As the saying goes, staff officers always prepared everything for the last war. This sentence was undoubtedly the most accurate for the Entente at this time, and the Allied high-level leaders, who were still confident in the outcome of the war before the outbreak of the war, were stunned by the tragic war report after the first day of fighting. They really couldn't imagine how the combat effectiveness of the Luftwaffe could improve so quickly in just over 2 years? If you want to say that the United States and Britain are not preparing for this war, that is definitely a smear! The Americans have worked hard to get the pinnacle of air-cooled engines in history, the R2800 twin wasp engine, and the full-fledged exhaust gas turbo. The historical F6F fighter and P47 also finally caught up with the course of the war. And the British are not ambiguous, the two-stage two-speed supercharging is finally completed, and the Morin engine is also constantly improving, after adding a supercharged float carburetor, the performance of Morin has been improved, and a new Spitfire is also being developed. The Spitfire 5, while the largest in volume, is by no means the most advanced.

In terms of the industrial sector, the response of the United States and Britain is much stronger than that of history, in fact, because World War I ended with the advantage of the Allies, Britain, the United States and France have never relaxed their war preparedness. If the two major military blocs of the Entente and the Central Powers in Europe before World War I could maintain a balance of power on the same scene, then after World War I, the situation in Europe was on the verge of complete imbalance. The whole of Eastern and Central Europe became the sphere of influence of Germany. Spain and the Netherlands in Western Europe also threw themselves into the arms of Germany, while Portugal sided with the Allies in World War I. However, immediately after the end of the war, they withdrew from the Entente to express their neutrality, and at the same time moved closer to the Central Powers. No other country in Europe dared to confront the Allies except France and Belgium, and when Italy was overthrown, the situation in Europe became even more difficult. If it weren't for the United States, I'm afraid Britain and France would have bowed down long ago!

Under tremendous pressure, the military industry of the Entente countries has never stopped for a moment. This is not like the laziness of Britain and France at the beginning of World War II. In particular, stimulated by the two local wars, the Entente countries continued to improve their weapons based on the experience of the war, and made appropriate adjustments to their production capacity. In order to cope with the future war, purely from the perspective of aircraft production capacity, the UK's aircraft production capacity in one year has approached 20,000 aircraft! It also includes a number of strategic bombers and twin-engine aircraft. You must know that the highest wartime aircraft production capacity of the British in history was only 26,000 aircraft. Although the latter is of higher quality. But it was not easy for Britain to reach such a level at the beginning of the war, and even Xu Jie admitted after hearing about it that the British had done a good job of preparation.

And the United States is not ambiguous, in terms of aircraft production capacity, the Americans are expected to reach more than 30,000 per year at the beginning of the war! And this production capacity has great room for growth in the future! To know. The United States, unlike the United Kingdom, can devote most of its resources to violent aircraft. After all, Britain is an island country, and the number of land forces does not need to be too much, nor can it be too much, and the main force is the navy and air force. And the United States is different. According to the agreement, the US Army would be the main force in this war, and Roosevelt also guaranteed that the size and number of the US Army would not be less than that of the French Army. This means that the Americans want to storm planes, tanks and warships at the same time! In this case, it is not easy to produce 1.5 times the number of aircraft from the British!

Although the French are not as ruthless as Britain and the United States, they are also much stronger than in history, and de Gaulle's Panzer Corps can illustrate the efforts of the French in the army. It is much higher than the level in history, and if the German army in history attacks France, I am afraid that it will not be able to take it! At the same time, the air force of the French was also raising rapidly. Moreover, in view of the situation on both sides, the French determined the idea of defense based on fighters. In a year, the production of fighter jets alone is as high as 12,000, and the overall production capacity is about 16,000 aircraft. If purely in terms of scale, the United States, Britain and France have done a good job!

