On April 17, 1941, Manstein finally found the gap in the Russian defense that he had been waiting for.

So the Manstein cluster immediately began to counterattack.

At the same time that Manstein began a counterattack, Rommel's troops also advanced southeast along the Caucasus Mountains, heading straight for the Baku oil field area.

**

"Dad, you seem to be in a good mood."

Lin Youde glanced at his daughter and said with a smile: "Isn't this a matter of course, the battlefield in Ukraine and the Caucasus are progressing smoothly, of course I'm in a good mood." ”

"Very well," Isera pursed, "then I have no qualms about telling you what is in the report submitted by the Air Force today, which reports that the British Air Force is increasing in intensity of their resistance as it continues to be replenished by planes transferred from American aircraft carriers, and that losses from our offensive minelaying operations are increasing. ”

"Didn't the submarine of the Navy just sink an aircraft carrier? I remember the Navy's interpretation of the Assault. Lin Youde put away the smile that was still on his face just now, and frowned slightly, "I originally thought that the planes transported by the aircraft carrier transfer would not have much impact, at least not now, but I didn't expect the Air Force to come and complain so soon......

"The main reason is that the Americans now take the method of merchant ship connection + aircraft carrier take-off, an aircraft carrier generally takes a merchant fleet, and after arriving near the UK, let the British pilot on the small boat take off the aircraft on the aircraft carrier and fly to the UK, and then move the merchant ship's aircraft to the aircraft carrier near a small island called Herta Island, and then let the aircraft carrier start to take off."

"They are so not afraid of trouble......" Lin Youde couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

In order to ensure that the aircraft can take off and land in a relatively short distance, the aircraft carrier must be allowed to sail at a certain speed against the wind, so that the speed of the aircraft carrier and the wind speed on the original sea surface can form a relatively strong deck wind, thereby greatly increasing the wing lift of the fighter. Of course, an aircraft such as a fighter jet, which is relatively light and has a large lift-to-weight ratio, can take off even if the aircraft carrier is not sailing, as long as the aircraft is positioned at the back of the deck before takeoff.

However, like bombers carrying bombs, in order to take off smoothly, the aircraft carrier must sail at high speed against the wind, especially torpedo planes carrying heavy torpedoes, which require even more for this. In another time and space, the aircraft carrier Kaga of the old Imperial Japanese Navy had a higher accident rate than other aircraft carriers when taking off torpedo planes because of its insufficient speed.

Therefore, this method of doing by the Americans is indeed not an ordinary trouble, and the aircraft carrier has to constantly drop anchor to receive planes, and then lift anchor and set sail to take off planes.

"The Americans were going to build an airfield on Herta Island, and then they would use merchant ships to transport planes over and let the British drive back to the island themselves." Ysera continued, "The Air Force thought that when that airfield was built, the British would be able to receive dozens or more fighter jets a day. ”

Lin Youde's happy appearance just now was completely gone, and he frowned and fell into deep thought.

Ysera sighed and said, "As soon as the United States entered the war, the situation of the war on our eastern and western fronts immediately changed, and I now fully understand your worries about the situation after the United States entered the war. ”

"No, the United States of America is the undisputed protagonist of this century." Lin Youde rubbed his nose, "Didn't the Air Force mention how they were going to deal with this situation?" ”

"Yes, they want to use airborne troops to occupy Meenland Island and set up a large air base on the island, so that Air Force fighters can directly attack Herta Island, which is a transit point for the Americans. The Air Force even offered to continue its attack on the Faroe Islands after the capture of Meenland, and to use this as a springboard to threaten Iceland. ”

"Nonsense, the current situation of the navy, and the threat to Iceland, is simply a fantasy." Lin Youde shook his head.

Lin Youde stood up, went to the bookcase next to the wall, took out a map of the North Atlantic region from it, looked through it, and continued: "The idea of occupying Meenland Island can be considered, it is within the combat radius of our air force, and there is no need to worry too much about the attack of the enemy navy after the occupation." Later, it can be used not only as a relay base for the Air Force, but also to provide supplies for the Navy's submarines. ”

"I always felt that we should have taken this island sooner."

"That's not what I said," Lin Youde shook his head lightly at his daughter, "When the center of gravity of the war was on the Western Front, we were not comparable in terms of air or sea capacity, and the number of transport planes in the Air Force alone was as much as five or six times worse. At that time, it was actually quite difficult to attack Meenland Island. ”

In 1941, it had been three years since Germany switched to wartime production, and production had been raised almost to the theoretical limit, and the report of the industrial department estimated that the annual production of airplanes alone could reach 30,000 in 41 years, and even the United States estimated that it would not be able to reach this production capacity this year -- of course, the United States would certainly exceed this number in the future.

