Hearing Henry's answer, Ellman's face showed a look of surprise, he finally understood that his old superior had taken me to the destroyer without the permission of his superiors.

I carefully observed the expression of the Ellman Center, and I could see that he was also hesitating, although I didn't know what the regulations of the US military were, but without the permission of his superiors, he took people on a warship without permission, this kind of behavior should not be allowed, even if Colonel Henry was Ellman's old superior, there was no possibility of flexibility.

Henry saw Ellman's embarrassed expression, looked at me, turned to Ellman and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, if this matter makes you embarrassed, we will disembark immediately." ”

I had expected Ellman to go with the flow and agree with Colonel Henry to leave with me, but he reached out to stop Henry, turned to the sergeant and whispered a few words.

"Yes, sir!" The sergeant gave a loud yes and turned to leave.

After the sergeant left, Ellman smiled and said to Henry, "Colonel, it is true that you cannot take your guests on a tour of our warship without the permission of your superiors, but that does not prevent me from inviting you and your guests to the cabin for a cup of coffee." It's time for you to join me for lunch. With that, he gestured to Henry, "Sir, please!" ”

I followed Ellman and Henry to the cramped command cabin, and saw that the long table fixed to the deck was covered with white linen tablecloths, and several folding chairs were placed on either side of the table.

After beckoning us to sit down, Ellman shouted outside, "Come in." ”

With his command. Four sailors in white chef's hats walked in through the hatch. At the front was a black man, who placed his shiny knife and fork in front of the three of us in turn. Then he stepped back and stood with his back against the bulkhead, letting the remaining three sailors put their lunch in front of us.

After the sailors had left, Ehrman broke the silence first, pointing to the sumptuous lunch on the table and politely saying to me, "Sir, please try the food of our American sailors." ”

I deliberately waited for Colonel Henry to translate for me. He smiled and said thank you to Erman before picking up his knife and fork to deal with the food in front of him. The U.S. Navy lunch was really hearty, with hamburgers. Eggs, chunks of pork ribs, a plate of salad with a mix of ham and vegetables, and a steaming cup of coffee. It's more hearty than any meal I've eaten in half a year.

"General. Doesn't it taste bad? Henry's amiable face showed a friendly smile, "If you think the food is delicious, eat more, and it's still there." At this point, he seemed to remember something, and added, "I know that because Ukraine, the largest granary of the Soviet Union, was occupied by the Germans, you are now practicing a supply system. The food you can get on a regular basis is limited. But don't worry, it's going to be another month at most. Your food supply situation will improve, because our supplies to the Soviet Union include a large amount of canned meat, sausages, pork lard, vegetable oil, egg powder, milk powder, cheese and other foods. ”

I know that Henry is right, before he went to Russia to do business, he always thought that the Soviet Union, after surviving the great rout in the early stage of the Great Patriotic War, had finally stabilized its position and could barely resist the German attack on its own, and that American assistance was nothing more than the icing on the cake, which became the last straw that broke the German camel. But when I stayed in Moscow for a few years, I was simply stunned to see the list of aid from the US military once in a while. It was more than a straw that obviously weighed down the whole camel.

500,000 transport vehicles, 2.6 million tons of oil, 22,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 14,000 aircraft of all kinds, and so many supplies, if the Germans could not be defeated, the Soviet Union would really become an Adou that could not afford it. Zhukov himself said after the war: "...... Without the gunpowder of the Americans, we would be in a very difficult position, and we would not have been able to produce as much ammunition as we needed for the war; Without the American Stibek cars, we would not have been able to transport our artillery, which did to a considerable extent guarantee our front-line transportation, and the special steel, which was needed in all aspects of the war, was also supplied by the United States. ”

“…… The Americans quickly produced and supplied us with a lot of supplies without which it would have been impossible for us to form our reserve forces and to continue the war. We don't have explosives and gunpowder, and without these things, there are no bullets for rifles. The Americans sincerely gave us a lot of steel for rapid production and supply, and without the steel supplied by the Americans, would we have been able to produce tanks very quickly? ”

“…… Without Western assistance, the Soviet Union would not only have not been able to win the Great Patriotic War, but would not have been able to withstand even the German invasion, produce sufficient weapons and technical equipment, and not guarantee fuel and ammunition for the war. ”

Although I have been in this world for more than a year, there is one thing that I have never understood, so I took this opportunity to ask: "Colonel, I have a question that I would like to ask you." ”

"General, may you ask?" Colonel Henry said politely.

I organized the vocabulary in my head and asked, "Colonel, I wonder why American supplies for the Soviet Union were not transported from the American mainland, through Canada, to Alaska, and from the Bering Strait to the Soviet Far East?" ”

Hearing such a retarded question from me, Henry sighed softly and said, "If you have looked at the local geography and the climate change throughout the year, you will understand that it is very difficult to transport supplies on this route, and the loss on the road will be amazing. Even if it barely reached the Far East, it was still tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Soviet front. ”

"That's why," Ellman continued, "the convoy of supplies chose to transit through the UK, take the Arctic Ocean, and finally reach Murmansk in the Soviet Union, which is a natural ice-free port." The supplies for the aid to the Soviet Union were unloaded there and then transferred to various regions of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the road was also not very safe, the road was easily attacked by German submarines, and almost every time you went out, you lost several boats. ”

"That's right, Lieutenant Colonel. There's something I want to ask you. After translating Elman's words to me, Henry suddenly turned to the other party and asked: "Will the Atlantic Fleet deliver a batch of ships to the Russian side next month?" ”

Hearing Henry's question, Elt couldn't help but look at me alarmingly. Henry may have seen his concern, and whispered, "Don't worry, she doesn't understand English, you can be the only two of us here, you can speak boldly and boldly." ”

After I understood what Henry said, I hurriedly buried my head in my own food and continued to eat my own food, while pricking up my ears to listen to the conversation that the two of them were about to start.

