At 11:45, Mitchell sent a telegram asking for instructions, and his tone was very unkind: "If no clear order is received before 12 midnight Washington time, this commander thinks that the fighter plane is dead, and will return to Florida with the fleet!" ”

"Back to Florida? This is a no-no! "Now Dewey is really in a hurry, going north or south is going to war, just thinking about which direction is more important, what does it mean to return to Florida? Continue to be a shrunken turtle?

"Your Excellency, make up your mind, the two benefits are more important!" Nimitz persuaded one last time.

MacArthur kept silent, he had already agreed in his heart to attack the main force of the German fleet first, but he could never do it if he promised not to lose Bermuda during this period, so he remained silent in the end.

Besides, the president can't always wash himself away and put the army under pressure, I heard that when the German Führer launched the Kungunir planned offensive in North Africa, he gave orders almost in a desperate and desperate spirit, and was even ready to take all the responsibility for the defeat on his own head.

After thinking bitterly for 5 minutes, Dewey made up his mind and said: "Then implement the naval plan and annihilate the main force of the German fleet as soon as possible, and at the same time, the Bermuda defenders must fight to the last man, do their best to buy time, and do not surrender lightly!" ”

At 12:02, a clear telegram reached Mitchell, and Hewitt asked him, "More than 2 minutes, did you execute?" ”

"Execution, why not execution?" Mitchell smiled slyly, "I received the telegram at exactly 12 o'clock, and there are still 2 minutes to translate the telegram and report." ”

Hewitt was stunned, such a short telegram, how could it take 2 minutes for an experienced telegraph operator to translate the telegram? But at least Mitchell carried out the order, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and persuaded in turn: "However, your telegram, will it cause it?"

Mitchell sighed: "Believe it or not, if I don't send this reminder telegram, they may not be able to come up with a charter until dawn tomorrow, then all the fighters will be lost, to be honest, it will be a little late to make a decision at 12 o'clock, and the fleet must go south at maximum speed to catch up with time!" ”

Hewitt didn't say anything frustrating like "what to do if you hit the air", which meant that not only would the expected big win come to naught, but Bermuda would also be ruined. According to Mitchell's mind, before dealing with the main German fleet, he would definitely not be arrogant to save the siege of Bermuda, what if the Atlantic Fleet had just done a good job against the German detachment and was eaten by the Axis fleet that outflanked behind him?

Although this concern was not discussed by the navy at the joint chiefs of staff, the army made it very clear, and this is also what Dewey hesitated the most: Don't when the main German fleet is not caught, Bermuda will be lost again, and it will really be a loss to the wife and the army.

As the minutes passed, the huge Atlantic Fleet completed its turn at 12:15 according to the order issued by Mitchell and began to move south as fast as possible.

At this moment, the Germans were making their final combat preparations.

Mitchell was right in his judgment that the Axis Fleet had made it clear that it was going to withdraw from the Caribbean to support the Bermuda campaign, but in the decision on how to retreat, the Germans not only did not choose the same route as Mitchell predicted, but also adopted a completely different strategy.

From Panama to Barranquilla, from Barranquilla to Aruba Curaçao, the German fleet retreated close to the coastline, and even did not shy away from American reconnaissance planes, which retreated generously. This was the case for three days, which gave the illusion that on 15 March the German retreat would still follow the coastline between Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago.

If only war were that simple!

Obviously, Mitchell has only learned part of Fletcher's lessons in this area, and only wants to preserve his strength and forget about Tsukahara's unexpected "god turn" in the Caribbean War.

Ozawa's route for the fleet was very bold, and instead of continuing eastward between Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, he changed the direction of the fleet's movement to the northeast to prepare for a crossing between Anguilla and the Virgin Islands.

At first, Machar and others couldn't help but sweat, but after Ozawa's explanation and Crake's deduction, they finally thought that although this route was thrilling, in fact, as long as the nail of Puerto Rico was removed, the danger was not great.

The only loophole of the German army is that it is not clear that the main force of Mitchell's fleet has been ambushed north of Puerto Rico and waiting for an opportunity to go south, because the Atlantic Fleet has not moved, the German army judged that it is still cruising on the east coast, and will attack once the news of the German attack on Bermuda is received, which makes the main force of the Axis Fleet need to reinforce Bermuda's detachment as soon as possible, and what is the shortcut faster than crossing directly from the northeast of the European island chain to support?

