Chapter 184 Effective Deterrence (Part 2)

Roosevelt received the information with confusion on his face, and frowned after reading it. There were mainly two pieces of information:

First, French insiders in North Africa reported that Germany, in accordance with the agreement with the Vichy government, sent 2 armored divisions, 2 infantry divisions, 1 parachute division and 3 aviation wings into the French-controlled areas in North Africa. Three days ago they It penetrated secretly without the French noticing it. By the time the French discovered the German troops, the Germans had basically deployed them in place. Due to domestic pressure from France, General Darlan, the supreme commander of the North African military, could only let them go. It is expected that this evening (November) 6th) the Germans will all be deployed, and there will be an armored division in the direction of Casablanca.

Second, the task force escorting the landing of the "Torch Project" army troops reported being ambushed by a German submarine at night - not an ordinary encounter, but a completely carefully planned and prepared wolf pack ambush. On the night of November 5, the two navies were sunk by submarines, including 1 escort carrier, 27 transport ships, 4 destroyers and 1 cruiser. There were 2 regiments of American soldiers on the 27 transport ships, ready for landing. Supplies and equipment, and more importantly, tanks for the British (a total of 200 were prepared, but 97 were sunk). More than 3,000 army soldiers and a large amount of supplies died before they saw the shadow of the African continent.

Now the United States has completely fallen into an aircraft carrier crisis. There are no intact regular fleet aircraft carriers (the Saratoga has not yet completed repairs). There are only 30 escort aircraft carriers with a serial capacity of only 30, and only 3 escort aircraft carriers are left for escorting the Atlantic route. strip. There is also a conjecture at the end of the situation report sent by the escort fleet: German submarines ambushed our fleet so accurately and efficiently. Is there a problem that our information was leaked, the password was leaked, or was deciphered?

This last point made Roosevelt very sensitive, because not long after the super secret was destroyed, Project Torch suffered another targeted ambush. Is there really nothing fishy about the two such precise sabotage operations by the Germans?

Before the three of them had fully digested this news, the adjutant hurriedly sent in new information. After reading it, Hopkins felt his whole body trembling.

The information was sent by Vandegrift, commander of the 1st Marine Division of the Guadalcanal garrison. He described the terrible experience of Guadalcanal: after the combined fleet was bombarded by more than 200 naval guns with a caliber of 203mm or above and more than 30,000 rounds of artillery shells. Under the attack, the Guadalcanal garrison, with a total number of nearly 20,000 people, suffered more than 8,000 deaths, more than 5,000 injuries, and more than 1,000 missing people (except for a small number of people who were rescued, the rest all died). It was one of the few battles in which the death toll was high. Due to the number of injured, because the army's medical force was unable to carry out rescue operations during the long-term shelling late at night on the 4th, and then the Japanese shells also triggered bush fires, many of the lightly and seriously wounded who could have been saved were either forced to bleed out and then died. Drag to death, or be burned to death by fire after being injured and unable to move.

In this battle, the 1st Marine Division was almost completely destroyed. The whole small area of ​​Guadalcanal was covered with corpses, severed limbs and arms, and scrapped military equipment. There were not even enough body bags. It was completely worse than hell. It was so scary that Vandergrift almost went crazy when he saw the scene when he crawled out of the strong bunker.

Afterwards, after statistical screening by the medical and rescue team who landed on Guadalcanal, it was found that among the more than 10,000 people who survived by chance (most of the injured survived), many people suffered from severe mental disorders and even heard the word Guadalcanal. They were trembling, and the suicide rate remained high. The Guadalcanal bombardment was so famous that it still shocked many years later. A famous talk show host once mentioned hell in a live TV program, and a group of viewers described the hell they could imagine. However, only one veteran said: "I have seen it and experienced it."

Everyone was aroused by this sentence, but no one could laugh at what the veteran said next: "I think hell is on Guadalcanal on the night of November 4, 1942. I was there at that time. Serving in the 1st Marine Division..."

Roosevelt knew something was wrong when he saw Hopkins' face twitching and his hands trembling. He also shed tears after reading the exact battle report. Admiral King fell into a long silence after reading it. I don't know how long it took, but Roosevelt sighed: "The situation now is very troublesome and difficult. Perhaps we should hold a special seminar on war issues, and the time will be in the afternoon."

Just as the U.S. military was feeling sad and licking its wounds, the main force of the Japanese combined fleet artillery fleet had turned to Rabaul as a whole, preparing to continue moving forward with the mobile fleet that had been waiting there. Everyone in the Yamato Commander's Tower was beaming with joy, and congratulated Commander Horikichi for leading the combined fleet to a complete victory, which cleared away the haze of the failure of the Battle of Midway.

Horikichi smiled bitterly and said: "If this kind of loss were to be suffered by Japan, it would be a real injury, but if it were suffered by Americans, it would only be a drizzle. It is estimated that they will fight back in 3-4 months..."

