"Now do you need to deal with the enemy of Bermuda first?" That night, at the urgently convened analysis meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dewey rubbed his temples painfully and asked the leaders of the sea and land uncertainly.

Before the Bermuda crisis, the U.S. military had been passively beaten, and it was not until the past two days that the situation began to slowly turn around: Bradley, who rushed to the Central American theater, led his troops to launch a counteroffensive from Guatemala against Nicaragua and Costa Rica, while Mitchell led the entire main force of the Atlantic Fleet to break through into the Caribbean.

Before the start of the meeting, Mitchell had concealed the fleet about 200 kilometers north of Puerto Rico, successfully avoiding German reconnaissance planes, but the main force of the huge Axis Fleet was inevitably discovered again, and the trajectory was located in the waters between Aruba and Curacao when it was discovered. It's hard to guess what the intentions are.

However, judging from Mitchell's judgment, it is now a better time for the situation on our side: the enemy is in the open and we are in the dark, and the Atlantic Fleet can get land-based support, and its strength is relatively strong, and it has a better chance of winning the war.

Spruance did not directly answer Dewey's question, but patiently explained the current situation and the comparison of forces to everyone:

As of 21 o'clock in the evening of March 14, Washington time, the distance between the two fleets was about 1,000 kilometers, and the US fleet with seven aircraft carriers as the main force was 200 kilometers north of Puerto Rico, which had not yet been discovered by the German army, which was the first advantage of the US military;

Spruance judged that the German army now has 5 fleet aircraft carriers and 8 escort carriers, about 550 600 aircraft, while the US military has 7 fleet aircraft carriers and 6 Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers, with nearly 750 carrier-based aircraft;

The third advantage is the advantage of land-based aircraft, after Arnold's continuous transfer, there are currently nearly 500 air force planes on the island of Puerto Rico, and there are still more than 1,500 planes on Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti and other islands behind it, if the war against Germany starts tomorrow, all the Puerto Rican air force can be directly put into the battlefield, and the rest of the planes can be supported by Puerto Rico as a springboard, and at least more than 750 planes can be dispatched again, not counting the more than 100 planes left in Venezuela, on the other hand, the German army, Colombia and the planes to the west will certainly not be used, and the only land-based aircraft that can really be put into battle are about the planes of the Grenada and British Guiana lines, and Spruance judged that there should be no more than 500 aircraft.

Judging from the number of aircraft, the United States has more than half of the strength advantage over the German side, which is quite advantageous.

As for why the offensive has not been launched so far, it is mainly due to the fact that it is too late and the distance is too large to launch a large-scale attack on the Axis Fleet. Most of these planes capable of launching long-range attacks across the sea were piloted by skilled pilots, and they were technically quite good, but the reason why the results were not good was that the scale of the sortie was too small. The largest of the three sorties consisted of 94 planes, while the smallest was only 61, and it was difficult to penetrate and attack in the face of the encirclement and interception of nearly 150 German air defense fighters at a time.

Therefore, the Air Force believes that this tactic of dispersing sorties is tantamount to sending them to death, and that it is necessary to concentrate superior forces to engage in a "wave of flows" and to destroy the technological superiority of the German fighters by throwing overwhelming superior forces on the battlefield; it is not enough for the Air Force to assemble planes, but it is necessary to gather carrier-based planes to attack together, and now it is dividing it by the best critical point.

Mitchell's tactics were simple: he judged that the main German fleet would arrive at the Boramar line early tomorrow morning and wait for an opportunity to cross and break away from Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, so he had to take some risks, turn the direction of the fleet from southeast to due south tonight, and kill directly between Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, closing the distance to within 600 kilometers, and then release a wave of attack groups in the early morning of 15 March to prepare for an attack on the Axis Fleet, the specific direction of which was located by the reconnaissance planes sent by Puerto Rico. In order to protect himself to the greatest extent, he planned to start the fleet retreat north after the release of the attack group, and let the planes that had completed the attack land in Puerto Rico.

This plan seems to be quite "timid", but in the eyes of Nimitz and Spruance, it is the only way to win at present, the United States can only win the Caribbean Sea War, let alone a draw, not even a crushing victory, 7 fleet aircraft carriers must be saved, Mitchell's innovative tactics are quite appropriate to take into account the two themes of "offense" and "security".

