Chapter 1010 The Second Battle of Midway (10)

In the early morning of August 27, Rommel boldly divided the landing force into two according to the changing situation. The main force landed in Victoria Harbor, and he and Gauss took the command center, an infantry division, two marine brigades, a heavy armored battalion and an air force wing to land in El Salvador.

Except for an escort aircraft carrier, three destroyers and several submarines under the water, there were no protective warships. But he went there boldly and entered the main aircraft carrier air defense circle in the early morning. When he heard that Rommel did not go to a safe area but changed the combat plan to El Salvador, even Ozawa was stunned - this style is more cruel than the domestic army idiots!

Marshal smiled and shook his head, telling him: "During the Battle of France, Field Marshal Rommel was the commander of the 7th Armored Division, and he often rushed to the front with tanks and armored vehicles; during the Battle of Kungunir, the Führer led his troops to fight without escort, and landed on the beaches of North Africa under the nose of the British Mediterranean Fleet. At that time, the commander was also Field Marshal Rommel! As the king of our army's amphibious landing, no one can match his style of toughness!"

"But he is a marshal now, is it really good to do this?"

"In fact, the number of troops commanded by Field Marshal Rommel has always been small. I remember that the maximum number was just over 100,000. The Führer has a joke that it is best to give Field Marshal Rommel 100,000-120,000 troops and ensure supplies. He can give you the effect of 300,000. If you give 300,000, the effect is still 300,000-that is equivalent to a loss of 180,000..."

"Ha..." All the staff laughed, and even a bunch of Japanese observers were amused.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff was stunned by the sudden change in Brazil. Marshall was so angry that he slammed the table at the meeting, scolded Clark, and then personally telegraphed Patton, asking him to immediately go to El Salvador to take over the command of the 5th Army and prepare for a counterattack. Eisenhower and other senior advisors now understood that once the German army took El Salvador, regardless of whether it could swallow up the 5th Army, at least the connection between the US army and the front and back would be interrupted. Not only would the Roosevelt armored group be attacked from both sides, but the US troops in Recife would also feel direct pressure.

The second bad news came soon: "General Hewitt's transport fleet encountered an enemy air attack and lost most of the ships. At present, all ships have been abandoned. The naval officers and soldiers went ashore and retreated. General Patton sent 3 battalions of the army to cover."

Li Hai did not blame Hewitt for anything. The other party had only one transport formation. It was good enough to send the Roosevelt group to the port safely and save most of the lives. He hurriedly asked Marshall for help: "The army must assist them in a safe retreat. These officers and soldiers will continue to transport supplies to the South American theater in the future. Of course, I have to prepare other ships."

Marshall nodded in embarrassment. The navy's request was not excessive, but in this way, the Roosevelt group would have to hold on to Port Seguru for a few more days, which in turn required El Salvador to continue to hold on.

On the evening of August 27, Rommel landed in El Salvador. Schocken led the armored forces to attack the preset positions of the Roosevelt armored group on the Seguru line. Facing Marshall's strict order, Patton, who had hoped to cooperate with Roosevelt, had to hand over all defense tasks to the other party and fly to El Salvador with his staff team - there were more important tasks there.

In the early morning of the next day, the Joint Chiefs of Staff received the third bad news from Patton: the German army landed in El Salvador, and the Salvador Army Air Force had lost nearly 90% of its aircraft and could not fight at all.

"Immediately dispatch troops there, and ask for aircraft, the more the better."

Admiral Arnold had a bitter face and could not say a word. He just silently handed the Army Air Force battle damage report to Marshall.

In the past week, the Army Air Force in Hawaii has achieved certain results: it sank 5 Japanese oil tankers, 1 escort aircraft carrier, 4 freighters, 7 landing craft, 2 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers, severely damaged 1 escort aircraft carrier and 1 cruiser of the enemy, sank (severely damaged) a total of more than 140,000 tons of enemy ships (actually 129,000 tons), destroyed more than 70 enemy aircraft (actually 49, half of the pilots were rescued), but the price paid by the Army Air Force was extremely shocking, losing 517 4-engine heavy bombers (of which 389 could not return), and more than 4,000 personnel losses (killed, missing).

This is not a small number. Not only were nearly 400 4-engine heavy bombers deployed in Pearl Harbor before the war completely lost, but more than 100 additional reinforcements were also added. Now there are less than 200 B-29s or B-17s that are intact and can be dispatched in Pearl Harbor (only one-fifth of which are from the Navy Air Force), and the only way to continue reinforcement is to continue.

Considering that the Japanese Army lost an additional 103 aircraft when attacking Midway Island, the Army Air Force has lost more than 600 aircraft so far in the Hawaii War.

The losses in Brazil were even worse. The German attack on El Salvador ate up more than 600 Army Air Force aircraft in one go (many were destroyed on the ground, and more than 200 crews were lost). The Recife Army Air Force fought against the enemy's bombardment fleet, landing troops and carrier-based aircraft, and lost more than 200 aircraft, with a total loss of nearly 900 aircraft.

