Chapter 1009 The Second Battle of Midway (9, 5400 Votes Plus Additional Content)
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The German's unreasonable punches immediately drove the Joint Chiefs of Staff into an almost crazy situation.
Originally, according to the deductions made by the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's wishful thinking was that the German main fleet would first escort the reinforcements to land in Rio, and then the three armies of the army, navy and air force would cooperate to advance the offensive all the way north. The US military would have the strongest Roosevelt Armored Group on top. On the front line, the rest of the main force spread out in El Salvador and Recife, retreating to defend and buy time. Although the German army has naval superiority and can choose where to attack at will, the Joint Chiefs of Staff is preparing to dispatch 3,000 combat aircraft to South America, and air superiority is guaranteed. The two sides will launch a series of tug-of-wars and wars of attrition on the spot. The Joint Chiefs of Staff can leisurely rely on internal lines to attack South America. Increase troops.
Since U.S. military reinforcements are closer than German reinforcements and strategic airlift can be used, Germany must slowly send reinforcements from the front lines in Europe, so Americans are not afraid of fighting a war of attrition.
Many people are still happily dreaming: Maybe our losses will not be small, but then the new recruits of the U.S. Army will become veterans, and the new pilots will become veterans, and finally rely on the German army to achieve their own training. and sublimation.
As a master tactician, how could Rommel follow the American rhythm and fight hard and stupid battles? The routine of war of attrition and positional warfare was exposed by him on the first day:
In the long snake formation of Segurro-El Salvador-Recife, Rommel did not take any action. When he did, he directly hit the key node of El Salvador. He used rockets, aircraft carrier formations, and artillery formations to eat up the U.S. Army aviation, and then landed. . Not only that, he also did not let go of Roosevelt's command in Port Seguro. He took advantage of the opportunity of Machar's main fleet to contain and eliminate the main force of the US military aviation in El Salvador. He directly ordered the air force to launch an air war from Rio and from Victoria to the front line. Launch a ground offensive. Rommel himself, who completed such large-scale and campaign decisions, was even floating at sea.
On August 26, the US military suffered an unprecedented defeat:
El Salvador was bombarded by the approaching German artillery fleet. More than 100,000 U.S. Army troops were first attacked by missiles flying in the sky, then suffered two rounds of air strikes from carrier-based aircraft, and then were bombarded by naval guns. They were already dizzy and retreated continuously. . There are still a large number of materials and ships at the port that will not be unloaded in the future, and they have also become trophies of the German army. The U.S. military attack fleet in Recife rushed to attack the artillery fleet, but other than adding a little more local trauma to these thick-skinned battleships, little else was accomplished. Instead, the covering German carrier-based aircraft shot down more than 80 aircraft. .
In the evening, Machar commanded the 4th Marine Brigade (Madagascar Brigade) to land and quickly seize the front line along the coast of Salvador under the cover of naval guns. An incredible scene appeared on the entire front: a mere 7,000 German troops chased away more than 100,000 U.S. troops. run. Of course, the brigade was very measured. Once it approached the maximum range of the naval gun, it stopped and concentrated on consolidating the city defense and collecting loot. The US military warehouses, airports, cargo ships and mountains of supplies and equipment are now all German. Even Clark's headquarters went in and sat down, and seized a bunch of confidential messages that would not be destroyed in the future. The Japanese 442nd Regiment was still reorganizing in the rear, and there were no death squads rushing out to resist the German army.
In the afternoon, the U.S. military in Port Seguru was severely attacked by the Riod Air Force. The carrier-based aircraft pilots who had transferred from the Krank squadron to the land base were holding their breath and desperately greeted Hewitt's transport fleet. . Although there are no torpedoes in Rio, the Americans do not have any capital ships. At most, they have a few escort carriers, cargo ships and destroyers, and 250 kilogram bombs are enough to deal with them.
The Rio de Air Force was originally wary of the assistance of the Salvadoran US Army Air Force, but now that the latter was directly destroyed by Machar's main fleet, the Air Force became unscrupulous. The division of labor between the two sides is very clear. The air force is responsible for dealing with the escort fighters on the US transport fleet, and the navy's carrier-based aircraft are responsible for air strikes on the ships in Segulu Port. They will also air attack Patton's ground forces when they have time.
Poor Hewitt was really unlucky. His pilot skills were the worst in the entire TF48 fleet. Beforehand, Nimitz had 48 fighter jets taken away from him - all pilots with some experience were taken away from Nimitz. Went to the fleet. As a result, today's pilots cannot defeat the wolf-like German Air Force - the first batch of German pilots sent to South America to fight are all veterans who have been on the Eastern Front for many years and have become proficient in combat.
There was a huge difference in experience and numbers (more than 300 German troops vs. nearly 140 U.S. troops). As soon as the two sides fought, the U.S. pilots were shot down like turkeys. Patton, Roosevelt Jr., and Hewitt, who were watching the battle on the ground, were stunned. I don’t know what to say—all that fell were American planes with white stars painted on their wings.
