Chapter 437 A+ Plan (for the Leader Woxuejiafe

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On April 6, Roosevelt received two pieces of bad news in the Oval Office:

The first one was from Churchill, reporting to him the fall of the Gibraltar Fortress. Although the telegram stated that he would not be intimidated by this failure and would resolutely fight the Nazis to the end, Roosevelt had seen that the British were not confident enough;

The second one was from a spy lurking in Portugal, reporting that the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar and its current whereabouts were unknown.

Although he was skeptical about the second piece of news, Roosevelt quickly summoned a group of high-ranking naval officers to discuss countermeasures. According to the original schedule, Plan A, which was developed by General Turner and used to capture the Azores, was upgraded to Plan A+ and was to be implemented on April 7-8. However, due to the near-complete destruction of the aircraft carrier formation led by Spruance, there was insufficient manpower to implement the plan, and the Atlantic Fleet was forced to postpone it for ten days to wait for three British battleships (two King George V battleships and HMS Glorious) to return from the Far East to join and strengthen the fleet.

As a result, when the British fleet was about to arrive in the United States, the carrier-based aircraft pilots had problems switching to F6F. Due to the great loss of experienced carrier-based aircraft pilots, the few veterans were called up as seed instructors. Now more than 90% of the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft pilots are rookies. These new pilots have solid skills, but they have been trained with F4Fs. It is difficult to adapt to F6Fs in a short period of time.

Turner and Admiral King both had high hopes for the F6F, believing that the new aircraft could narrow the performance gap with enemy aircraft. As a result, the overall schedule was forced to be postponed for another 10 days. At the same time, the fleet air force formation was thoroughly adjusted. Pilots who were proficient in F6F fighters were transferred to the fleet carrier air force, while pilots who were only proficient in F4F fighters were arranged in the escort carrier air force. After some trouble, it was finally agreed to postpone the implementation date of the A+ plan to late April.

Of course, delaying the implementation of the plan is not without merit. At least the strength of the Atlantic Fleet has been further strengthened: Admiral King held on to the Yorktown (Essex class) and Belleau Wood (Independence class) aircraft carriers originally promised to the UK, and turned around to give the Bunker Hill (Essex class) and Cowpens (Independence class) aircraft carriers to the British. This does not mean that the Yorktown and Belleau Wood are stronger than the Bunker Hill and Cowpens. These two classes of warships are almost identical. The difference lies in the delivery time - Belleau Wood was commissioned in late March, and the Yorktown was commissioned in early April. Now they are undergoing crazy training and sea trials, and they can catch up with the battle later this month. The Bunker Hill was not commissioned until early May, and the Cowpens will not be completed until mid-May - Admiral King turned the spot goods given to the British into futures, and the Royal Navy's only remaining capital ship had to accept the command of the US Navy to participate in the A+ plan.

Admiral King made a very careful calculation. In this way, he has 5 regular aircraft carriers in the A+ plan: 2 Essex-class ships, namely Lexington and Yorktown; 2 Independence-class ships, namely Princeton and Belleau Wood, and 1 Illustrious-class ship, Illustrious. In addition, 2 newly completed and sea-trialed escort aircraft carriers can also be put into use, so the force prepared for the A+ plan is as high as 12 escort aircraft carriers, with an unprecedentedly strong force scale, and other forces such as the Marine Corps supporting the plan can also be more fully prepared.

However, the Japanese Combined Fleet's move to the Atlantic Ocean puzzled the US top brass, because they had just received intelligence a few days ago that a large number of transport ships and merchant ships gathered in the direction of Italy, seemingly loaded with supplies for Japan. They thought that the Japanese fleet would return home soon, but they did not expect such a move.

Admiral Ingersoll, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, was furious: "What are the Japanese doing? Are they the Imperial Navy or German mercenaries? They didn't care about losing so many islands in the Far East, and they just kept hanging around in front of us..."

These words made Admiral King, Nimitz and others speechless. They thought that the capture of the Aleutian Islands would have some impact on Japan, but they didn't expect that the Combined Fleet would not be moved at all - they couldn't figure out how to lead the Japanese back. Did they really have to attack the Japanese mainland?

Admiral King frowned and his face was ashen: he was originally confident in the A+ plan, but after the Combined Fleet broke into the Atlantic, things were not so easy and happy, because the A+ plan was based on the fact that Germany and Italy had no aircraft carriers available. Now there is such a big variable, and troubles are coming one after another.

Turner was not qualified to attend this kind of meeting, but because he was the core planner of the plan, Admiral King still called him. After a moment of silence, he said: "The Japanese fleet has 5 aircraft carriers, which greatly changed the balance of power and the environment for the implementation of the campaign. The overall plan will be forced to be postponed again."

