In the afternoon, Tan Renhao called Hao Dongjue and Chang Jianxin again to the "Dragon Aircraft Carrier." Before the two arrived, he received a third telegram from the command of the Navy. It was this telegram that allowed Tan Renhao to finally determine the plan of action.

"The U.S. Atlantic Fleet has been dispatched,......" Chang Jianxin whispered the contents of the telegram, and his expression became serious.

After the Panama Canal was captured by the Don Empire, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet remained at Norfolk Naval Base south of the Chesapeake Bay, the home port of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and the U.S. Navy's largest military port, which borders Washington, D.C., to the north. By the end of 2, the US Atlantic Fleet had reached a certain size, acquiring six Essex-class fleet carriers, four Montana-class battleships, as well as more than 20 anti-aircraft cruisers and dozens of destroyers. Due to the lack of sufficient officers and men, the Atlantic Fleet remained in Norfolk and only occasionally went to sea for training, and did not go south to meet the First and Third Fleets.

Prior to this, Tan Renhao had deduced that by the middle of 27, if the United States could have a sufficient number of officers and soldiers, it would not be able to form combat effectiveness, let alone go to sea to fight a decisive battle with them. Therefore, when he went to the eastern Atlantic to support the Second Fleet, Tan Renhao did not worry that the US Atlantic Fleet would go out of the Caribbean Sea and attack the Panama Canal. Later, as it was, the US Atlantic Fleet had been cowering in the Chesapeake Bay. This. The fact that the U.S. Navy has taken out the last bit of its belongings is enough to prove how important the cargo carried in that fleet was.

"The telegram also mentions merchant ships transporting 'heavy water'." Tan Renhao asked Chang Jianxin to take a closer look, "This ship is our main target, other ships can ignore it, we must capture this transport ship, and ensure that the heavy water on board is not damaged." ”

"What is heavy water?" Hao Dongjue will not be much better than Tan Renhao in terms of technology.

"Something very important, more valuable than gold, may even change the outcome of the war." Tan Renhao did not give a technical explanation. Just illustrates its importance. "The Navy Command has sent a technical officer to assist us, who will explain to us what to look out for in the operation, of course, after we have boarded the transport, and before that we have to find a way to control the ship. And prevent the crew from sinking themselves. ”

"If the Third Fleet can successfully intercept the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, then we can have less trouble." Chang Jianxin said as he took out a cigarette.

"I don't think much should be expected from the Third Fleet." Hao Dongjue took the cigarette that Chang recommended the new hand, "Even if the Third Fleet has already left Limon Bay when it receives the order, patrolling the central waters of the Caribbean Sea, and rushing over as fast as possible, it will be difficult for us to arrive before we make contact with the transport fleet, and it will be even more difficult to intercept the US Atlantic Fleet, and when the time comes, we will still have to act on our own." ”

"The U.S. Atlantic Fleet has nothing to fear. If they dare to come, Task Force 1 will be able to clean it up. The biggest problem was how we managed to get close to the convoy and get the situation under control before the crew scuttled the ship. Tan Renhao looked at the two of them. I can tell you with great certainty that if the American crew had known that we were going to be on board, they would have detonated the time bomb on board, and then we would not have been able to get our hands on the ship's cargo and the operation would not have been successful. And we have to avoid that from happening and change the action plan. ”

"There are three main troubles." It is often recommended to flick off the cigarette ash on the cigarette butt. "First, how to find the convoy of convoys before the arrival of the American fleet. Second. How to covertly approach the convoy of transports. Third, how to quickly board the transport ship. Take control of the situation. If one of these three problems cannot be solved, the operation will not succeed. ”

"It will take at least three days for the US Atlantic Fleet to be able to rendezvous with the convoy, and if we keep moving at full speed, it will not be difficult to find the convoy before the US fleet, and the main thing is whether our reconnaissance planes can detect it as soon as possible."

