Chapter 1085 1944: Speed and Lightning (35, 3600 Votes Plus Additional Content)
Seeing Turner grandly return to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even giving advice on key occasions, not to mention the depression of the Army, especially the Army Aviation senior management - Turner proposed the strategy of "replacing the crew with oil tankers" to make the Army Aviation more energetic. The injury can't be relieved now.
But the Army Aviation cannot blame Turner. The intention of bringing Turner back is very clear - the Navy wants to protect the Pacific Fleet, or at least the backbone of the Pacific Fleet. This was not only President Truman's determination, but also Dewey's request. Even if Turner and Dewey turned their backs and expressed their dissatisfaction with Dewey in public and private situations, at least in today's small-scale public meeting, Dewey was still very He shook Turner's hand graciously and greeted him cordially on his retirement. As a politician, he must be good at concealing his true feelings. Dewey's courtesy to Turner was not for Turner himself, but for the navy behind Turner.
Many people, including Nimitz, criticized Turner's linear thinking. Even Spruance, who had a very close personal relationship with him, also recognized this evaluation, but this did not prevent them from treating Turner as one of their own. Turner indeed did it. In his dictionary of life philosophy, "The interests of the Navy come first!" Only by reading this sentence can we truly understand Turner.
One good thing about people who think linearly is that they know how to get into the most difficult situations, and they can definitely come up with tricks as long as they are given a certain direction. As for whether there will be any other side effects from recruiting good people to bad ones, these are secondary categories that are not even considered.
Turner clearly opposed the idea of dispersing and escaping or fast troops escaping first. He also opposed Halsey's idea of "fighting the Japanese troops on the southern or northern fronts to the death" - this was the mainstream researched by the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in emergency situations. point of view.
He first asked a question, which was very simple and thought-provoking - is face more important or the fleet? Is it more important politically or militarily?
As the only mobile force on the west coast, the Pacific Fleet is not a rival to the Japanese army in the short term, but if it still exists, it can play a role in containing and delaying time. If Halsey's idea of "die with a bang" is followed, it can certainly defeat 2 -Three or more Japanese aircraft carriers, but they cannot change the situation where the Japanese army is alone in the Pacific. After the Pacific Fleet is completely destroyed, it will soon be Hawaii's turn.
Turner asked Clark: "Assuming that Hawaii does not have army aviation or naval support, how many months do you think it can hold on based on the current 100,000 defenders and related supplies on the island?"
Clark couldn't tell, not to mention that he couldn't tell, and MacArthur couldn't tell either. For the Hawaii defenders with "no reinforcements from outside and no fuel inside", once they faced the Japanese encirclement and landing campaign, their morale would decline very quickly. Maybe It can hold up for 3 months, but maybe it can't hold up for 1 month - in short, no one in the Army dares to guarantee it.
Turner further analyzed the current situation: Not to mention that the Navy will not be able to project power to the West Coast for a long time in the future (6-8 months). Even if it can be deployed, the available resources will not be too many - the Naval Shipbuilding Committee has just confirmed , by June 1945, in addition to the three Essex-class ships completed by the end of this year, an additional 10 ships can be completed.
It sounds like a lot, but the distribution of these 10 ships is very uneven: only 4 ships were completed in the first 3 months, and 2 ships in each of the next 3 months - from April 1945 onwards, the Essex class will continue to be stable. On the basis of delivering 2 ships per month. Unfortunately, this time point is of little significance to the United States, or it is too slow: warships delivered in June will not be put into operation until at least August, and the situation on the West Coast is now so critical that it cannot be postponed until then.
So after Turner asked the question, Nimitz quickly expressed his position on behalf of the Navy: fleet first, face second; military first, politics second. They even said that as long as Halsey and the main force of the fleet could be saved, Nimitz would be fine if he bowed to Horikichi and begged for mercy. Even the top leaders of the Navy said this, and of course Truman and other senior officials could only agree.
This is also the reason why Nimitz instructed Spruance to bring Turner back, and it is said that he also received advice from Admiral King. Simply asking for some plans and plans, Turner could have told the two of them privately. Now that Turner is given the nondescript title of "Deputy Director of the Office of the Retired Admiral's Naval Affairs Advisor", it is obviously to ask him to say what the navy is thinking. But what cannot be said in words - everyone understands the truth.
In this way, Turner is actually being used as a gunman, but he is willing - without the towering tree of the Navy, Turner is nothing, let alone giving advice, he might go to jail in two days. Nimitz and MacArthur also deliberately found a large space in the Pentagon to set up an "advisory office" - in addition to naval affairs, there may be army affairs in the future, who knows?
Turner's view is different from others. He believes that the most dangerous time for TF50 is not in the next few hours, but in the early morning of the 31st. As for the present, as long as the fleet retreats as a group and uses escort aircraft carriers to protect the core warships, it will be no problem to spend the next few hours safely.
