ps: The titles of the first few chapters should actually be changed to this more appropriately, everyone make do with it, and don't skip because of the title, because most of the time the title does not reflect the content...... In addition, some readers reported that they could not see this chapter, saying that it was because the system was turned off by default after updating the starting point APP, and it could be turned on in the settings. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"I killed him! I killed him! Upon learning of Roosevelt Jr.'s death, Barton wept bitterly in the command.

In his opinion, if he hadn't insisted on sending troops to land at the beginning, Roosevelt Jr. would still be safe and secure with the Red First Division in Venezuela. Not only did he take Roosevelt Jr. on an adventure, but he also put his troops in a place like Port Seguru, which was not close to each other, and finally the whole army was destroyed. What is even more unforgivable is that instead of fighting side by side with Roosevelt Jr., he retreated to a safer place in El Salvador.

Had it not been for Roosevelt Jr. in front, his army group might have been surrounded by the Germans.

Several division commanders of the Fifth Army looked at each other, and they already knew the news that the Roosevelt cluster was almost completely annihilated, and the situation became very unfavorable, the German army in El Salvador was clinging to the troops, and the main German army in the south was rushing forward again, and if they did not retreat in time, the Fifth Army would be completely finished.

Originally, the Fifth Army still had the task of responding to the retreat of Roosevelt Jr.'s cluster, but now this task naturally disappeared with the collapse of this cluster, but Patton did not give the order to retreat for a long time, saying that he would wait to see if there was a turnaround, and they came to the command to inquire together.

"Withdraw......," Barton sighed, "let's go, give me 2 regiments, and I'll cover!" ”

"Sir!" Everyone exclaimed, in the current situation, breaking the rear cover is basically equivalent to sending them to death, the army has just lost a brigadier general, but it can no longer throw the commander and lieutenant general of the group army into it.

"Sir, we understand your feelings, but now that the situation has changed, we can't delay any longer...... Don't break the rear, after the break is equivalent to sending the enemy 2 regiments in vain, we retreat in groups, there is still time, the enemy is still more than 300 kilometers away from us! ”

On September 1, Patton had no choice but to give the order to retreat on all fronts, and the main force of the Fifth Army, more than 80,000 people, slowly retreated alternately to the north.

Rommel wanted to pursue, but he had no armored division at hand, only an infantry division and 2 marine brigades, less than 30,000 men, and had to manage the city defense and watch the port, so he could only send a maximum of 20,000 men to attack. But he was still reluctant to give up such a good opportunity, and let Gauss sit in El Salvador to coordinate, urging the Sauken cluster to speed up its northward movement, and personally organizing 20,000 people to pursue it.

Because Gauss had a sentence that persuaded him: it would be good to delay the retreat of the Fifth Army, they would not be able to run! As he said this, Gauss's fist was striking at the port of Arakalu on Brazil's east coast. Rommel immediately understood that he could do the trick of landing at Kamamu all over again, and send 1-2 divisions to intercept it head-on at Alakalu, and then continue to chase after it, so that the Fifth Army would become a turtle in an urn and could not escape! Now that the naval superiority is entirely on his side, the Führer first postponed the launch of the South African campaign by half a month, and then by half a month, in order to cooperate with the transfer of troops and materials for the South American campaign

The Luftwaffe and the Navy used all their resources to delay Patton's retreat, using El Salvador as a base to gather thousands of sorties a day to carry out air raids, and the US Army and Navy in Recife tried their best to intercept them, but with little success, only more than 300 planes were further mounted.

Hearing the exact news of the annihilation of Roosevelt's cluster (in fact, there were still many people who hid in the hills and mountains and returned to their own defense areas, but in the end the number was less than 1,000, compared to the more than 20,000 people in Roosevelt's cluster, only 5% of the lucky ones) and the exact news of the death of Brigadier General Roosevelt Jr., Marshall, who was so anxious and anxious, suddenly fell ill -- this time it was a real illness.

As the tide of battle has taken a turn for the worse, there are now people attacking him for "doing what he wants", "using people inappropriately", and "having a mess of command", and the fuse is that he will be angry with Clark. In fact, Clarke, as a confidant, didn't care if he scolded a few words, even Clark himself would not take Marshall's criticism to heart. Although Marshall scolded him to the core, he did not treat him badly in other ways, and did not surrender the acting theater commander to Clark, and planned to let him return to China as deputy chief of staff, partnering with the incoming MacArthur, which was actually a reused rhythm. Being scolded for a few words, at most, the leader hates iron and does not make steel.

But Capitol Hill and others did not think so, and Clark was opposed to Patton leading his troops to land, and even more opposed to Patton's appropriation of equipment and supplies from other Salvadoran troops, and after losing El Salvador, he did not advocate continuing to hold on, but said that he would retreat, all the way to Recife.

From an empirical point of view, Clark's strategy was correct, and the damage was small – at best, the loss of the Roosevelt Jr. cluster.