"That's your business." Tan Renhao looked at Hao Dongjue, "The search capability of the 'Reconnaissance Eagle' is the most important weight in our hands, and whether we can find the transport fleet in time depends on the performance of these reconnaissance aircraft. ”

"I'll have the reconnaissance mission in place, and as long as the convoy is within our search range, then I'll be able to find it." Dong Jue's words were very calm, but this was enough to reassure Tan Renhao.

"Secondly, it is how to approach the convoy covertly." Tan Renhao looked at Chang Jianxin, "This is the most difficult problem. There are more than twenty destroyers in the convoy, and even if these destroyers are not equipped with radars, and we operate at night, it is impossible to guarantee that our warships will approach in stealth. ”

"American destroyers should already have radars, at least some of them are equipped with radars." "The British and American destroyers on escort missions in the Atlantic are equipped with the radars needed to search for submarines sailing on the sea, and we have confirmed this from the British. If these radars can detect submarines, they will also be able to detect our destroyers and cruisers. Even if only one destroyer is equipped with radar, it will be difficult for us to approach it covertly. ”

"So, what about airplanes?" Tan Renhao proposed another way.

"It can't be." Dong Jue immediately vetoed Tan Renhao's idea. "First of all, there are no transport planes on our aircraft carriers, and even if transport planes are dispatched from the rear now, one plane can transport a few marines at most, and it is simply impossible to form a complete combat force. It's the same with waterplanes. In addition, the noise of the aircraft is very loud, and even if it can avoid the radar on the destroyer, it will be exposed when it is close to the fleet, and the American destroyers and frigates are not equipped with aircraft, which will cause the American sailors to be alert, and even if we succeed in boarding, the crew will have enough time to blow up the ship. ”

Tan Renhao sighed secretly, if there were a few submarines at this time, maybe he could consider using submarines to send the officers and soldiers who boarded the ship over, but the problem was that there were no submarines in the fleet now, and the submarines might not be able to catch up with the transport fleet in time. The only way is to approach from the sea. "Chang Jianxin took out ▋ again

With small fireboats. The speed of the American convoy was only 12 knots, and perhaps I and the fireboats equipped with our cruisers were able to reach a speed of 24 knots, which was enough to catch up \. Fireboats are relatively small and not easy to be detected by radar, and we can formalize this ourselves, even our radar is difficult to detect fireboats, so it is not easy for the radar on American warships to detect approaching fireboats. In addition, a fireboat can transport more than 20 officers and men, which is enough to form a boarding force. ”

"Yes, that's the only way, and the fireboat isn't very noisy, so it's hard to spot." Hao Dongjue immediately nodded and agreed with Chang Zhixin's proposal.

"The problem is that our fireboats can only travel a maximum of 50 nautical miles, and we have to send them there." Tan Renhao quickly mentally calculated, "Considering the relative speed, our warships can only release the fireboats at most 25 nautical miles away from the transport fleet, and this distance will be shortened to 20 nautical miles, so that it will be easily detected by US radar." ”

"We can put the ships that carry fireboats in front of the convoy routes." Chang Jianxin thought a little deeper than Tan Renhao, "In this way, the launch distance can be expanded to more than 50 miles, and no radar can detect warships 50 nautical miles away." ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, he just didn't think of this method at first.

"So, how do you solve the last problem?" Hao Dongjue changed the subject. "Even if our officers and men board the transport ship, will there be enough time to control the situation on board? And, in the darkness, how can we be sure which transport ship we must capture? There are 23 transports in the fleet, so we have to prepare 23 commandos to ensure control of the transports that we have to capture! ”

"The number of commandos is not a problem in organizing, we can send a couple more cruisers to carry out this task." Chang Jianxin touched his forehead, "If the commando team can get on the ship in concealment." There is a great deal of certainty that the situation on the ship will be controlled. I absolutely have the biggest problem with the U.S. escort warships, if the U.S. escort warships learned that their transport ships had been occupied, they would have taken the initiative to sink these convoys, and at that time, our warships were still dozens of nautical miles away. I couldn't have made it in time! ”

