Iron Cross

Admiral Jin smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I'm afraid the situation is not as optimistic as you think. South Africa is not in danger on land, but there may be big trouble at sea - German submarines based in Madagascar can attack shipping between us and South Africa. Break diplomatic relations; the axis fleet may take advantage of the temporary advantage in strength to launch an attack. If the combined fleet joins the attack, the enemy will have a clear advantage: they can gather 4-5 aircraft carriers, 8-10 battleships, and Including the super battleship, this greatly overwhelmed our naval strength. Therefore, my suggestion is that if we judge that the main force of the enemy's navy appears, we should avoid the main force of the battle as much as possible and wait for the strength to recover. "

When he said this, Roosevelt's mood, which had just improved, was completely ruined. He couldn't help but frown, but he had to admit that what the other party said was reasonable: Although Cunningham had been sworn in as a British and American joint naval aircraft carrier The commander of the formation, but the strength of the troops cannot be changed at once. Before mid-June, the two navies had only one medium-sized aircraft carrier (USS Unicorn) and two Independence-class light aircraft carriers (USS Cowpens and USS Monterey) as their core forces that could be deployed in the Atlantic direction. By mid-July, It only adds one more Independence-class ship (Langley).

Not only did the Allies fall behind in terms of the number and performance of their aircraft carriers, but they also lacked the strength of their battleships. With this configuration, they were not sure of victory against the German and Italian navies alone, and they were obviously unable to defeat the three-nation coalition including the Combined Fleet. Although the U.S.'s dominant escort aircraft carriers can undertake daily route protection tasks, they cannot be used for fleet operations.

Roosevelt thought about it for a long time, and finally asked tentatively: "Does it need to bring back the main force of the Pacific Fleet?"

Not only Nimitz, but also Admiral King, Le Hai, and Marshall shook their heads in opposition to this proposal: The Pacific Fleet is currently not too strong, with only two fleet aircraft carriers. Sending troops back to the Atlantic can certainly increase the strength of the East Coast and Europe. , but the West Coast and Pacific Ocean are completely unwatchable. In addition to attacking South Africa, the most likely option for the Combined Fleet is to return to the Far East. The Pacific Fleet is no longer a one-on-one opponent for the Japanese Navy. If it is withdrawn again, all the Western Pacific islands except Australia and New Zealand will probably fall into Japan's hands. Even Midway Island may not be able to be saved - it would be equivalent to the U.S. Navy shrinking to Pearl Harbor all of a sudden. The United States would be completely isolated in the Western Pacific, and it would be equally difficult to explain politically.

"The Navy's suggestion is that regardless of whether the enemy actually attacks South Africa, we will not deploy Pacific forces." Admiral Jin said sincerely, "After the Panama Canal is paralyzed, it will take 45-50 days at the earliest to start operations from Australia to the east coast. It will take 2 months, which has broken our most pessimistic prediction before the war. The safe way is to take a defensive position in the Pacific. If some islands cannot be defended, they can be ceded to the Japanese again, but the enemy must pay the price. The focus is to keep Australia. ,new!"

Marshall added: "This is one of the reasons why I am considering allowing the Australian and New Zealand troops to withdraw from Kenya first."

"But if we really go back to the Far East, the pressure on the region will be too great. We have sufficient evidence that Japan has received huge amounts of military supplies and equipment from Germany." Donovan added carefully.

Admiral Jin disapproved: "A huge amount? How much? It can't be more than the amount we gave to the British. The current monthly supply of refined oil is more than 1 million tons, and there are countless other materials and equipment."

"Not so much, but the significance is completely different." Donovan was afraid that everyone would take it lightly, so he quickly said, "Japan's industrial capabilities are very poor. The significance of the materials provided by Germany to Japan far exceeds the significance of the materials provided by us to the United Kingdom. Japanese Steel The output is only 2-3 million tons a year. Germany's 500,000 tons is equivalent to Japan's extra quarter of output out of thin air. For Germany or the United Kingdom, which have tens of millions of tons of steel production, 500,000 tons is just a small amount. Small numbers. Steel is one thing, but equipment cannot be ignored. There is intelligence that Japan has obtained a large number of tanks and aircraft. The number is unknown, but it should be in thousands. Regardless of the aircraft, the performance of the tanks provided by Germany is all better. Japan, measured in thousands, is almost equivalent to more than half a year’s domestic production.”

"Japan only produces so few tanks?"

"This number was analyzed by intelligence analysts, and I think it is basically credible. Although it is currently impossible to penetrate Japanese production companies for on-site investigation, but inferring from Japan's steel production and its maintenance of huge naval tonnage, we think it is basically not possible More than 200 vehicles/month. After stopping the transportation of scrap steel to Japan 2 years ago, it is common sense to predict that its steel production will only decline but not rise. This number has also been verified in Italy, which has slightly more steel production than Japan. There is also a huge navy that needs maintenance and construction, so the tank production is very low, and it can barely improve with the blood transfusions of the Germans. The only surprise is Russia. Their steel production is lower than Germany, but they can produce more than Germany. The performance of tanks is not too backward. Unfortunately, since the leased material transportation channels on the Western and Southern Fronts were forced to close, Russia lacks available armor steel, and the tank’s defensive performance has declined significantly.”

