"Great," Roosevelt, apparently pleased with the arrival of the B-29s with the equipment of the troops, nodded and said, "Admiral, we need more B-29s, and by the end of June 1944, the Army Air Corps should have at least 500 combat-ready B-29 bombers, can it be done?" ”

"500? Still is...... Army Air Corps? "William. Leahy was stunned for a moment, "Mr. President, where are we going to bomb with B-29?" Was it from Newfoundland to bomb the British mainland? ”

The range of the B-29 was significant, slightly surpassing the German Me264 to more than 9000 km. www.biquge.info But that's the ultimate range, and the combat radius after the bomb is usually around 3,000 kilometers. Even if the range is increased by carrying fewer bombs and removing some of the self-defense weapons and armor, the bombing of the British mainland, which is more than 3,000 kilometers away from Newfoundland, will be the limit.

"Of course not," Roosevelt shook his head, "Britain is our ally after all, how can we kill the British people in the occupied zone from the air?" And the air defense of Europe is very strong, and our B-29 will suffer heavy losses. ”

William. Leahy breathed a sigh of relief, then asked, "So where are we going to bomb?" Is it the Hawaiian Islands? ”

"Not really." Roosevelt looked at William with a question mark on his face. Leahy smiled and said, "I'm going to bomb the Japanese-controlled oil fields!" ”

"Boom...... Bombing Japanese-controlled oil fields? "William. Leahy's eyes widened, "Where did the plane take off from?" ”

"From Port Hedland, in the northwest of Australia...... Admiral, have you heard of this place? Roosevelt laughed.

William. Leahy had certainly heard of Port Hedland, an important stronghold of the US-Australian forces in northwestern Australia, about the same as the port of Darwin. And it is only 2,400 kilometers from the Japanese-controlled Palembang oil field, which is the most critical oil field! Completely within the ideal combat radius of the B-29 long-range bomber. In addition, almost all of Japan's oil fields in Southeast Asia can be covered by the combat radius of B-29 bombers taking off from ports Hedland and Darwin!

In other words, the United States only needs to deploy a few hundred B-29 long-range bombers in the northwest of Australia to drop 500-1,000 tons of bombs or napalm every day on the most precious oil fields of the Japanese.

In addition, the reconnaissance version of the B-29 long-range bomber that took off from northwest Australia could also be used to search for the Japanese fleet in the South China Sea, and although it was inconvenient to break the intercourse with the B-29, it could report the location of the fleet to American submarines by telegram (most of the submarines operating in the South China Sea also departed from Australia). This will greatly improve the efficiency of breaking diplomatic relations with US submarines.

"Admiral, I guess this is the death den of the Japanese, right?" Roosevelt went on to say, "The bombing and search of the B-29s, coupled with the breakup of diplomatic relations with submarines, will certainly greatly reduce the amount of oil that Japan obtains from Southeast Asia, at least by more than 80 percent!" ”

Japan now has about 8 million tons of oil a year in Southeast Asia, and a reduction of 80% will result in 6.4 million tons (a historical decrease of almost 100%), so Japan's oil production will drop sharply to less than 2 million tons. This is simply not possible to sustain the war!

"But Mr. President, the B-29 only has a maximum transit range of 9,654 kilometers, and the distance from the continental United States to New Zealand is more than 10,000 kilometers, and the B-29 is very difficult to reach."

It was a time and space in which Japan was mighty in the first two years of the Pacific War, not only taking the Hawaiian Islands, but also winning in the South Pacific. The stronghold of the US-Australian coalition forces in the South Pacific has also been greatly reduced, and the only island that can be used for B-29s to take off and land is New Zealand.

"Isn't there still Christmas Island?" Roosevelt raised an eyebrow, "It's a very flat coral island, and there is a large airfield built by the Japanese, as long as we can take it, won't the B-29 have a foothold?" “

Fortunately, the Japanese have a 731, otherwise they really would not have been able to force the United States to fight the impregnable Hawaiian Islands -- the Americans have never liked to fight such a tough battle with mountains of corpses and a sea of blood. Their style is to smash with money and burn with oil! Ship the B-290,000 miles to Australia, and load bombs, petrol, spare parts, and everything else on board. It doesn't matter how much is consumed on the road, just bomb the Japanese oil fields with B-29s regardless of the cost.

Moreover, the B-29 also has three killer features: high-altitude, high-speed and heavy firepower, and now the main model of the Japanese cannot deal with it at all. They could only watch their precious oil fields be blown up, and if the Japanese did not want to wait for death, they had to venture into Australia. And this again fell into the hands of Roosevelt, and after more than a year of operation, Australia's defense has become very solid. A large number of P-51 and P47 were deployed to Australia, and these two aircraft were not at all capable of being fought against by Japan's carrier-based aircraft, and if Japan wanted to attack Australia's idea, it would definitely lose very ugly.

"Admiral," Roosevelt asked, "are we sure we will take Christmas Island in early 1944?" ”

"There is no problem with that," replied Admiral Leahy, "and the engagement from late September to the present day has not only cost Japan a great deal of valuable fuel, but also many very good pilots." This is a very fatal blow to them, as long as we stick to the right tactics, Japan can only abandon the North Pacific. And as things stand, they are indeed contracting. ”

"Won't Japan train more pilots?" Roosevelt seemed a little unsure, "They used to train many good pilots, didn't they?" ”

"Yes, but that's in the past." Admiral Leahi said, "Our current tactics are, in the final analysis, to fight with Japan...... Not only does the dispatch of the fleet burn a lot of fuel, but good pilots actually burn it out of fuel.

Unless there are a handful of geniuses, for most pilots, success is nothing more than practice makes perfect. 300 hours is just a possibility to pass (not 100% qualified, a 50% pass rate is good), and then 200 hours of training with the team before you can go to the battlefield, and if you want to go to the aircraft carrier, you need to train at least 200 more hours. After becoming a full-fledged fighter pilot, there is also a lot of daily training and acclimatization training (adapting to a new aircraft type or a new combat environment), so most of a really good pilot has experienced thousands of hours of flight training and flight missions (not necessarily combat) for about the same time...... And every promotion in pilot training is accompanied by a considerable percentage of the elimination rate. ”

William. Leahy smiled smugly: "So we can think of a really good pilot as hundreds of thousands of gallons (Leahy is talking about American gallons) of high-quality aviation gasoline (fighter pilots save a little, bomber pilots are more expensive to train, on average it's about that)...... Japan has lost excellent pilots in the past less than a month, worth at least billions of gallons of aviation gasoline. As long as we persevere, Japan will definitely lose! ”

William. Raisi was speaking of a reality that the Japanese could not have imagined, and that the pilots they had lost in the past few weeks were worth at least 1 million tons of aviation gasoline -- the pilots' experience was the result of fighting wars, but the technology was made by burning oil...... And without oil, there is no technology, and without technology, at most you can only gain experience in parachuting and being shot down, and you will not be able to become a trump card.

And 1 million tons of aviation gasoline is not a problem for the United States at all, but for Japan it is a loss that cannot be made up in any way, and for Germany now, 1 million tons of B4 or C3 gasoline means the possibility of taking Moscow and Stalingrad after next spring!

So while agreeing to provide Japan with 200 "Silver Reaper" and 2 Me262 jet fighters (the engine is also Rolls-Royce W1B), Hersman refused to provide Japan with a large amount of fuel, and only gave 2,000 tons of aviation kerosene for the "Silver Reaper" and 2 Me262.