As a result, Lin Youde now had enough transport planes to carry out a large-scale air offensive campaign, as Rommel had previously attacked the Kuban as a large-scale rehearsal, which showed that the Luftwaffe was capable of dropping three paratrooper divisions hundreds of kilometers away.

Lin Youde continued: "If we want to attack Meenland Island, we must take advantage of the present time, the British and American fleets are still afraid of the combat effectiveness of our air force, and there are almost no activities in the North Sea, and our navy and transport ships can approach Meenland Island unimpeded. A little later, the Americans will be fat, and it is estimated that there will be danger. Sue the Air Force, I agreed to this plan, let them start to work out a detailed combat plan. ”

"Okay." Isera bowed her head and wrote the essay at the same time, and after she put the written essay into the pile of wen jiàn that had been processed, she spoke again, "After the capture of Baku, should we shift our strategic focus to the western front?" I always feel that it is not practical for the Americans to have a bridgehead in Europe. Should we solve Britain's problems once and for all? ”

"Do you want me to contain Russia while attacking a country with multiple gods?"

"Shenji can let France come forward, and it's time for the French to make some contributions to the war Dad, you can't always get used to your concubine." Ysera's words were unceremonious, "The French have had a comfortable life for too long, and it has been the third year since Russia started the war with us this year, and the French have been recuperating during this time, and it is time to recuperate after such a long rest." If they, as the second largest country in the entire Human Innovation Alliance, were just watching the whole show, what would the Allies think about sending troops to fight alongside the Germans on the battlefield? ”

"The problem in France is that they have 'a lot of gods', you know, daughters? No, you should. Lin Youde stared into Isera's eyes, "This world is like this, there are more gods, there are more choices, although I have been working to weaken the influence of gods, but the fact is that the influence of gods in the world is still very huge." France will become the second largest country in the Alliance of Innovations because of the number of gods they have, and we can't completely deal with France because of the number of gods they have. Our infiltration of the French people has achieved considerable results so far, but it is not enough to overwhelm the voice of Shinki in France. That's the crux of the matter. ”

Ysera bit her lip and finally did not refute Lin Youde's words, and seemed to accept Lin Youde's statement - maybe she knew the crux of the problem from the beginning, and just wanted to confirm it with Lin Youde.

At this moment, the red phone on Lin Youde's desk rang.

Lin Youde immediately picked up the phone: "I'm Lin Youde." ”

"Mr. Lin, this is the Eye of Odin, we have obtained an latest report, because Miss Director is now at war with the Russian Divine Queen, so we think we should hand over the report directly to you."

"Send it over."

"It should be almost there."

As soon as the voice on the phone ended, Lin Youde's secretary opened the door: "The agent from the Eye of Odin wants to meet you." ”

"Let him in." As he spoke, Lin Youde hung up the phone.

The agent who came was not good-looking, he belonged to the kind of person who couldn't be found as soon as he blended into the crowd, which was also in line with Lin Youde's imagination of what a real spy would look like - James Bond was just a representative of a screen spy, and a real spy should be so low-key and unassuming.

After sending the report to Lin Youde, the agent left silently and didn't say anything else.

Lin Youde opened the bag and took out the text that was only a few pages, and as soon as he looked at the beginning, a Sichuan-shaped wrinkle appeared on his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Ysera asked curiously.

"The French are about to make a move, and the remnants of the original Italian government, as well as the forces of the old Kingdom of Sardinia, secretly ask France for help, hoping that France will send troops to help expel the forces of the Catholic Church and protect the secular regime in Italy."

Ysera grew her mouth: "What? ”

"Let the French send troops to protect the secular regime in Italy." Lin Youde repeated his statement just now, "And the French government has secretly discussed this matter, it seems that the southern department wants to increase its own political capital, after all, Italy borders the southern nest, and if you want to send troops, you must send troops from the south." Xia Li wants to stop the southerners, but she thinks it's not bad to let the southerners and the church work hard to consume the power of the south. Odin's prediction that France would eventually send troops to occupy Napoleon? The territory that Bonaparte once occupied. ”

"Wait a minute, wouldn't it be contrary to the basic program of our League of Human Renewals to do this? However, we stand for respecting the wishes of all countries and nations and oppose the forcible occupation of other countries' territories and the enslavement of other nations. ”

"Yes, but then we don't have to worry about the Italians attacking us in the south." Lin Youde pursed his lips, "Moreover, there are many advantages to retaking Italy, at least we can use our ports on the Adriatic Sea again, and we can also coerce Greece to join the alliance." After Greece joined the alliance, the Romanian Blackblood had no excuse to sit on the sidelines, and she had to go north to participate in the war against Russia......"

"But at the same time, the Black Blood Queen also lost the possibility of eliminating the Aegean Alliance and establishing a unified Slavic state dominated by Romania." "I don't think she's necessarily happy." ”