William. Joseph. Donovan is now a regular in the White House, and soon he will become a senior official in the U.S. government — President Roosevelt promised to create a Strategic Intelligence Bureau in his third presidential term, and Donovan would be the first director.

The future intelligence chief went to Alexandria, Egypt, after meeting with Churchill in London, and after seeing the intact Mediterranean Fleet firsthand, he returned to Washington contentedly. And on July 19th, I met the red-faced Franklin. President Roosevelt.

"Hi William." The president happily shook Donovan's hand. His hands were hot and wet. It's July, the hottest season in Washington, D.C., and while the windows in the Oval Office are open, it's still overwhelmingly hot.

"This is Admiral Stark," Roosevelt said, gesturing to a four-star admiral sitting in the Oval Office, "his Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Donovan, the White House Intelligence Coordinator." ”

Donovan and Stark greeted each other politely. Roosevelt also said: "There is good news to say today that Congress has just passed the 'Two Oceans Navy Act,' and according to this bill and the accompanying shipbuilding plan, our navy will have 18 'Essex' class aircraft carriers, six 'Iowa' class battleships, and five 'Montana' class battleships and 15,000 aircraft in the future!" ”

The "Two Oceans Navy Act" was one of the preparations for the United States to enter the world war, and was led by Chief of Naval Operations Harold Brown. Admiral Stark proposed that he had planned to increase the total size of the U.S. Navy by 70 percent by 1946 at a cost of $4 billion. However, the U.S. Congress gave more than Stark, unanimously passing the "Two Oceans Navy Act" to allocate $8.55 billion to the Navy over five to six years.

Compared with Germany's "Z" plan, the US "Two-Ocean Navy Act" has a much larger hand. The Montana class, which is comparable to the H41 class, has budgeted for five ships in one go, and the Iowa, which is comparable to the H39 class, has started construction of six. In addition, the "Essex" class aircraft carrier, whose combat power is comparable to that of the "Zeppelin" class, plans to build 18 ships!

However, Germany is not the only enemy that the United States has to deal with, and there is also a large Japanese empire in the Pacific, which is also sharpening its knives and wants to enter the war.

"I have good news, President," said Donovan, "and I saw the war-weary, the Malaya and the Sovereign intact in Alexandria, and the USS Tejlis, which was undamaged. Only the aircraft carrier "Eagle" was hit by the ...... The flight deck has a big hole that can take up to 30 days to patch. ”

"How is this possible?" Admiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, said incredulously, "The Italians have 500-600 hunchback planes, and this three-engine aircraft is a good shore-based torpedo bomber, and we have experimented with it." ”

"But the Italians don't know," said Donovan with a smile, "that the Italians used these planes to drop bombs, not by dive, but at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, and with very poor accuracy." ”

"What a lovely Italian!" Admiral Stark laughed, "It seems that we don't have to think much about the threat of the Italian Navy. ”

"The threat to the Italian Army is also not great," Donovan added, "and I met in Alexandria, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, General Wavell, who did not at all consider the Italian army of more than 500,000 in North and East Africa to be a great threat." ”

"But when the Italians fail, the Germans intervene," Roosevelt said, "and does Churchill know the outcome?" ”

"He knew," replied Donovan, "but he still planned to defeat Germany." ”

"Defeat Germany with an empty-handed expeditionary force that fled from Belgium to England?" Admiral Stark said mockingly.

"With a bomber!" Donovan pulled out a picture of the four-engine bomber that Churchill had given him and placed it on Roosevelt's desk. "They were ready to defeat Germany with strategic bombing...... The combat radius of this aircraft is very large, and it can cover most of the German mainland when it takes off from the United Kingdom. ”

"But doesn't Germany have fighters?" Admiral Stark said, "The Germans seem to have thousands of good aircraft." ”

"But we have more!" Franklin. Roosevelt said, "To defeat Germany, we must first weaken it, and there are three ways to weaken it: first, strategic bombing; The second is the blockade and embargo...... If we were going to bomb Germany, then Britain was the last place of bomber departure, so we couldn't afford to lose Britain. Similarly, the British fleet and colonies spread across the globe were the best tools used to blockade Germany and the European continent. ”

He glanced at the Chief of Naval Operations: "So we must do everything we can to aid Britain!" Those 50 destroyers must be ready as soon as possible. ”

Admiral Stark said, "I see, Mr. President. But...... You said three ways, what is the other one? ”

Roosevelt was silent for a moment, and said in a very low voice: "Take advantage of the USSR!" ”

……

"Marshal Hersmann, do you think you can defeat the USSR with just 100 super bombers?" Adolph. Hitler held a stack of papers in his chancellery's office, looked at them carefully with reading glasses, and asked questions from time to time.

