EST, April 26, 1945, 2:40 p.m. ET. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the east coast of the United States, 90 nautical miles off Long Island, New York, the aircraft carrier "Essex".

U.S. Task Force 56 Chief of Staff Arleigh Brown. Rear Admiral Burke was standing on a platform outside the island, holding a telescope and looking southeast. Suddenly, a four-engine cargo airship (that is, a seaplane) flew at a sea-skimming altitude in his telescope. The speed of the watercraft did not seem to be slow, at least 300 km/h, and it was soon approaching the "Essex" class. And it's in Ali. Burke's telescope also became so huge that it occupied almost the entire eyepiece.

"Go tell the Admiral that Admiral Pruance's Mars 1 has arrived!" Ali. Burke said loudly to one of the staff officers behind him.

The airship is the largest aircraft ever owned by the U.S. Navy, and possibly the largest in the world! Codenamed JRM "Mars", it has a maximum take-off weight of 74.8 tons and can carry 180 heavily armed soldiers or more than twenty tons of cargo, and can also be used as a long-range maritime patrol bomber.

However, the JRM Mars watercraft that flew near the flagship of Task Force 56 today did not have much personnel and cargo in it. There was only one important person and a few of his staff members on it. The giant airship was used only because it was the fastest flying water transport plane owned by the U.S. Navy, and it happened to be moored on the Potomac River near Washington (this airship was used by U.S. President S. Truman on the run), so it was used to transport Admiral Spruance, the joint commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific-Atlantic Fleet.

Ali. Burke and his superior, Admiral Mitchell, commander of U.S. Task Force 56, learned only an hour before that Admiral Spruance had personally arrived at the USS Essex -- a surprise but expected.

Now the "Essex" is rushing to the battlefield near Newfoundland with a huge number of ships numbering dozens of square nautical miles, and before this huge fleet sails to Newfoundland, it is wandering the waters west of Bermuda, waiting to engage the invading European navy!

But the plan could not catch up with the change, and the German paratroopers launched the main attack on the mass airborne and airborne landings on the island of Newfoundland. And the F-13 reconnaissance aircraft also spotted a large fleet in the Atlantic Ocean about 300 nautical miles southwest of Newfoundland.

At this time, the deployment of the decisive battle of the US Navy's Pacific and Atlantic Fleet Joint Command was completely disrupted. Spruance had no choice but to give Task Force 56 an order to "move north along the east coast of the United States and approach the island of Newfoundland" before leaving for Washington for an emergency military meeting.

It was a temporary and unclear order, which amounted to handing everything over to Admiral Mitchell, commander of Task Force 56. This is not the style of the cautious Admiral Spruance.

Therefore, after attending the White House meeting and learning about the latest intentions of President Truman and the Pentagon, Spruance personally flew to the aircraft carrier "Essex" to discuss the battle plan with Admiral Mitchell in person.

The huge water blimp finally came to a steady stop in the sea near the "Essex". A motorboat with the "Essex" mark, under the control of a US Navy soldier in a white sailor uniform, rode the wind and waves to the giant airship.

The hatch on the side of the airship opened, and the gangway was lowered, and half of a Navy major in a dark blue military uniform poked out of the hatch, and his eyes swept over the motorboat, and he saw Admiral Mitchell and Arlie coming out of the cabin. Rear Admiral Burke.

"Two generals, Admiral Spruance is in the cabin, and he invites you to get on the plane and talk."

"Okay, okay."

Mitchell said yes, and then asked Arley. Burke beckoned, and the two men boarded the airship one after the other.

After entering the airship, the two found that it was quite spacious and luxuriously furnished, not so much like a military aircraft, but like the interior of a luxury airliner.

When the two walked into the cabin, Admiral Spruance was already standing on the soft red carpet inside the cabin. When he saw Mitchell, he stepped forward and shook hands and hugged him cordially.

"Mark, I've seen you." Then Spruance went back to Arley. Burke waved his hand, "Arlie, yes, I'm already a major general." ”

Mitchell looked at the furnishings in the cabin and asked Spruance with a smile, "Raymond, whose plane is this?" It's so beautiful. ”

"President's!" "As soon as the Germans' bombers break through the East Coast air defense network, the president leaves the White House and takes the plane to Chicago on the Potomac River," Spruance said...... Of course, it's top secret! ”

It's no secret that U.S. presidents leave Washington when things don't go well. Generals of Burke's level knew -- they also knew that if the president did not run away, Vice President Kennedy would come to power in Chicago, and there was already a well-equipped "reserve government" in Chicago ready to shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the United States.

