Chapter 131: The Birth of the Great Falls of Panama

U.S. East Coast, Virginia, Norfolk Naval Base

In the early hours of the morning, a large US fleet had completed its replenishment and was preparing for action. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On paper, the fleet assembled at Norfolk Naval Base appears to be a vast and spectacular lineup: one Montana-class battleship, one Iowa-class battleship, four Essex-class aircraft carriers, eight Casablanca-class escort carriers, three Des Moines-class heavy cruisers, three Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, nine Cleveland-class and Oakland-class light cruisers, and the Fletcher-class and Allen class cruisers. There are a total of 28 Sumner-class and the latest Keeling-class destroyers, in addition to a large number of auxiliary ships, transport fleets, landing fleets, submarines, etc., most of which are cutting-edge ships that have just been launched. In the process of lifting anchor and heading south, the fleet will also meet some other ships in various ports along the way, further increasing its size.

However, as the commander of this fleet, Admiral Halsey, who once again went into battle, knew very well that the actual combat effectiveness of this huge fleet in front of him was probably far less impressive and shocking than it seemed on paper.

Because, no matter how advanced and powerful a warship is, it still needs qualified sailors to operate it in order to truly exert its combat effectiveness.

After a series of devastating fiascos, in which millions of sailors died at sea, Rao used the huge comprehensive strength and human resource reserves of the United States, although he could continue to build ships like dumplings, but he could not get together so many qualified and experienced sailors for a while.

Prior to this, there had been many embarrassing cases of ships rushing to finish and launch, but they couldn't wait for someone to receive them. Some less important or flawed ships have even been unmanned ghost ships in military ports or shipyards for several years......

More than half of the ships currently gathered in Norfolk are not fully staffed, which is only the minimum standard to get the ships moving. Two-thirds of the sailors did not receive full training, and a quarter of the sailors had never seen the sea before coming to Norfolk, and they were not even physically qualified. And even in order to make up such a lineup, the Pentagon has already dug three feet into the ground, grabbed strong men everywhere according to the roster, and gathered a vote of retired old fur seals who are sixty or seventy years old, and then dragged out all the students and teachers in the major naval academies on the East Coast to serve as officers on various ships.

According to the Pentagon's statement to Admiral Halsey, it was already interesting enough that he didn't stuff a bunch of pretty chicks as sailors this time......

Obviously, such a crew is very problematic, first of all, there are not enough people, many positions are not fully staffed, or even no one at all - for example, the captains of several destroyers found that there was no one on board who could shoot radios. The second is that most of the sailors are seriously lacking in professional skills, with almost zero sailing experience, and they don't know what to do when they get on a battleship - even those old sailors who have been re-drafted, can you imagine how a stoker who only knows how to shovel coal into the furnace of a steam engine for half his life can play with a marine diesel engine in forty-eight hours?

Therefore, the expeditionary fleet formed by Halsey had not yet had time to anchor and sail, and in the process of replenishing the port, there were many bumps and bumps, and even a small-scale fire somehow. This is still the situation in the harbor, if they are allowed to drive these ships out to sea by feeling, withstand the fire and torpedoes of enemy ships, and the strafing and bombing of enemy planes, and then tremble at the instructions and operate, and shoot the first shell in their lives in an unknown direction...... My God! It's too beautiful to look at.

The quality of the sailors is so poor, and the level of those pilots on the aircraft carrier is just as hopeless. Due to the loss of more than 400,000 pilots in the previous war, and the only few veteran seeds had to be retained as instructors, and the qualified pilots trained had to be given priority to the Hawaiian front, the pilots who could be quickly called up in the United States today were basically rookies who were still studying. Of the four Essex-class carriers and the eight Casablanca-class escort carriers currently allocated to Halsey, only about 20 percent of the pilots are able to successfully take off and land on the decks of the carriers. The remaining 60% of pilots are only barely able to take off from aircraft carriers and then land at ground airfields for shore-based aviation. The last 20% of pilots simply cannot take off on an aircraft carrier, let alone land on an aircraft carrier. They can only stay in the back seat as passengers, be carried to the airfield on the shore by others, and then use them as substitutes - so these seemingly majestic aircraft carriers in the Halsey fleet actually have no ability to engage in naval and air battles with the enemy, and can only be used as "aircraft transport ships" to a large extent......

