On 13 September, the order to stand firm reached Patton, who, in a fit of rage, tore the telegram to shreds and shouted curses at everyone in the Chiefs of Staff. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Several division commanders looked at each other, wondering why he was so out of shape - the enemy had intercepted at the front, and a hard charge would certainly not be able to rush through, and wouldn't Washington arrange a retreat the most obvious and wise decision? Why is Barton so angry, is he still thinking about turning defeat into victory? Not to mention the German planes chasing the attack all the way overhead, even the pursuers behind also made everyone tired, and the troops had been reduced to only about 65,000, if it weren't for the friendly forces and army aviation support in Recife who hung desperately, everyone's mentality would have collapsed long ago.

Defend against El Salvador, but not defend;

The counterattack on El Salvador was unsuccessful;

Retreating from El Salvador, all the way to the mess, all the way to the loss of troops. However, the more than 200-kilometer road took eight days, and the total number of troops dropped from 110,000 to less than 70,000. How much more is there from Recife? More than 400 kilometers, at this speed and attrition, the Germans did not even have to intercept in the middle of the way, and the pursuers alone consumed themselves to death.

The senior officers didn't know how to describe their deep feelings and helplessness, so they didn't understand Patton's temper.

Only Hewitt knew the reason for Patton's rage - it was the same in Africa, and as a result, Patton abandoned the troops he had gathered all the way from the Horn of Africa in the last defensive circle, and retreated in disarray, which was the most painful and humiliating battle for Patton, far more humiliating than the long march to the Horn of Africa. Now he had to build a defensive circle on the spot and retreat from the air, and he had to retreat in batches and groups of people, which hit Patton's painful memories at once, and he finally couldn't suppress the explosion.

Although Hewitt was in the navy and it was inconvenient to meddle in the command of the army, he had to stand up and play a round when this kind of time was at a critical moment: "George, I understand your feelings, I have experienced this similar scene with you once. The pain and anxiety were with me, but this time it was different, all the troops were American soldiers, and if you didn't retreat, General Roosevelt Jr. would die in vain - he desperately bought time for the retreat of the army. ”

I don't know if it was Hewitt's persuasion that worked, or if Barton remembered the dead Roosevelt Jr., who, with tears and anguish in his eyes, gave the order to find a suitable place to hold and prepare to retreat.

After urgent deliberation among his staff, he adopted the suggestion and had more than 60,000 men assemble towards Cimandias. It is more like a basin, with hills on all sides, which is not conducive to the passage of heavy equipment, and relatively flat valleys in the middle, which are more conducive to defense from the topography. As long as you hold the two gaps in the middle and to the west, you can cut off the German army coming from Arakalu or the Rommel group attacking closely behind.

The Germans could only continue their pursuit by attacking the frontal or flank gaps, the former of which would face the fortifications urgently constructed by the Americans, and the latter who could only choose to take a detour -- which meant that they would have to walk more than 120 kilometers.

Arnold's Army Air Force provided emergency assistance, directing planes to quickly drop more than 200 tons of perforated steel plates -- laying them on flat ground to quickly build a runway, which is why the U.S. military is often able to quickly repair airfields. It was a matter of escape routes, and all the officers and men rushed to help, and a temporary field airfield was built as quickly as possible overnight.

The relevant actions of the US military were quickly mastered by Rommel, and after looking at the map, he showed a strange smile: "Good! This place is good! ”

Gauss didn't understand what he was trying to say, but he understood everything after listening to the deployment that followed.

"Tell General Garland to transfer all the fighters in his hands to El Salvador, and then send a telegram to Marshal Mashaal, asking the aircraft carrier formation to approach the waters near Arakalu and prepare for battle!"

At a glance, it was clear that Rommel was not interested in annihilating this US ground force, and he came up with the idea of encircling the point and sending reinforcements -- reinforcements came from the air. In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, Rommel had the pursuit cluster blocked, and on the other hand, the 2nd Panzergrenadier Division, which had landed on the front line of Arakalu, detoured from the right flank, and then had Sauken's division detour from the left flank, preparing to encircle the valley.

Patton, whether you go or not, Rommel is watching you from the periphery......

"Now let's see a wonderful air battle!"

Simandias is just over 200 kilometers from El Salvador and less than 300 kilometers from the Navy's cluster on the Arakalo line, while the U.S. forces in Recife are more than 400 kilometers away. Judging from the frequency of sorties and the range, the German army obviously has the upper hand, while the German army only needs to mobilize fighters to attack, and the US military wants to use fighter planes to cover the transport planes, and the difficulty of the two sides is obviously different.