"Set the boarding time for the early hours of the morning." Tan Renhao has already considered this problem, "We can arrange a group of bombers to move near the convoy in advance, and as long as the assault team successfully controls the transport ship and sends a signal, the bombers will go to deal with the US escort warship." As for how the commandos will act after boarding, this can only be decided by the officers of the Marine Corps, and we are not tactical experts in this area. ”

Chang Jianxin and Hao Dongjue both nodded, at least a large number of officers and men in the First Fleet's ship-accompanying marines have carried out similar special operations and have rich combat experience.

"Any other questions?" Tan Renhao stood up as he spoke. "If not, then we're sure. You go back first, and I'll send you a concrete plan of action in the evening. Task Force 3 is assigned to board the ships and transport the assault team, Task Force 2 is responsible for finding and tracking the convoy, and if it is necessary to sink the U.S. warships in the escort area, the 2nd Task Force is also responsible for the bombers. Task Force 1 will be responsible for intercepting the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. ”

Chang Jianxin and Hao Dongjue were not wordy, and then got up and said goodbye. That night, Tan Renhao sent the revised action plan to the two of them. Hao Dongjue arranged the reconnaissance mission that night, just because the distance was too far. So there was no rush to send reconnaissance aircraft. At the same time, he often recommended the new commander of the cruiser of the 3rd Task Force. In the end, six "Tsunaku" class cruisers were each equipped with five fireboats to transport the assault team to the front of the US transport fleet, and the marines on board the ship will select 520 officers and men to form 26 commando teams, and the extra three commandos will cope with the contingency. Post-embarkation operations are planned by Marine Corps officers.

At noon on the 21st, after estimating that the distance between him and the US transport fleet would not exceed 30 nautical miles, Hao Dongjue dispatched the first batch of reconnaissance planes. In order to ensure that the US convoy could be found in a timely manner and at the same time not be discovered by the enemy, Hao Dongjue sent 36 "reconnaissance eagles" to the convoy without arranging for other reconnaissance planes, because after all, it was impossible for other planes that were not equipped with radar to discover the convoy from a long distance.

In the evening of the same day, Tan Renhao received a telegram from Chang Zhixin. At this time, Chang Jiexin raised an extremely acute question, that is, the US escort warships should be on the periphery of the fleet, and the assault fireboats must pass through the cover circle of the escort warships before they can get close to the transport ships, and this can easily expose these small boats!

At this time, Tan Renhao was also a little dumbfounded, he did not immediately revise the action plan, but asked Chang Jianxin to continue the preparations, because Tan Renhao didn't know how to solve this problem. On the same day, he found several staff officers in the fleet who were more proficient in escort tactics.

In general, the transport fleet will try to shorten the length of the formation and expand the width of the formation when sailing, which is mainly to avoid exposing the sides to the submarine. And the escorting warships will mainly patrol the perimeter of the flotilla to prevent enemy submarines from approaching the flotilla. According to the scale of the British and American convoys in the past, a fleet of 23 merchant ships only needed at most six escort destroyers, but this time the U.S. military has more than 20 escort warships, and its escort force has increased several times, so some escort warships remain in the transport ship formation. In such a situation, the fireboat carrying the commando team had little chance of approaching the transport vessel covertly.

After repeated discussions for several hours, all the staff officers agreed that the possibility of success of the operation was not very high, unless the US escort warships were concentrated in a certain direction, and if this goal was to be achieved, it would be necessary for submarines to attack the transport fleet, and a large number of submarines would be dispatched at the same time, forcing the US escort warships to concentrate on attacking the submarines. In the end, Tan Renhao thought of a point, if his luck is good enough, then the operation will be successful, if he is unlucky, then he can only fail!