"What is his opinion on the defense of the four islands?"

"He believes that the four Caribbean islands will not be the focus of German attacks for the time being, and he is more worried about the Central American direction." "We had less than 100,000 troops in Central America, scattered over a large area from Guatemala to Panama, and he thought it would be easy to be caught between the Japanese and Germans. ”

Everyone looked at the map worriedly, thinking that the worry was not unfounded, Central America is very small in depth, and the two wings are close to the sea, so it is indeed easy to be flanked, but fortunately, the main force of the Japanese army is now on the front line of Australia and New Zealand, and it seems that the risk is not so great.

"What is his countermeasure?"

"Deploy a strong reserve in Mexico, ready to reinforce the Central American direction at any time, and at the same time delay as much as possible and wait for the Navy to regain its strength - the Central American-Caribbean theater is very dependent on sea power, and without sea power, you can only be beaten passively everywhere, not to mention 300,000 troops, even if you add 1 million, it is not enough to toss." "So my thinking is slightly different from that of the navy - if I am convinced that the main German fleet is attacking westward, I propose to use the Atlantic Fleet to plug the mouth and lock them in a cage in the Caribbean." ”

Ingram smiled bitterly: "The enemy is strong and I am weak, and the blockage cannot be blocked, could it be that the enemy's 8 battleships are coming over and I use a few Alaska-class battle cruisers to block them?" That's not an egg hitting a stone? ”

In order to help Walter Kruger complete the defense system of the Central American-Caribbean theater as soon as possible, he recommended his former chief of staff and classmate Alfred Maximilian Glenser (who had served as commander-in-chief of NATO Allied forces in history) to Kruger, because after Ridgway became the commander of the Fifth Army, he hoped that the chief of staff would use Taylor, whom he was familiar with. Clark met Ridgway's request while giving his old classmate a boost. Even if the chief of staff of the army group and the chief of staff of the theater seem to be in charge of the same content at the moment, for Clark, who is well versed in the organizational system, he knows that in the future these will be completely two levels.

After Clark became deputy chief of the general staff, he didn't have much to do with operations - that was usually MacArthur's own management, organization, personnel, logistics, coordination, and other other things were Clark's work, and MacArthur was impatient to take care of these trivial matters, and basically Clark could make a decision when he decided it.

However, Glencer did not climb up by relying on his classmates, he was not weak, and the battle orders issued by Clark were basically drawn up by him (Clark himself basically did not fight), and it can be seen from the name that Glenser is a German descendant of the Holy Roman Empire (although he was born in the United States). Therefore, the "Loyalty Act" is a joke within the army, and the most capable and outstanding generals are almost all Germans, and Hoover also knew this factor, and never dared to make a mistake in the army.

Hearing that the commander and the chief of staff were both Germans and had good relations and actual combat experience, Dewey was relieved, and he was now very afraid of the conflict between the general and the staff and logistics officer—the conflict between Patton and Smith was still fresh in his memory.

Walter Biddle Smith began the war as secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Anglo-American Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the rank of brigadier general, and later served as Eisenhower's chief of staff and participated in the North African campaign. During the Battle of Kenya, Patton once found Smith shivering in a trench and was surprised, only to find out that he was hiding from artillery fire. Patton was very angry because it was American artillery and not Guderian's troops who had just fired the artillery.

It didn't take long for even the British and Australians to know about it, and they were ridiculed for a long time, and the angry Barton went to Eisenhower to sue Smith to get rid of Smith, but Ike didn't take this matter to heart, he thought that Smith couldn't go to the front, but he was a competent housekeeper and thug - he could dismiss an old friend who was not up to the job without mercy, and the strategic retreat from Kenya was the handiwork of Smith's deployment, was so angry that Barton returned home and repeatedly asked him to duel.

For this matter, Marshall did not mediate a lot, and even Dewey, who did not pay much attention to the military circles, knew the contradictions between the two - now that Patton was martyred, Smith followed Eisenhower to Australia, and the whole thing could finally be stopped for a while, but Dewey was still very worried about the contradictions and conflicts between senior generals, not only between the navy, land and air forces, but also in the army and navy.

In his opinion, although the navy's tricks have lost a bit, it is a good move to try his best to turn the tide of the war in a weak situation, but in order to avoid causing contradictions, he cannot openly express his support, lest the army think that the president is pro-navy and pressure the army.

