Iron Cross

The shocking changes in Argentina shocked everyone. In half a month, it was so sudden that people were overwhelmed. It was similar to the "ten days that shocked the world" of the Russian October Revolution.

Emergency telegrams poured into the Oval Office of the White House, urgently requesting a re-examination and evaluation of the situation in South America. If it was just a military change, Roosevelt might have gritted his teeth and persisted, but now the pressure from politics, economy, military and diplomacy came together, especially Argentina's nationalization policy, which hit the roots of major American financial groups, causing these financial groups to evaporate at least 2-2.5 billion US dollars in assets overnight (including the UK, it may exceed 3 billion).

Roosevelt could ignore the complaints of others, but he could not ignore the pressure exerted by the heads of major financial groups and the congressmen who depended on them. Moreover, Secretary of State Hull, who had helped him to strengthen his resolve, had now changed his tone and talked about the importance of South America to the United States, and even pointed out that after the release of the "Monroe Doctrine", there had not been such a serious invasion by European forces - this argument almost made Roosevelt want to spit blood.

In this case, Admiral King's "small move" of ordering the rapid withdrawal of the squadron with the Iowa and West Virginia as the main force made many people praise the Navy for its quick response and avoiding the loss of strength in vain. You know, there are really many main forces of the Axis Fleet that came to South America this time, almost all of them.

The Axis Fleet led by Marshall includes three parts: the bombardment formation, the aircraft carrier formation and the transport formation. The aircraft carrier fleet is the core of the entire force. The fleet has a total of three regular aircraft carriers, namely Zeppelin, Skyhawk, and Harrier. After the partial introduction of Bf-219C carrier-based aircraft with folding wings, the total number of standing combat aircraft exceeds 200, and the number of pilots equipped on it exceeds 320, reaching an extremely high ratio of 1.6:1.

The auxiliary aircraft carrier is the Elbe, which was converted from the Potsdam cruise ship. It has been optimized based on the experience of using the Europa. After completion, the overall displacement exceeds 25,000 tons. The posture looks larger than the Skyhawk and Harrier. The deck can carry nearly 30 carrier-based aircraft and 18 Ar-372s. However, except for the water reconnaissance aircraft with complete take-off and landing capabilities, the other aircraft are not as good as the Europa because of their displacement and insufficient length of the main deck. Among all types of carrier-based aircraft, only fighters can take off smoothly. Heavy attack aircraft cannot take off with load unless they reach the rear of the deck, and the launch speed is slow.

However, the significance of auxiliary aircraft carriers is that they can carry infantry and light mechanized forces to launch attacks. They are amateur amphibious assault ships. In the German Navy, their name has been changed to comprehensive aircraft carriers. Similar to the Béarn, the German Navy also has a semi-finished aircraft carrier, the Chaffee, obtained from the French Navy. Initially, this was a regular aircraft carrier, but the French design was really whimsical. Even if it was completed on schedule, it was not very useful. The German army initially planned to dismantle it. After crossing, Hoffman thought that it was very suitable to be converted into an auxiliary aircraft carrier, especially without the need to arrange complex hangars and lifting systems. Its completion efficiency has been qualitatively improved and will be completed in December according to the schedule.

The bombardment formation is divided into two echelons: reconnaissance and firepower. The core of the reconnaissance echelon is the two battlecruisers Strasbourg and Gneisenau, and the core of the firepower echelon is 4 Italian Veneto-class battleships. The newly built Empire controlled by the German army is also among them, and the other is the Tirpitz. The battleships Richelieu and Scharnhorst, which were severely damaged in the Caribbean campaign, were left in Italy for repair. In addition to the overhaul, the latter also had to undergo a main gun replacement like the Gneisenau, changing the caliber of the ship's guns from 283mm to 380mm.

Although it is said to be a distinction between reconnaissance and firepower, in fact, the speed of the battleships in the firepower echelon is not slow. Both the Tirpitz and Veneto classes can run at 30 knots. The slowest in the bombardment formation is the pocket battleship Deutschland, which can only run at 26 knots.

Anyone who has been in contact with the navy can see at a glance that this is a robbery fleet - all fast ships, Germany and Italy have brought the characteristics of the commerce-breaking tactics to the extreme.

The disadvantages of the Veneto class are also obvious - insufficient endurance. Compared with the endurance of Japanese and American battleships, which can easily reach 8,000 or 9,000 nautical miles, the Italian battleships, which have always been active in the Mediterranean, have an endurance of only more than 4,000 nautical miles. In the case of overloaded fuel, an additional refueling operation was carried out on the way from Madagascar to the Falkland Islands. The more than 20,000 tons of fuel (almost all of which were heavy fuel oil for ships) left by the British on the Falkland Islands made Marshall overjoyed. These lovely British only had time to blow up a few gasoline tanks - which stored aviation fuel, and the aviation fuel fleet was not short of it.

There were also some situations that Marshall did not expect. After taking over the Falkland Islands, he also received intelligence about the Japanese-American Tarawa Battle from the country. After learning that the US Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers were all slaughtered by the Japanese army, he was very happy. This meant that the pressure on him would be greatly reduced, and there would be no risk of being attacked from both sides in the short term.

The Japanese were even more excited when they learned that the German army had occupied the Falkland Islands: once the South American route was cut off, the Pacific Fleet would not be able to receive the main battleships. If the US military wanted to launch an attack in the Pacific, it would have to wait until they defeated the German and Italian fleets. Japan would have enough time to make arrangements and to promote the second phase of the Indian attack. At the same time as Argentina was turning the tables, the second batch of Indian expeditionary forces had arrived in India to join Yamashita Tomoyuki.

On one side, the Japanese army continued to increase its troops, and on the other side, the British and Indian army was cut off from external supplies. Mountbatten fell into despair.

In the Oval Office, Roosevelt held a secret meeting. It was not easy for a politician to publicly admit his mistakes in front of his subordinates, but Roosevelt did not hold back in front of these confidants and sincerely talked about his own carelessness: "I didn't expect such a major change to happen in Argentina. I miscalculated the decision last time. I want to hear your opinions on corrections or improvements at today's meeting."

The expressions of the people were different. The most obvious ones were Hull and Donovan, whose faces flushed red. The former vowed that a unified Europe was the biggest threat, but he was forced to change his mind two days later; the latter went to South America to make arrangements in person, but not only did he return empty-handed, but the spies and leading figures he had ambushed in Argentina were also uprooted by the Peron authorities. What's worse, all the secret exchanges and telegrams between the United States and local forces were seized, and the attempt to interfere in Argentina's internal affairs was completely exposed, causing a great uproar in local public opinion...