Chapter 1027 Axis Attack (End, 6900 Votes Plus More)

ps: The results in April are indeed much worse than last month. Alas, please give me some monthly votes...

On September 19, marked by the death of Patton and the surrender of the valley defenders, this large-scale battle that lasted for more than two months and integrated multiple arms, battlefields, and dimensions including land, sea, and air finally slowly came to an end. Curtain. Because the entire battle basically took place in Brazil, it was called the Battle of Brazil, or more accurately, the "South Atlantic-Brazil Battle"

The initiator of the entire battle was actually the Brazilians. If the Brazilian government had not dispatched the First Expeditionary Division to try to eliminate the German American dispatched troops and the American Republic in one fell swoop, the beginning of the battle might have been completely different. However, the Brazilians never closed this Pandora's box once they opened it. Not on: The destruction of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, the attack of the Sauken cluster, the planning of the landing of the German Krank squadron and the Rio coup, etc., pushed the German-American confrontation to a fever pitch, Nimitz's counterattack, Rommel's massive offensive and the El Salvador The battle is the most climactic part.

To be honest, although the US military suffered a devastating defeat throughout the battle, if different changes had occurred at certain key nodes, it is difficult to say that the German army would have had the last laugh, at least it would not have been as easy as it is now.

The first key node was the German submarine ambush formation. The saturation lightning strike crippled a lot of the strength of the Nimitz fleet. In the end, it could only barely achieve a 2:3 exchange ratio of aircraft carriers with Krank. Without this preset In the ambush, the outcome of the battle between the two sides is likely to be 1:3, and the TF48 fleet can still maintain considerable strength after the naval battle is over, and may even launch a landing campaign before the main German fleet arrives in South America, which will add a lot of variables;

The second key point was the German ship-borne rocket attack. This saturation attack severely damaged El Salvador's air power and caused great confusion to the defenders. The German main fleet cover force successfully landed in El Salvador. Without the preemptive saturation and land washing by rockets, it would never be that easy for the German army to seize sea and air supremacy in El Salvador - after all, the U.S. Army Air Forces is not weak there.

It is precisely because the German army had the upper hand and advantage at these two key nodes that the battle became increasingly unstoppable towards the end.

The lessons Germany has learned from this are: Type XXI and XXIII submarines are extremely useful and should be built vigorously; other submarines are completely obsolete; rocket carriers are deterrent weapons, but on-site filling of liquid fuel is too troublesome, and they urgently need to be changed to solid fuel to improve efficiency and reduced size. In addition, it is hoped that the rocket-carrying ship will be faster and have stronger defense.

The Navy is very flexible now. The missile carrier responsible for the launch mission has not yet returned, so it immediately took the lead in designing a new guided missile cruiser based on the Hipper class with slight modifications:

The overall planned standard displacement of the ship is 17,500 tons, with a full load displacement of 22,000 tons. It is equipped with 12 128mm high-level dual-purpose artillery and other small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns for ship air defense. The main attack weapons are missiles: it is required to have 6 4-mounted anti-ship, Anti-surface ballistic missiles (48 in total), 8 quadruple-mounted cruise missiles (64 in total), and 6 twin-mounted air defense missiles (48 in total).

It further proposed to upgrade to a six-in-one rocket strike force: surface ships, submarines, heavy bombers, underground silos, road mobile launches, and railway mobile launches, implying that it is also preparing to have missile cruisers launch super bombs.

More crazy designers were inspired by the anti-aircraft battleship proposed by Hoffman and hoped to build a super guided missile battleship, codenamed H50 guided missile battleship, based on the Japanese Yamato-class and H44-class battleships.

The ship has a displacement of at least 100,000 tons, a speed of 30 knots, and a range of 15,000 nautical miles. In principle, conventional power is considered (super power can also be considered if it is mature). The air defense is still a combination of 128mm, 40mm anti-aircraft guns + Phalanx, but there are many weapons all over the body. With nearly 800 missiles of various types (including spare bombs), we hope to build 4 in one go to create a unique super rocket formation in the world, directly "blow the enemy back to the Stone Age!"

Hoffman was dumbfounded as he watched them go further and further down the "evil road", but he had to express his approval for the exploratory design against his will, and even "reluctantly" handed over the title of "Arsenal Ship" to everyone, including Dönitz. A bunch of high-level officials, including Speer, happily used the name. A bunch of rocket and shipbuilding experts and high command staff flattered the head of state for his "genius, creativity and comprehensive" advancement of the global war doctrine, which was the first "since Alexander the Great". The greatest military strategist! His achievements far surpass those of Emperor Napoleon!”

Hoffman knew that they were deeply afraid that he would drastically cut naval military spending after the war, so they had to find something to do. Fortunately, the drawings were drawings and the funds were funds. These were two different things.

As for the experiences and lessons the United States has learned from them, they are basically the same as those of the German army. Truman slammed the table at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting: "The United States must have powerful rockets and ultra-quiet submarines! Without these things, the survival of the United States cannot be guaranteed, and there is no such thing as existence." Influence and the status of a great country with great achievements!”

As for some of Patton's overly radical practices in this battle, such as deploying Roosevelt's cluster forward and El Salvador not retreating in time but counterattacking first, etc., they accelerated the collapse of the 5th Army. Most of them are to reduce their own losses and cause some trouble for the German army, but it is impossible to turn the situation around.

