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The news of the German landing in Arakalu poured into Washington, Recife, and the retreating Fifth Army as reports of U.S. Army planes poured into Washington, Recife, and the retreating Fifth Army......

By the evening of September 9, the Fifth Army was retreating at a rate of 30-40 kilometers a day, and the forward was now on the front line of Espranada, and the connection between the rear guard and the forward was very close, and the distance between the front and rear marches was only more than 60, but the total number had dropped to just over 75,000 -- soldiers were constantly left behind by air raids, pursuits, casualties, or missing (a good name for fleeing or surrendering)

The follow-up group led by Rommel still pursued reluctantly, but did not try to intersperse, and in the process of forced pursuit, Rommel also lost more than 2,000 troops, but he did not want to give up; Farther south, the Sauken Cluster began to advance after defeating Roosevelt Jr.'s division, and the rest of the forces were deployed along the plains of Brazil, with the exception of the 2nd Panzergrenadier Division, which landed northward by boat. The daily advance speed of the pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info is as high as 120-140 kilometers, and Shaoken has already instructed that all departments only need to advance, not the marching sequence, so the order of this main pursuit group is quite chaotic.

The biggest obstacle to the advance of the German mechanized troops was fuel and supplies, which were available on the ships, but could not be unloaded at the port of Seguru or anywhere else - as the troops advanced, the supply centers in the rear would be farther and farther away. The German army also does not have the ability of the United States to use aircraft to ensure the supply of materials, and the German army in South America has obtained a total of more than 30 transport planes, which is impossible to provide sufficient supplies for tens of thousands of troops. Without fuel, it was impossible to catch up with the Americans on foot alone.

At this time, the German army's war experience came into play, and Rommel's profound intention to send most of the transport fleet south and accompany the troops to the north can also be seen: he had the airborne division divided into parts, and the airborne planes were airborne one by one according to the size of the platoon-level battle group, and then they went to the front line to form an emergency supply station.

The source of supplies for the military station is the materials on the cargo ship, and they move north with the army, and when they encounter the location of the "military station", they place the fuel and supplies on the Sibel landing craft with a crane, and then these guys who can rush to the beach and land have now become the material transportation team of the military station, according to the instructions of the paratroopers, roaring to rush to the beach and landing, and use the original but timely method to transport materials to the troops. Each landing craft can transport at least 300 tons of supplies per day, and the joint operation of multiple landing craft is completely sufficient to support the assault group operation of the troops, because the troops only consume fuel and supplies, and have no ammunition, and the supply requirements are relatively low.

On the other hand, although the supply operations of the US army were extensive, they were completely blood--the supplies and fuel carried by the Fifth Army itself were half consumed, half discarded or lost, and they had already begun to run out of urgency, and even on the way to escape, the American GIs still had a higher demand for supplies than the German army. In order to meet the needs of Patton's troops, Arnold was forced to mobilize valuable transport planes that were supposed to be carried out by strategic airlift to deliver supplies to Patton, and then to accompany a large number of fighters, so that there were not enough fighters that were supposed to provide cover for the bombers.

All the German pilots were saying: "Admiral Arnold is a good man, he knows that we lack records and is hungry for points, so he sent four heavy transport planes to the door, and made an indelible contribution to the cause of the Luftwaffe, may God bless him as commander-in-chief of the US Army Aviation!" ”

The reason is the simplest: in the German army's evaluation system, shooting down a four-engine transport plane is counted as 4 points, while shooting down a single-engine fighter is only counted as 1 point, and the problem is that no matter how weak the US fighter pilots are, they are always more difficult to beat than transport planes, so now the pilots are rushing up, catching the transport plane, and opening fire and beating it. Even if the US military is engaged in night airlift, there are now many aces of night fighters on the Western Front in the Luftwaffe, and they know the rules best -- the results of shooting down in night battles have doubled, and Lieutenant General Garland personally admitted that this principle is still applicable to Brazil.

Heinz Schnoefel is the first ace of the Luftwaffe night fighter, with more than 70 shootdown records on the Western Front (most of them are Halifax, Lancaster and other British 4 heavy bombardments, because the US military only likes to play daytime air raids), this time a large number of night fighter pilots led by him pestered Garland to Brazil, and the latter could not persuade them to bring more than 20 trump cards. As a result, Schnaufer alone killed 9 transport planes and 2 P-47 night fighters with radar in one go in two nights on September 7-8, and he was unscathed!

Other night aces were also won repeatedly, with as little as 1 and as many as 3-4.

The strategic airlift lasted three days, and although it ensured the Fifth Army's material needs for a week, the Army Airlines lost more than 400 transport aircraft and more than 60 fighter pilots -- all of whom were experienced and familiar with it, and Admiral Arnold was heartbroken and sleepless all night. It also made Rommel understand the Führer's seemingly childish instruction on the telegram: "The American troops in Recife need not be in a hurry to destroy them first, but can take the opportunity to consume their pilots and transport troops to create convenience for the next stage." ”

This anomalous directive has made great gains for the Air Force.

