Now it is Dewey and Dulles' turn to stare wide-eyed, and it is not surprising that Britain, Germany, France, and even Russia are still so many American goods?

Dulles asked in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, can you tell me an approximate figure, how much American equipment has been captured by Japan?" Let's just say how many divisions we can arm."

Everyone "brushed" their eyes on Clark, who was so famous that Clark had now become the premier enemy intelligence expert in the military.

He blushed and stammered: "If according to the equipment standards of our army, the equipment that Japan can get can probably arm 5 armored divisions and 15 infantry divisions. ”

"What?"

"Oh my"

Dewey and Dulles almost fainted, and the size of the equipment was almost the same as the current strength of the United States on the front line.

"How did he get so much equipment? Do we have smugglers? ”

"It's not smuggling, it's all seizure, alas, it's hard to say."

Clark then gave a general account of the losses in the Horn of Africa, the East African campaign, and the South African campaign, and then added that the 100,000 American troops in Britain were disarmed, the Icelandic 60,000 troops, and a large number of munitions that had been originally supported by Britain and the Soviet Union all ended up in the hands of Germany and then transferred to Japan.

"Could it be that SS Army Group USA doesn't use American weapons?"

"Hardly any German weapons." Clark smiled bitterly, "Although it is a little difficult to say, but the truth is that this is the case, Germany thinks that our weapons are average, except for Browning heavy machine guns, jeeps, walkie-talkies and other large quantities of retained use, the rest of the heavy equipment, especially tanks, are almost not used." ”

Someone interjected: "It's not that no, the Germans changed all the Sherman tanks into service tanks and mounted the turret on the Sibel-class landing craft." ”

"Well, I see," muttered Dulles, "the Germans just gave the Japanese a lot of munitions?" ”

"It shouldn't be a gift, it's a purchase, but the Japanese have made an IOU for the time being," as soon as he said this, MacArthur suddenly received a telegram, and his face changed greatly after reading it.

"What's going on?"

"Ike sent an urgent telegram from Australia that there was an unusual movement of enemy forces in New Guinea."

"The Japanese are attacking?"

"Nope! The vanguard of the German army began to move in! MacArthur handed the telegram to Dewey,

"He heard the astonishing news that in order to offset Germany's arms debts, Japan agreed to return the former German colonies in New Guinea to the German side, and part of the German troops that had completed the South African campaign began to settle in Asia."

Everyone's faces have changed greatly, these are all elites who know the subtleties, if this news is confirmed to be true, then it is difficult to say the follow-up strategic trends.

"I'm afraid it's not completely groundless," Dulles mused, "I still got a piece of news, and I don't have time to say it, so I'll make up for it together." France was discussing with Japan the question of the ownership of southern Indochina, and the German side made every effort to promote the hope that Japan would redeem this colony by France. ”

"Is this Japan's intention to lure European forces into Asia?"

"It could also involve ANZ London, which is said to be desperately doing ANZ work and making them obey the Attlee government."

Australia and New Zealand were originally unswervingly following the United States, and they would not pay attention to London's opinions at all, but South Africa's 300,000 allied troops were eaten like melons and vegetables, and Australia and New Zealand can also be suspicious Although Australia and New Zealand's territory is much larger than South Africa, but the allies above all add up to only more than 400,000.

Dewey felt that his head was getting bigger and bigger: the political situation required the United States to launch a rapid counterattack to seize the initiative, but the military level obviously did not support this view.

"We have to make moves on the battlefield and give confidence to our allies, otherwise the situation will not be sustainable." He came to his senses and asked Spruance, "Just now you said that you were not prepared to counterattack the German army attacking British Guiana, nor did you approve of launching the St. Louis landing campaign, but advocated a battle when the Germans captured Trinidad and Tobago?" ”

"I do, but most people don't." Spruance shrugged, "I'm in the minority right now in the Navy"

Spruance's opinion was that when the Germans seized Trinidad and Tobago, they would dispatch the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to try to fight a fierce battle with the combined European fleet, and if there was a chance to thwart the German attack, it would be better to contain the German forces and make them pay more if there was no chance; However, Mitchell, the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, expressed his resolute opposition, believing that it was necessary to learn the lessons of the Pacific Fleet, and did not agree to attack the "waves" at will. From a rational point of view, he agrees with Mitchell's attitude; From the standpoint of land and sea coordination, he supported Spruance, and from the standpoint of the navy, he supported Mitchell.