Roosevelt's heart suddenly sank. As an assistant secretary of the Navy, he could easily calculate the balance of power: in terms of battleships, the Allied force vs. the Axis was 5:11; in terms of aircraft carriers, the Allied force vs. the Axis was 5:5. The advantage in troops that the admiral had managed to maneuver through was suddenly offset. The only good news is that they have received accurate intelligence: German and Italian warships in the Mediterranean have all gone to the Black Sea to cover the landfall of the army, including Italy's three cutting-edge Veneto battleships. Otherwise, the balance of power in the Atlantic would be even more unbalanced. But one thing they didn't know was that when they received the intelligence, the Axis fleet covering the landing had completed its mission and returned.

"Crow's intelligence shows that although the German defense situation on the island is not completely clear, he estimates that the German army has at least 300 or more aircraft..." Americans don't know who Crow is, and there are no more people in the UK who know who Crow is. 5 people, this is completely top secret, they only know that the information provided by this person is completely reliable.

This statement was also confirmed by the Lancaster bombers conducting air raids during the day: they discovered 3 large airports and 1 medium-sized airport in the Azores, not to mention 300, which can accommodate 500 aircraft. Portugal, Spain, France and other Atlantic coast countries have a steady stream of transport ships transporting things to the island every day. The Germans are constructing on the island like crazy. Radar stations have been established and armored forts have been completed one after another. Although the Lancaster fleet came to visit day after day, they either did not hit the vital points at all, or they were often just blown up today and repaired tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. It made people speechless, and for such a very inconspicuous change , in more than a month, Britain has lost hundreds of Lancaster heavy bombers and related crews, and the losses are greater than strategic air strikes.

The British were depressed, and the Germans also suffered from internal injuries. This is why Paulus was upset when he occupied so many engineering personnel to conquer the Gibraltar Fortress - if these personnel were not occupied in the attack on Gibraltar, the island construction and restoration projects would The time is even faster. It was also because of this factor that Hoffman decided to stop work on the Atlantic Fortress. Before that, the projects related to the Atlantic Fortress could no longer be carried out - all personnel, materials, labor and engineering equipment were given priority to ensure the construction of the island.

If the Americans knew that the German Navy had shipped out 11 356mm twin turrets the day after the combined fleet left port, they would probably be scared to death - all of these were taken from the Ise and Hyuga The dismantled naval gun turrets, but not all of these 11 turrets were given to the Azores. The Azores were only allocated 6 of them, the Canary Islands were allocated 3, Madeira was allocated 1, and Verde was allocated 11 turrets. The corner was divided into 1 seat. However, the German army's subsequent supply of turrets is almost endless-the 330mm main turret on the Dunkirk needs to be dismantled, and the turret on the Jean-Bart also needs to be dismantled. These are all potential turret suppliers.

Facing the 300 carrier-based aircraft that suddenly appeared from the Japanese fleet, Admiral Jin felt a headache, but he still maintained a rare calmness and said: "Now it is not just a problem with the A+ plan, we should quickly determine that the Japanese fleet has entered the Atlantic Ocean What’s their purpose? Are they defending the Azores, breaking ties, or attacking us?”

"Attack?" Roosevelt exclaimed, "Do they dare to land in the United States?"

"It doesn't have to be a landing. They can put a few artillery shells on the East Coast or drop a few bombs from planes to make us miserable - just like what the Doolittle Air Force did."

As soon as he heard Doolittle's name, Roosevelt stopped talking. These B-25s bombed Tokyo and aroused a strong backlash in Japan. Then came the Battle of Midway. Now if the Japanese follow the same pattern, what will be the consequences? It’s unimaginable... and Roosevelt knew well that the American people had enjoyed freedom for a long time and were not as docile and trusting of the government as the Japanese people were. If Japanese artillery shells or bombs really fell into the crowd, the White House would be overwhelmed by the crowd of protestors.

"Can we stop them? For example, fight a decisive naval battle and take advantage of our aircraft carriers' larger air capacity." The Americans made a mistake in the details. They thought Japan had brought out all five aircraft carriers. , in fact, the Combined Fleet only has 3 aircraft carriers dispatched. The fourth is the Skyhawk aircraft carrier that has just completed service and is controlled by the German Navy. The Zeppelin aircraft carrier has returned to the Italian shipyard for repairs, so the Axis Navy has only 4 aircraft carriers in total. However, the overall number of carrier-based aircraft remains basically unchanged.

"We can give it a try. The question is, who will command the aircraft carrier formation?"

As soon as Admiral King said these words, Roosevelt was suddenly stuck - Spruance was criticized by all parties for suffering too many losses in the last battle, and could not come back in the short term. Except for the Pacific Fleet, the U.S. Navy suddenly had no one to rely on. A perfect aircraft carrier commander.