PS: Thank you to the book friend "nqm" for voting for the monthly ticket again, and continue to ask for recommendation votes ^_^

The Japanese losses in these battles were even more pleasing to the delight of Yamaguchi Tabun and Emperor Takahito and Isoroku Yamamoto at home, with only 37 planes shot down and seriously injured (irreparable, so I won't repeat them later), and only 15 pilots were killed or missing, all of which set a new record for the Japanese Navy since the Pacific War

In these battles, although the Allied escort aircraft carriers were also named aircraft carriers, they were powerless in the face of the real aircraft carrier formations, which also made US President Roosevelt fully realize that escort aircraft carriers could only specialize in anti-submarine operations in the sea areas where they had air and sea supremacy, and sending them to the sea areas infested by the enemy's main fleet was no different from sending them to death, so he quickly ordered that the other nine escort aircraft carriers that were still operating in the Pacific Ocean should all be transferred to the Atlantic Ocean to deal with the German submarine forces. There, because the US and British navies firmly grasp the supremacy of the sea, the role of these escort aircraft carriers should be better played

Roosevelt was more frustrated by the almost complete severance of the South Pacific route than the loss of ships, men and materials, after all, he also knew how dependent the U.S. military was on supplies, and if the morale of the Japanese army collapsed because of the lack of supplies, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But Nimitz categorically opposed in a telegram the immediate decisive battle of the Pacific Fleet with the Japanese Navy, in his opinion. As long as we wait a short time, the US Navy will be equipped with a large number of advanced F4U "Corsair" carrier-based fighters, and at the same time, the entire 12 new aircraft carriers and the first two of the Iowa-class battleships will all be completed and form combat effectiveness, and then the Allied forces in the Pacific will have an absolute advantage, and the chances of winning the decisive battle are much greater than they are now, and if they fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Japanese Navy too early, they will most likely suffer defeat because of insufficient troops. Moreover, the losses of the US military's veterans after the Pearl Harbor incident have already been extremely great, and if a large number of losses are made again, the combat effectiveness of the new US ships that will enter service in the future will inevitably be greatly affected, and this loss is really too great

Nimitz knew that the president was now under more pressure than he was. Therefore, at the same time, he comforted him in the telegram. The damage caused by the Japanese main fleet wreaking havoc in the South Pacific is not as great as it seems.

First of all, although Japan had begun to do its best to reserve merchant ships before the war, after all, its financial resources were limited, and the number of merchant ships that it could build and buy in the past two or three years was not enough in his opinion to completely solve the shortcomings of Japan's maritime capacity, not to mention that Japan now occupied most of the Pacific Ocean (just the number). Not counted. ) of the island. The length of the battle line even exceeded that of the Japanese invasion of China. The logistical pressure on the Japanese army can be imagined

Moreover, according to Nimitz's speculation, the main base of the Japanese main fleet at the forefront should be Port Moresby on the island of Guinea, because the port can accommodate so many capital ships. She is the closest to Australia and New Zealand. However, it was not until the Solomon Islands were completely controlled by the Japanese that the remnants of the Allied forces on the island of Guinea were completely wiped out by the Japanese because of the complete lack of supplies, and the safety of Port Moresby was basically guaranteed.

Therefore, the current supply materials in Port Moresby cannot be very abundant, and since Port Moresby, which is relatively backward, this is especially true of the small islands in the South Pacific such as the French Polynesian Islands newly occupied by the Japanese army, and the scale of the Japanese main fleet is extremely large, it is impossible for them to go on such expeditions again and again, you must know that the southernmost point of the Japanese main fleet's activity area at that time is more than 3,000 nautical miles away from Port Moresby!

Nimitz accurately judged that the Japanese main fleet was likely to use up most of the fuel accumulated in Port Moresby and the South Pacific islands in this operation, and it should be impossible for them to do it again in a short time, not to mention that due to the long distance, the fuel consumption of their drive to that sea area was already quite large, and even this operation would definitely not last for a few days. Therefore, the interruption of the supply of the Australian and New Zealand allied forces is only temporary, and the remaining military supplies of the US Pacific logistics fleet, which is currently concentrated several hundred kilometers east of New Zealand, are enough to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Australian and New Zealand allied troops and the Nimitz fleet for a month or two, so there is no need to worry about the temporary interruption of supplies, but it is indeed very necessary to explain clearly to the officers and men at the grassroots level so as not to cause panic

Originally, the supply of oil to the Japanese should also be a problem, but because China provided the Japanese government with a large amount of urgently needed materials, equipment and even personnel, so that Minas and other Indonesian oil fields resumed production much earlier than the US government expected, and the refinery was rebuilt at a speed that also exceeded the expectations of the Americans. It is natural for a high-ranking US military general like Nimitz who knows the inside story to hate the Chinese government to the point of itching his teeth, but now that the United States has not even dealt with Japan and Germany, it is impossible to be stupid enough to turn against New China, which has a standing army of 8 million and almost unlimited reserve soldiers, and then make a strong enemy, so they can only knock out their front teeth and swallow them in their stomachs. And Nimitz also knew very well in his heart that during China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States also did similar things, on what basis did he accuse China?

Moreover, to Roosevelt's delight, Nimitz was not blindly passive and avoided the war, and he also proposed several countermeasures that sounded like they should work:

First, the number of auxiliary ships of the Japanese Navy is insufficient, and there are bound to be loopholes in the protective ring around the aircraft carrier formation, which creates a good opportunity for submarine attacks, and the previous example of sinking the Taiho is a clear proof of this; although because of the restraint of the aircraft on submarines, the use of submarines to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier formation is bound to suffer a lot of losses, but as long as one or two more aircraft carriers can be sunk, even if 100 submarines are lost, it will not be a loss for the United States, which has deep pockets.

Second, open up the Antarctic route, so that the main fleet of the Japanese army will be completely beyond the reach of the whip, even the Japanese submarine with super endurance is somewhat limited, although the icebergs floating on the surface of the Antarctic Ocean are a big threat to transport ships and escort ships, but as long as the Australian and New Zealand allies can obtain a relatively stable and reliable supply line, this risk is worth taking. What's more, this risk is only greater for submarines, you must know that the iceberg floating on the sea surface is only a small part, and the volume below the sea surface is many times larger, and the transport ship and the escort fleet can use radar to detect the iceberg on the sea surface in time, and although the submarine also has active sonar available, but the detection distance is very short, not to mention, it is easy to expose itself, the power consumption is also quite large, it is impossible to keep it on, so it cannot be expected to play a similar role to radar. Therefore, even if the Japanese submarines really dared to follow, they would inevitably pay a greater price than the ships of the allies (to be continued......