On Lenin's birthday, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spent most of the day flying in the sky, not because he had wings, but because he flew all the way from northern Scotland to Newfoundland in a modified Lancaster bomber, and then refueled Newfoundland and then flew to Washington. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Lancaster plane with Churchill and three other Lancasters with attachés left the combat radius of the P-38 fighter jet that had taken off from Iceland and flew over the North Atlantic, which had long been controlled by Germany, with seven percent of its sea power, without air escort.

Fortunately, it was better to keep it secret in advance, and the Germans did not know that Churchill was passing over the North Atlantic on this day, otherwise Roosevelt would have been attending Churchill's memorial service now.

"Mr. Prime Minister, how are you on the road? Didn't encounter a German plane, did you? In the White House conference room, President Roosevelt asked with concern.

"If I do, I'll be a ghost now." Churchill, who staggered into the room with a cigar in his mouth, said half-jokingly. "And that possibility does exist, and there are fewer and fewer safe areas in the North Atlantic...... Did you know, Mr. President? We found another very dangerous German plane, which was discovered on April 15. A twin-engine bomber that can dive-drop bombs or attack with wire-controlled bombs. And the range is amazing, and it can fight in the sea area more than 1,000 kilometers west of Iceland! ”

During the operation on 15 April, the German Ju.288 long-range medium bomber made its debut, not attacking American warships, but sinking a number of British merchant ships, only to be reported to the Royal Navy by surviving merchant sailors.

Of course, there was a reason for these Ju.288 practices, and those merchant ships were loaded with military supplies, and if they were all transported to the British mainland, then the landing battles in the future would be even more difficult to fight. Moreover, the Germans did not find 2 American aircraft carriers of relatively high value at that time. As for the old battleships, which could only be used to bombard the coast, they seemed to the generals of the German naval aviation to be all waste, and merchant ships full of weapons and gasoline were not worth anything at all.

"Is the message exact?" Roosevelt frowned deeply, "The place where the battle was fought that day was 2,000 kilometers from the European continent, right?" ”

"It's been double-checked." Churchill shook his fat head, sat down on a sofa in the interior of the parlour, and lit himself a cigar. "The combat radius of such an aircraft should be 5000 km! And it's a twin-engine fighter, and we estimate that the Germans made a breakthrough in the 2,500 hp class of engines. It is not known whether the German long-range aircraft used air-cooled or liquid-cooled engines. ”

This is definitely not good news! Because the engine is very important to the performance of the aircraft, without a good engine, the best design is useless. For example, the American P51 is not outstanding when it is equipped with America's own engines, but after using the British Grayback Falcon 60, it immediately became the best fighter in the British and American camps.

Churchill went on to say: "The fact that the Italian P.108 flew fast at 11,000 meters in the Battle of the Faroe Islands shows that the German turbochargers had also passed the ......"

A 2,500 hp first-stage engine, plus a turbocharger, plus a glide-by-wire bomb...... It seems that it will be difficult to stop the Germans!

The atmosphere in the conference room was a little dull, the fat man couldn't speak, and the cripple looked a little sluggish. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army, who participated in the talks, broke his silence at this time, saying: "Mr. Prime Minister, now that our two countries are already in the midst of a war against the German-Japanese-Italian bloc at the same time, the US Army believes that there should be a Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee as the highest military decision-making body of the United States and the Commonwealth countries. ”

"That's as it should be, if you don't bring it up, we'll bring it up......" Churchill nodded, and then glanced at Viscount Brooke, the chief of the Imperial General Staff who had come with him to the United States.

"Mr. President, Admiral," said Viscount Brooke, "from the present analysis of the situation, the Germans will soon land on English soil, and will act before the autumnal equinox at the latest. With the Royal Navy no longer able to defend the Channel, we expect 1.5 million Germans to land on British soil...... And we can persist in resisting for a maximum of 6-8 months. ”

Roosevelt and Marshall glanced at each other, and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff was not as optimistic as the British. They think that the time for which the British can hold out is 3 months...... This is actually very much looking at the British. No one has ever been able to hold out for more than 1 week under the attack of the German Army without losing miserably!

As for wanting to keep it for 6-8 months, this is optimistic to the point of unscience, and no one with a brain will believe it.