Gauss, who was sitting in El Salvador, did not understand one point of the US army: since they had to flee to Recife regardless of the distance of several hundred kilometers, why didn't they simply find a place with favorable terrain to lurk, gather troops on the one hand, and wait for supplies on the other hand, so as to fight a Brazilian encirclement campaign? Wouldn't it be better and more durable to wait for Recife or other American troops to come to their rescue than to be exhausted?

Of course, Patton also wanted to find a place to simply fight a defensive war, and he thought that if this continued, the troops would be dragged down sooner or later, but no one agreed with this view, and everyone thought that once they were surrounded by the German army, it would be a dead end - didn't the last African campaign prove it? As soon as the ANZAC flew away, didn't the other American troops in the encirclement surrender?

Patton's own explanation was not convincing at all, he could only run with his troops, and as he watched his troops go from 110,000 to 100,000, from 100,000 to 90,000 or 80,000, he did not know how many tens of thousands would be left in Recife. Besides, is Recife necessarily safe? Clark was only 100,000 troops there, so why could an enemy that the Fifth Army couldn't stop with 100,000 people could be stopped in Recife?

But no one dared to retreat, and no one could find a way to retreat safely.

Clark had proposed a solution: let Patton's headquarters attract the attention of the German army, and he and the 100,000 men of Recife urgently retreated before the Germans could come up - it was okay to go to Venezuela, or to British Guiana, Brazil gave up completely, and even the equipment and materials were gone, and the withdrawal of 100,000 officers and soldiers was the king. He calculated that if 2,000 transport planes were used to carry out this task, 30,000 officers and soldiers would be transported every day, and it would only take four days to transport all of them.

As for Patton's remaining tens of thousands of horses, he could only help them, of course, he made one thing clear: officers above the rank of major, and technical troops are all valuable assets, and they must find a way to withdraw them from the air.

But even he did not dare to report this method to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so he found an intermediary and asked a Democratic congressman with a family relationship to send the withdrawal plan to Truman, hoping that the president would consider the matter from the perspective of the overall situation.

Although Truman did not understand military affairs, he was still shocked by the news revealed by the congressmen of his own party, but he maintained his appearance, pretending not to know who had proposed the solution, and only said: "I understand, and we will discuss it in a moment." ”

"Your Excellency, if this matter is not handled well, it will go to court in the future, and I am also very anxious about it."

"Abandon the 5th Army? No! You can't do that! Eisenhower immediately understood, and jumped to his feet and scolded, "Did that bastard from Clark bring it up?" He was bent on retreating! This is true in Africa! The same is true of the landing in El Salvador, and now it is necessary to retreat! He can retreat to Venezuela now, where can he retreat next time the Germans force him again? Going to Florida? If the Germans were closing in on Florida, would he want to go to the Great Lakes again? ”

"Ike, don't get excited, I haven't agreed yet." Truman gritted his teeth and said, "I need the Joint Staff Committee to tell me what it means for the Germans to land in Aracalou, is it that the Fifth Army will not be able to return?" Once the Fifth Army is finally wiped out, will the rest of Recife (which also belongs to the Fifth Army) not be able to survive? ”

"Your Excellency, this is not ......"

"Ike, we have to prepare for the worst, if we only look at half of the problem every time, and find out that this doesn't work and that doesn't work, we will be the unlucky ones in the end." Truman fell into a state of madness, slammed the table and shouted, "I can accept whoever I want to sacrifice and lose, I can have expectations, the only thing I can't accept is that you tell me this is okay, that there is hope, that will never happen, in the end things always go in the worst direction, I can't explain to Congress and the people." ”

He relented: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper with you, but I desperately want to know, what will be the worst consequences for us?" Can we afford to do so? ”

Eisenhower sighed and told him the results of today's (September 10) urgent deliberations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: We hope that George's troops can break through the enemy's resistance in front of them and join our army in Recife, so that our army is expected to have more than 150,000 troops, and the fortifications and defense system of Recife are relatively complete, and the materials are relatively sufficient, and we will rely on these for long-term defense. The Navy has confirmed that by October, the Atlantic Fleet will be partially rejuvenated, two Essex-class ships have been built, sea trials and training are underway, and two other Alaskan armored cruisers (battle cruisers) will also be commissioned and accompany the fleet operations with the New Jersey, which can contain the German fleet, and then continue to increase troops to Brazil or cover the retreat of the army according to the situation is a negotiable option.

"Wait until October?" Truman's heart suddenly cooled, and his instinct told him that Patton's department would not last until October......