"It's roasting me on the fire!" Throwing a document on the table, Raymond wiped his sweat and said to the army general beside him without hesitation.

This is a telegram from Washington, which arrived at Pearl Harbor after crossing the magnificent American continent and half of the Pacific Ocean, and Raymond is quite annoyed, Washington's order is really embarrassing, and he was reluctant to be appointed commander of the fleet, let alone go to the front line of Pearl Harbor in person. At the time of the national crisis, most people still think about saving their lives first, and Raymond is not very great and noble, and coming here is also political persecution, so he has to do it as a last resort.

Colonel Wesley, commander of the Army's 25th Infantry Division, picked up the message and read softly: "Vice Admiral Raymond, commander of the Pacific Fleet, commander of the Hawaiian garrison, Major General Edward of the Army, deputy commander of the garrison, and Colonel Wesley as chief of operations, must thwart any possible attempt by the Chinese army to land on the Hawaiian Islands." In addition, the mainland will send the 4th and 5th Divisions to Hawaii to assist in the defense work. ”

Colonel Wesley shook his head, it was indeed embarrassing, as the former head of the Hawaiian garrison, Wesley knew the situation here best. After the Hawaiian Islands became more strategically located and Pearl Harbor began to be built as a military base, the U.S. Army sent his 25th Division over. However, in addition to Pearl Harbor's relatively complete port facilities, the land defense facilities of Oahu, Hawaii Island, Kauai Island and other islands are very backward.

The U.S. government thought that with the Japanese archipelago in front of it and the Yokosuka Pacific Fleet, it would be able to ensure the security of the Hawaiian Islands and the west coast of the mainland, but it never imagined that one day the Hawaiian Islands would face a threat on land. In addition to the backward land defense facilities, Wesley's 25th Division was not a regular army division, but came from the National Guard, and the establishment was the same as that of a regular division, but the total number was only about 11,000. It has a 75-mm artillery regiment with a total of 24 guns and 90 machine guns, and its firepower is inferior to that of the Korean Army, an ally of China.

On the key island of Oahu, the U.S. military has seven 150-millimeter or more shore defense guns, and the other islands have a total of 25 large-caliber shore defense guns. However, judging from the Battle of Yokosuka, the Chinese Navy will use the air force as the main assault force, so the shortcomings of the lack of air defense weapons of the Hawaiian garrison will be immediately revealed. The US Army Air Corps also has a military airfield on Oahu and Hawaii Island, where two fighter squadrons, one reconnaissance squadron, and one bomber squadron are stationed.

Raymond took a long sip of his coffee, stared at the large map on the wall and asked, "When will Major General Edward arrive?" Without those two divisions, we don't want to hold Hawaii. ”

A military staff officer immediately replied: "Ten minutes ago news came from San Francisco that Major General Edward and the Fourth Division were the first to depart by transport ship and were expected to arrive at Pearl Harbor at about eleven o'clock in the morning in five days, and the Fifth Division departing by train from Chicago arrived at Pearl Harbor much later. ”

Turning back and nodding to this military staff officer, Raymond's mood was finally better, compared to the lack of garrison strength, the lack of supplies and the urgency of the war, these excellent military staff officers under him really relieved themselves. The person who answered the question just now was Captain Nimitz of the Pacific Fleet, who served as the captain of the destroyer USS Decatur in Yokosuka, and was one of the few officers in the US Navy who had experienced war.

Due to his outstanding performance in the Yokosuka incident, Lieutenant Nimitz was selected by the commander of the trusted fleet, Raymond, and was exceptionally promoted to captain and served as his intelligence adjutant. It is not uncommon for young people in the current Pacific Fleet to be unusually promoted, and the Yokosuka incident not only destroyed most of the warships, but also cost the U.S. Navy a large number of excellent officers.

In addition to Captain Nimitz, there were two young star officers in the Navy, Captain Spruance who served as the battleship construction supervisor in San Diego, and Captain Halsey, who served as the captain of the destroyer division of the escort fleet in San Francisco. Of course, although the US Navy does not have as deep a talent pool as the British, it does have a lot of talent, and now many naval officers who are willing to be promoted stay in the major shipyards in the mainland, and from the first steel plate they are familiar with the warships they are about to command and live.

This is another reason why Raymond came to Pearl Harbor with confidence, even if he unfortunately died, the naval talent in the local reserve could support the new fleet.