Mitchell's fleet did not leave until 12 o'clock, and the Axis fleet, which was not constrained by Berlin, began to move at 8 o'clock, and the fleet advanced rapidly to the northeast at a speed of 20 knots, and by 12 o'clock the distance had been reduced to 550 kilometers.

In order to suppress Puerto Rico's U.S. air force, according to Ozawa's plan, all land-based aircraft deployed in Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago were to cooperate with more than half of the carrier-based aircraft to carry out ground attack missions, and the total attack time was scheduled at 4:15 a.m.

In view of the fact that the distance between Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico is somewhat long, except for the normal return of the large four-engine bombers, which will not be affected, the rest of the land-based planes that have been deployed for the attack will land in Guadeloupe, which is under the control of France, so that the overall range is controlled at about 14001500 km, which meets the needs of the attack.

"At present, the strength has been fully prepared, and the Air Force will put 240 aircraft into the air attack, including 72 fighters, 48 heavy bombers, and the rest are twin-engine attack aircraft." Cranker said with a smile, "In order to cooperate with the attack, the Air Force will also put in special bombing forces, a total of 16 heavy bombers will carry rockets to launch a surprise attack, and the four submarines currently used for forward guidance have been deployed, and they will be used for final guidance to launch a preemptive attack." ”

Ozawa nodded, expressing his satisfaction with this, although Germany did not send rocket ships this time, he was also satisfied with the air-launched V4 that the aircraft could carry.

"In terms of carrier-based aircraft, our army plans to put in a wave, 228 aircraft, of which 68 fighters, the remaining 160 are attack aircraft, according to the enemy situation, Puerto Rico has a total of 4 airports, more than 500 aircraft, it is expected to destroy its runway for at least 1,624 hours through air strikes, and at the same time destroy more than half of the aircraft."

Machar nodded, and made up his mind: "If necessary, let General Bey lead the artillery fleet to wash Puerto Rico, and let them taste the cannons of the giant ships." ”

He used the term "wash it" to cause everyone to laugh.

"In addition to the four submarines that Puerto Rico is guided by the forward, there are 16 other submarines that will accompany the fleet, and they will accompany them through the level."

"In order to effectively deal with the counterattack of the US military during the day, the aircraft deployed by HNA on the front line of Aruba and Curacao will provide cross-platform support according to the needs of the war situation, and a total of 114 aircraft can be deployed." "According to my intentions, it's better not to pull out, once it is withdrawn, it will be difficult to suppress the US troops in Venezuela, but it must not be prepared." ”

"I think the tactical preparations are basically correct, but I don't understand one thing, why in this situation, the head of the state can't wait to launch an attack on Bermuda." Ozawa asked, "Shouldn't we wait another 12 months for our army to mobilize more land forces and bulldoze Venezuela and the Caribbean in one fell swoop before attacking Bermuda?" Although attacking Bermuda is conducive to attracting the attention of the US military, does it not in turn create an opportunity for the enemy to annihilate our detachment? Under the existing circumstances, the loss of a few warships is not unbearable, but it can deal a major blow to morale."

Seeing that everyone was silent, he stopped his mouth: "Of course, this is my personal idea, I have no intention of accusing the Führer, he usually sees higher and farther than us, maybe he has some strategic arrangements that we didn't expect." ”

Marshal Machar paused: "General Ozawa, in fact, it's not just that you haven't figured it out, I haven't figured it out either, but the Berlin order is like this, it is said that it was the Führer's personal combat order, you know that the Führer's direct intervention in the front line of specific tactics is now becoming less and less, it can be seen that there must be a reason, but unfortunately it is not clear in the telegram, maybe we can understand it when we get to Bermuda." ”

Ozawa nodded: "It is the duty of a soldier to obey orders, and the orders given by the supreme commander must be carried out, otherwise there will be no decency, and I will always remember this!" ”

"Order the whole army, prepare to attack!"

"Yes, the whole army is ready!"

PS: Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the "77" National War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression! The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation still has a long way to go.

:,,gegegengxin!!