"What? Heading towards Bermuda? ”

Ali. Burke was taken by surprise by the order, and in the original plan, Task Force 31 was to target the Azores, and not to do so now, but to wait until the air and sea battles near Guyana began, and then attack from the Leeward Islands and the island of Puerto Rico. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"What's going on?" Ali. Burke took the copy of the telegram and looked at it.

It turned out to be an A-13 ultra-long-range reconnaissance aircraft deployed in Bermuda, and during several aerial reconnaissance operations on August 31, the German fleet was spotted moving towards Bermuda!

This can be combined with Nimitz, Halsey, Ernest. Kim, William. Leahy and Roosevelt were frightened.

Bermuda is only more than 1,000 kilometers away from the mainland of the United States, and if the Me264 is occupied and deployed by Germany, then the atomic bomb will fall on the heads of the American people!

So Roosevelt immediately issued an order to the Joint Chiefs of Staff: the absolute security of Bermuda must be ensured!

The US troops, who had received the order, immediately moved to Bermuda at full speed, and the US Task Force 30, which had planned to wait for an opportunity to attack the Azores, was ordered to approach Bermuda.

"Admiral, telegram from the USS Essex," Admiral Halsey, aboard the battleship Iowa at noon EST, received a call back from Task Force 30, "Task Force 30 will arrive 250 nautical miles south of Bermuda in 56 hours." ”

Task Force 30 is currently located 1,100 nautical miles from Bermuda and 850 nautical miles from its position 250 nautical miles south of Bermuda. However, the US Task Force 30 does not dare to go in a straight line, the Atlantic Ocean is not the Pacific Ocean, and there are hundreds of Type 21 U-boats underwater!

Therefore, the 30th task force had to take an anti-submarine route, and the straight-line distance of 850 nautical miles became an anti-submarine route of 1,360 nautical miles. At a high speed of 24 knots, you have to travel for 56 hours.

"How far are we from Bermuda?" Halsey asked his chief of staff, Callaghan.

"About 1,350 nautical miles," Callahan understood what his old boss thought, "about 2,150 nautical miles on an anti-submarine route, and you can get there in 90 hours." Going? ”

"Of course!" Halsey nodded heavily, "We must concentrate on the main forces of the Atlantic Fleet, only in this way can victory be ensured...... Since the German fleet is close to Bermuda, then we will fight them there! ”

"Or maybe it's a trap," Callahan said, "just to lure us away from the neighborhood of Guaya." ”

"It doesn't matter." "There are now more than 30,000 Marines and paratroopers in Georgetown, and there are nearly 3,000 shore-based aircraft on the island of Trinidad," Halsey said. Even if we leave, the Germans will not be able to win for a while.

And as long as we can annihilate the German fleet close to Bermuda, decent peace will come. ”

Halsey only said half of what he said in this last paragraph, and the other half is that even if the 30,000 American troops who have landed and landed in Georgetown are completely annihilated, they will be able to bear it for the United States!

As long as the Atlantic Fleet can deliver a heavy blow to the combined European fleet! The United States is hoping to occupy a relatively large lead in the "competition" of naval strength between the two sides of the Atlantic -- what has a bearing on the future and destiny of the United States now is not the gains or losses of tens of thousands of ground troops, but the comparison of the naval strength of the two sides.

In this life-threatening race, although the United States is temporarily ahead, it is ahead of its opponents in several important data such as the total tonnage of aircraft carriers, the total tonnage of battleships, the total tonnage of cruisers, and the total tonnage of the navy.

However, the countries of the European Community are no worse than the United States in terms of shipbuilding capacity, and before the world war, Britain alone surpassed the United States in the international shipbuilding market! The current lead of the United States is only that the "Two Oceans Navy Act" enacted in 1940 has given the United States a head start in the shipbuilding race.

But now that the land wars in Europe are largely over, the Germans can finally use the powerful shipbuilding industries of the European Community countries to build warships with all their might.

And if the United States wants to maintain its "naval superiority," in addition to going all out to build ships, it will not miss any opportunity that can inflict heavy damage on the European Combined Fleet -- if the United States' superiority in naval strength can be completely established through a decisive naval and air war, then the war is very likely to end with dignity.

So even if the ground forces that had landed in Guyana became prisoners of the Germans, it didn't matter.

"Transfer all the F7Fs to the Norfolk base (Atlantic Fleet home port, 1,160 kilometers from Bermuda)." Halsey thought about it for a moment, and felt that he should add a little more leverage to the battle for Bermuda. "Now we should go all out and take out all the trump cards!"