Mitchell and Turner, Admiral King and others basically had a similar line of thought: whatever the Germans wanted, they would fight wherever they liked, and then find a way to go out and fight after the Atlantic Fleet had more than 56 aircraft carriers available to the Atlantic Fleet by that time.

The reason is ready-made, if you fight with the Germans when your strength is not sufficient, how to deal with the enemy forces in the Pacific direction?

Of course, it is best to reach an armistice agreement with Germany as soon as possible, and then overwhelm the power of the Atlantic Fleet: South America or the Caribbean, although they are all vital interests of the United States, they are not as good as Hawaii's territorial and core interests, and if you lose the Caribbean, you will be scolded by the consortium, and if you lose Hawaii, you will be hung on the pillar of shame for the rest of your life.

"It seems that I am going to hurry up this trip to Europe." Dulles sighed, "The situation is very bad now, it's a little worse than I thought, I really don't know how bad it has been." ”

Dewey smiled helplessly: Dulles can say that, where can he go to cry? He has to take the blame for all this?

"Make two plans, one is to fight, and the other is to contain" Dewey didn't want to appear weak, "Everyone must do their best to buy time for the country!" ”

At a time when Washington is still struggling with whether to fight and how to fight, the main forces of the Combined Axis Fleet are already making final preparations before the expedition, but in addition to preparations, there is some other work to be done, such as testing new carrier-based aircraft.

This is not a jet on board, but a newly introduced British half-finished Sea Fang prototype demonstrator.

As the last generation of top piston fighters, Sea Fangs are fully qualified to fight with all piston fighters, equipped with 2400 horsepower Griffin engines, the maximum speed can reach 776 km / h and can be on the ship, the firepower is also very fierce, the British original is 4 20mm Sispano cannons, Germany changed to 2 20mm MG213 + 2 20mm MG151, the combat effectiveness is stronger, and the speed is so fast that no friends in front of the sea fangs, Caiyun Gai will not dare to shout, and it can be easily caught.

However, the sea fangs are also known for their short legs, with a range of only 630 kilometers, which is completely unsuitable for decisive battles between aircraft carriers with a combat distance of often up to 600 kilometers.

With the improvement of funds, the maximum speed of the sea fangs has dropped from 776 km / h to 754 km / h, the cruising range has risen to 940 km, and it can deal with 150 minutes if it is saved, and 2 auxiliary fuel tanks have been added to extend the range to more than 1400 km, and the armament has been strengthened to the perverted configuration of 4 MG213!

For the newly modified aircraft, Ozawa, Cranke and others are very interested, in addition to the speed of the disc is not as good as the purple electric change, the ability to circle is not as good as the gale change, the combat effectiveness is very strong, if the pilot experience level is the same, in the case of 1vs1, 2vs2, 4vs4, 10 battles, the probability of the sea fangs can win is nearly 55%, a draw is 25%, and the probability of losing is only 20%.

In other words, in pure fighter combat, Sea Fangs have an advantage over Purple Electric and Gale Reform.

Although he is sure that the next generation of main carrier-based aircraft will definitely make efforts in this area now, Hoffman believes that before 1948, it will be difficult for jet carrier-based fighters to pick the main beam, and a top-notch carrier-based fighter is needed.

After discussion, Ozawa, Crank, and others believed that if the modified Sea Fangs could take off and land smoothly from the Rhine-class escort aircraft carriers, they agreed to equip this aircraft as the fleet's air defense fighter to guard the direct cover mission, which could avoid the lack of endurance of the Sea Fangs to the greatest extent, and at the same time give full play to the value of its combat effectiveness and strong ramming.

In response to this request, the Ministry of Armaments readily agreed, and was prepared to carry out the next modification verification based on the results of today's test flights, with a view to using the aircraft after June 1945.