"Doug, what's your news? I mean, you've just come from General Robinson, what do you know about it? ”

After two sips of whiskey, Mitchell unbuttoned his collar and asked about MacArthur.

MacArthur smiled as if he had anticipated it, and exhaled into the sky: "Billy, this is not good, I spoke first, you have to tell me something first-for example, about this hot dead island......"

"What's wrong with this island?" Mitchell shook his glass slightly, and his face was three hundred taels of silver.

MacArthur squinted and shook his head, holding his wine glass in one hand and walking behind Mitchell—a rough map of the entire Southwest Pacific theater hung on the map shelf.

"Darwin on the north coast of mainland Australia, Port Moresby and Buna on the Papua Peninsula, Woodrack and the Rosesailan Islands between the Solomon Sea and the Coral Sea, San Cristobal Island at the southern tip of the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz Islands north of the New Hebrides, and Tuvalu Islands south of the Gilbert Islands...... All of them are near the 10th parallel of the south latitude, forming the first line of defense in the theater of operations, and the axis of which is the 'tail of Solomon' under our feet. Possessing this, we can advance north along the Solomon Islands and directly threaten Rabaul, the hub of the enemy's theater of operations, and retreat to Fiji, the core of our army's second line of defense, but ......"

MacArthur folded this and sold it on his own.

Mitchell lowered his head and smiled, raised his glass, took a sip to the bottom, put the cup and wiped his mouth with his sleeve: "But what?" ”

"It's too isolated here, there is no buffer in front, there is no support in the rear, the adjacent strongholds on the left and right are too far away to cover the flanks, and if there is no strong naval support, I am afraid that it will not last long under the siege of the enemy's superior forces."

MacArthur's analysis seemed to hit Mitchell's sore spot, only to hear Mitchell sigh and stretch hard: "No one wants to shrink into this corner, but what can be done?" Where was our fleet when Bougainville fell, when New Georgia was abandoned? Being able to stand firm here is already the supreme gospel of God. ”

MacArthur turned around and blinked: "This time, you can count on them." ”

Mitchell's eyes lit up, but his face was still skeptical: "This time? Do you say ......"

MacArthur shrugged and smiled.

……

Twenty nautical miles east of the island of San Cristobal, in the waters near the Santa Cruz Islands, a mixed formation of 16 cruisers and destroyers surrounded by two aircraft carriers that went straight to the deck passed through the morning fog in a tight wheel-shaped formation, and from time to time two or three groups of planes taxied and lifted off on the wide flight deck of the aircraft carrier.

From a distance, the body shape of the two aircraft carriers is not much different, but a little closer kao can be seen that the structure of the two is very different: the hull of the ship with the rice flag hanging on the mast is slender and graceful, the side is tall and neat, and the island is full and smooth; The one with the Stars and Stripes on the mast was a wide and round hull, with low sides and a messy bracket, and the island was small and shabby—like an illegal shack built in a neighborhood to be demolished.

About 50 nautical miles behind the formation that was dragged down by the Americans' floating shacks, a complex box-shaped array of seventy-five warships of all sizes and sizes, the bridge of the battleship USS Tennessee, the commander of the Anglo-American-Australian Combined Fleet, Seadon? Lieutenant General Schroeder single-handedly took over the new aviation staff officer Frank? Jack? Major Fletcher quickly glanced at the telegram, and the word "Chuan" suddenly twisted out between his eyebrows.

"Jack, what do you think?" Vice Admiral Schroeder's intimacy with the young man who had just turned 30 was perhaps not just because of his uncle, Frank, the current commander-in-chief of the US Atlantic Fleet. Fred? Admiral Fletcher.

"It seems that the enemy has gone with us."

Major Fletcher's succinct answer clearly pleased his commander, and Lieutenant General Schroeder deliberately turned his face to him: "Go on." ”

"We also need to confirm further information, and if the situation is true, we must decisively abandon this operation. But—"

Fletcher deliberately lengthened his voice to show that the next step was the point.

"If the whole army retreats at this point, it is very likely that the newly established bases on Cristobal Island and Rennell Island will be destroyed by the overwhelming forces of the other side, and our '10th Degree South Latitude Line' will lose the pivot support in the center, and the enemy's mobile task force will be able to attack our bases in the New Hebrides and Fiji Islands without any scruples, the core of the second line of defense in the theater, and worse, we will not be able to build a strong enough defense system there in the short term."

Before the words fell, Vice Admiral Schroeder's eyes suddenly burned into Major Fletcher's light blue eyes: "You mean, whether we want to abort the plan to land in Guadalcanal or not, we must fight the East Asian Combined Fleet, which is heading south, or rather, one of the most elite parts of the East Asian Combined Fleet?" ”

"If possible, force them to abandon the landing – although we are not sure whether the target of the other side this time is Guadalcanal and Tulagi, or if it is precisely San Cristobal and Rennell, if nothing is done and left to their ends, the consequences should not make much difference." ”

"That could be a huge cost, as you know very well, our pilots are seriously inexperienced in combat - even training, and the number of experienced British pilots is too small, and if they lose in an air battle, the entire fleet without the protection of the air force will become a target for enemy torpedo planes - this is all we rely on to defend Australia at present."

Speaking of this, Schroeder put his hands behind his back, turned his eyes to look at the sea antenna looming outside the porthole, and sighed with feeling: "Pearl Harbor, Panama, I have escaped death twice, and I have witnessed the power of China's carrier-based aircraft force with my own eyes...... You're so optimistic about that Englishman and that colonel from Wisconsin - I heard that he was just promoted two levels in a row to hang up the general's star? ”

Fletcher was unwavering: "Rear Admiral Witson was the captain of the aircraft carrier 'Ocean', which sank in the Battle of Bengal, and had participated in all the important operations of the British aircraft carrier task force before that, and he was experienced and determined. Rear Admiral Mitchell is the only air commander in the army and navy who has commanded an air counterattack against an enemy aircraft carrier task force. I believe that there is no better commander of the aviation forces in the entire Entente camp at the moment, and more importantly—"

…… V