Everyone was stunned and couldn't believe what he said. However, the superior had confirmed his foresight on a series of previous occasions, so everyone couldn't say no.

If Hoffman were here, he would sincerely appreciate Horikichi's intuition: in the U.S. Navy's own timetable, December 31 is the day when the Essex, the first ship of the Essex class, enters service; half a month later , the first Independence-class light aircraft carrier, the USS Independence, which was rebuilt from the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruiser, will enter service. In late February 1943, the second Essex-class ship USS Lexington (formerly known as the USS Capote, to commemorate The USS Lexington (renamed after the USS Lexington was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea) and the Independence-class light aircraft carrier No. 2 Princeton will be commissioned, and then almost every month in 1943, an Essex-class or Independence-class aircraft carrier will be completed and built. service.

"Sir, what should we do next?" Everyone is very enthusiastic about the Indian Ocean strategy, and they also have inappropriate illusions about the situation in Southeast Asia.

Horikichi was silent for a moment and then said: "First lead the main fleet to Singapore for supplies, and then abandon all islands east of Bougainville and south of Lae as planned..."

"We still have to give up." A group of staff muttered, with expressions of reluctance. "We thought we could use this to advance the Australian and New Zealand operations."

"What can I do if I don't give up?" Horikichi said with a wry smile, "I've exhausted all the planes on the island. I'm afraid the next days of defense will be difficult."

Everyone fell silent when they heard the word "aircraft". The aviation force played a huge value and role in the battle this time. If it weren't for the constant flow of fighter jets covering the bombardment fleet, the losses of the fleet this time would not be so small, or even Yamato could be sunk. After this battle, not only the aviation faction strengthened their determination to reuse aircraft and use aviation power to seize air supremacy as a guarantee for naval warfare, but even the fleet faction such as Kondo Nobutake believed that it was simply unthinkable to have no aviation cover in future operations.

"As for the battle between Australia and New Zealand?" Horikichi smiled bitterly, "I think so too, but we are not strong enough. How many carrier-based aircraft does the combined fleet have? More than 200, right? Not to mention the Australian mainland, it is New Guinea and Vanua Levu. There will be no less than 400 American planes on the islands such as Figures and New Zealand. Without the navy, they will not attack for the time being, but they are more than enough to defend. They can't just hit them head-on, right? Then look at the airport on Guadalcanal. In 10 days, Americans can take advantage again..."

Everyone in the commander's tower could only nod helplessly and put away the unrealistic fantasy of seizing Australia. According to Horikichi's order, the mobile fleet and the artillery fleet retreated together and turned to the direction of Singapore to prepare for the Indian Ocean attack. The fleet would be readjusted and supplemented there, study and draft specific combat plans, and set off again after completing all preparations.

What they didn't know was that the biggest benefit of this battle to Japan was that it preserved the veteran pilot team that had been tested in the battles of Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, and Midway, and at the same time gave a group of junior pilots a chance to fight, because during the attack 80% of the carrier-based aircraft pilots who died had never participated in the Midway battle, but 70% of those who achieved the results were experienced veteran pilots. The value of pilots' combat experience far exceeds the importance of quantity. In contrast, although the U.S. warships are replenished quickly, after the TF16\17 carrier-based aircraft pilots are almost exhausted, there are less than 60 pilots in the United States who have participated in more than one aircraft carrier operation, and only more than 30 pilots who have participated in more than two times. Although there are many reserve pilots, there are very few experienced pilots. This will have a lasting adverse impact on subsequent operations - they cannot see this yet.

Of course, the Japanese mobile fleet is not much better, with a total of only four aircraft carriers, two large, two small, and two (a few more are useless, because almost all qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots are on them), facing a situation of weak successors. In sharp contrast to the United States' production of aircraft carriers, the Combined Fleet has fallen into a situation where no new aircraft carriers are available - according to Japan's own timetable, no new regular aircraft carriers have entered service within a year, let alone 3 months. Within a month, only one light aircraft carrier, the Dragon Phoenix (basically the same class as Ruifeng) with a carrying capacity of 31 aircraft, could be put into use. The combat strength of the mobile fleet was inevitably reduced.

Although there was an urgent need for aircraft carriers, Tsukahara 243 was even more in need of pilots. After repeated deliberation, he rejected the proposal to convert the three merchant ships, Taitaka, Cloud Eagle, and Okitaka, into aircraft carriers for accompanying operations. He requested that they be used entirely for training pilots. And issued a death order, requiring three months to select at least 300 people from the reserve pilot team. The Naval Aviation Headquarters has decided to increase the pilot training budget and is ambitiously preparing to expand the number of pilots eightfold in one year. Both the Navy Ministry and the Military Command expressed support for this.