Hitler was looking at the latest version of the "Terminator Plan", but he was not most interested in the plan to defeat Britain and the United States, but directly found out the "ultimate plan" against the Soviet Union and studied it -- the various plans in the "Terminator Plan", except for the plan of war against Britain, were the plans of the General Staff, and they would not necessarily be implemented.

But what Hitler saw was not the "Barbarossa Plan" that used blitzkrieg to conquer the Soviet Union, but a "plan to end the bombing".

In this "End Bombing Plan," the bombing missions were not carried out by tens of thousands of four-engine heavy bombers, but by six-engine giant bombers numbering no more than 100. At the same time, this bomber was tasked with "ending bombing" on the continental United States.

"Actually," Hersmann laughed at Hitler's words, "I didn't intend to defeat the USSR with 100 planes, I only planned to use a dozen planes to complete the mission...... If it really comes time to destroy the Soviet Union! ”

"Dozen?" Adolph. Hitler's gray-blue eyes looked at the great military strategist in front of him, who was regarded by the Germans as "Moltke's second".

"Yes!" Hersman nodded, "Just a few!" Drop powerful finishing bombs on several important Soviet cities with a few giant bombers...... One such finishing bomb can unleash the power of an explosion of 20,000 to 30,000 tons ******* explosives, which is enough to destroy a city! ”

Hersmann did not actually intend to destroy the Soviet Union with an atomic bomb, because the Soviet Union was nothing more than a precursor to a harmless future Rosneft...... It is the United States that can really threaten Germany! Even if the United States is defeated at sea and in South America and retreats to North America, it is still a superpower that can compete with Germany, which rules the world.

But it was necessary to have the ability to strike the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons, not only to establish Germany's superiority over the Soviet Union, but also to effectively deter the Soviet Union from taking risks. At the same time, it was a way to fool Hitler. It would certainly be more cost-effective to solve the USSR with a few or dozens of atomic bombs than to send a few million troops, at least not to kill hundreds of thousands of noble Aryan supermen.

"The kind of bomb produced by Project U?" Hitler, of course, knew about this top-secret program, which had already cost hundreds of millions of marks.

"Yes," Hersman nodded. "The U Engineering Commission built two important uranium fission chain reaction test units in April and May this year, both of which were successful."

The construction of two uranium fission chain reaction test units is actually the construction of two very primitive reactors. One is to use graphite as a neutron moderator, and the other is to use heavy water as a neutron moderator.

Unlike in history, both reactors were successful!

Through the nuclear fission chain reaction test, scientists at the U Engineering Committee have gained a more thorough understanding of fast neutron reactions. This is very important for the manufacture of atomic bombs, and the chain reaction of uranium is a very complex problem, and without a test reactor, it is difficult to obtain accurate data from calculations alone.

And after having the reactor, the scientists of the U Engineering Committee quickly calculated the minimum amount of uranium-235 needed to make an atomic bomb, which was only a dozen kilograms.

Immediately, scientists from the U Engineering Committee wrote to Marshal Hirschmann proposing that the nuclear fission bomb project be carried out immediately, and Hirschmann, of course, approved it at the first time.

"Can we make this bomb very quickly?" Adolph. Hitler looked interested.

"It could take two to three years," Hirschman replied, "because there are many hurdles to overcome, the biggest of which is to separate uranium-235, which can produce a nuclear fission reaction, from uranium metal." It takes a lot of time and money, but it's definitely worth it. ”

Actually, there is an easier way, which is to make plutonium bullets. Plutonium-239 is the product of a uranium fission chain reaction, and now the U Engineering Committee is already conducting uranium fission chain reaction tests, so it is only a matter of time before plutonium-239 is discovered - the fission reaction of uranium will produce uranium-239, uranium-239 will produce neptunium-239 after decay, and neptunium-239 will decay to form plutonium-239. Plutonium-239, on the other hand, is easier to separate because it is not an isotope of uranium.

Now the U Engineering Committee has enough talented scientists, and the test is quite well funded, so Hersman only needs to wait quietly for a few months (decay period) to a year before a plan to create a plutonium bomb appears...... (To be continued.) )