"No matter what, there is still hope for victory."

Although Stark did not say it, his mood became very low after receiving the news that the landing fleet had been attacked, especially destroyed.

Stark's thoughts, Smith had already guessed.

When he arrived at Task Force 51 as a senior staff officer in the War Department, Smith realized that Stark had chosen a dead end.

However, this is also the only way to reach the end of victory, but it is very bumpy and dangerous.

The reason is also very simple, Stark not only has to capture the Transit Island to recover the entire Howaii Islands, but also has to win the decisive battle of the fleet.

Fatally, it has to be a complete victory.

Not only must the powerful Liangxia fleet be defeated, but the losses must be controlled within an acceptable range, and the subsequent combat operations must not be negatively affected.

According to the plan, the most acceptable loss was simply the loss of Task Force 52.

Task Force 51 must be intact.

It is also crucial that the landing fleet should also maintain sufficient combat capability.

After all, after gaining sea supremacy, even without the 52nd Task Force, it would be possible to launch a landing operation with the support of the 51st Task Force, and without the landing fleet, nothing could be done.

Obviously, this is also the key to Stark's parting of the ways of the landing fleet and the transport fleet.

Who would have thought that the landing fleet would become a substitute for the 51st Task Force.

The problem now is that even if the two task forces are saved, the attack on the Transit Island will end in failure, let alone the recapture of the Khowaii Islands.

What, then, is the use of a decisive victory in a naval battle?

Although the Liangxia Navy will definitely shrink its defensive line after suffering heavy losses, keep its remaining forces, and avoid losing the initiative at the strategic level, the Liangxia Navy has been operating hard in the Khowaii Islands for decades, and even if the shipping routes are cut off, it can rely on the reserves of materials to hold out for several months.

In a few months, the Liangxia fleet, which has more than a dozen aircraft carriers, will be faced.

Obviously, even if the 51st and 52nd Task Forces retreated in this naval battle, they would not be able to sing a triumphant song in the next naval battle.

To put it bluntly, as long as the Khowaii Islands cannot be taken quickly, at least the defenders will be incapacitated, and the victory in the naval battle will not be of much value.

Be sensible, the right choice at this time is actually to retreat at full speed.

Keeping the two fleets, even if they retreat to the west coast of the homeland, they can rely on the mainland to continue the operation, and they will not lose the initiative because there is no fleet available.

Unfortunately, this is also the most unacceptable option.

Retreat means abandoning the strategic offensive, giving up the imminent transit islands, and abandoning the Khowaii Islands, which have been striving for recapture for decades.

Of course, it is also tantamount to admitting that it has suffered a crushing strategic defeat.

Neither Stark nor the politicians in Hwaseong could accept this result.

The Nuland Republic has just entered this big battle, and this is only the first round of the attack, so if you give up like this, do you expect to turn defeat into victory in the future?

Without a doubt, that's where Stark gets stuck.

"Do you think we still have hope?"

Stark suddenly asked a rhetorical question, which surprised Smith, after all, he was just reassuring Stark and didn't mean to discuss the topic.

It's just that Stark didn't spare the poor major officer.

"Although we lost the landing fleet, we requisitioned a large number of civilian ships, many of which could be used as landing ships. For example, many ro-ro freighters can carry heavy equipment, including main battle tanks, and many flat-bottomed carriers can carry out beach-rushing landing missions. ”

"It's all civilian ships."

Smith gritted his teeth and said, "After conquering the transit island, we can deal with the defenders of the other islands by strengthening strategic bombing. In the next offensive, we will definitely have to avoid the important and choose a valuable island that is relatively easy to attack. ”

"For example......"

"Kauai on the west side of Honou Island."

Stark's brow jumped a few times, and after a moment of contemplation, he nodded slightly.

Of the larger islands in the eastern part of the archipelago, Kauai is arguably the most advantageous, but also the most lightly defended.

The point is, it's too close to Honou Island.

Although during the last global war, the Liangxia Navy built a large number of military facilities here, including a barracks that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers, according to the plan at that time, if it had to attack Nuland mainland, the Marines who acted as the vanguard would use this as their base camp, but after the end of the war, the first thing the Liangxia Navy gave up was Kauai Island, after all, there was no need to build a military base on two adjacent islands at the same time.