MacArthur, who had not said much, suddenly added: "I am not particularly worried about the German army fighting north and Recife after occupying Trinidad and Tobago, and I am most worried about the same thing as General Kruger, afraid that they will fight westward - whether it is Panama or Venezuela, our army is not strong, and as for the rest of Central America, if there is support from Mexico, the problem is not particularly big." ”

Everyone nodded solemnly, Venezuela originally had 50,000 troops, but after the retreat of British Guiana's troops, the strength rose to more than 60,000, but it still did not look like a German opponent.

Turner knew that MacArthur had not given up the idea of sending the Atlantic Fleet out for a decisive battle now, and it was inconvenient for him to openly refuse the Army's request, so he explained again: "The Navy wants to buy more time, and we ...... it."

Nimitz waved his hand to stop Turner from continuing, and said: "In this way, the Navy hopes that the Army and Air Force will delay and kill the German fleet on Trinidad and Tobago as much as possible, and at the same time make a promise that if the German army occupies the island and attacks Recife or the four main islands of the Caribbean, the Atlantic Fleet will go all out to meet the enemy; If the Germans then attack the front line of Venezuela, we hope that the army will hold out until the end of February - in 5 weeks, the navy will basically have 7 aircraft carriers, and we will fight the Germans once! At this stage, light warships, submarine units, naval aviation, and marines can all be put into battle according to the needs of the campaign. ”

Nimitz's opinion was clear: if the Germans fought to the north and east, the Atlantic Fleet would attack now, no matter how difficult it was; If the Germans fight westward, they hope that Venezuela will last five more weeks, wait for the two Essex-class ships to formally form combat effectiveness, and increase the coefficient of victory - in short, unless the German fleet then retreats, the Atlantic Fleet will try to pull out and fight a dozen in late February and early March.

The corners of Admiral King's mouth moved, he didn't really want to attack so quickly, he and Turner hoped that it would be May - wait for the aircraft carriers to reach 9-10 ships before pulling them out, but he is a smart man, he has now taken a back seat, to respect Nimitz's authority - since he is promising on behalf of the Navy, he should not sabotage, lest the Navy have two voices.

Nimitz's words still carried weight, Ingram saw that Admiral King and Turner were silent, and also agreed, Spruance thought about it, and thought that Nimitz's proposal was basically acceptable politically and militarily, so he agreed, and several generals of the army and air force looked at each other and basically accepted Nimitz's point of view, and MacArthur was not easy to force anymore - if the Atlantic Fleet was really forced like the Pacific Fleet, the army would be completely blinded.

Seeing that the three armies had finally reached an agreement, Dewey finally felt that a big stone had fallen to the ground in his heart, and he lost no time in concluding: "Now that the armies have reached an agreement, I hope that you will plan the next stage of the operation policy in accordance with the spirit of the meeting, thwart the German offensive with active and prudent defense, and buy time for the country......

No one talked about what to do about the war in Hawaii at the meeting, and everyone was surprisingly unanimous: Hawaii is just waiting for death, and it can drag on for a few days, and Dewey even asked his subordinates to prepare a telegram to deliver a presidential address to the whole nation once Hawaii is completely lost, calling for perseverance and never surrender! In fact, the occupation of the Aleutian Islands by the Japanese army had broken the precedent, it was nothing more than a sparsely populated and unobtrusive place, and the loss of Hawaii was not at all like this, so he had to make a gesture.

The German side was not aware of the US military's decision to postpone the Atlantic Fleet's attack, and in the operational plan led by Ozawa and with the participation of Mashal, Crank, and other cadres, the elimination of Atlantic Fleet interference was still regarded as a top priority.

At noon on January 24, the main force of the German fleet officially entered the Guyana air defense circle, and Dulles's plane flew in the direction of Lisbon under the protection of 8 TA-152, and the US pilots flying B-29 used the excuse of fuel economy, intentionally or unintentionally pulled up the altitude to more than 8000 meters, I wanted to see the joke of TA-152, but I didn't expect the other party to fly faster and faster at high altitude, more and more flexible, seeing that the US military is so challenging, TA-152 is not to be outdone, practicing all kinds of interception formations - If this was a B-29 that came to bomb, I don't know how many times it was shot down.

The TA-152, with two additional fuel tanks, had a maximum range of more than 2,400 kilometers, and while making tacit movements, it escorted Dulles' special plane from the Azores to Lisbon......