Iron Cross

"What?" Churchill stood up in surprise, "How is the transport fleet?"

"The merchant ships are fine for now, but the escort warships suffered heavy losses," Pound sighed after reading the telegram, "The Cumberland sank, the Jamaica sank, the Sheffield was severely damaged... We lost a total of 2 cruisers and 5 destroyers, and another cruiser and 1 destroyer were severely damaged. Rear Admiral Burnett died, and Colonel Shelbrooke was seriously injured... Of course, we also sank 2 German destroyers."

Everyone took a breath: This loss has far exceeded their expectations, almost equivalent to the backbone of the escort warships being wiped out. The escort fleet took in 3 cruisers at once. How many cruisers does the British Empire have in total?

"Now the entire transport fleet is in danger, and the remaining escort warships are very weak. It is difficult to compete with the heavy cruiser Hipper, and it is estimated that the Germans have more than this amount of troops, at least the Lutzow or some other warships. ”

“How far is the fleet from the enemy?”

“Maybe about 80 nautical miles. The fleet is currently retreating to the northwest. It is now dark, and the Germans should not be able to find it, but because of the speed, we cannot guarantee that we can get rid of them.”

Under the current situation, the JW-51A fleet dare not disband, because the tragic experience of the PQ-17 fleet after its early disbandment is still in sight, and the enemy situation report is also very clear. If the fleet is blocked again this time, whether it is disbanded or not, the final outcome will be miserable.

“The fleet also reported an important news that the German dive bombers can cover the waters near Bear Island. They are their latest He-218...” Pound said worriedly, “If this is the case, we will be in big trouble in the future. "

Everyone felt very frustrated: the reason for taking the Arctic route was that they were sure that the Germans could only deploy horizontal bombers, and even if they wanted to bomb, the effect would not be good. If the German dive bombers could cover the entire sea area, the polar night stage could still be covered by the night and weather, and entering the polar day stage would not be a suicide mission?

"What can we do now?" Churchill frowned and asked, "We must quickly come up with a countermeasure and let them break out in a dispersed manner?"

"No! No!" Marshal Pound was the first to shake his head like a rattle. The last time he made the decision to disband the fleet and break out in a dispersed manner, he suffered a massacre and almost became the target of public criticism. Now he would not agree to this decision no matter what.

"Are you considering withdrawing first? "The JW-51B fleet has just passed Jan Mayen Island, and their escort force there is stronger, including the battleship HMS Sovereign (Sovereign class), HMS Glasgow (Southampton class), HMS Active (escort carrier), two auxiliary cruisers and six destroyers. We can send these forces to pick up the fleet. The weather forecast shows that the weather will be relatively bad in the next few days, and it will be difficult for aircraft to take off - this is objectively beneficial to the Royal Navy. ”

The idea of ​​a dispersed breakout was rejected on the spot. Now there are only two options: one is that the fleet changes its route and heads east to see if it can pass by the German warships, making a gamble of fate - either reaching the destination or sinking gloriously; the other is that the fleet retreats to the southwest, and then the JW-51B escort warship accelerates forward, either directly rescues the fleet, or fights a naval battle with the German army.

Someone else pointed out very obscurely: Since the Arctic route is so unsafe and Britain itself needs a lot of supplies, should it stop the Arctic route and only consider asking the United States to transport them from the Pacific Ocean to the Russians - anyway, now Japan has no naval power in the Far East.

No one dared to bet on the first option. If they won, it would be fine. But what if they lost? Would they go to a military court? Then there was only the second option left. In fact, the second option was also a gamble. The gamble was that the German warships would not discover the fleet before the arrival of the supporting fleet. What if they were discovered? - No one was willing to break this paper.

Churchill pondered for a long time and finally made a decision: "Since everyone agrees, let the JW-51B fleet temporarily stand by near Jan Mayen Island, let the escort warships speed up and prepare to meet the Germans. It is difficult to fight a rat in a rat hole, but it will not be a big problem if it comes out."

Marshal Pound forced a smile: "If we can completely deal with this batch of German warships, the transportation safety in Norwegian waters will be guaranteed in the future. "

After issuing a clear directive, the meeting returned to the discussion of the Malta issue. After a fierce battle of opinions from various parties - in fact, it was a process of everyone persuading Churchill - they finally reached a relatively vague opinion: the Royal Navy could not provide support before the return of the battleships, and Malta was asked to rely on its own strength for defense. As for the consequences of being unable to defend, everyone knew it and did not say it.

Churchill's face was very ugly, but he could not go against the opinions of almost everyone, so he had to hastily turn to the next topic: the development of the war in the future period.