The German army fought a hearty battle and returned with a full payload: not only did the carrier-based aircraft sink all the escort aircraft carriers and two-thirds of the cargo ships, but all American aircraft that could fly on the sea were beaten into the sea.
The German losses were ridiculously low: only 6 Air Force fighter jets, 2 Hainan Airlines Bf-319s, 4 Hainan Airlines Ju-198 attack aircraft, and a mere 12 aircraft were lost.
On the night of August 26, the U.S. military was also forced to land: Hewitt, who was in tears, decided to abandon all ships and let Patton send troops to cover the naval officers and soldiers to retreat before the German ground forces advanced. He thought very simply. Anyway, all the planes were lost, the supplies and army forces had been unloaded, and the escort aircraft carriers, freighters, and destroyers had been lost. There was no point in fighting again. The remaining ships had no place to retreat - going to El Salvador would be used as targets by the Germans, and going to South Africa would not be able to collide with the terrible German submarines. The lack of fuel alone was enough for these warships to suffer - it was equivalent to a dead end.
He did not stop at one thing and sank all the remaining freighters into the sea, and all the destroyers were stranded on the beach to become fixed artillery positions to provide partial fire support for the army.
Warships can be lost, but personnel must not be lost. Although these naval officers and soldiers lack experience, they now have practical experience, not to mention that after today's air battle, more than 60 pilots who fell into the sea were fished out, which is a valuable asset.
Patton fully agreed with this. Not only did he send three battalions to cover the retreat of more than 4,000 naval officers and soldiers, but he also gritted his teeth and transferred all the idle cars that could be found in the Roosevelt armored group - those for pulling artillery and transporting supplies were included. Fortunately, the United States has always been rich and powerful. There are thousands of cars in ordinary infantry divisions, and the Roosevelt armored group has more than 2,000 vehicles, which gives Patton room to move.
"George, I'll stay." When they parted, Hewitt felt very sorry and refused to go with the troops, because he knew very well that Patton could have retreated, but in order to cover the navy, he had to hold on to Porto Seguro for a few days before retreating, which greatly increased the risk.
Roosevelt Jr. also advised Patton: "Sir, you should go to El Salvador to command the Fifth Army. They are in such a mess that they are in a mess."
"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and leave, be quick, don't make trouble for me here." Patton scolded Hewitt with a stern face, "Every time I work with you, I always encounter a shipwreck. It's really unlucky. Next is the army's business, the navy quickly retreat."
Finally, Hewitt got on a jeep and left. After driving a few dozen meters, the adjutant muttered unsatisfiedly: "Sir, how can he talk like that? It's too much! If we hadn't taken him to retreat quickly, the army wouldn't even have the opportunity to successfully land and fully deploy in Port Seguru."
Hewitt shook his head: "You don't understand George, he is not that kind of person. He is deliberately driving me away. You can look back."
The adjutant turned his head and saw Patton and Roosevelt Jr. behind him waving goodbye to them.
When the naval retreating troops disappeared from sight, Roosevelt asked Patton in a bewildered manner: "What should we do now? I don't think we can save El Salvador."
"A bunch of good-for-nothings!" Patton was very annoyed with the situation in El Salvador, and even more dissatisfied with Clark, who was currently acting as the commander of the South American theater.
In his opinion, after all, El Salvador had 6 division-level numbers and more than 100,000 troops. Even if a group of troops did not have heavy equipment (took away by Patton and equipped with Roosevelt's armored group), at least there was no shortage of light equipment. Even if this group of troops was not counted, the 5th Army still had 3 complete main divisions.
Now, as soon as the German aircraft carrier formation bombed, the artillery formation bombed, and the landing troops landed, the 5th Army, which had 10 times the number of the enemy, actually retreated like a frightened rabbit. If this continued, how could the anti-landing operation be successful?
He sent three consecutive telegrams with harsh words asking the troops to launch a counterattack without fear of sacrifice. As a result, not long after, without exception, they sent telegrams about the failure of the counterattack, and kept complaining to him: "The enemy's naval guns are too powerful, we can't rush over...", "The enemy's planes are too powerful, we can't attack."
In short, these young soldiers believed that they could not fight back without the cover of aircraft overhead and nothing that could compete with the naval guns next to them. If they went, they would die.
In addition to organizing several combat-capable divisions to retreat and build a defense line and letting the poorly equipped troops speed up the transfer to Recife, Clark did not mention the counterattack at all. On the one hand, he asked Patton to hold on in Porto Seguro and asked him to "fight and retreat, and join the main force", while desperately sending telegrams to the country to request aircraft reinforcements.
At least he still had a conscience and did not say such shameless words as "Let the Roosevelt armored group hold on to create opportunities for the main force to transfer."
The best time for the U.S. military to counterattack slipped away. That night, the German Madagascar Brigade that had already landed deployed its forces on all fronts and made full use of the artillery positions and tanks abandoned by the U.S. military to quickly build a line of defense. Now it would take some effort for Clark to fight again.