At present, the total number of combat aircraft in Brazil has dropped to less than 300. The Army Air Force arranged to draw combat aircraft from the Caribbean, Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia for reinforcement, but because the Salvador Air Base was destroyed, it could only reinforce the Recife area at most, with the first batch of about 400 aircraft.

It was originally planned to arrange 3,000 aircraft to South America in more than a month. Now, more than 900 aircraft have been lost in the first two days of the war. How to fight next?

After reading the damage report, Marshall and Li Hai gasped. Li Hai seemed to remember something and added: "Hewitt also lost nearly 140 aircraft yesterday afternoon!"

"How many aircraft did the Germans have?"

"It is estimated that there are 500-600 aircraft in the direction of Rio, 700 aircraft in the aircraft carrier fleet, and an estimated level of 1200-1300 aircraft. The enemy has lost at least more than 200 aircraft in 2 days. There should be 900 aircraft left at present..."

Arnold's estimate is a bit off, but the answer is basically accurate: the South American German Air Force plus the naval aviation transferred by Krank add up to nearly 500 aircraft, but the aircraft of the 4 aircraft carriers + 8 escort aircraft carriers of the main fleet of Marshall, even if the backup aircraft are included, are not as many as 700, only just over 500, so the German army has a total of 1,000 aircraft. However, the German losses are not as many as the estimated 200 aircraft, a total of only 94, and the remaining aircraft are about 900.

However, this is only the number on August 28. When Rommel's air wing is deployed on August 29, and then the two air wing of the main landing force are deployed, the German army will be able to add 700 aircraft immediately. As for the carrier-based aircraft lost by Marshall, there is no need to worry. In addition to the spare aircraft, the carrier-based aircraft of Lakrank can also be used to make up for it, and the full scale of more than 500 aircraft will always be maintained. "We can only grit our teeth and continue to reinforce, otherwise the situation in South America will be at risk of a complete collapse." Marshall knew that as the main force of the German army landed in El Salvador, the army's battle would become more and more difficult to fight. Even if Patton rushed to El Salvador to control the 5th Army, what could he do with the German army with naval gun advantage and air superiority? So Arnold could only continue to execute the order to increase troops: 4 heavy bombs were continuously dispatched to the west coast and Pearl Harbor. Now the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet left Midway Island and began to move south. In the next few days, they can breathe a sigh of relief and slow down. Fighters, twin-engine bombers, and attack aircraft were sent to Recife in an accelerated manner. Even if they could not guarantee the army's counterattack to seize El Salvador, they must at least ensure that they could retreat safely to Recife: there were nearly 20,000 army troops in Porto Seguro, and there was a lightly armed Hewitt Group halfway to El Salvador. There was the main force of the Fifth Army in El Salvador, and there were more than 10,000 lightly armed infantry retreating in a hurry halfway from El Salvador to Recife...

During the whole day of August 28, the German and American armies engaged in a fierce melee:

In the south, the Schauken Group attacked the Roosevelt Group, and in the north, Patton commanded his troops to counterattack the Rommel Group. The aircraft of both sides were on their own, and the German army also received assistance from the bombardment fleet.

The US military was at a disadvantage in both battlefields: the Schauken Group used heavy armored divisions as the spearhead and strong air superiority as cover to force Roosevelt's troops. The M26 heavy tanks that the latter had high hopes for were proven to be no match for the Tiger 2 equipped with 88mm/L71 tank guns in actual combat. The German air superiority obviously made the Americans more worried - when did the American soldiers fight a frustrating battle without any air cover?

In order to increase the pressure on the US ground forces, the Krank carrier-based aircraft group also played the trick of "shuttle bombing". The pilots first mounted bombs from the Rio base and set off to attack the port of Seguru. After the attack, they did not return to the Rio base, which was more than 800 kilometers away, but landed in El Salvador or on an aircraft carrier 400 kilometers away. After replenishing fuel and ammunition, they attacked again in the afternoon and then returned to Rio before dusk.

When night fell that day, the mood of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was all broken: the Army Aviation sent 474 aircraft to Recife yesterday, and lost more than 380 aircraft in the day's combat, which meant that the reinforcements were basically gone, and the German planes were more than yesterday - not only because Rommel deployed an air force wing of more than 250 aircraft, but also because the Germans lost less than 80 aircraft throughout the day.

The Fifth Army's attack was also severely damaged. The three main attacking divisions lost a total of more than 4,000 people. The front line not only did not advance, but was pushed back 2,500-4,000 meters by the Germans; the situation of the Roosevelt Group was even more miserable. His armored forces lost more than 90 tanks under the full attack of German tanks and aircraft, and were forced to shrink back 15 kilometers as a whole. Even so, the Germans still pounced on them relentlessly.

The only good news was that Hewitt's retreating vanguard connected with the Fifth Army - they were very lucky, as the German planes were tied up in the battles in Salvador and Porto Seguro and no one attacked them...