In addition, the Howaii Islands are far enough away from the Nuland mainland.

At least in the years after the end of the war, no one believed that the defeated Nuland Navy would be able to counterattack the Howaii Islands.

Liang Xiajun chose Honu Island instead of Kauai Island because of the lack of natural harbors on Kauai Island.

If anything, the outside of the island is full of reef-made shallows, and the construction of an artificial harbor is very difficult.

However, for more than 20 years after that, Kauai Island has always been a military control area, to be precise, it was used as an actual combat training ground by the Liangxia Navy.

During this period, the Liangxia Navy not only allowed the fleet, air force and marine corps to conduct actual combat training here, but also used it as a shooting range for testing advanced weapons. To put it mildly, the main thing is that during the Great War, the Liangxia Navy transferred and resettled the aborigines of the island, and also designated the island as a military control area.

This situation remained until after the end of the Polish-Iraqi War.

In response to the protests of the Aboriginal people, especially with the support of the federal authorities in Nuland, the Liangxia authorities had to make concessions to the navy to hand over control of Kauai, de-military control, and arrange for the forced relocation of the aborigines back to their homeland.

In order to improve its image, the Liangxia authorities have carefully built Kauai as a "demonstration area" for the Khowaii Islands.

For example, hundreds of millions of gold dollars have been invested in the construction of a ring road, and a large number of tourist areas have been developed along the highway to encourage private capital to invest on the island.

After more than ten years of development, Kauai Island has become a world-renowned tourist attraction.

As a foundation for tourism, Kauai is home to the second largest civilian airport in the Howaii Islands, as well as a port that primarily serves cruise ships and yachts.

The point is that the island does not have a garrison of the Liangxia Empire.

Although the island has a permanent population of more than 100,000 and about the same number of tourists, order is maintained by a police force of less than 2,000 people attached to the federal authorities in Newland, armed with only a few small weapons and not even a few machine guns.

According to the information provided by the CIA, after the outbreak of the war, the Liang Xia army did not increase the number of troops to Kauai Island, and at most sent a few infantry battalions to guard the airport and port.

Of the islands to the east, Kauai is the easiest to capture.

Of course, Kauai also has the lowest relative value.

The point is that the main channel of the island's harbor has a restricted depth of only 5 meters, and almost all large warships have a draft of more than 5 meters. What's worse is that the infrastructure in the port is almost the same, and there are no basic cranes that any cargo terminal has. In fact, several of the terminals in the port were not designed to serve large cargo ships.

In fact, the situation at the airport is similar.

Although the runway is 3,000 meters long and can accommodate large international flights, it is difficult to support military aircraft due to infrastructure constraints.

Otherwise, the Liang Xia Navy would have sent troops to station.

In addition, Kauai is too close to Honu and is within the strike radius of light attack aircraft.

That is, the Liangxia Navy can use the light attack aircraft deployed on Hounu Island to deal with the Nuland army attacking Kauai, especially the landing fleet.

The key is that after capturing Kauai, it is still necessary to attack and occupy Hoonoo.

Due to these factors, Stark's battle plan did not include an attack on Kauai Island.

It's just that now it seems that there may be no other choice.

If Kauai can be successfully won, then many of the previous problems will become advantageous factors, such as the close proximity to Honu Island.

But is it really that beautiful?

After a moment, Stark couldn't help but smile wryly.

Smith's advice looks good, but it's not so much the value of Kauai itself, but how much time it takes.

Don't forget, Kauai is a large island in the east, with an area of nearly 1,500 square kilometers.

What is this concept?

That's about 300 times more than the transit island!

Because of the development of tourism, the natural environment of the island is very well protected, with more than 90% of the forest covered, and the infrastructure such as roads is concentrated on the periphery of the island, that is, the coastal lowlands, and the hinterland of the island is basically covered by dense tropical rainforests.

Obviously, it may not be difficult to defeat the defenders on the island.

However, it is not so easy to completely annihilate the defenders, that is, to completely control Kauai Island.