The final result was surprising even to the Germans themselves.

In the entire battle, from Sauken's participation in the Brazilian coup and landing in Rio de Janeiro to the final surrender of the Patton cluster, the Germans killed, wounded, and captured nearly 150,000 U.S. troops, including more than 130,000 from the U.S. Army (mainly the Fifth Army) and 7,000 from the U.S. Army Air Forces. There are more than 10,000 people in the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Army's 5 and 6 division-level units that were severely damaged or annihilated suffered moderate losses and lost part of their strength (including the 1st Dahong Division and the 1st Cavalry Division); all types of tanks, artillery, and vehicles were destroyed and captured. number.

The U.S. Navy lost more than 1.2 million tons of various types of ships (including warships and cargo ships). The cargo ships captured by the Germans in the port of El Salvador alone exceeded 200,000 tons. The most severe loss was the loss of more than 80% of the last batch of elite carrier-based aircraft pilots in the Navy. , so that the Atlantic Fleet will have to draw skilled pilots from other battlefields for some time to come. .

The U.S. Army Air Forces lost nearly 4,000 aircraft of various types before and after, of which more than 2,800 were lost in combat (including being shot down, severely damaged and unable to be used, crashed in accidents, etc.), and more than 1,100 were destroyed or captured on the ground or on cargo ships. Among them, Patton The valley where the unit last stayed is surrounded by nearly a thousand aircraft wrecks (regardless of Germany and the United States) and is known as "Sad Valley", "Aircraft Grave", and "Silver Valley" - when viewed from the air, the wreckage of aluminum components of the aircraft is It is named after it sparkles in the sun.

The direct economic losses of the entire battle were as high as nearly 20 billion US dollars. The warships and ships sunk by the Germans alone were worth a lot of money. Although the B-29 cost more than 600,000 yuan, it was not much, but it cost about tens of thousands to one hundred thousand US dollars. The losses of C-46\C-47\P-51\P-47 are countless. As for tanks and armored vehicles worth tens of thousands of dollars each, they are counted in thousands.

In order to win the battle, the German army also paid a heavy price: 2 regular aircraft carriers and 2 escort aircraft carriers of the Krank squadron were sunk, 1 fleet aircraft carrier was severely damaged, and a number of other auxiliary warships and submarines were also sunk. Although 3 battleships Not sunk, but scarred. The Army's cumulative losses in both front and back operations exceeded 10,000 (more than 4,000 were killed). The Air Force and Naval Aviation lost a total of more than 600 aircraft and nearly half of their crews.

Although the cost was high, overall the campaign was extremely successful:

First, the nascent American republic was expanded and defended. The American Republic was originally under the threat of Brazil. In this battle, it not only successfully consolidated, but also expanded its territory. The total area is nearly 900,000 square kilometers, which is almost equivalent to the area of ​​the Third Reich in Europe. However, the population is more than 4 million. few;

Second, it established the absolute prestige of the Third Reich in South America. Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has always been the hegemon in South America. Although the La Plata Group or other South American countries had ideas against the United States, no one dared to put it into practice. The Third Reich beat the United States with its violent style. The emperor cannot take care of himself. Now all South American countries know that Germany is not easy to mess with. They would rather mess with the United States than Germany.

Third, an extremely favorable strategic situation has been obtained. After the victory in the Battle of Brazil, Germany's sphere of influence in the South Atlantic expanded from the Falklands and Argentina to El Salvador. Borrowing the tiger skin of the German army and located in Rio, Montero's Brazilian government, which initially only had 2 states, not only expanded its sphere of influence to 6 eastern states, but also gained the loyalty of 2 central states. The other Brazilian government in Felipe is almost the same, and Montero controls a larger area. The sign of the National Socialist Republic of Brazil is vaguely about to be revealed.

Fourth, it dealt a heavy blow to the United States' will to fight. Before the start of the South American campaign, Truman was certain that he would never propose peace during his term. However, when the Brazilian campaign came to an end, he was shocked to find that Japan and Germany were advancing against each other and approaching the mainland step by step. If they did not negotiate for peace, they would be doomed. Now the internal thinking in the United States has become that a ceasefire with Europe is necessary. The differences lie in how to stop and at what cost.

"Patton is really dead?" After listening to the report submitted by Keitel, Hoffman asked this question first without paying too much attention to the progress of the war.

"It's really dead! He was beaten to death while sitting in a tank..." Although Keitel didn't understand why the head of state specifically asked about this matter, he knew that the head of state liked brave generals and said, "This is a brave general. Listen to the prisoners. He said that he repeatedly refused the retreating planes and insisted on staying and dying with the soldiers. When they heard that he was killed in battle, the prisoners cried. "

He immediately called Goebbels: "Doctor, I am very satisfied with the information you sent. The title of my speech is "Patton's Death and the Future of America". I am considering giving a speech to the United States on September 26 to let the "European To build momentum in advance, that day is also the day of the US presidential election debate?”

"Yes, you remember correctly, I will implement your request and go all out to build momentum."

Hoffman smiled slightly: "That is the day. I will tell the American people the truth about war and peace. They can no longer be played by politicians and applauded."