Garland agreed with Rommel's arrangement and deliberately encouraged the pilots: "It's time to show off your skills, boys, the glittering Knight's Cross awaits you!" Of course, it is impossible to fight without sacrifice, he specially explained that all the German troops were plugged outside the valley, and if they were hit, they should fly out of the valley as much as possible and then parachute, if they really couldn't control it, at least they would parachute into the mountains and not jump into the valley!

In the early morning of 14 September, the US transport plane first brought a batch of fuel and supplies, and even brought two radars, and then took away the first wave of evacuees: all the downed army parachute crews, and also took some naval officers and men, and the total number of people evacuated was nearly 2,000.

Since the Germans did not interfere with this, the first round of retreat appeared to be a success, which greatly boosted the confidence of the American officers and men.

However, the retreat did not go smoothly in the afternoon, and Garland organized a surprise attack by more than 200 fighters, and although the American army fighters sent by the Recife side desperately went out to cover, they could not withstand the fierce attack of the German army -- this was an ace pilot who had been fighting on the eastern and western fronts for several years, and any one of them was qualified to be an instructor of the American army.

Although the combined combat effectiveness of the P-51C + P-47D is good, the attack power of the Ta-152 + Do-412 should not be underestimated.

Except for a few lucky ones equipped with Sispanor cannons, most of the U.S. fighters are only equipped with 6 12.7mm heirlooms, while most of the German fighters they face have 4 20mm cannons - usually a combination of 2 20mm MG213 + 2 20mm MG151, and a very small number of German super aces are equipped with 2 experimental 30mm MK213 (30mm version of the MG213 rifled gun), but unlike the historical MK213, This time, the cartridge was increased and the rate of fire was reduced, from 530 m/s to 760 m/s, and from 1000-1200 rounds per minute to 800-900 rounds per minute.

When fighting fighter jets, the power of the MK213 is not very obvious, because whether it is the P-51 or the P-47, the effect of hitting the MG213 and MK213 in key positions is basically the same, but when used against transport aircraft, the important value of the MK213 is immediately apparent.

C-47 is a fairly sturdy transport aircraft, generally there is no problem with 3-4 rounds of 20mm MG151 ammunition in non-core positions, if it is MG213, it can barely hold on, but as long as it hits 2 MK213s, there is basically only one way to crash.

On the first day of what became known as the frenzy of air combat in Brazil, the Germans shot down 127 American fighters and 57 C-47 transport planes at the cost of 39 fighter jets, and the entire valley was filled with wreckage, and Patton watched in anguish as the planes crashed from the sky and was helpless. He even thanked the brave officers and men of the Army Aviation who carried away more than 5,000 troops that day with unprecedented fearlessness.

On 15 September, Garand increased the number of attacking planes to more than 400, and not only Air Force fighters continued to join in, but even Navy carrier-based fighters were also on the attack. He understood Rommel's thoughts perfectly, and did not waste time by sending attack planes to bomb those emergency runways, focusing only on transport planes.

The next day, the German attack group changed its strategy, and instead of rushing up in large formations, it was divided into multiple formations of 20-30 planes to attack and sneak attack, hit and run, once a group of American fighters was lured out, the Ta-152 ambushed at high altitude swooped down in the air, and killed this group of American rookies with BZ tactics. After several encounters, the US troops either did not come out or poured out in large groups, the former being more convenient for the Germans to adopt the hit-and-run tactics, and the latter being even more scoundrels -- taking advantage of the gap in the US fighter jets to attack the transport planes in the valley.

On this day, the losses of US fighter planes dropped to 108, but the losses of transport planes rose to 94, and the final number of retreats was only more than 4,000 -- the navy and the crew had finally finished retreating, and the next step was to evacuate the most troublesome wounded and sick.

On the third day, the U.S. forces again increased their escort force from Recife, and more than 200 P-51s and P-47s patrolled the valley airfield at any given time.

At this time, the magic of Garland's command was manifested - his experience in commanding the Condor Army in the Spanish Civil War and in the competition with the British Royal Air Force in North Africa was fully utilized.

More than 400 bombers and attack planes were all dispatched, under the protection of more than 300 fighters, to attack, taking advantage of the fact that most of the US fighters in Recife were out and the air defense force was weak, and the US military base was blown upside down, the US army lost more than 1,000 people, the anti-aircraft gun position, the airport runway, and a large number of supplies were blown up, and one bomb even fell less than 50 meters behind Li Qiwei, who was patrolling the defensive position. The pilot who dropped the bomb could not have imagined that he would almost kill the commander of the 5th Army, who had been appointed by the new officer.

Li Qiwei, who escaped the catastrophe, turned pale: the Germans' dismount is really a bit powerful......