But however, Germany in this plane is also a master who has opened N many hangings. Imagine how terrifying a Germany is with an area of almost 2 million square kilometers. Coupled with the enhanced version of Austria-Hungary and Italy, which has become a puppet of the Central Powers, the industrial production capacity of the Germans in this plane has been substantially increased, according to the estimates of China and the Entente, in the first year of the war, the two main Central Powers plus vassals, their aircraft production capacity will reach a staggering 50,000 aircraft! In addition, it was fighting in Europe, and the Americans were somewhat beyond the reach of the whip. and the geographical advantage enjoyed by the Luftwaffe. As soon as the two sides clashed, the Entente side was a little nervous.

To this end, the top leaders of the Entente immediately communicated by telephone, hoping to change the situation in a future war. Roosevelt finally persuaded Congress to agree to send the entire Pacific Fleet and its carrier-based aircraft to the Atlantic. And several air forces located in the western part of the United States will also go to Europe. While Roosevelt had already made considerable efforts, Marshall told the president. What they do is far from enough.

"Just two hours ago, one of our convoys in the Atlantic was attacked by submarines, and this attack was extraordinary, with the loss of 30 transports in the entire convoy of 18! With the sinking of these ships, we lost hundreds of crew members, tens of thousands of tons of grain, thousands of tons of munitions, and 200 brand-new planes with a flight time of no more than 10 hours. The enemy concentrated submarines and launched an attack at night. Such an attack allows our escort fleet to lose sight of the other. There were even 2 destroyers that were sunk in the crossfire. The sea wolves of the Germans were already leaking sharp fangs. Our original escort system is not capable of dealing with such a threat. Marshall spoke in a tactful tone.

"On the Air Force, the ratio of battle losses between us and ours has reached an alarming level, and it is not enough to simply use shipping to ensure the stock of front-line aircraft. In the short term, our fleet of aircraft will remain at the same level as our battle losses at most, and as the air battle intensifies, our losses rise, and the destruction of the ports off the coast of France increases, our losses will inevitably increase, and the rate of replenishment will decrease, so I hope that the assistance of the Air Force will open up a much faster passage for long-range fighters to take off from the continental United States to Canada, then to Greenland, then to Iceland, and eventually to land in Europe. So Marshall conveyed to the president the Air Force's suggestion that the air lane be a faster way to make up for the war damage.

Roosevelt accepted all the suggestions that his confidant would make, and asked him to arrange the relevant work immediately. After Marshall stepped down, Roosevelt received a letter from the U.S. ambassador to China, Stuart Leiden, with a description of China's attitude. "At present, on the surface, the view of the Chinese top leadership on this war is to watch from the sidelines. They did not seem to be worried that the Germans would be able to take aim at Iran after their victory in Europe. But in fact, China still made some preparations for war. Their fleets were concentrated around the Strait of Malacca, and Central Asia was strengthened. Huaxia should eventually be on our side, but the timing is uncertain. It may depend on the conditions we give. ”

Stuart's views coincided with Roosevelt's, and Roosevelt also believed that China would not sit idly by and watch the Allies fall. The current wait-and-see is only to gain more benefits, and this behavior is exactly the same as the wait-and-see behavior of the United States in the early days of World War I. "Huaxia is very confident." In the face of China, Roosevelt did not have a very good way, and on the battlefield in Europe, China could not go. But the United States must not withdraw! "What kind of price will Huaxia offer? Who will pay for Huaxia's troops? Is it the United States or the United Kingdom? Roosevelt thought as he moved his gaze to the huge map hanging on the wall, and when he saw a certain place, he said thoughtfully, "Could it be that Xu Jie wants this place?" ”

If Roosevelt can still sit in his office and listen to the reports outside while calmly arranging his work, then Churchill on the other side of the Atlantic is not so leisurely. He was now discussing what to do with his wartime cabinet members in a cigar-smelling underground conference room. Just this morning, German bombers attacked France and at the same time divided a division to attack Britain, one of which landed 500 meters near Churchill's official residence, and in order to ensure the safety of the Prime Minister, the British wartime cabinet strongly requested that Churchill be given a more sturdy residence. So Churchill came to an underground bunker.