The result was good, Patton said that he wanted to counterattack, and Marshall also supported the counterattack, but the attack on El Salvador had no effect, but lost more than 10,000 horses and more than 800 aircraft, and what was more troublesome was that the Roosevelt Jr. cluster could not run, and when Patton wanted to retreat at this time, it was not as easy as when Clark said to retreat.

There were only 4 days left, and the Germans who went ashore in 4 days were no more than Marine Brigades, and if Patton retreated in time, he could ensure that most of the troops would retreat steadily, but after waiting for 4 days, in addition to hearing the news of the collapse of the Roosevelt Jr. cluster, the German troops ashore in El Salvador changed from 1 Marine Brigade to 1 division, 1 heavy aircraft battalion and 2 Marine Brigades, and an additional air wing, and it was not so easy for the Fifth Army to retreat.

Hearing such a corrosive situation in South America, Truman's heart was also on the verge of collapse.

In order to cope with this sudden war, the third presidential election debate that was supposed to be held later was forced to be postponed, and Dewey graciously accepted the decision to postpone it, hoping that Truman would devote himself to leading his troops to fight this battle well. Although there was gossip that Truman might withdraw from the election, after all, it was still news leaking out of a small circle, and Dewey did not dare to confirm it, let alone publicize it publicly--it would be too much of a slap in the face if it was not.

However, what made Truman even more devastating was that on the afternoon of 1 September, the reconnaissance plane found that the main force of the Combined Fleet, which had disappeared for several days, appeared more than 2,600 kilometers southwest of Hawaii, and there seemed to be an attempt to attack Christmas Island, which is 2,000 kilometers south of Hawaii (Note: that is, the aforementioned main island of Kiribati. There are two Christmas islands in the Pacific Ocean, one is extremely small, 500 kilometers south of Jakarta; The other is larger, with a land area of more than 300 square kilometers, including the lagoon that can reach more than 600 square kilometers, and is 2,000 kilometers south of Hawaii.

By evening, the main Japanese fleet was approaching Christmas Island, which was only 600 kilometers away, and reconnaissance planes also detected that there were still a large number of transport formations in the rear of the fleet.

"The Japanese are going to land on Christmas Island!"

"Can you hold it?" Truman asked worriedly.

Lehi hesitated and shook his head slowly: "Our army has a marine division stationed on Christmas Island, and the navy has nearly 200 aircraft, but there are no systematic fortifications and shore defense systems on it, I don't think it can stop the fire suppression of the Japanese combined fleet!" Once the naval guns cleared the beachhead, the Japanese landing was a logical one. ”

Even a president like Truman, who does not understand military affairs, can understand after looking at the map: Midway Island, which is more than 2,400 kilometers in the northwest, has already been lost, and once Christmas Island, which is more than 2,000 kilometers in the south, is lost, it means that Hawaii will be pinned down in both directions, and if Japan fights again, it can even blockade the whole of Hawaii.

"It's not just that Hawaii is blocked, if the Japanese divide their forces to occupy Samoa, then the Marshall Islands, Christmas Island, and Samoa under their control form a big triangle, which can directly cut off the shipping supply line from the Central Pacific Ocean to Australia and New Zealand, so that if you want to maintain the transportation line to Australia and New Zealand, you can no longer go like the previous route, and after driving from the west coast, you must first go south, until you go to the position level with Chile and then go west, you have to go around a big circle."

"What can you do about the current situation?"

"It can only delay time and wear down the enemy. General Turner felt the need for a bitter defensive battle on Christmas Island, and that the Army and Navy would send more planes into battle -- this time on fighter planes. Lehi said hesitantly, "Now the navy has no fleet, and can only rely on aviation to weaken the enemy's superiority, which makes the battle process very difficult."

Turner's proposed method this time was to use the long-range P-51s with auxiliary fuel tanks to escort the ship, and after the air raids, the heavy bombers returned to Pearl Harbor, and the P-51s landed on Christmas Island to supplement the differentiated shuttle bombing.

"Just follow your plan...... Bring General Arnold here, I'm going to talk to him. ”

"President......" When he saw Truman, Arnold didn't say much, his eyes turned red and his voice choked.

"I know that the Army has sacrificed a lot of money lately......," Truman comforted Arnold, "but now that the country is in crisis, the situation in South America has deteriorated dramatically, and the Japanese army is pressing forward in the direction of Hawaii, this forces us to grit our teeth and hold on, and we must boost our morale and passion." In view of the courage and contribution of the Army Aviation in this war, I discussed with other generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and initially approved the formation of an independent air force in the future. ”

"President...... You? Arnold only knew from other people that Truman was withdrawing, but he was also a little surprised to hear the news in person.

"This may be the last battle I will lead you to fight, for the sake of the country and the people, shall we hold on a little longer?" Truman closed his eyes in pain, "The next time there is such a tragic moment, maybe it will be time to defend the homeland." ”