"Send a telegram to Rear Admiral Edward and order him to hurry to Pearl Harbor, the situation does not allow him to swing slowly on the sea, the convoy can run as fast as it can, we do not know when the Chinese army will land, and the defense of the Hawaiian Islands must be strengthened as soon as possible. The area west of Hawaii is completely dark for us, and this feeling of not being able to get information is terrible! ”

Captain Nimitz quickly recorded the order, and seeing that Lieutenant General Raymond looked thoughtful, he did not go to the telegraph room to convey the order, and sure enough, a new order was issued again a few minutes later.

"Send a telegram to Washington, first, to urge the progress of the Fifth Division of the Army, and second, to ask for more supplies to be sent to Pearl Harbor, anti-aircraft artillery, coastal defense artillery, aircraft, weapons and ammunition used by the army, oil, cement and steel plates, trucks, weapon parts, what do you want, we lack everything now, materials and time, this is the key to holding Hawaii!"

After saluting, Captain Nimitz walked out of the command room, and Major General Wesley also nodded to Raymond, he knew what he had to do, once the Chinese army launched an attack between the arrival of support, he could only rely on more than 10,000 low-combat soldiers of the 25th Division to defend Hawaii. There's a lot that can be done now, building stronger fortifications, distributing ammunition, and even conducting shooting training.

After taking another sip of coffee, Raymond turned to Lieutenant Arnold, the Army Air Forces liaison officer, and said: "We only have three destroyers and two cruisers in Pearl Harbor, these five battleships are extremely precious to us, I don't want them to go deep into Hawaii and Midway Island to reconnoitre, the US Navy can no longer afford the loss of any battleship, and Washington does not want to hear the news from the sinking of battleships on the battlefield, so that the officers and men of the White House will have a heart attack." ”

"Therefore, the reconnaissance and early warning work around Hawaii will be handed over to you, and I hope that the air force can send planes to patrol the surrounding area and report to the command headquarters as soon as they encounter enemy planes or warships."

Lieutenant Arnold hesitated a little, and then reported: "Report to the general, the duty of the aviation is to cooperate with the general in carrying out the mission, but there are some problems that need to be solved before the plane can be dispatched. ”

Raymond rubbed his forehead and waved Arnold to continue.

"First of all, the range of the air reconnaissance aircraft, the reconnaissance aircraft and the fighter we use are the same model, both are P02 biplanes finalized and mass-produced in 1908. The endurance time is only about 45 minutes, and the maximum flight speed is 75 kilometers per hour, which means that our aircraft can patrol the surrounding area up to about 24 kilometers. The patrol range is not large. ”

"It's better than nothing, what's the problem?" Raymond was a little impatient.

Arnold smiled helplessly, and then said: "The air force stationed in Hawaii has not yet equipped the aircraft with radios, and the communication between pilots can only be carried out through gestures. ”

"Is there such a thing? Why is the radio not equipped? "Lieutenant General Raymond was a little surprised, the reconnaissance plane was not equipped with a radio, which was equivalent to cutting off half of its effectiveness.

Arnold shrugged, who knows how, before the start of the war, the rest of the American army, except for the Navy, was in a state of exhaustion and laziness, and it was normal for no radio to be installed.

U.S. military factories have wireless intercoms for Air Force aircraft, and their performance is not lagging behind the advanced level of Europe, but the stupidity of the army's logistics department has caused most of the wireless equipment to be piled up in warehouses. Wait until after the outbreak of the war to find the list of materials in full swing, open the material warehouse and let it be transported to the various armies, at the same time, chaos in logistics and transportation is inevitable, this is a kind of discipline, a kind of system engineering, a kind of science, receiving, storing, transporting, distributing, etc., all links will produce chaos, the US army still has too much to learn.

The order could not be disobeyed, the commander of the garrison was a naval general who regarded the battleship as a treasure bump, and the aviation could only reluctantly formulate a patrol plan. According to the range of the aircraft and the division of the airfield, 35 reconnaissance planes will take off from the airfield and will fan-shape the Hawaiian Islands around an area of about 20 kilometres. The progress of technology has brought about changes in weapons and tactics, and who would have thought that aircraft would act as the main force of reconnaissance on the sea? Who would have thought that the planes would sink a whole fleet in return? Who would have thought that the United States of America, which is alone abroad, would be plunged into a big war? (To be continued.) )