Even if the Nuland Navy were to go all out, it would certainly take months.

When drafting the battle plan, it was because it took too much time that Stark gave up on Kauai and chose to attack Honu Island directly.

Of course, certainly after the capture of Transit Island.

There is not enough time in the first place, and if you have to spend time attacking Kauai Island, isn't it tantamount to asking for trouble for yourself?

However, Smith's other suggestion caught Stark's attention.

The point is, is the Air Force really reliable?

Don't forget that the Nuland Navy has fallen into the current situation, in large part, because the Nuland Air Force has performed too poorly in the previous days. If the Air Force had completed its combat mission as planned, there would have been no patrol aircraft of the Liangxia Navy in the skies over the Khowaii Islands. Without shore-based aviation to provide cover, even if Bai Huawei was bold, he would not dare to lead the 41st Task Force deep behind enemy lines.

As long as Task Force 41 went to the vicinity of Transit Island, Stark was sure enough to win the naval battle.

In fact, the battle plan drawn up by Stark was mainly aimed at the decisive battle of the fleet around the transit island, and the victory was achieved through the decisive battle of the fleet.

Of course, there is little point in saying this now.

After pondering for a moment, Stark said, "In the current situation, we can only take one step at a time. When the battle is over, I will personally report the results of the battle to my superiors and give your advice. If necessary, I will go to the president and ask the president to give orders to the Air Force. ”

Smith didn't say much, just nodded slightly.

"It's just that the hope you said really exists, and there must be a prerequisite."

"Task Force 52." Smith is also very honest, in fact, Stark didn't ask him to give an answer, just wanted him to understand the powerful relationship.

Where did he think of it, Smith said it directly.

Stark was speechless, but he didn't say much.

After the destruction of the landing fleet, Task Force 52 became extremely important.

The reason is simple, even if the 61st Task Force has been annihilated, in the next battle, the 51st Task Force will have to go all out to meet the challenge from the 41st Task Force, and at that time, only the 52nd Task Force will be able to support the combat operation of attacking Kauai.

Whether Kauai can be successfully conquered, rather than making Kauai a second transit island, depends on the performance of Task Force 52.

Without a doubt, this is a very difficult task.

Previously, the Marine Corps was able to rely on its own aviation, that is, combat aircraft deployed on amphibious assault ships.

With the collapse of the landing fleet, the Marine Corps aviation has also disappeared, and in the future, the only thing that can be relied on is the navy's carrier-based aviation.

Unfortunately, the strength of Task Force 52 will not be strengthened by the tougher combat missions.

In fact, it has weakened somewhat.

It is mainly reflected in the combat efficiency of the aviation forces.

After the bitter battle on the transit island, the combat efficiency of the carrier-based aviation will certainly be reduced, mainly because the losses of pilots are too heavy.

Even if it is replenished, it is difficult to recover quickly.

In the battles that preceded this, the effects were already being felt.

For example, in the second round of attacks on Task Force 61, the escort fighters were commanded by a newly promoted group leader, who was only a squad leader before the outbreak of the war. If he had been an experienced commander, he might have been able to spot the problem in time, namely that the air defense network of Task Force 61 was in disarray, and the whereabouts of dozens of heavy carrier-based fighters were unknown.

If the report had been received in time, Stark or Smith would have been able to guess the combat intentions of the Liang Xia navy.

Of course, regardless of whether the 52nd Task Force is up to the next heavy duty, it must be completely retreated.

If Task Force 52 is finished, there will be no more battles!

In fact, there is another precondition that Smith didn't say, and Stark didn't mention it.

That's right, hit the transit island, and the sooner the better.

This premise is easy to understand, so there is no need to emphasize it.

It can be seen that only when these two prerequisites are established can the Nuland Navy continue the offensive and seize the initiative on the battlefield by quickly capturing Kauai.

But that's just a silver lining.

Even if Kauai Island is quickly occupied, it will be necessary to storm Hounu Island next, and even need to fight the Liang Xia fleet again.

In Stark's view, even if the hope of victory is very slim, it is better than despair.

Unfortunately, even this hope, which is essentially self-deception, did not last long.