Of course, it was impossible to approve Arnold's resignation, Arnold did not dare to take this job, could the successor commander-in-chief of the Army Aviation dare to do so?

To cope with today's situation, there is still a purely theoretical countermeasure, that is, to dispatch more crews and more fighters to carry out escort missions -- not short-distance escort but full escort. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

But in this way, the number of people involved, the possible losses, and the materials that need to be consumed will increase exponentially.

Arnold said it couldn't be more obvious, there were still more than 2,500 experienced crews left, and if we wanted to save most of Patton's troops, at least more than 500 of them would need to be put in, and this played into the hands of the Germans -- when Arnold heard that the Germans were only besieging on the periphery and were not in a hurry to attack this encirclement, a clever staff officer deduced the Germans' intention to consume a large number of their own crews.

On the one hand, it is exchanging planes for tankers in the Pacific Ocean, and on the other hand, it is exchanging planes for retreat in South America, and even if the US imperialists have a great cause, they cannot afford such rapid consumption.

In the past month or so, less than 200 skilled units have been replenished, but the loss has exceeded 2,000.

Experienced crews are all like this, and inexperienced crews are even more sent to death - don't you look at the Ta-152 and Do-412 that the Germans are all about? No matter how bad it is, it's the Fw-190A8, it's all air superiority fighters. If the Germans really didn't want Patton to withdraw, it would be enough for the attack planes to bomb the temporary airfield a few more times, and a lot of fuel would be piled up in the open air without a place to be placed, and the Germans would rather bomb and store it piece by piece, but Garand would rather send attack planes to bomb Recife than Patton.

How do you fish if you blow up the airport?

Here, Arnold is worried about not being able to send a crew to carry out this kind of mortal mission, and there Garland is also worried about how to arrange and declare his war exploits.

In the past two days, the Air Force and the Navy have eaten a lot of money, and this record is properly the standard of the Ace + Knight's Cross. At first, Garland was afraid that someone would lie about his exploits, so he deliberately picked a few of the most camera guns to see, but no matter how he looked at it, he lived up to his name.

According to the original standard, the vast majority of fighter pilots in the three wings of this attack could declare the Knight's Cross, so he said to Rommel with some humility: "Otherwise, if I make the standard a little stricter, if I mention so many knightly medal declarants in one breath (and add oak leaves and upgrades), I am afraid that the Supreme Command and the Führer will collapse." ”

"Afraid of what? You can declare it however you want! Rommel was very open-minded, "It's not a false report of war exploits, the Americans sent it to kill us, can we still succeed now?" If you are stuck too tightly, you are not afraid that your young men will beat you with black guns? ”

"That's not going to happen!"

"Report it, I will testify, and the army will report a few less when the time comes."

"What's so embarrassing about that?"

"There is still a big battle behind the army, and the air force will not have many opportunities to find such a good opportunity." Rommel laughed, "I'd like to see how many more plane crashes the Americans can withstand!" ”

The question of whether to continue to send transport planes to rescue immediately became the focus of discussion the next morning.

There was nothing too good to do, and the German encirclement had been formed, and the air force was far stronger than originally expected, which made the retreat from the air a luxury. Both the army faction and the road aviation faction were in dispute, and in the end, it was Li Hai of the Navy Department who came forward to speak fairly.

"I heard that the Germans had several very famous encirclement battles on the Eastern Front, one called the Siege of Holm, the other called the Siege of Demyansk, and the most recent one called the Battle of the Central Asian Basin. The defenders relied on their own courage, faith, and perseverance to hold on. The longest lasted for several months, and was finally relieved when the weather warmed up and the German forces returned. He paused, "I mean, can you ask General Patton to follow his example and lead his men through the valley, and we'll send transport planes to drop some supplies and ammunition to keep him fighting." Let's see if we can support General Ridgway to launch a counteroffensive. ”

Lehi's words were so almost fantastical that even Truman couldn't believe it.

Clark, who had just returned to Washington, shook his head: "The terrain is different, the situation is different, the tenacity of both sides is different, and I think it's hard to hold on." ”

Clark knew the officers and men of the 5th Army well and had psychological expectations, and they could play a powerful and swift role when the situation was superior, but in the case of an unfavorable situation, it was basically not expected that they could perform extraordinarily; In this desperate situation, the decision to stop the airlift would have completely collapsed the morale of the whole country.

"So what do you say?"

"Get George and some of the other officers out, and as for the others, you can only ......," Clark hesitated for a moment, choked up, "surrender honorably, at least save their lives." ”

On this point, Eisenhower had a similar view, but he felt that he could not say it when he saw a group of more than 50,000 people fall into the hands of the Germans.

