"Faith! Mr. President! Halsey added: "As far as I know, the Japanese military has been hiding the situation of the war on the front line at home in order to maintain the false confidence and support of the people in the government and the military, and if we can bomb the Japanese mainland, or even its capital, Tokyo, it will greatly damage the confidence of the Japanese people, and then cause civil strife and even collapse, which is more effective than occupying the Philippines and blocking the supply lines, and it will take much less time and cost!" ”

"I have to warn you, General!" MacArthur objected: "First of all, our bombers taking off from our bases in China can bomb the Japanese ......"

"I warn you, too, General MacArthur!" Nimitz interrupted MacArthur and said, "The bombers taking off from the Chinese base are too far away from Japan, so we can only barely bomb the island of Kyushu, and because of the air defense and interception along the Japanese line, this kind of bombing has become more and more dangerous. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info worse still...... All our planes and supplies to China need to go around from Myanmar or India to enter China, which consumes a lot of our capacity at the cost of reducing China's military aid! ”

Nimitz and MacArthur said that this was a bomber base built in Guizhou and Liuzhou, China, and that the B-29 bombers that took off from here could bomb the Japanese island of Kyushu.

"On the contrary......" Nimitz looked at the map, and then said: "The Mariana Islands are only 2,000 kilometers away from Japan, if we take the Mariana Islands and build a bomber base on them, we can not only greatly reduce the difficulty of logistics and supply, but also bomb the entire territory of Japan, as Colonel Zhang said, we can even bomb Tokyo, the capital of Japan, the pressure and blow to Japan is immeasurable!" ”

"Okay!" MacArthur continued: "But...... Can't we bomb Japan if we capture the Philippines? ”

"Absolutely!" Halsey replied: "But if the Philippines is taken and a bomber base is established...... Let's take a look at the map, oh, we happen to be surrounded by Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, the Mariana Islands, which means that our bombers will fly through the Japanese air defense belt! Or go around in a big circle, and you can only bomb Kyushu Island! ”

"I'll add a few more points!" Zhang Chi interjected: "What MacArthur just said is to seize the military advantages of the Philippines...... It is true that the capture of the Mariana Islands could not cut off the supply and transportation lines of the Japanese army, but ...... If we can continue west and north along the Mariana Islands to occupy a series of small islands and build airfields on the small islands, we can form a chain of islands that can easily cut off the supply and transportation lines of the Japanese army! ”

"That's right!" Halsey couldn't help jumping up with joy when he heard this: "You must know that the Japanese fighters have fallen behind in an all-round way, we have 'Hellcat', and the 'Mustang' fighters are about to enter service...... Therefore, it is difficult for me to imagine that I have such a great air superiority, but I have shifted the direction of attack to the Philippine Islands, which are not suitable for aircraft carriers and fighters, that is obviously asking for trouble for myself! ”

"We all know ......," Nimitz quipped, "MacArthur was hoping to fulfill the words he said in the Philippines, 'I'll be back!'" ”

With a "boom", the generals couldn't help laughing, but MacArthur's face became very ugly.

Looking at Roosevelt's hesitant look, MacArthur knew that Roosevelt was seriously considering the issue.

There was nothing to hesitate about, and MacArthur's reasons for this were true on the surface, but given the fact that the US military had much more advanced fighters and had an overwhelming advantage, these problems were not a problem at all.

For example, MacArthur said that attacking the Mariana Islands would not cut off the shipping lines, and that occupying the Philippines would ...... If the transportation line is to be cut off, the US Navy only needs to use air superiority to occupy a few smaller islands in advance.

For example, MacArthur said that the occupation of the Mariana Islands could be attacked from both the Philippines and the Japanese mainland...... The US military's "Hellcat" fighters and the "Mustang" fighters that the generals put into the Pacific theater were not one or two times more advanced than the Japanese fighters, and the battle loss rate was one to thirteen, and it could almost be said that the Japanese fighters were used as toys. Not only that, but the US military has surpassed the Japanese army in terms of numbers, and it is foreseeable that the Japanese army will not develop any fighters with advanced performance in the future......

First of all, this is related to the industrial base, and the machine tools used in Japan to manufacture fighter engines are all imported from the United States, which determines that Japanese fighter engines and Japanese fighters cannot be upgraded to another generation.

Second, even if Japan has the ability to develop it, it will take time, and Japan does not have that time.

To put it simply, attacking from the Central Pacific can give full play to the US military's air superiority, and at the same time, it can easily achieve the desired results in the shortest possible time. And to fight from the Philippines, there is no doubt that a large number of ground troops will be needed...... This will undoubtedly require more time and casualties, even if the Japanese in the Philippines are flanked from both sides, as MacArthur said.

Roosevelt hesitated because he was still a little reluctant to give up MacArthur's gift...... That is, the rescue of American prisoners of war held in concentration camps in the Philippines.

So everyone nervously waited for Roosevelt's decision, but only Zhang Chi looked calm.

Zhang Chi knew that Roosevelt would make the right decision, which did not mean that Roosevelt would selflessly give up his personal political future for the sake of national interests, but because Roosevelt knew that the United States had another killer ...... Atomic bomb.

At this time, the atomic bomb was still a secret weapon, even for the Americans...... More than 100,000 scientific researchers and workers were mobilized to develop the atomic bomb, and they stepped up their efforts to develop it under absolute secrecy, and these scientific researchers and workers did not even know that they were developing the atomic bomb, and this project was named after the "Manhattan Project," and only no more than 12 people in the United States or the world knew the essence of this project.

Of course, the president of the United States is one of them, and of course, Zhang Chi appeared in this time and space, and he became the 13th person to know its essence.

By this time, the development of the atomic bomb had already made great progress, but of course it had not yet been developed (note: the first atomic bomb was successfully tested in July 1945).

However, if the atomic bomb is successfully developed, and the United States occupies the Mariana Islands and is capable of bombing all of Japan, it will be almost a sure victory. (To be continued.) )