But even so, Wegener's fleet still suffered considerable losses, the aircraft carrier "Kaga" purchased from Japan, as well as one heavy cruiser and two destroyers, were sunk, no less than 10 warships were damaged to varying degrees, and 105 planes were shot down or blown up. Speaking of which, thanks to the low accuracy of horizontal bombing, and Roosevelt's spur of the moment, he did not have time to make special modifications to these B-24s, which were originally used to bomb ground targets, so although the bomb load is amazing, the single bomb carried is not very large, otherwise the losses of Wegener's fleet will definitely be greater. But it is precisely because this tactic is completely unreasonable that even a famous player like Wegener suffers from carelessness

However, the losses of the U.S. military are also staggering, according to post-war statistics, a total of 562 B-24s were shot down, and another 71 barely flew back but were too seriously injured to repair, you must know that the cost of a B-24 long-range bomber is as high as 300,000 US dollars, which is equivalent to the cost of 6 of the most advanced fighters or dive bombers in the United States, and the crew is also much more, and the price paid by the Americans can be imagined. In fact, such a crazy tactic can only be played by the deep-pocketed United States, you must know that all the long-range bombers currently owned by the Axis camp do not have this number (in history, except for the United States, the British have built thousands of strategic bombers, and other countries do not have this financial and industrial capacity), and the Americans simply smashed the Germans with money

And, more importantly, Roosevelt's desperate gamble forced Wegener's fleet to withdraw home to repair the wounded ships. Shipping over the North Atlantic was restored, although the threat of German submarines was still a headache, at least it was much better than having been completely truncated by the German main fleet before. At the same time, the "victory" of this battle made the Americans fully realize how terrible the number of strategic bombers was, and soon after, the P-51 Mustang fighter was replaced with a modified P-51B fighter with a British Merlin engine and entered service, so that the United States had a fighter with extremely excellent high-altitude performance and super endurance, and the conditions for the US military to carry out large-scale strategic bombing in the hinterland of the Western European continent and even on the German mainland were initially ripe

Although there were bombers from the British Royal Air Force coming to attack from time to time, they were basically mainly harassment, so when the huge bomber group of thousands of US troops appeared in the skies over Western Europe, the German troops everywhere were generally unprepared. The first large-scale bombing by the US military was a great success.

But the Americans who are very excited about this do not know. In fact, the strategic bombing in history had greater results and smaller losses, but in this time and space, because the Germans obtained the jishu of the proximity fuse and the rod warhead, and the national strength was also stronger, the US strategic bombing suffered far greater losses than in history. Especially after the Germans had taken precautions. And when the mustache brought back more of the main forces of the Air Force on the Eastern Front. The losses of US strategic bombers were even greater. Even with P-51B fighter escort, the average number of aircraft lost per day is in the hundreds. And because the air battles took place on the Western European continent, the Allied pilots parachuted out and were rescued by the Resistance and returned safely, while almost all of the others became prisoners of the Germans. On the contrary, even if the German pilots were shot down by the enemy, most of them were able to return to the blue sky, just as it was when the Luftwaffe bombed London, and the Americans' air superiority was far less obvious than that of the Luftwaffe at that time.

As a result, the exchange ratio of pilots reached 5:1 at the highest, which made Roosevelt bear the huge pressure of public opinion from home and allies, but Roosevelt still withstood the pressure from all sides and adhered to this strategy, in his opinion, as long as the United States can only bomb Germany, Germany but cannot attack the United States mainland, then victory is only a matter of time, and at the same time strategic bombing also restrained the main force of the Luftwaffe, As a result, Germany was unable to take advantage of the hard-won sea supremacy to recapture the Shetland and Faroe Islands, which had just been lost for a short time, so that the Allies would have more than a dozen more available airfields, and the number of aircraft that could be put into the battlefield would naturally increase. Moreover, one point that cannot be ignored is that with the return of the main force of the Luftwaffe to the west, the pressure on the Soviet side will certainly be greatly reduced, which is quite favorable from the overall perspective of World War II

By the end of 1942, the total number of military and civilian deaths in Shijie countries exceeded 30 million, which is much more than the same period in history, and the turning point of World War II is far from coming, that is, I am afraid that more people will die in the future

"The course of World War II is completely different from history, and I am afraid that even the United States will have to shed a layer of skin this time; As for the Soviet Union, it would be good to be able to maintain the status of a first-class power after the war, and the superpower should not think about it at all; Britain is completely crippled, and it will be a second-rate country within ten years after the war. If this development continues, China will also hope to get a piece of the pie, but the premise is that we must seize the time, and every time our national strength grows, we will have a better chance of winning in the future," Hu Weidong, who is in a secret research institute in the northwest, thought to himself after reading the latest information.

Compared with those powers involved in the war, the Chinese people who can enjoy peace are undoubtedly much happier, but the whole country does not dare to relax in the slightest, because the history since the Opium War tells everyone a truth, only when their own strength is strong, can peace be truly ensured. Therefore, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the people of the whole country have plunged into production and construction with high enthusiasm, and although Hu Weidong, as a person who has come over, knows that this enthusiasm cannot last long, but with the help of haode, it is still possible to greatly promote China's industrialization process in at least ten years, which is very important for the final meeting of World War II, which will be attended in a few years at most.

Despite this, 1942 was the slowest year since the founding of the People's Republic of China, with an industrial growth rate of only 11 percent, leaving China's total industrial output to remain behind Japan's growing strength due to its massive expansion. This was first and foremost due to the severe drought of 1942, which not only led to a large-scale reduction in production in Henan, China's number one granary, but also caused the most important industrial region in the Central Plains to be greatly affected by the squeezing of industrial water.

The more important reason is that, due to the lessons of 1941, Taizu specifically instructed to increase the localization rate of various major industrial products as soon as possible. Strictly speaking, with China's current industrial base, this is simply impossible, after all, the number of domestic jishu workers is so small, and there are even fewer scientific and technological experts; But Hu Weidong understands Taizu's thoughts, it is just for the sake of precaution, so there is no need to consider factors such as performance and quality, and the problem of "whether there is or not" is solved, so that there is no fear of people getting stuck, and this degree of localization, Chinese workers are still capable of achieving it (to be continued......

PS: Thank you for the reward of the book friend "Yunlong Fengxue", and continue to ask for recommendation votes ^_^