Turner despised the Army guys in his heart: didn't Iceland have tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in the beginning, and the Joint Staff Committee didn't look forward to it when it gave up on them, and now it's busy starting to twist? In his opinion, the Patton cluster was clearly exhausted, and continuing to rescue would only consume more strength. The most important thing now is to stop the loss in time, and those precious army crew members still have to stay to defend Hawaii!

Truman sighed, he knew that there was no way to come up, and in his position, he would not dare to send a "fight to the last man, one shot, never surrender" like Japan or Germany, "all the jade shattered, serve the emperor!" Not to mention that the people below will definitely not listen to him, even if they listen to him, what good is it, it will only increase the killing.

"Send a telegram to George and let him decide for himself."

Truman thought for a moment, and finally said, "In the end, the Army Aviation will arrange for 30 of the best transport planes and send enough fighters to help George and some important officers retreat!" “

Arnold agreed, and if he didn't even agree to such a request, he felt that he would be tormented by his conscience for the rest of his life.

Hearing Washington's arrangements and hints, all the senior US military officers who knew the news were going crazy, and they jumped to their feet in anger and scolded Washington and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Arnold was the first person they criticized in words and writing.

"Everyone, be quiet." Barton opened his mouth slowly, the continuous fighting and torment of the past few days had tormented him to the point of complete deformation, but the eyes that had sunken deeply still had a little brilliance.

Before Hewitt retreated, he had tried to get a few of his close men to knock Patton unconscious and drag him onto the plane to retreat - but in the end, Patton saw through their trick, pulled out his rifle and put it on his temple, telling them that if they dared to let him on the plane, he would kill himself! This intense mood eventually led Hewitt and the Navy to abandon the operation. Hewitt no longer saw any desire for Patton's life, and he wanted nothing more than to die—but he didn't want to die until the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers were properly settled!

"Listen to me. First, the army will also send planes to retreat, there may be hundreds of places, you can discuss who to delegate, I will allocate a few places to each of you, you can designate the personnel you think are important to retreat, anyway, I will not go, but one thing I remind you is that it may not be safe to go from the air, and the probability of death is not small; Second, there are only two ways for officers and men who do not want or cannot go by air. Patton paused, "Said slowly, first, leave the valley to surrender to the Germans, I heard that the commander of the other side is Rommel, and he is a commander with a chivalrous demeanor, at least his life can be saved; The second is to follow me to break through and fight a bloody road - a road of nine deaths and one life! If you want to surrender, you can sign up tonight, pay attention, leave your weapons and supplies......"

"Patton is going to surrender? That's not his style. Rommel laughed, "I thought he would stay the course and fight us until the last minute." ”

Major General Pockman, who was in charge of the contact, showed embarrassment: "Our army has reached the point of exhaustion, and we are forced to surrender to your army, hoping that we can be given appropriate treatment in accordance with the Geneva Conventions." ”

"Of course you can, that's fine, but there is one thing, you must ensure that the equipment, materials, vehicles, etc. are in good condition, and you must not deliberately destroy or destroy them, otherwise you will ......"

"Know, know, we understand." Regardless of the army or navy, everyone knows that surrendering to the Germans will basically be fine as long as the equipment and materials are in good condition, and they can even receive some preferential treatment, so it's a big deal to be an SS! This "secret" is now familiar to both the army and the navy.

On 17 September, the U.S. forces sent off the last of the retreating planes - five of the 30 aircraft were lost, despite the deployment of sufficient escort crews.

On September 18, the remaining American troops successively came out of the valley and surrendered to the Germans, but most of them only had small arms, tanks, and few vehicles, and some were also in tatters...... There must be something wrong with this! ”

Rommel smiled: "I know there is a problem, and the biggest problem is Patton." ”

"Him?"

"I've shown up, he's been slow to show up, what is he thinking? Although the American representative in charge of the contact explained and covered up in every possible way that he was injured and unwell, as long as Patton still had a breath, they should have carried him to see me. ”

That night, Patton led a force willing to break through to the northeast—and the only ones willing to break through were the three infantry battalions and a few young officers from Roosevelt Jr.'s group, and the other senior officers either couldn't wait to get on the plane, or said they didn't want to fight anymore, and only wanted their brothers to live.

Patton gathered all the tanks and vehicles he could find in an attempt to break out of the encirclement, giving him the upper hand at first in the darkness, but by the time the 2nd Panzergrenadier Division, which had begun to detour to the right flank, came back to its senses and began to intercept, the breakout group was unable to rush.

At dawn, Rommel received a battle report: all the American troops who broke through last night were annihilated by our division.

"Where's Barton?"

"He opened the way for the troops on an M26 tank......," the staff officer of the report paused, "was hit by one of our assaulters, the ammunition exploded, and the crew was killed, and only after interrogating the others, did not know." ”

"It's a pity......," Rommel said sadly, "bury him well, he's the bravest American general I've ever met!" ”

ps: Today's 3 updates are over, and those who have monthly passes are rushing to support a wave, and the ranking is declining......