"The situation is very bad, there is a huge generation gap between the RAF fighters and the Germans. We never imagined that the Germans would be able to produce such an advanced aircraft in more than 2 years. The Royal Air Force's vaunted Spitfire simply does not work. We need new planes to deal with this demon. In addition, the Germans have launched a limited attack on the British mainland, and with the weakening of the French front, the other side may increase the intensity of the attack on our own territory, so we need to leave some experienced troops to deal with this crisis. The Germans had already mastered the technique of night bombing, which was a challenge to our air defense. The opening remarks of the Air Force Commander cast a shadow over the entire meeting.

"Let's reduce the next batch of aid units to 70% of the original plan. We need to explain our difficulties to the French, the British Empire is in fact the same as France, basically within the range of the Germans' strategic bombers. Churchill motioned to a Foreign Office official next to him to take charge of communicating with the French. Let's talk about any troubles, and let's find a way to solve them. "The total battle damage of the Air Force Churchill has already seen it, on the one hand he immediately ordered the armament department to speed up the suppression of the new fighters. At the same time, the major aircraft manufacturers worked overtime to make up for the war damage. On the other hand, the Air Force and the Straits Fleet will ensure the smooth flow of transport roads, and vigorously strengthen the ground air defense forces of front-line airfields.

"Our maritime transport is also in a huge crisis. The supplies we received from the Indian Ocean route were only about 20% of those in peacetime, and many ships began to divert to South America, then along the American coastline north to the United States, and then to the British mainland under the overall arrangement of the United States Navy, which greatly affected the efficiency of the transportation of supplies. And once the German Navy came out of the Mediterranean. Our situation will be even more dire, and then the Allied navies will have to deal with the main forces of the Allied fleets on the one hand, and the other side on the other hand, the maritime forces of the other side. Lord Pound, Lord of the Admiralty, said worriedly.

"You mean those damn non-British submarines?" Churchill asked.

"No, no, no, it's not just them, these guys are numerous, and they're elusive. But with a destroyer it will be able to deal with it. The Germans still had an air cruiser force, and these warships were too much of a threat to the escort system. Sir Pound said. The Germans could send these air cruisers to the open sea, but we couldn't, because we were inferior in numbers and we had to use them to supplement the lack of aircraft carriers until the American fleet was all there. ”

"It's a sad story, the Germans haven't been mad enough to launch unrestricted submarine warfare, have they? How about we use the merchant ships of neutral countries for transportation? Churchill asked.

"In addition to the Chinese merchant ships, the other neutral countries refused to use their merchant ships to transport supplies for the British Empire. Except for the ships we seized after the outbreak of war, we had no other way to obtain the capacity of the neutrals. Moreover, although the Chinese used their merchant ships to transport supplies to us at the request of the Americans, their capacity was very limited, and it seemed that they wanted to get more benefits from the British Empire! There was a hint of helplessness in Sir Pound's words. After all, since the end of the Iran war, the relationship between China and Britain has not been good, except for some technical exchanges, China has very little support for Britain, and even this cargo ship charter was reached under the coordination of the United States!

Although he was reluctant to admit it, Churchill finally realized that the British Empire was in decline. "Even if there was no World War II, even if the size of our colonies was comparable to that of China. The British Empire could only exist as a second-class power. Churchill's conceit was such that he would not admit his mistakes even if he made them, hinting at letting his men come forward to get in touch with China, and on the other hand, hoping to get more resources from the United States. However, to Churchill's surprise, the German Navy was not willing to be lonely when the attack of the Allied air force had made it a little difficult for them to resist. They are not willing to leave a strong fleet in the narrow Mediterranean, they need to prove their worth with the blood of their opponents. While the navy was dedicating some of its forces to attacking Corsica, the Count of Spee was also planning a long-range battle plan.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward~~~~, as well as the book friend stormer, I kill me, jhb315, the running pig, and the monthly pass support ~~~~~~ at the Yan Shan. (To be continued.) )