"It won't be so bad," Roosevelt said confidently, "and Moscow will not watch the last country in Europe that can contain Germany's military power fall." And we, the United States, will not allow Britain, the bridgehead of democracy, to be occupied by Nazi Germany...... If we lose Britain, it will mean the loss of the bridgehead for the counteroffensive. The whole continent of Europe is ruled by the forces of darkness and evil. ”

Roosevelt said "all of Europe"! This included the lands under Bolshevik rule.

Churchill glanced at Roosevelt: "The United States is now standing with us, but the Bolsheviks are still on the sidelines!" Maybe...... Stalin would eventually stand with the Germans and continue their comradely and fraternal friendship. ”

"It's unlikely." Roosevelt tilted his head and glanced at Commerce Secretary Hopkins, who was soon leaving for the Soviet Union to discuss "business issues" with Stalin.

"Stalin needed a route to victory, not defeat." "If such a line existed, the Soviet Red Army would soon attack the Nazis," Hopkins said. If the USSR had joined our side, we would have won! ”

"Victory?" Churchill frowned, "We don't think the Soviet Union has such power. ”

"In fact, they don't have that kind of power," Marshall said, "and the Soviets have a very strong tank force, but they don't have enough trucks, and even if they have our aid, they're too small to fully mechanize the army."

In addition, their air force lacks really high-performance aircraft, and there is a generational gap between their engine technology and our Germany and ours. But as long as the Soviet Union has our support, it can at least greatly deplete Germany's strength and lay the foundation for a final victory. ”

Churchill asked, "You already have a plan?" ”

"Yes," replied Marshall in the affirmative, "we already have a viable plan for victory." ”

"Let the Soviets attack the German army on the British mainland from behind?"

Marshall shook his head and said, "This plan is not very certain...... Large-scale tank assaults seem to be the German forte, and we think that those Germans must have countermeasures. ”

The Americans launched a tank assault on Oahu and were beaten badly by Japan, an ally of the Germans! So a senior U.S. Army general like Marshall doubted that the German infantry would be able to withstand the enemy's tank attacks like the Japanese infantry.

"So how do you win?" Churchill asked.

"Bombing!" "It was strategic bombing, with American and British planes taking off from the Soviet Union to bomb oil fields in the Middle East and Romania," Marshall said. As long as the German oil supply was cut off, their army would become weak. ”

Strategic bombing is the core of several anti-German operational plans jointly formulated by the US Army General Staff and the Naval Operations Department -- without bombing to destroy Germany's war potential, the United States will not win at all.

In the original plan, bombers would take off from the British mainland to bomb Germany. However, it is unlikely that the British mainland will be the starting point for bombers now, so the Soviet Union is the only option.

Roosevelt said: "Mr. Prime Minister, as far as I know, you Britain have been preparing for the bombing of Germany. ”

Churchill took a puff of his cigar, and he had already understood the plans of the Americans. In this plan, Britain needed to take out its own bombers and pilots, and together with the Americans and the Soviets, use Soviet soil as a base to carry out intensive and repeated bombing of Germany's oil-extracting sites until they were completely destroyed.

"Constant bombing is a war of attrition!" Churchill hesitated.

The reason why he was reluctant to send planes to bomb German cities was that he knew that Britain, which was now blockaded, could not afford such a war of attrition. There are not enough planes, spare parts, pilots and gasoline. If you hit the Germans' airtight air defense net, maybe in three or four months the British Royal Air Force will have nothing to fly in.

"We know," said Admiral Lacey, Chief of Naval Operations, "that we have to maintain the Newfoundland-Greenland-Iceland-Murmansk route...... It will be a victorious route! ”

"What do you sustain?" Churchill asked.

"Sustained with the navies of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union!"

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations William Brown. Lacey snapped his fingers and said, "Now we have the battleship Washington and seven other old battleships, and the USS Massachusetts will be in service in May and the USS Alabama in August." And you now have the Duke of York, the Prestige, the Nelson, five Queen Elizabeth-class, and around the autumnal equinox, the Anson and Howe will be in service. And the Soviets will have 2 super-battleships and 1 brand new battlecruiser by that time. So we are quite capable of maintaining the Newfoundland-Greenland-Iceland-Murmansk route, sending enough bombs and planes, as well as pilots, to the USSR. (To be continued.) )