Zheng Weiguo asked a little suspiciously: "Is it enough to be busy for a month?" He remembered that the battle of Kuah Island alone lasted for nearly half a year, not to mention that the Kuril Islands were close to the Japanese mainland, and the Japanese would definitely have to fight hard at that time. A month is too optimistic.

Chief of Staff Zhou expressed doubts about whether the US military could win, because according to the US military's war report, there is now only one "Enterprise" aircraft carrier left in the Eighth Fleet that can fight, and the dive bombers and torpedo bombers are also seriously damaged.

The Japanese army also has six aircraft carriers, including the "Flying Eagle", "Ruifeng", "Fengxiang", "Divine Eagle", "Sea Eagle", and "Chongying". Although they are all small guys who have been converted from merchant ships, the smallest "Fengxiang" can only carry 19 planes, and the largest "Flying Eagle" can also carry more than 40 planes, but it is still very advantageous to fight one out of six.

So don't look at the fact that the Japanese lost eight aircraft carriers in the Battle of the Aleutians, and the United States lost only two, but Japan still had an advantage in carrier-based aircraft. This is also where Japan's courage to provoke the Pacific War and start a war on multiple fronts lies.

"A month is just preparation time." Carlson explained: "We intend to gather supplies, train troops, mobilize warships in this one time, and then strive to capture all the islands in the Kuril chain within three months!" ”

The American side believed that if Germany wanted to attack the British Isles, it would take at least half a year to prepare. Therefore, the U.S. military decided to temporarily transfer forces in the Atlantic to the Pacific to participate in the war, and then return to the Atlantic after three months.

For this reason, the US military transferred back the two main aircraft carriers, the USS Wasp and the USS Raider, which were operating in the Atlantic. At the same time, some escort aircraft carriers will be dispatched to participate in the war.

As mentioned earlier, the U.S. military had only seven aircraft carriers before the war. However, a year before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the U.S. government also realized that there was a serious crisis in coastal defense, so it urgently converted a large number of merchant ships into aircraft carriers, which are now serving in the Atlantic theater. Among them are the Sangamon-class escort aircraft carriers and the Borg-class escort aircraft carriers, although the performance is very poor, but they are also aircraft carriers, aren't they?

Zheng Weiguo thought for a moment and said: "With the three large aircraft carriers of the Enterprise, the Wasp, and the Raider, and the level of the pilots of the two sides should be about the same as the six small aircraft carriers of the little devils." It's just that I don't know how many escort aircraft carriers can be drawn. How many carrier-based aircraft can it carry? ”

Carlson replied, "General Marshall meant to draw four. All of them are Sangamon-class escort aircraft carriers, each carrying 34 carrier-based aircraft. The other Borg-class can only carry 28 aircraft. ”

Chief of Staff Zhou shook his head and said: "I'm afraid this is not enough, I am afraid that only more than 130 planes will not have much advantage." What's more, the Kuril Islands are too close to the Japanese mainland, and the Japanese army's land-based aircraft will definitely go all out to reinforce them. Don't dwell on it when the time comes. Instead, it bogged the troops into a quagmire. Since they want to take the Kuril Islands in one fell swoop. Then you have to have an absolute advantage! ”

Zheng Weiguo also agreed. Asked: "The chief of staff is right, I don't know how many Borg-class aircraft carriers there are?" ”

Carlson glanced at Stilwell and saw that he had no objection. He replied: "There are six ships that can be mobilized now, but they are all escorting ships in the Atlantic. If they are all transferred, there will be no guarantee of the route of aid to the British! ”

"I have a suggestion for the Atlantic route." Zheng Huzi's method was actually the method adopted by the US military later, that is, to form a large fleet of cargo ships and transport them in a centralized manner, while sending light cruisers and destroyers to escort them. In this way, the escort ships are greatly saved, and the safety of personnel and materials is also more guaranteed.

Stilwell's eyes lit up and he couldn't help but say, "That's a good idea!" ”

Zheng Weiguo smiled: "There are still good ways!" So he threw out a few suggestions, such as letting the British send anti-submarine planes to search for the location of German submarines, and then let the merchant ships go around, etc. These plans are the lessons of the blood that Britain and the United States have exchanged for a lot of losses in history. As a result of these methods, by the end of the 42nd, the overall loss had been reduced to one-tenth of what it had been before.

Stilwell was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked Zheng Huzi to repeat it again, then quickly took out a note, and said happily: "If the staff confirms that these methods are effective, I think it shouldn't be a problem to transfer those six Borg-class aircraft carriers." ”

Carlson was also very happy, and said happily: "It would be great if this is the case, we will have thirteen aircraft carriers, and the Japanese monkeys will only have six, 13:6, we will win!" ”

He asked with some expectation: "Lao Zheng, are you willing to give up the command of the Northern Front now?" "To be honest, everyone has expressed strong contempt and doubts for the US military's ability to land on the island. Like the famous 1st Marine Division in the future, there is no record of success now.

Zheng Weiguo thought for a moment and said, "The stakes are very high, I must convene an emergency military meeting and give you an answer before tonight." ”

Stilwell and Carlson had no choice but to go and rest first.

