T2 tanker to die rather than surrender.

"This is a capital enemy!" Arnold said, "The planes of the Germans will burn this good quality fuel and drop bombs on our heads." ”

The refined oil products that are ready to be shipped to the UK are high-octane high-quality goods, and most of them are supplied to airplanes. Although Germany now controls the oil-producing areas of the Middle East, the Middle East is not yet the oil kingdom of the future, and even if European countries invest in mining there, the current monthly oil production is only about 2 million tons. Far from being rich, the Germans would be very happy if they could capture some from the Atlantic.

"That's it!" Roosevelt gritted his teeth, "We can't give up Britain and Europe unless we have to, and it's acceptable to pay even a very high price." Moreover, this was only a temporary last resort, and when the fast T2 tankers were built, we would safely transport the oil to England to fight Germany's ambitions for world domination. (To be continued.) )