……

"Imperial Marshal, this is Task Force 21, which is now about 800 nautical miles from Bermuda. A large reconnaissance aircraft of the Americans, which flew around them for 1 hour last night, should have spotted them.

These are the 491st and 492nd Groups attached to Task Force 21, which are two submarine-hunting groups that are currently on reconnaissance and alert duty. Group 491 was deployed 200 nautical miles south of Task Force 21 and Group 492 was deployed 200 nautical miles north of Task Force 21.

This is the 1st Submarine Group, currently located about 200 nautical miles east of Task Force 21, and is heading at full speed towards Bermuda. According to the plan, the 16-Type U-boats of the 1st Submarine Group will be deployed in the waters around the Bermuda Islands and will be mainly responsible for patrolling the theater of operations.

This is Task Force 20, located 200 nautical miles west of Task Force 21.

This is the 31st Task Force, which includes the aircraft carriers Strasser, Austria, Xiafei and Bandvi. Two of the Xiafei-class aircraft carriers (Xiafei and Banervi) are equipped with a total of 48 twin-engine Br.810 carrier-based torpedo bombers. This aircraft was improved on the basis of the attack aircraft of the Br.690 series by the French company Breguet, and was the first known twin-engine aircraft to be successfully put on board. Its bomb load and range surpassed that of ordinary single-engine carrier-based aircraft, and the Br.810 carrier-based torpedo bomber also had radar and radio altimeter on board, which could carry out night torpedo attacks.

Currently, Task Force 20, Task Force 21, 491, 492 and 1st Submarine Group are approaching Bermuda at a speed of 14 knots. Task Force 31 sailed to the standby area at a speed of about 20 knots.

Task Force 21 is expected to be attacked by U.S. bombers from Bermuda in 20-24 hours. ”

Admiral Messer, Chief of Staff of the German Navy, holding a baton in his hand, pointed at a huge chart and told the Marshal of the Hessmann Empire the deployment of the European Combined Fleet on the battlefield in Bermuda.

Listening to General Messer's report, Hersman was a little proud. The current EC Navy has really grown!

Although the European Combined Fleet used only a small part of its forces in the decisive battle of Bermuda, its strength should not be underestimated. There are 8 battleships and missile ships with combat strength superior to battleships, 15 aircraft carriers and auxiliary aircraft carriers of various types, 6 heavy cruisers, 18 light cruisers, more than 100 destroyers, 16 high-performance Type 21 submarines, and nearly 400 combat aircraft of various kinds (including seaplanes).

"Has the specific battle plan been prepared?" Hersman asked.

The plan to lure the main forces of the American fleet with a feint attack on Bermuda existed in the plan "Atlantic Storm". However, this plan is relatively general, only a general plan, and there is no specific plan.

"It's been prepared, and the plan is codenamed Storm 1." "The Atlantic Front Command plans to use Task Force 21 as a decoy to engage U.S. shore-based and carrier-based aviation forces, and after inflicting heavy damage on U.S. aircraft carrier forces or carrier-based air forces, feign heavy losses and retreat eastward at a low speed of about 10 knots to attract U.S. battleship forces to pursue."

At the same time, Task Force 20 moved westward at full speed to engage in a decisive battle with the U.S. battleship forces, defeating and inflicting heavy damage on the U.S. battleship forces with anti-ship missiles. Then the 21st Task Force and the 1st Submarine Group were pursued. The task of Task Force 31 was to cover the battleships of Task Force 20 in pursuit or retreat from being attacked by U.S. carrier-based aircraft or shore-based aircraft. ”

……

"Mr. President, the 'Poseidon Plan' has been drawn up."

At the same time, Chief of Naval Operations of the United States, Ernest Murphy. Admiral King also brought the decisive battle plan that had just been drawn up, and met with Admiral Leahy, the chief of staff of the president, with Franklin who was still a few months away. Roosevelt.

The name of the battle plan was "Poseidon 1 Plan", and like the German "Storm 1 Plan", it was fought in Bermuda.

In the eyes of the German General Staff, the Bermuda operation was a good opportunity to inflict a heavy blow on the US Pacific Fleet.

In the same way, in the eyes of the US Admiralty and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this was also an opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the Combined European Fleet - the German military strategists were obviously not experts in naval warfare, and they had completely forgotten the most basic military principle of concentration of forces in directing decisive battles at sea, and had repeatedly dispersed their already weak maritime forces.

This gave the US Navy, which has the convenience of the Panama Canal, the opportunity to concentrate all its main forces to annihilate a part of the European Combined Fleet!