Roosevelt turned to look at Nimitz, who had been directing the war in the Far East and obviously had more say.

Nimitz thought about it and said, "If the Pacific Fleet does not withdraw, relying on General MacArthur's troops, the islands close to the Australia-New Zealand line have a high probability of being able to be defended - I mean New Guinea Island and Lae City line, but the Solomon Islands are very problematic. Bougainville Island and Munda Island are more difficult to defend than Guadalcanal because they have not yet established a complete defense system."

"In the short term, I suggest setting only a low goal, that is, to hold on to the New Guinea line and abandon the Solomon Islands when necessary." Nimitz said cautiously, "The closer we are to Australia and New Zealand, the more we can rely on the support of land-based aviation forces. Only with air supremacy can we have sea supremacy, and then we can hold the islands. We paid a heavy price when we seized the islands last time, and Japan must also pay a heavy price to retake these islands. I have decided to rush to Australia to command in the near future, and I must keep this vital front for the United States. "

Roosevelt nodded, obviously convinced, and said to himself: "I hope the Japanese fleet will really return to the Far East instead of continuing to mess with us in South Africa..."

Everyone looked at it helplessly, and nodded heavily in agreement - pinning their hopes on certain actions of the enemy, this is really a great shame and irony!

Just now when Donovan mentioned the aid channel to Russia, Roosevelt frowned again and asked, "Has their food crisis been resolved?"

This matter was coordinated by Hull. He sighed, "It can only be said that it has been temporarily alleviated, and it is still a long way from a fundamental solution. Britain provided Stalin with 100,000 tons of food from India, which was delivered through the Afghan channel, but the poor transportation conditions in Central Asia made it difficult to transport this batch of materials; we gave Stalin about 50,000 tons by sea, not because we didn't want to give more, but because of the limited transportation capacity; then we learned through secret channels that Stalin had made a secret deal with the Japanese and got a batch of food from Manchuria, the amount was unknown - but it was the fastest batch of food."

When they heard about the "secret deal", everyone's face had different expressions: Japan and the Soviet Union are now neutral countries to each other, and it is completely reasonable to conduct transactions in legal terms, but in the case of the Axis and the Allies being in stark opposition, this kind of transaction always exudes a strong sense of conspiracy.

"Is there any conspiracy against us?"

"Not yet. The Russians are unwilling to say more. They just say they will buy it with money, but our people told us that it is not that simple." Hull also became hesitant when he spoke. "Although asking the Japanese to buy is not satisfactory, it is at least logical, but... In addition..."

"Are there any shameless things we don't know about?" Roosevelt took a deep breath.

"Russia sent troops to Xinjiang, China to rob food! I heard that many people died! It involves factors such as local warlords in China and complicated internal relations. Now the relationship between the two countries is very tense. Chiang has sent me several telegrams, hoping that we can uphold justice. Considering the overall situation, I didn't say much. I just appeased his emotions and said that we stand on China's side morally, but Russia is currently an important ally and we need to understand each other." Hull sighed, "Then some time ago, the Russians issued a statement and decided to dissolve the Communist International... This incident gave Chiang a lot of encouragement. He believed that it was the beginning of the complete demise of the Bolsheviks. His court writers became very active. The media linked the two isolated things together and continued to attack China. Bolsheviks in the country. Our observers believe that this is a prelude to further escalation of the contradictions between the two parties. "

"He is more concerned about eliminating the Bolsheviks than we are. Why is he not so concerned about driving the Japanese out of his own country?" Roosevelt sneered, "The contradiction escalates, and then they fight a small-scale civil war like a few years ago? I really feel sad for the United States. What kind of allies do we have? The British are hypocritical! The Russians are brutal! The Chinese are stupid! The worst thing is that none of them listen! To be honest, I would rather have an Italy now. Even if there is no war, at least it will not cause so much trouble. "

Everyone looked at each other, and Hull could only smile bitterly.

Transporting materials to the Russians was a big problem. At present, the United States also had a big problem in transporting materials. After the Panama Canal was cut off, all ships had to go around Cape Horn to pass, which greatly increased the time and increased the risk of exposure to submarines. Therefore, Marshall proposed to change the mode of transportation: materials produced on the East Coast were first transported to the West Coast through the railway artery across the mainland, and then transported from the West Coast to the Pacific Ocean.

Smart businessmen have seen that the change in transportation methods is imperative. Therefore, after the attack in New York, other stocks fell sharply, only military and railway stocks rose against the trend, and the rise of railway stocks was even stronger than that of military stocks.