Iron Cross

"People are driving out of the city on expressways, and there are more and more vehicles..."

"People are rushing to buy supplies, hoarding food and other daily necessities. There is looting in some stores. It is difficult to maintain the food rationing system, and the prices of some non-government priced commodities have skyrocketed."

"A local councilman asked to check the combat readiness of local air defense facilities, but damn, there are almost no anti-aircraft guns there - it's useless if there are any, not many National Guardsmen know how to use them."

"Some members of Congress are asking the president to make a public speech and declare a state of emergency and mobilize all available military forces to the East Coast to resist the invasion."

"Major shipyards, steel plants and other companies are requesting to deploy additional defense forces to prevent normal production from being affected, and are also asking the government to order workers not to leave their jobs without permission."

"Some reporters are verifying the losses of naval ships in the past six months. They are even contacting the families of officers and soldiers serving on those ships to ask if they have received letters or death notices recently. Various rumors are flying all over the sky, and there are even rumors that the Pacific Fleet has been completely destroyed. , Otherwise, how could the Japanese come to the Atlantic Ocean?"

The public statement made by Horikichi was like pouring a few drops of water into a boiling pot of oil. It immediately splashed everywhere and hurt everyone it touched.

After only half a day, the chaos in major cities on the east coast had begun to take shape, giving Roosevelt a headache. Even the British knew about the "Notice". Prime Minister Churchill sent a telegram saying that Great Britain was willing to stand with the United States to tide over the difficulties. All British naval officers resolutely obeyed the command, but his last sentence exposed his fundamental idea - he asked the United States to help Canada defend the fleet.

Roosevelt frowned. He knew that he needed to stand up and give a speech, which could encourage and inspire people. He believed that it would not matter even if the truth was told clearly, because the American people are reasonable. This is war and must face any threat from the enemy calmly. . But this indirectly proves that the threat of the Axis Fleet is real-this forces him to invest power and military expenditures in homeland defense. The Joint Chiefs of Staff has made preliminary calculations. If the defense capabilities of the east coast are to reach the level of the United Kingdom - not yet the level of Germany, at least 6 billion to 7 billion US dollars must be filled in and 800,000 to 1 million troops prepared; if the west coast is also to reach the level This standard will easily exceed 10 billion. The key is not the money. This money is affordable compared to the more than 50 billion military expenditures of the United States in fiscal year 1942, but the materials, personnel and equipment behind the money cannot be produced for a while - the United States needs time.

But the U.S. government cannot remain indifferent to threats. If a major city is successfully raided by the Axis Fleet, it will be too ugly. Pearl Harbor was a treacherous sneak attack by the enemy, and the people can forgive it. The enemy had already issued a warning in advance about the attack on the east coast. If something happened again, he would not know how to explain it to the people. The congressmen will definitely put pressure on the White House. Although everyone knows that the attack is a small probability event, no one wants to see their constituency destroyed by the enemy. The world war only lasts for a few years, but congressmen can spend a lifetime. Politicians will know clearly which one is more important.

As long as the democratically elected foundation remains unchanged, this $10 billion in spending must be spent. The current cost of an Essex-class aircraft carrier is 70-80 million US dollars, which is equivalent to the fact that the United States will throw in 130 Essex-class aircraft carriers for homeland defense at once. Thinking of this, Roosevelt's mood changed. Very bad.

Another piece of news that troubled him was that the war situation in the Soviet Union was very bad. Stalin issued a request for emergency support through diplomatic channels. His tone was unprecedentedly anxious and solemn, and he even vaguely said that he would make peace if he did not receive the request. Roosevelt didn't believe it during the peace talks, but when Molotov said this publicly, he could imagine that the Russians were having a hard time - after Baku, the Grozny oil field was almost unsustainable, and it had always been a source of oil output. The Soviet Union in China actually reached out to the United States and asked the United States for oil, and also asked for refined oil products by name, which was at the level of 1 million tons per month.

Churchill also said that 1 million tons per month would be needed. Roosevelt would slap the table and curse after thinking about it: Not to mention that Germany’s blockade is so tight now, even if Germany does not block it at all, the number of oil tankers in the United States is not that sufficient - 2 million per month. The output of tons plus the empty load on the way back and forth means that at least 4-5 million tons of tanker carrying capacity are needed. Coupled with the needs of the Asian theater and the African theater, the tanker carrying capacity of less than 6 million is simply unbearable, but the United States There are still many oil tankers lying on the slipway. (Author's note: The largest oil tanker during World War II was just over 20,000 tons. Do not compare it with the 200,000-300,000 tons of oil tankers in later generations.)

In response to the Soviet Union's material needs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff held a special meeting. Although some people expressed doubts about continuing to assist Stalin, everyone shuddered when they thought about the results of the Soviet Union's separate peace negotiation.