"But then the Bermuda direction can't be taken into account." Spruance shrugged, "There are nearly 1,000 nautical miles from Puerto Rico to Bermuda, and after the fleet completes its attack tomorrow, regardless of the results of the battle, no matter how brilliant the results are, from now on, it will take 72 hours for the carrier-based aircraft to return to the fleet and rush from Puerto Rico to Bermuda for rescue." ”

Nimitz said: "Another option is to abandon tomorrow's offensive plan, tonight the main force of the fleet from the south to the north, so that you can save 2430 hours, in 48 hours to the Bermuda Islands to rescue and repel the German detachment, but whether you can eat the opponent, depends on the opportunity, maybe the German army escapes?" ”，

Turner frowned and said: "I vaguely have such a fear, the attack on Bermuda is a trick used by the German detachment to cover the smooth retreat of the main force of the fleet from the Caribbean Sea, in order to attract the attention of our army, judging from the current situation, the occupation of Bermuda will not bring any strategic advantage to Germany, and their occupation of Bermuda is not as strong as the threat of occupying Puerto Rico." ”

Admirals, you and I have spoken one after another, and now it has become a naval torture of the army: Didn't you entangle the navy to attack the main German fleet some time ago? Now, the navy has finally seized an opportunity to prepare for the attack, and has mobilized the necessary forces. But what do you think about now? Suddenly, he proposed to let the fleet rush to the rescue of Bermuda immediately, could it be that Bermuda could not withstand it for 72 hours?

The Navy's words left MacArthur and others speechless, and the army's scene was also very embarrassing: the newly built fortifications on Bermuda were almost tossed in the first round of indiscriminate bombardment today, and in the evening, the German army officially landed and started a fierce battle.

Turner asked with a tiger face: "Well, even if you can't hold it and we are forced to lose Bermuda, I want to ask what harm is this?" ”

Clark was one of the few generals in the Army who supported the Navy to deal with the main German fleet first, and he thought that although the loss of Bermuda would look bad, in the short term, at most Germany would get a powerful springboard, and then that's it.

"If the navy wins, even if Bermuda is occupied by the Germans, will we be able to take it in the foreseeable future?"

This cannot be denied.

"Isn't this the end of it? Ladies and gentlemen, listen to my advice, it is more important to fight the fleet, as long as there is a naval superiority, which island cannot be attacked? Turner spread his hands, "Without naval superiority, Hawaii can only be surrounded with 100,000 troops." ”

Admiral Kim shouted: "Gentlemen, we can't always follow the baton of the Germans' attack, we will follow wherever they hit, we must have a little initiative, as long as we can inflict heavy damage on the German fleet, we can seize the initiative, what if Bermuda loses?" Give them a few weeks to occupy, as long as we have naval superiority, we can counterattack and take it in a few weeks! ”

Dewey had no idea, and before the meeting, because the army kept blowing the importance of Bermuda, his focus and ideas were pressed on counterattacking the German detachment as soon as possible and keeping Bermuda; After two hours of debate in the meeting, after the admirals took turns to make presentations and constantly explain and analyze, he felt that it was more important to destroy the main force of the German fleet; Until 11:30 a.m., the Joint Staff Committee was still shaken and struggling and could not extricate itself, in fact, it was mainly Dewey himself who was struggling, he wanted the navy to go south to attack the German fleet and achieve a big victory, and he also hoped that the army would guarantee him that Bermuda would not be lost during this period, and that he could hold out until the arrival of naval reinforcements.

But how can such a good thing that has the best of both worlds get his turn?

ps: Yesterday I encountered a very annoying thing, someone passed the yuan, I want to say, brother, it doesn't matter if you don't have the money to pay or don't want to pay, I'm also ready to ask you to look at it in vain, but what do you mean by transferring 1 cent to me? Look down on me? Humiliate me? Think my essay is only worth 1 cent? Now in this world, do you need 1 cent to send a caller, right?

People are watching the sky, you are hanging like this, do your family know?

:,,gegegengxin!!