After a bit of rambling, Spruance finally got straight to the point, telling Mitchell and Arley. "The situation is very dangerous, we are likely to lose on the island of Newfoundland, and if that happens, we lose the war," Burke said. ”

"I know," Mitchell nodded, figuring out his pipe, which was already filled with tobacco, "is that okay?" ”

"It's okay, I'll have one too." Spruance felt for a cigar, and an adjutant lit it for him, then lit Mitchell's pipe.

Mitchell said: "Do you feel that the decisive battle at sea is not certain? ”

Spruance nodded: "Actually, I think so too. He paused, glancing at the expressionless Mitchell, "Now we must absolutely avoid another Bermuda defeat...... So I planned to use a feint operation to divert the main forces of the German fleet from the vicinity of Newfoundland, thereby creating favorable conditions for counter-landing operations in the direction of Newfoundland. ”

"Anti-landing operations?" Mitchell hurriedly asked, "Did the Germans start landing?" ”

"Not yet." Spruance shook his head, "But it's almost over, there are already German water-sweeping planes operating in Concepson Bay this morning." ”

The water minesweeper is to hang a ring electromagnet under the wing of the seaplane (the plane is like stepping on a large iron ring), and then fly over the target sea area at a low altitude, and use the electromagnet on the plane to detonate the magnetic mine on the bottom of the sea. However, the minesweeping effect is not ideal, and it has no effect on traditional anchor mines.

"That's a good sweep." Admiral Mitchell took a puff of his cigarette and smiled mockingly, "The Germans must not know how many mines we have laid in Concepson Bay, do they?" And...... We and the British also deployed a large number of PT torpedo boats and U-class submarines in Concepson Bay, ready to carry out minelaying missions and raid the German landing fleet! ”

PT torpedo boats are wooden-hulled, so they are suitable for operating in sea areas covered with magnetic mines, carrying out raiding and mine-laying tasks.

The U-class submarine is not a German U-boat, but a first-class light submarine designed by the United Kingdom, with a displacement of more than 500 tons to more than 700 tons (more than 500 tons on the surface and 700 tons underwater), and cannot run the ocean, but it can perform offshore defense tasks.

With the fall of the British mainland and the threat of invasion in North America, the PT torpedo boats and the U-class submarines became the focus of construction. More than 3,000 PT torpedo boats and 500 U-class submarines have been built, and 1,600 and more than 300 PT boats and U-class submarines are in service.

Although Newfoundland was not the main German attack direction as expected (and the Americans expected), the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy's Canadian fleet still deployed dozens of U-class boats and hundreds of PT boats there, half of which were stationed in Concepson Bay -- not that the Germans would land here in advance, but that Concepson Bay was close to St. John's, the headquarters of the Allied forces on Newfoundland, and it was convenient to place the main forces of torpedo boats and submarine forces here.

And the PT boats that happened to be placed in Concepson Bay began to drop mines into the water when the German paratroopers landed on the west shore of Concepson Bay, and more than 100 PT boats could drop 4-6 at a time, a boat could drop at least 30 mines a day, and more than 100 PT torpedo boats could throw more than 3,000 mines.

"The Germans would have landed if the mines were not clear," Spruance said, "and today at noon they made another airborne landing on the west shore of Concepson Bay, dropping at least 5,000 paratroopers and dropping down a lot of weaponry." Since German planes suppressed the 240mm artillery on Belle Island, Grays Harbor was also captured this morning.

In addition, Old Perrican and the Basque Country (a small island near the entrance to the western shore of Concepson Bay) were also occupied by the Germans. Now almost the entire western shore of Concepson Bay is under German control. The number of troops already parachuted in was estimated to be more than 25,000, so the landing operation was inevitable, and the Germans could not have abandoned the west shore of Concepson Bay and so many paratroopers. ”

Mitchell nodded, "Raymond, so how are we going to fight?" ”

"Separate 6 Essex-class aircraft carriers and 3 Independence-class aircraft carriers to form the 57th Task Force to go straight to the Azores, and the rest of the fleet will be divided into two, and all the heavy patrols and battle patrols will be drawn out and incorporated into the 11th Task Force, and the rest of the ships will enter the Bay of Fundy to hide and standby."