He judged as follows:
First, Halsey has 230 fighter jets, which can inflict heavy damage to invading enemies. Turner believes that the Japanese army has long had the opportunity to attack the TF50, but it is simply unwilling to do so because of concerns about heavy losses. As long as the escort aircraft carriers provide a protective umbrella for the Essex class at sea and in the air, and at the same time collectively retreat at a speed of 18 knots, they can survive safely until The sun setting is not a big problem.
As for the first reason, many people have also thought of it. Some staff members proposed that two Essex-class ships, two South Dakota-class ships and eight cruisers should retreat first, and the escort aircraft carriers should take off fighter jets to defend them all the way. However, Turner believed that the escort carriers would be At critical moments, it can also serve as a meat pad for warships to block mines - now the Essex-class is not very afraid of Japanese bombs, but Japanese torpedoes are deadly. As long as one hits one, there may be no risk of sinking, and it must slow down. Now the situation is different. Slow down and that's it.
Second, after sunrise tomorrow, the risk to the Halsey fleet will be reduced to a low level.
The second judgment is extended from the first judgment: Since the Japanese army did not fight in the early stage because of concerns about the damage caused by the US escort fighter jets, as long as they maintained sufficient fighter jets and speed, the Japanese army would still worry about their own losses and be quite restrained.
He drew a schematic diagram on the chart: The current fleet time is 10:30 a.m. on the 30th, and there are about 20 hours until sunrise the next day. It is about 1,800 kilometers away from the west coast. If it operates at a speed of 18 knots, it can advance in 20 hours. At least 650 kilometers, which means it is only 1,150 kilometers from the west coast. The Army Aviation and Hainan Airlines have many P-51\P-47\F4U fighter jets on the west coast. After mounting auxiliary fuel tanks, they can provide a long range of about 2,500 kilometers, allowing them to fly from the west coast. Set off, always hovering over the fleet, and use remaining fuel to escort the fleet.
The Army Aviation instinctively expressed disgust at this view, and Spartz asked back: "Army pilots don't know how to take off and land warships at all. At such a long distance, they can fly to the top of a warship for only a few minutes and then have to return. They cannot escort for a long time."
"I never said let them return!"
"You!" Spaatz glared.
"Not returning does not mean that they are committing suicide. The aircraft will continue to cover the fleet until they run out of fuel and parachute or make an emergency landing on the sea, and then let the destroyers rescue them... I have learned that these aircraft can basically maintain 2 hours of escort time in this situation. "The closer the fleet is to the west coast, the longer the escort aircraft can stay." Turner said with a wry smile, "This is what Horikichi did in the South Pacific naval battle, and we will learn from it now."
Everyone nodded, and the atmosphere relaxed. Although the pilot would inevitably suffer some losses, at least there was a rescue channel, which was much better than simply dying. The Army Aviation generals looked at each other, pinched their noses and agreed, indicating that 350 aircraft - not that the Army Aviation was stingy, but that there were not many skilled pilots who could maintain proficiency in combat after flying 1,150 kilometers, so Nimitz racked his brains. 400 Hainan Airlines aircraft, and said that the first batch from dawn will be flown by Hainan Airlines first, and then China Airlines will be flown in after Hainan Airlines has used up - at that time, it will not be a flight of 1,150 kilometers, but maybe a flight of 950 or even 850 kilometers.
Lu Hang was completely speechless and agreed bravely.
Applying Turner's calculations, although 750 aircraft is not very safe, it is basically enough.
"The biggest risk now is from sunset today to sunrise tomorrow. I infer that the enemy will send out elite night attack teams, and we don't have very good defense means. Night air defense is simply a difficulty. The west coast cannot be defended, and the same is true for the fleet. I can’t help but..."
Everyone nodded sternly, which is why everyone unanimously wants to save the naval fleet: without the naval fleet, the west coast will be harassed every day. At that time, both politics and military will be extremely passive, and the Army Aviation responsible for homeland defense will die. Multiple people.
"According to my understanding, the biggest difficulty in a night attack is to discover the fleet. As long as the fleet is discovered, it is not difficult for Japan to launch an attack, so..." Turner raised his head and raised his voice to emphasize, "The night formation must be dispersed. At the same time, we need to deploy suspicious troops. My idea is to use 12 escort carriers to simulate the main fleet to attract the Japanese firepower for us. The main fleet will take the opportunity to escape separately, and then find a way to gather into small clusters at dawn tomorrow. Each ship can disperse and escape at night. Play as fast as you can.”
Everyone thinks it makes sense: dispersing and escaping at night will greatly increase the difficulty of Japanese search and attack. The escort aircraft carrier group that is still united will become a relatively eye-catching target. The Japanese commander will definitely eat the escort aircraft carriers that are easy to attack first and then look for trouble on other warships. In this way The chance of escape would be greater - after all, it was impossible for Japanese aircraft to cast nets all over the sky to search after flying hundreds of kilometers, and they were also limited by fuel.
Another advantage of accelerating escape at night is that you can be closer to the west coast at dawn. At that time, it may not be 1150 kilometers but 1050 or even 1000 kilometers...