In the Pacific battlefield, Lieutenant General Halsey tried to launch an attack on Rabaul after taking Lae and Bougainville. Although Rabaul had been carpet bombed in advance, the effect was not ideal, and the above The huge Japanese army force and the "Sakura" suicide missiles shocked the Americans. 36 Sakuras attacked together, in addition to sinking the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (Northampton class, displacement 9,000 tons) and the Indianapolis In addition to the heavy cruiser (Portland class, displacement 10,000 tons), it also killed 4 LSTs. In addition to destroying Japanese surface fortifications, the only result of the US military was the sinking of the battleship Yamashiro-the ship had been killed in previous air strikes. He was severely injured and unable to move, and this time he was finally completely reimbursed. But the other warships under Mikawa Junyi hid far away and were not discovered by the Americans.

The U.S. military realized the strength of Rabaul's defensive capabilities, and the high-intensity offensive that began in late December had lasted for more than a month. All parties were exhausted, and decided to suspend this exploratory offensive and temporarily pull all troops back. Australia went to rest, and Rabaul was handed over to Army Airlines for further grinding.

After repeated efforts from the British side, the United States agreed to release a King George V battleship and two Illustrious-class aircraft carriers to return from the Pacific Theater first, because the United States finally took a breather in terms of military strength-the Essex aircraft carrier will be deployed on 2 It will arrive in Australia around March 15 to reinforce the Pacific Fleet. The light aircraft carrier USS Independence will also arrive in Australia in early March to reinforce the Pacific Fleet. The battleship USS Iowa will join the Pacific Fleet in early April.

The US military is preparing to launch another attack around mid-April. Even if three British battleships are taken away, the strength of the Pacific Fleet will not be affected. It still has four fleet aircraft carriers: Essex, Saratoga, and Independence. and the British Glory, and even because of Essex's large aircraft capacity, it can allow the Borg to break away from the role of a combat aircraft carrier and focus on the task of escorting the aircraft carrier.

Churchill knew that follow-up forces from the U.S. Navy would continue to come: the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton (Independence class) would be commissioned in late February and was scheduled to join the Atlantic Fleet; the USS Lexington (Essex class) would also be commissioned in the same month. Scheduled to join the Pacific Fleet - the Americans stated that if the Lexington can arrive at the Pacific Fleet before April, the Glory will be returned to the United Kingdom; the third Independence-class ship will be commissioned in March, which is the reserve force of the Pacific Fleet... Then As time goes by, the U.S. Navy will basically have aircraft carriers or battleships put into service every month in the future. In addition, stimulated by Japan's super battleships, the Montana-class battleships, which are more powerful than the Iowa-class, have completed the drawing review and cost review work, and the first keel will be laid as soon as the end of March - the wealthy and powerful When the Americans take action, they hit 4.

However, the Pacific Fleet caused great controversy when it chose the target to attack again. It was probably shocked by the Japanese formation at Rabaul. Halsey wanted to attack the Gilbert Islands first, and MacArthur emphasized that he would take advantage of the absence of the main force of the Combined Fleet. to attack the Philippines, while Nimitz considered attacking Dutch Indonesia in an effort to block the combined fleet's way back to the Southeast Asia - no one wanted to bite the hard nut of Rabaul first.

Of course, the Americans did not agree to release a King George V battleship and two Illustrious-class aircraft carriers to allow the Royal Navy to return home for vacation. President Roosevelt hoped that these forces, plus the aircraft carrier Indomitable that was about to be repaired, and some other warships could rescue the Kenyan allies. In a military crisis, even escorting a group of transport ships would be a good idea. If that doesn't work, let the British send a batch of supplies and planes to South Africa, because the situation in Africa is really terrible.

This was a request that Churchill could not and did not dare to refuse, not only because there were at least nearly 30,000 British troops in the African theater, but also because the situation in Africa had deteriorated into what it is now, and the British Empire had an unshirkable responsibility-if the British had not rashly proposed to The troops of the Torch Project were dragged to Egypt to land. How could there be such a disastrous failure and such thorny difficulties now? Although President Roosevelt did not say anything, Churchill knew that a group of high-level U.S. officials, including Smith Timson and Marshall, had some criticisms of him, and "Asia's No. 1" including Admiral Kim, Nimitz, MacArthur, etc. Pai even disliked the British, so he could only endure it for the sake of the overall situation.

The two heads of state, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the two countries and the main senior officials of the African theater have exchanged views on African issues many times. The goal of both sides is the same - the situation in Africa must be restored! But there are different ideas on how to recover, and none of them is a good way to balance all parties. This makes Churchill very troubled, so he must bring this topic to the meeting for discussion, at least to form a voice within the British Empire. .