The battleships of the two sides are chasing and fleeing each other, which is obviously extremely unfavorable to the German side, not to mention that the main guns of the two Bismarck-class battleships are small, and it is difficult to pose too much threat to the Iowa-class battleships with good protection, unless the luck just hits the weakly protected parts of the opponent's design, and even the Hindenburg-class battleship, which is still the first in the world, is difficult to take advantage of when it turns its back to the enemy, because it only has one main turret to attack, However, all four Iowa-class battleships could be attacked with their own two forward main turrets, each with twice as much firepower as the Hindenburg-class, and the Hindenburg's reduced speed significantly increased the likelihood of being hit by the enemy.

Spruance, however, was not happy for long, for he suddenly noticed that the sky was already overcast, and he suddenly thought of the storms that were very common in the Atlantic, and he could not help but be startled. You must know that the biggest flaw in the design of the Iowa class battleships is that the ship is too slender, so its performance in bad sea conditions is very poor, not only will the accuracy of the shelling be seriously affected, but also the safety of the warship will be threatened if the wind and waves are too strong. Moreover, as soon as the storm came, the planes could not participate in the battle, and the German fleet, which had escaped the greatest crisis at that time, would definitely not be able to flee and fight as it is now, and if the formation was set up to bombard, the four Iowa-class battleships would definitely not be the opponent of the four German battleships that were more adapted to the storms of the Atlantic in the rough sea conditions

Realizing these problems, Spruance hurriedly ordered the entire army to retreat, thus giving up the opportunity to completely annihilate the German High Seas Fleet. And although Wegener wanted to seize this opportunity to turn defeat into victory, he was not absolutely sure that the storm would appear. Eventually, he abandoned the pursuit and headed with his fleet, now less than half of his ships, to Casablanca, the capital of the Arab Commonwealth, the nearest Axis naval base

Although the German High Seas Fleet was not completely annihilated, and those ships that withdrew from the battle and returned to their homeland were unlucky enough to run into German submarines on the way, and several ships were sunk, including an Essex-class aircraft carrier. But even the German Navy could not deny that this time it was indeed defeated by the Americans

In the battles of the past few days (including the sweep of the US submarine hunting fleet by the High Seas Fleet before the start of the war and the attack of German submarines on the wounded US ships), all 6 German aircraft carriers were sunk, in addition to the loss of 2 battleships, 54 destroyers, 2 submarines and 422 carrier-based aircraft, and the number of dead and missing was as high as 13,000. While the US Navy 3 Essex-class heavy aircraft carriers, 2 Cyban-class light aircraft carriers, 2 light cruisers, 31 destroyers and 9 other ships were sunk. Carrier-based aircraft lost 960 aircraft and land-based aircraft lost 624 aircraft (including the number shot down and destroyed. Of these, the losses of the B-29 were 227 units. In addition, 16 ships, including 6 aircraft carriers, were severely damaged and had to be sent to the shipyard for overhaul, and the number of American killed and missing troops reached more than 18,000, which was even slightly larger than that of the German army in terms of loss data

But. The loss of aircraft and pilots is still relatively quickly replenished. This is especially true for the United States, which has an astonishing number of industrial strength and reserve pilots. It will take a long time to replenish the losses of warships, especially capital ships, especially for Germany, which has a relatively weak shipbuilding industrial base, and the high seas fleet, which has suffered a great loss of vitality in this campaign, will have to wait another two or three years before it is possible to regain its strength. And because the United States is at least two or three times as powerful as Germany. Therefore, as long as the losses of the US army are less than twice the losses of the German army, it can be considered that there is no loss strategically, of course, this is also because the current system of the United States is very close to the centralized state, and the attack on the homeland has stimulated the patriotic enthusiasm of the Americans, so the current United States has greatly increased its ability to bear the loss of soldiers, otherwise not to mention that the total number of permanent attrition of the US military has exceeded 1.4 million, even if 140,000 people can make peace with the US government

More importantly, through this naval battle, the US military basically achieved their goal. First of all, the German High Seas Fleet was completely disabled, and it was unable to enter the depths of the Atlantic Ocean for at least two years, and without the help of the main fleet, German submarines alone would not be able to completely cut off the sea lines of communication between the United States and Britain.

It is worth mentioning that the United States has lost more land in this time and space, and has lost almost all the islands in the Pacific Ocean, which is not a good thing, but objectively it has greatly reduced the pressure on the sea supply line, because now it is only necessary to ensure the North Atlantic route to assist Britain and the Arctic route of the Soviet Union, so even if the number of merchant ships in the United States is much smaller than in the same period in history, it can fully cope with it

After the resumption of the North Atlantic route, many industrial sectors that Britain had been forced to suspend can be restarted, especially its shipbuilding industry, which is second only to the United States, will be able to share a lot of pressure on the United States once it resumes production. In terms of aircraft and tanks, even though the industry in the British interior has suffered huge losses due to the original flood and the intermittent bombing of the German army in recent years, as long as the supply of oil and rare metals can be restored, the annual production of aircraft and tanks/armored vehicles can all quickly increase to more than 20,000, which can also be of great help to the United States.

As a result, the allies rejoiced in the naval victory, and Roosevelt's domestic approval rating recovered a lot, and he finally won the 1944 presidential election, thus becoming the president of the United States for the fourth time, once again setting a new record in American history. But after all, the financial oligarchs in the United States could not tolerate the long-term damage to their own interests, and they and their agents repeatedly urged Roosevelt to launch a counteroffensive to reverse the situation of World War II.

Fortunately, the United States is now initially equipped to launch a counteroffensive against the Axis camp, especially at sea. After the North Atlantic naval battle, the United States still has as many as 16 capital ships, which is equivalent to the number of Germany and Japan combined, and although the six aircraft carriers are currently unable to participate in the battle, the maintenance is much faster than the new one. As long as all six aircraft carriers are repaired in two or three months, the US Navy can start a large-scale counteroffensive (to be continued......