Iron Cross

Hoffman has read the detailed battle report three times carefully. He nodded: "Considering the results and significance of the battle, this loss is completely within the acceptable range. I congratulate the navy! You have achieved a great victory! Where is the fleet now? ?”

"Iceland is 950 kilometers southwest of Iceland and is still more than 1,400 nautical miles away from the Azores. If nothing goes wrong, we can arrive in four days."

"Arrange for the Scharnhorst to take the injured officers and soldiers to Spain for emergency repairs and treatment."

"Going to Spain? Not going to France?" Redel was a little confused. "The French ship maintenance capabilities are stronger than Spain..."

"If you don't go to Spain, how can you have an excuse to get Franco to agree to our deployment of troops and fighter units in the north?" Hoffman smiled strangely, "This deployment of troops is essential. Occupying the Azores will definitely cause the Portuguese to In the uproar, Salazar might turn to Britain and the United States. We must use enough tanks and planes to wake him up and realize that the consequences of going against us will not be good. Of course, Ribbentrop will go to Lisbon for a trip. Give the Portuguese a little more benefit - this gesture is still needed.”

He sighed and explained: "The Scharnhorst can only be briefly repaired in Spain. The overhaul will still have to go back to the mainland or to Italy. I am not worried about it in France. Taking this opportunity, let it follow the example of Gneisen The Nau will be repaired and renovated according to the standards and replaced with 380mm naval guns. I will give you 8 months to find materials and workers. The aircraft carrier has proved its value in this battle. There should be a consensus on building a naval formation without battleships as the core, and the next step is to conduct more and more complete combat explorations.”

"Yes, head of state." Redel knew that this sentence was addressed to the aircraft carrier Skyhawk, which was about to be completed and put into service and incorporated into the Mediterranean Fleet. "We have accumulated a lot of experience this time. I will let the Mediterranean Fleet learn and master these tactical details as soon as possible. If necessary, some personnel will be transferred from the North Sea Fleet."

Roosevelt received the exact news from the British a whole day late, but after learning the details, he could not sit still: In just one week, the Royal Navy lost 300,000 tons of warships and more than 200 aircraft, of which 3 battleships were still Supported by the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, although most of the lost warships were not fatal-either old models or converted merchant ships, the navy above was a real one. The evaluation of "very tragic" cannot be avoided in any case. What's even more terrible is that the German main fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean and disappeared without a trace.

"So, the Royal Navy no longer has any capital ships in the mainland?" Admiral Jin asked, "Can you still defend the mainland?"

"The Home Fleet currently has a few treaty-class cruisers and light cruisers, as well as two escort aircraft carriers. There are indeed no other capital ships. So although the Prime Minister knows that it is difficult to speak, he still urgently hopes that your country will increase assistance." Representative of the British Navy in Washington Admiral Percy Noble, the leader of the regiment and a member of the US-UK Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference, said condescendingly, "We are currently in great difficulty. There is no difficulty in defending the homeland, but the situation in the short term is very serious."

It was rare for the British to be so humble. Roosevelt couldn't say much. Admiral Kim suppressed his anger and asked: "What do you want?"

"We want high-performance aircraft - this battle was not so much defeated by the German navy as by the German air force." Noble explained, "We captured a German naval aviation pilot who confessed that he was an air force He was born in Hainan Airlines and just transferred to Hainan Airlines a few months ago - all their active officers and soldiers are from the Air Force. The commander of Hainan Airlines is Air Force General Richthofen. Actual combat results have proved that German aircraft carriers have higher-performance carrier-based aircraft than we have. All models are strong. Taking fighter jets as an example, the only one comparable to them is the Spitfire (referring to the land-based Spitfire, the sea-based Spitfire has poorer performance), but its range is only half that of the opponent, so the Royal Navy suffered a lot this time. The German naval officers and soldiers who fought with us were all air force elites. The captured guy was an ace pilot with more than 20 shootdown records. He admitted that his level was only average, and our pilots were generally not strong and experienced. Rich……"

Roosevelt and Admiral King understood: the Royal Navy's equipment and personnel were inferior, which was why it suffered such a disastrous defeat. Losing the battle is not the problem, the key is losing a bit miserably.

"Given that the Axis powers are currently promoting equipment exchanges, these German aircraft are likely to fall into the hands of Japan, so..."

Admiral Jin couldn't listen anymore, interrupted the other party's speech, and asked simply: "How many planes do you need?"