In a homely tone, Ellman said, "That's right. According to the plan, we will provide landing ships to the Pacific Fleet on the Russian side next month for their use in the event of a landing war on the Japanese mainland. There are two types of landing ships to assist Russia: LCI and LCT. The former can carry 21 soldiers each, while the latter can carry 250 soldiers. However, due to the urgent need for landing ships of various types in our Navy, the date of delivery of landing ships to the Russian Navy was postponed to one year. ”

"This decision of the commander of the Navy. It's not very wise. Colonel Henry sipped his coffee and expressed his opinion: "Since the date of delivery of the ships has been negotiated with Russia. When the deadline for delivery comes, the Russian side will be very annoyed that it will have to postpone the date by a year. ”

"It's okay, although they don't provide landing ships for the time being, it will have no impact on their next strategy, anyway, they won't have any landing operations this year." Erman said disapprovingly: "We will provide them with ten AM minesweepers and UMS minesweepers here. ”

"Yes, this is the ship they desperately need." Henry put down his coffee cup and continued: "After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, a third of their Baltic Fleet was sunk by German mines. The losses are significant. In May last year, the British supplied them with a batch of minesweepers. Minesweepers can be used with acoustic and electromagnetic systems. The Soviet army had never used such an advanced mine-sweeping system before. ”

"Yes," Ellman continued, "the minesweepers we have provided to the Russian side are all advanced, among them, the AM type is 914 tons, the speed is 14 knots, the hull is steel, equipped with an acoustic detection system, and the weapons on board include nine guns. The UMS type has a wooden hull with a displacement of only 350 tons......"

"Are there no warships?" Henry asked curiously: "You must know that with the industrial level of our country, it will not take much time to build a ship. ”

"And four 'Tacoma'-class frigates," the two really thought I didn't know English, because sitting across from me chatted unscrupulously about these US Navy secrets: "This ship has a displacement of 2,270 tons, a speed of 19 knots, a cruising range of 15,000 kilometers, and its armament includes three 76-mm guns, two 40-mm guns, and nine 20-mm guns. In order to better deal with Nazi submarines, the ships were also equipped with sonar systems and depth charges. And we also have to provide radar and sonar to their navy every month......"

"Report!" Just as I was prick up my ears to hear more US Navy secrets from the two of them, a report was suddenly heard at the door. Without looking back, Ellman shouted, "Come in!" ”

Soon, the person who shouted the report appeared in front of the three of us, and it turned out to be the sergeant just now. Henry looked at him and asked, "Sergeant, is there anything wrong with you?" ”

"Sir, I'm sending a call back to the fleet command to the captain." The sergeant hurriedly straightened up and reported to Henry.

"Show it to me." Before Henry could ask any more questions, Elman reached out to the sergeant, ready to take the telegram in his hand. The sergeant was also more clever, and quickly handed the message to the captain.

Henry waited for Ellman to finish reading the telegram and put it on the table before he asked, "What did the fleet command say on the telegram?" ”

"Sir!" Elman looked at Henry and said with a serious expression: "I just ordered the sergeant to send a telegram to the fleet headquarters to report to him what happened here, and ask if you are allowed to visit the ship, and now the response from the command has arrived." ”

Henry glanced at the telegram on the table, and instead of reaching for it, he asked slowly, "What does the telegram from the headquarters say?" ”

"Sir, the order of the command is very clear, it is absolutely not allowed to visit the warship." Ellman said with some tears and laughter: "But you can introduce the parameters of the ship to the commander of the friendly army." ”

"Lieutenant Colonel, since that's the case, then you can introduce it." When Henry heard that the command was such an order, he also said helplessly: "Anyway, the general, she is only in the army, and she doesn't understand this set of the navy, even if you take her to visit, it is estimated that she will not be able to remember anything in the end, it is better to directly report to her the parameters of this destroyer, so that she can have a general understanding." ”

"That's a good idea, so I'll tell her a little bit about it here." At the same time, Ellman pleaded with Colonel Henry: "Sir, I still need you to be my interpreter." ”

Seeing that Henry nodded in agreement, Ellman turned to look at me and said politely, "General, I can't take you to see my warship because I don't have permission from the fleet command. But in order not to make this trip empty, I can tell you a little bit about our destroyer. ”

I waited for Henry to finish translating before he put on a very regretful expression and said, "It's a shame that I can't go around the ship." However, if I can hear a brief introduction from you, Lieutenant Colonel, about the ship, I would be worthwhile. ”

"General, our ship is a frigate, and its main task is to escort the merchant fleet." Lieutenant Commander Ellman saw that Henry was ready, and began to brief me on the situation: "We are Mahan-class destroyers, although we do not have the offensive weapons and fire control like destroyers, nor are we faster, and then our hull is more maneuverable, and has a smaller turning radius than destroyers.

In order to keep up with the aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers in the fleet, destroyers often need to have a speed of more than 30 knots, and a frigate destroyer only needs to be able to maneuver relative to the slow escort convoy, and be able to resist the attack of enemy aircraft, detect, pursue and attack the enemy's submarines, these lower requirements greatly reduce the size of the hull, the cost and the crew required for the escort destroyer. ”

"Alright, Lieutenant Colonel, keep it short." After translating this series of words for me, Henry suddenly whispered to Ellman, "Don't say anything that shouldn't be said." ”

Elman nodded, and then introduced: "The Eldridge is 104 meters long, 10.8 meters wide, 3.2 meters deep, and has a maximum speed of 37 knots. It is equipped with five 5-inch 38-diameter guns, four 50-mm cannons, three quadruple 533 torpedo tubes, and two depth charge delivery rails......" (To be continued. )