At the meeting, the generals of the second theater also had different opinions. After some heated debate, a plan was finally agreed:

First, the Northern Front can launch a landing operation on the Kuril Islands after the US military has mastered the superiority of the sea and air, and during this period it can accept orders from the US North Pacific Theater, but its forces cannot be divided and used. Orders of the US military can only be conveyed through the headquarters of the Northern Front or the headquarters of the former enemy, and cannot directly order or mobilize units subordinate to the front.

Second, the U.S. military must provide equipment for amphibious operations and guide the Northern Front in relevant training for one month.

Third, in return, the US military must carry out air strikes on the main forces of the Japanese Kwantung Army, which are coming back in a big way, during this period, so as to buy time for the first and second armies that have just entered the northeast. and urgently supply a batch of supplies to the second theater of operations.

Stilwell thought about it for a moment and reported back to the Arnold Theater Commander. Admiral Arnold was a flexible man who quickly agreed, and he also said that he would help the Second Theater of Operations train a small navy that would be able to fight with the American army in the future.

Naturally, the result was a great success.

After negotiating the terms, Carlson relented. He also told Zheng Weiguo a lot of things about the army, and most of the time he was complaining.

However, in the eyes of Zheng Huzi and other generals in the Second World War Zone, those "sufferings" belong to happy troubles. For example, warehouses are built so slowly that there is nowhere to store a large amount of materials; The harbor was too small for larger warships to moor; There were not enough airfields, and the planes could not take off at the same time in a short time.

In addition, in terms of the quality of the troops, the US military has been stepping up air strikes on the Japanese mainland during this period. But the effect was not as perfect as Admiral Arnold had imagined.

Although the US military has used a large number of advanced weapons and technologies, such as radio-guided, VT fuzes, cloudburst bombs, and cluster bombs, there is one thing that is fatal -- the bombing is not accurate.

Zheng Weiguo laughed in his stomach about the precision bombing tactics used by the United States during this time. That is, to set a target before setting off, such as the Kure Naval Yard, the largest military shipyard in Japan at that time. Then planes were sent to drop bombs on the heads of the factory.

Military factories generally have good protective measures. It's hard to destroy the existing cluster bombs, and the rest, even the powerful cloudbursts, you have to throw them in the right place. Otherwise. It's tantamount to scratching the boots.

However, the high-altitude horizontal bombing capability of the US military is really far from that of the British. Even the Japanese are inferior. As a result, a lot of places were blown up at the end of the day. But there were not many places that were completely destroyed - most of the bombs were missed.

In addition, the resistance of the Japanese army was also fierce, and there were often crazy Japanese troops who drove the Zero Battle into the B24 bombers, making the escorting P38 fighters defenseless. And the P38 has a limited range. It is also impossible to escort the whole process, so it can only be protected in batches, which makes the escort task very heavy, and the B24 has become very unsafe. In the past few days, more than a dozen B24 bombers have been lost in a row, so that a large number of crew members have been forced to parachute over Japan.

The Japanese hated these pilots so much that they often tortured them to death once they were caught, and trumpeted them in order to intimidate their opponents. As a result, the current B24 pilots are a little afraid to go to Japan to carry out bombing missions.

Carlson was familiar with Zheng Huzi, and when he saw him smiling evilly, he knew that there must be a solution, so he hurriedly asked Zheng Huzi for advice.

Zheng Weiguo said with a smile: "Although this method is very simple, I can't say it in vain. ”

Stilwell interjected, "If, I mean, if your solution really works, I think I can call the shots and give you an additional 10,000 tons of supplies!" ”

Zheng Weiguo smiled: "Well, in fact, it's nothing to put it bluntly. ”

Zheng Huzi's method was to change "precision bombing" to "concentrated bombing"; changed "daytime bombing" to "night bombing"; Change "low-altitude bombing" or "high-altitude bombing" to "semi-high-altitude bombing". And it is recommended that the US military reduce the cannon in order to increase the bomb load.

The level of bombing by the US military at that time was low, but it was still possible to concentrate on bombing a certain area. In fact, the British later abandoned precision bombing because it was too inefficient. To really make precision bombing shine brightly, we have to wait for laser guidance and other technologies to mature.

At the suggestion of Zheng Huzi, the US military entered Japan at an altitude of 2,000 meters to 3,000 meters at night. Japan did not have a good night fighter at that time, and two to three thousand meters ago happened to be a fault line in the Japanese anti-aircraft fire, and the B24 fleet could safely and boldly break in.

Then concentrate dozens, if not hundreds, of them, and at the same time concentrate air strikes on a certain area. In addition, based on the experience of Japanese air raids on Chinese cities, napalm, incendiary bombs, and cluster bombs were used to carry out large-scale carpet scorched earth bombardment of Japanese cities. Of course, the focus of the air raid is still on the arsenal, such as the "Kure Naval Factory" mentioned earlier. Most of Japan's warships were built from this place, and it was also the home of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

After adopting the new bombing technology, the bombing efficiency of the US military has indeed been greatly improved, and the bombing has caused the devil to cry for his father and mother, and suffered heavy casualties. A single air raid on Tokyo burned nearly 40 square kilometers of the city to the ground, depriving the city of 63 percent of its commercial area and 18 percent of its industrial productivity. 84,000 people died in the fire that night, leaving 1 million homeless......

After the war, many people criticized Zheng Huzi's bombing program for causing a tragic humanitarian tragedy, and asked him if he regretted it. (To be continued......)

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