"We need 200 of the latest super F4F, 100 each of F4U, SBD and TBF. Especially the latter two hope to be authorized for production - we are ready to completely eliminate backward models such as Skua, Swordfish, Big Mackerel, Sea Hurricane and so on. ..." Britain was tortured by the short-legged Spitfire this time. Under Fraser's suggestion, it took a fancy to the F4U in the U.S. Navy. Although problems arose one after another after the F4U was put on the ship, it was used for island air defense. And the escort is very effective.

"F4U can be provided to you first. SBD and TBF are also fine. You can also produce them if you want. But what does super F4F mean?" Roosevelt asked.

"It was successfully developed not long ago. It is a new aircraft that is faster and better than the F4F. It seems to be larger."

"That is the latest design of the aircraft, codenamed F6F, which is still on the eve of mass production. The number we have does not exceed 100, including many experimental models, so..." Admiral King quickly refused, "It cannot be provided for the time being."

"When can it be provided?" Noble asked quickly.

Admiral King looked at Roosevelt's attitude, gritted his teeth, and said in a very painful tone: "The first batch will be provided in June, and it will be provided within 3 months-this is already sacrificing our own equipment speed."

Noble did not dare to bargain and quickly agreed: "Thank you very much, we thank the American people for their deep friendship!"

"What are you going to do now?" Roosevelt asked worriedly, "British shipping may be severely damaged. Prime Minister Churchill was particularly worried about the fuel supply in the telegram he sent me. He said that the current crude oil reserves will hardly last for three months even if conservation measures are taken."

"We will first prepare to assemble the battleships in our hands, including 2 Elizabeth White-class battleships, 2 King George V-class battleships, 2 Glorious-class aircraft carriers, 1 Indomitable, plus your Pennsylvania and Independence, so we have 5 battleships, 3 fleet carriers and 1 light aircraft carrier as the core of the fleet. "Noble added, "We will not let the Germans be complacent for too long, we will wipe them all out as soon as possible. Before we eliminate them, we will be as cautious as possible in transportation, reduce the size and number of the fleet, but we cannot stop it completely, especially the fuel transportation cannot be stopped for a moment. "

Roosevelt cast his eyes on Admiral King, who nodded slightly, thinking that this level of troops was enough to overwhelm the German fleet - anyway, don't expect him to withdraw the capital ships in the Pacific.

"In addition, to ensure the safety of the route, we also need 20 escort aircraft carriers to undertake anti-submarine missions." Noble smiled bitterly, "After the top secret was destroyed, we were temporarily unable to accurately decipher the enemy's intelligence, and the loss of ship tonnage continued to rise: in November, the loss of merchant ships exceeded 750,000 tons; in December, 830,000 tons; in January, 970,000 tons; from February to now, it has exceeded 600,000 tons..."

This number is not exaggerated at all. In addition to the loss of normal shipping in the Atlantic, the Allies lost a large amount of civilian tonnage in the Battle of the Indian Ocean and the Battle of the Barents Sea. Adding the losses in the first two years, even if Britain and the United States tried their best to start construction, the total net tonnage loss exceeded 4 million tons - equivalent to one-fifth of the 20 million tons of civilian tonnage owned by Britain before the war. Considering that the total tonnage also includes many inland or offshore ships that are not suitable for ocean-going, Britain's ocean-going capacity has been roughly weakened by half (of course, these are not all British ships), all relying on the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia.

"20?" Admiral King's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but blurt out a swear word, "Why don't you go and rob?"

Even Roosevelt, who was always generous and almost always acceded to the British, was shocked by this number.

Noble, who was asking for help, certainly didn't dare to care about Admiral King's attitude. He explained: "A total of 8 escort aircraft carriers were lost this time, and in order to curb the submarine offensive, the escort force must be further increased. Now that the main force of the German Navy has entered the Atlantic, I am afraid that the loss of merchant ships will be very large in the future, and some routes will be completely interrupted, so a large number of escort aircraft carriers are needed."

"We can't afford so many warships. The Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers are still under large-scale construction and will not be put into use until at least 3-6 months later." Admiral King flatly refused this, "Even if the Casablanca-class is built in succession, 20 is a big number. "

"How many can we provide now?"

"At most, we can give you 2-3 Borg-class ships, and 1-2 more." Seeing the president's eyes cast over again, Admiral Jin said with a stiff upper lip, "We will try to give you 5 ships within a month, and another 5 ships in the second quarter."

According to the Lend-Lease Act, the United States will give Britain a series of escort aircraft carriers. The original idea was to give all the Borg-class to the British, but they didn't expect them to be so useless. The newly built escort aircraft carriers have not been completed yet, and the British have lost 8 ships in one go - these are 10,000-ton ships, not cabbages.

"Five ships are fine! It's fine!" Noble sadly found that he had become a beggar today, "Due to the urgent need for fuel transportation, we also need some large tankers..."