What made General Halsey even more sad was that while his side was full of chicken feathers, the enemy's side was still advancing step by step. The evening before yesterday, Admiral Halsey, who was still urgently preparing for the expedition, received another bad news from the South American battlefield through wireless telegraph: With the political situation in Peru stabilized, the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, which had been hovering in Peruvian waters and assisting the new government in suppressing opponents, once again marched northward to attack Peru's northern neighbor Ecuador, and shelled and bombed the ports of Manta and Guayaquil in that country. Under this military pressure, the capital of Ecuador, Quito, immediately broke out in a military coup, and the ruling pro-American faction retreated one after another, and the regime was about to be overthrown...... At the same time, farther north, in Colombia, through the guidance of the Comintern and the weapons airdropped by the Japanese naval aviation, the left-wing red armed forces in Colombia also blossomed everywhere in an instant. Although it is not yet possible to storm the capital, Bogotá, it is enough to paralyze the country.

At noon yesterday, the anxious Admiral Halsey once again received bad news: The newly formed Atlantic Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy had successfully crossed the vast Atlantic Ocean and arrived in South America without knowing when it had escaped the eyes of US spies......

On the other hand, the U.S. Navy, which is overstretched, has only deployed two New Mexico-class battleships and a few escort aircraft carriers in Brazilian waters. As for the Brazilian Navy, there are only two antique dreadnoughts built before the First World War, the Minas Gerais and the São Paulo. Moreover, even the two grandfather-class Brazilian battleships are now paralyzed in the military port and unmoved - many Brazilian naval officers and sailors have joined the previous rebellion and are now locked up in prisoner of war camps. Even the remaining Brazilian Navy personnel are in a state of detention and censorship, and they do not dare to let them on the warship. And no matter how streamlined a battleship is, it will take thousands of people to run.

In this way, not only did the South Pacific completely become a hunting ground for the Japanese fleet, but even the sea supremacy in the South Atlantic had already changed hands.

After reading the above battle report, Admiral Halsey's heart became heavier and heavier: the Soviet and Japanese troops were coming, attacking, and advancing rapidly, far exceeding his worst imagination, but now that the enemy's guns were on his chest, the United States could no longer avoid the war. Otherwise, once South America completely falls, the United States will be tantamount to single-handedly challenging the whole world with the strength of one country, and that will only end more tragically.

- The United States of America is now standing on the edge of a precipice, and if it does not fight to the death, then it will have to sit and wait for death!

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In any case, in any case, with a feeling of apprehension, grief and anguish, Admiral Halsey once again boarded his flagship aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, and blew the whistle of the expedition...... As the expeditionary fleet moved south at full speed along the east coast of the United States, it came across a convoy of convoys preparing to cross the Atlantic to Africa. With radio silence on both sides, the convoy bound for Africa sent a light signal to the Halsey fleet.

In the on-and-out light, the naval staff officers on the Enterprise quickly recognized the information and read it word by word:

“…… God forbid! May General Halsey be victorious! General, this light signal is sent to you! ”

“…… Really? So let's use the lights to signal them back. General Halsey rubbed his forehead and said listlessly.

“…… Back to what? The naval staff officer who came to report immediately took out a pencil and a small notebook, ready to record.

“…… Just go back to ...... Well...... The United States expects everyone to do their duty! General Halsey, who was full of tiredness, said lightly.

However, no matter how dedicated and resourceful Admiral Halsey is, or how many rookie seamen under his command are, no matter how good they are. There was no way to recover the defeat, because his fleet could no longer enter the Pacific Ocean to compete with the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy over there......

Seventy-two hours later, in the southwestern Caribbean Sea, in the waters outside the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, looking at the canal photos taken by the carrier-based reconnaissance plane, Admiral Halsey on the bridge of the USS Enterprise was furious for a while, and then his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot......

-- The U.S. Navy can think of sending ships from the east coast through the Panama Canal to the countries on the Pacific coast of South America. And the Japanese and Soviets wanted to get this too. Therefore, in the immediate aftermath of the coup d'état in Peru, the Soviet Union transferred a batch of strategic long-range bombers as quickly as possible, and delivered atomic bombs, and then set off from the Peruvian air force airfield to launch a nuclear bomb attack on the newly repaired Panama Canal......

Although after the last sneak attack, the air defense along the Panama Canal has increased a lot. But in the face of overwhelming high-altitude carpet strategic bombing, there was still no good and absolutely reliable way to do it - so the Soviets dropped four atomic bombs in a row, and the locks of the Panama Canal from the central to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were wiped out. At an altitude of 26 meters, the water of Gatun Lake is pouring wildly towards the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, forming two huge waterfalls. And if you want to pass through such a waterfall and drive a boat from one end of the canal to the other, I am afraid that such a ship must have the ability of the mythical carp to jump over the dragon gate!!

Of course, there were no special ships for such jumps under Halsey, not even the whole world...... So, he had no choice but to abandon the mission.

“…… Let's turn around and head back! Alas, O God! It's already too late! Hopefully there will be good news from Hawaii! ”

He spat the floor, "...... Bah! If you can't beat the Japanese devils this time, let's go to Argentina next time to deal with the Russians! (To be continued.) )