Chapter 1528 Aviation Anti-Submarine

"The transport fleet we supported the Soviet Union was attacked again." In the White House, Roosevelt was sitting in a wheelchair, meditating in front of a large-scale high-definition world map, and heard the words of his assistant.

When Marshall spoke, his face was expressionless and he appeared calm, but his fingers were trembling slightly, and his mood was definitely not calm at this time.

It is not news that cargo ships supporting the Soviet Union have been repeatedly attacked, but this time is different from the past.

In the past, the attack was on the Arctic route, almost after crossing the Bering Strait, which was the most dangerous sea area vulnerable to ambushes, but now?

In order to avoid being ambushed on the Arctic route, the formation did not take the Arctic route, and planned to reach the Soviet port in the Far East to unload the cargo and then transport it by land.

As a result, in the southern waters of the Kamchatka Peninsula, they were suddenly attacked, which completely broke their dream, and the Far East route was not easy to go!

what's next?

How to support the Soviet Union?

In particular, the most different from the past is that this time the number of submarines is quite large.

"We have repeatedly studied the attacks on the Arctic route and can confirm that the number of submarines underwater on the Arctic route is very small, no more than three at most, maybe even only one, because two submarines have never been seen. At the same time, because the other party's underwater navigation ability is particularly good, we think there may be three."

Marshall continued to analyze Roosevelt: "But in the southern Kamchatka Peninsula, a large number of submarines encountered, according to our estimation, the number is about twenty. They are like wolves, coming up to bite the cargo ship formation and serve as escort tasks. The warship was sunk in the first place."

A huge number of German submarines have appeared in the North Pacific region, which is definitely not good news for the United States.

Although so far, these submarines have been attacking the formation of cargo ships that aided the Soviet Union, but who knows if they will come to ambush the American fleet?

Moreover, under such rampant submarine activities, they can no longer continue to transfuse blood to the Soviet Union, so the Soviets will definitely not be able to hold it.

"This is really bad news." He took a breath and continued: "It's impossible to travel by land. We can't take a ferry in Alaska, and we have to get through the sea transportation line."

In World War II, there was once a feat of road transportation, that is, the huge motor fleet of the Yunnan-Burma Highway supported the battle of the Chongqing government, but how many kilometers was that?

If you go directly by land from the United States, cross the Bering Strait, and transport it to Moscow, it will take more than half of the world, and the distance to travel is more than ten times that. At least half of the entire fleet must be used to transport fuel. may be done.

You can't go by land, nor can air transportation. The United States does not have enough transport aircraft, and air transportation consumes no less resources than land transportation.

Therefore, it has to be a waterway, and a sea transportation line needs to be opened up.

"Moscow also said the same thing," said Secretary of State Hull. "The Soviets asked us to send the navy to escort their fleet of cargo ships."

The Soviet navy was weak, and it was almost the old family of the Tsarist era. The main fleet was no longer on the western front, and the Far East fleet was simply not enough. In this case, the Soviet Union could only turn to the United States for help.

Hearing this, Roosevelt frowned: "No, we simply don't have enough navy to get through this transportation line."

Now, the U.S. Navy is going to fight hard with the navy of the island nation. Seeing that the navy of the island nation is about to take root in the Hawaiian Islands, how can it be able to provide escort ships to the Soviet Union?

"No, we don't have that many warships." Roosevelt said: "The escort formation will be solved by the Soviet Navy itself."

If there is a previous battleship guarding the formation, then the German submarine will have a lot of concerns. However, how could capital ships be provided to the Soviets? Who knows if it will be accidentally worn out? America can't afford it.

"We can provide ships to the Soviets, and we will provide as much as they sink," Roosevelt said. "This is already our biggest bottom line."

In later generations, the German wolf pack tactics were eventually smashed by the Allies. As for the reason, there are many theories, such as the improvement of the Allied anti-submarine technology, the skilled operation of their captains, etc., but there is a simple The calculation method shows that the American industrial base is strong, and the cargo ships built are more than those consumed, and the Americans can withstand it.

Now, the Americans can only use this method. With the start of the war machine, the American industry has been fully transformed into the wartime system. When the powerful industrial machine is started, it can reproduce how much it consumes.

The United States provides ships, and provides as many new ones as they lose. This is already the maximum.

"No, it's not enough. If we only provide ships, we can't avoid this outcome." Admiral Nimitz said worriedly: "If we don't increase the anti-submarine force, we can only send prey to the Germans."

As an admiral, Admiral Nimitz was an expert.

"But we absolutely can't provide the Soviets with an escort fleet, we don't have that many troops," Roosevelt said.

"Yes, we can't provide an escort fleet, but we can provide aviation." Admiral Nimitz said: "We can provide professional anti-submarine aircraft to the Soviets. If deployed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, we can take care of the vicinity. Seas within five hundred kilometers."

The technology of the United States is extremely advanced. How to detect underwater submarines is also a key point for them. After research, they have developed a magnetic anomaly detector, which is equipped on the PBY-5 "Catalinna" seaplane.

The system was tested long before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A PBY-5 took off from Rhode Island, detected a submarine, and successfully verified the magnetic anomaly detector system.

Later, the Naval Research Laboratory confirmed that the PBY-5's radar system could receive and transmit electromagnetic pulses without the use of a bulky accessory antenna system.

In addition to this magnetic anomaly detector system, there are sonobuoys.

Like history, in 1941, the United States developed a sonobuoy, but it was carried by an airship, and even if the target detected by the airship patrolled, there was not enough time and weapons to attack. This is just the beginning. , it's still a while away from being practical.

In short, for the United States, it is completely feasible to use aircraft to anti-submarine.

"The Soviets simply do not have suitable pilots to fly these equipment." Secretary of State Hull said: "Their rookies have all started to go to the Western Front after hurried training. If they want to anti-submarine, they need at least dozens of aircraft. flight crew, they simply can't find it."

"You can send us there," Nimitz said. "We have experienced crew members. We can even bring equipment and pack them to the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Soviets will not refuse."