"We can't easily abandon Stalin as an ally." Roosevelt's speech at the meeting was very profound. "If the Soviet Union is forced to lay down its arms and surrender, Germany's 4 million army, 5,000-8,000 tanks, and 6,000 aircraft on the Eastern Front will be able to immediately free up their hands to attack Britain. Once Great Britain falls, America's future will be bleak. The Russians are relatively incompetent, but at least they are still fighting. Even if 5-6 Russians are exchanged for 1 German, it is worth it. If they don't change, we will have to sacrifice American boys to exchange. Do you think it is better to give supplies or lives?"

No one dared to answer this sentence, so the policy was set to further increase the aid to the Soviet Union and require Britain to transport India's supplies to the Soviet Union through Afghanistan as much as possible. The Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed that ship tonnage and steel are needed everywhere now. In order to ensure supply, only the least urgent ones can be cut or postponed, but the specific cuts still need to be considered by the Navy.

Aircraft carriers cannot be cut because they are the core of combat operations;

Battleships cannot be cut because the US Navy has lost too many battleships and is in urgent need of fresh blood;

Merchant ships cannot be cut and tankers cannot be cut because they need to provide supplies to the Allies.

Finally, the Navy thought about it and decided to cut submarines. They found that the combat efficiency of submarines has begun to decline significantly recently, and it is not cost-effective to manufacture submarines in large quantities: there are few Axis merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean, and British submarines are enough. They cannot enter the Mediterranean now, and they will die if they enter; there are many Axis merchant ships, especially tankers, in the Indian Ocean, but there are no bases available for submarines, and the enemy's anti-submarine forces are very fierce. Axis merchant ships are also close to the coastline, resulting in great losses and little results; the Far East battlefield was originally the most dynamic place for submarines, but the efficiency here has declined significantly.

After the cooperation and exchanges between Japan and Germany were strengthened, Germany sent a group of submarine talents to the Japanese Navy. After receiving sonar, radar, anti-submarine aircraft from Germany and absorbing relevant anti-submarine experience, the losses of US submarines increased day by day, but the results began to decrease. In addition to improving anti-submarine technology, Japan also made a lot of improvements in other aspects. After the code was replaced, the United States could not easily decipher the Japanese code; Japan imitated the United States to introduce the escort mechanism. Hori Teikichi removed several merchant ships from the light aircraft carriers and put them into escort. The transport ships between the Japanese army and navy were managed by the navy. In addition, the torpedo problem of the US Navy has not been effectively solved. All these factors have greatly reduced the effectiveness of submarines.

Another reason why the Navy’s top leaders adjusted the production task to submarines is that the number of submarine forces is not small. After deducting the losses, there are currently more than 400 submarines, which is enough for the Far East Theater alone. Another factor that cannot be ignored but has not been put on the table is that the Navy’s experienced officers and soldiers are losing rapidly. Since the South Pacific naval battle, the loss of naval personnel has been quite astonishing. The limited personnel will give priority to surface ships to supplement.

But submarines have never been the mainstream of the US Navy. It is far from enough to cut them off. The Navy Department can only frown and continue to cut.

Alaska-class cruiser: only the first three ships were built, and the rest were cancelled;

Baltimore-class heavy cruiser: only the first four ships were built, and the rest were cancelled;

Oregon City-class heavy cruiser: all were cancelled;

Des Moines-class heavy cruiser: unfinished design drawings were sealed;

Atlanta-class light cruiser: starting from CL, it was converted into a light aircraft carrier in imitation of the Independence-class;

Cleveland-class light cruiser: in addition to the 9 ships that have been modified into the Independence-class, another 11 ships will also be converted into light aircraft carriers.

Escort carriers are more scarce than fleet aircraft carriers. The Navy Department has made statistics. According to the current material transportation needs and the enemy's anti-communition power, at least 70-80 escort carriers are needed for the fleet. However, due to the huge losses in the early stage, only 15 ships were actually available by mid-April. According to Turner's A+ plan, 12 escort carriers need to be transferred for combat, and these escort carriers put into combat are likely to lose 6-8 ships. Therefore, unless it was a particularly important merchant fleet, the navy was reluctant to use escort aircraft carriers for escort, and at most gave some old destroyers, which suffered heavy losses from the attacks of U-boats from the Azores.

Roosevelt had seen the data, more than 10 escort aircraft carriers would be completed between May and August, but 10 of them were scheduled to be provided to Britain; the more than 10 Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers that were put into service between August and October were the ones that the US Navy could really use, but the number was still useless. After calculation, the overall force would not be able to recover until early 1944, and this was based on the capture of the Azores.

There were a lot of problems, but he couldn't care so much for the time being. The most important thing was to deal with the attack of the Axis fleet first.