Chapter 438 Fleet Commander (Part 1)

In principle, there is no doubt that the commander of the entire fleet must be Admiral Ingersoll, commander of the Atlantic Fleet. But it is a bit difficult to choose the most critical aircraft carrier fleet commander now. Turner himself is fascinated by this position. When Admiral Jin said it just now, he showed an eager expression, but he is not qualified enough - he is only a rear admiral now, and the commander of the mobile fleet commanding up to 5 aircraft carriers is at least a lieutenant general. Moreover, Jin The general has always positioned Turner as the formulation and soul of the overall combat plan. He is not suitable to rush to the front line and serve as the leader.

When Admiral King said this, he actually had one candidate in mind, and that was Vice Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr., who had recently fought conscientiously in the Pacific battlefield, but Halsey was now the Pacific Fleet Commander, he had not communicated with Pacific Fleet Commander Nimitz in advance, so naturally he could not say it rashly, so after he finished speaking, he gave Nimitz a meaningful look. The meaning was very obvious - he hoped that the other party would recommend him enthusiastically. , so that he can immediately nod and let go.

Nimitz understood Admiral King's hint, and he did speak as the former expected, but what he said caught Admiral King off guard: "I have a person to recommend, he is Frank Jack Frye Vice Admiral Che."

Hearing the answer that was not a standard script, Admiral Jin was stunned for a moment and subconsciously asked, "Why don't you recommend Halsey?"

"First, Halsey had just completed command of the Aleutian Campaign and was on his way back to Australia, so it was too late to rush to the east coast; second, he was still inseparable from the Pacific battlefield, where there was also an aircraft carrier fleet that needed to be commanded; third, F. Lieutenant General Letcher has recovered from his injuries. He himself has served as the commander of the aircraft carrier fleet in the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. He is relatively familiar with the Japanese fleet and tactics, and he has made no mistakes in his command..."

Roosevelt's eyes lit up. He was very familiar with Halsey and had a very good relationship with them: when Halsey was still the captain of the destroyer, he was ordered to take over the newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt. The young assistant secretary hoped to have a good relationship with him. Although the waters were very narrow, Halsey agreed to let Roosevelt indulge in the destroyer addiction - an incident that was still fresh in Roosevelt's mind many years later. This fierce general impressed him very well and deeply, but now was the Battle of the Atlantic, which was of great stakes, and he did not dare to hand over his remaining strength to an overly brave general. Although there are still more than a dozen aircraft carriers lying on the docks of the United States, even if all the aircraft carriers in hand are sunk, the U.S. Navy will be able to regroup and fight again in less than half a year. However, the successive losses have stung Roosevelt's heart. Don’t want to risk it again – Fletcher is at least more stable than Halsey.

"But he's unlucky." Admiral Jin blurted out the words. He personally had nothing to do with Fletcher, but the prejudices accumulated over a long period of time were indeed not easy to eliminate, not to mention that the Navy was a very superstitious place.

"His luck was bad before, but after playing several times in succession, I found that his luck was not bad." After Nimitz reminded him, Admiral Kim finally realized: Halsey was beaten by Horikichi in the South Pacific Naval Battle. They lost all their battleships. Spruance was defeated by the Germans in the recent North Atlantic Battle and lost all their battleships. If we have to say that they only lost one aircraft carrier each in the Coral Sea and Midway battles, Letcher is unlucky and does have a bit of a double standard.

Roosevelt turned his attention to his most trusted confidant, Le Hai, who nodded knowingly: "I think he can give it a try." Ingersoll also approved of the candidate.

When the president turned his attention to Admiral Kim, of course he could only nod - most of the senior officials expressed their support for Fletcher. He could not continue to be a villain, and he did not want to simply evaluate a vice admiral based on his personal likes and dislikes. , so the appointment was confirmed on the spot.

Turner frowned and asked another question: "Originally, the operation was scheduled to be carried out later this month. All five of our aircraft carriers were put into use, but now the Japanese suddenly came over, and the two aircraft carriers, the Yorktown and Belleau Wood, were The sea trial has not been completed yet, what should I do? "

The two warships were manned by experienced officers and soldiers, and they were all brought back by Spruance using destroyers at the expense of abandoning the damaged ship and running away quickly. If anyone has never seen what a can of sardines looks like before, that day Si The destroyers brought back by Pruance were a vivid portrayal - thousands of surviving naval officers and soldiers were packed tightly into the eight destroyers. Not to mention beds, there was not even a place to lie down! The vast majority of officers and soldiers, including Spruance, gritted their teeth and stood back all the way! In the past, the U.S. military mocked Japan for using destroyers to transport personnel and supplies to Guadalcanal, calling it the "Tokyo Express." Now it was their turn. Being able to laugh at themselves, they quickly adopted the resounding name of the "Sardine Express."

Because of this move, when they returned to China to pursue their responsibilities, Lehi, Admiral King, Ingersoll, and the British were all busy putting in good words for Spruance and helping him pass the special inquiry meetings of the House of Representatives and the Senate—— The reason is simple. It's okay if the warship is lost. The United States has plenty of ships on the dock, but it would be really troublesome if the well-trained officers and soldiers are lost.

"Perhaps we need to take risks... Although we still need to listen to General Fletcher's opinion, I suggest that it is best to bring all five ships." Admiral Jin explained, "The Japanese just left the Strait of Gibraltar last night. If they really want to Come and attack us. According to the time calculation, it will take at least 5-7 days to arrive. We still have 3 days to strengthen the sea trials. I believe that these good guys can complete the subjects and go out to fight. I am also very confident in the new warships. ”

In extraordinary times, naturally everything cannot go as orderly as in peacetime.

Everyone nodded: Five aircraft carriers and three aircraft carriers give people a different feeling. Although the United States defeated the main force of the Japanese army and destroyed four enemy aircraft carriers with three aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway, that battle accounted for the code-breaking effort. Cheap - After the super secret was destroyed, Britain and the United States reluctantly rebuilt their code-breaking agencies, but now they are completely blind to the Axis code and know nothing about it.

Since it was a fleet operation, Turner also proposed not to bring escort aircraft carriers with slow speed and low defense capabilities so that the rookie pilots could concentrate on training - this suggestion was also approved.

"The last question..." Admiral Jin's face became serious, "Do we need to issue notices or notices to the people to remind them of the Japanese fleet's attack?"

Everyone turned their attention to Roosevelt. This issue was too important and must be decided by the president himself. Roosevelt thought for three minutes, and finally said slowly: "Let's not talk about the Japanese fleet. This will cause unnecessary panic among the people. We should first improve the defense level, strengthen the patrols of the National Guard and other aspects of combat readiness. An announcement will be issued after it is confirmed that the Japanese fleet is heading towards the mainland.”

"yes!"

Early the next morning, Fletcher flew directly from Seattle to Washington. He was very excited to be reactivated. After the emergency telegram called him last night, he almost stayed up all night, with all the events of the previous battles swirling in his mind. , although the telegram was vague, he knew that this operation and responsibility would exceed all previous battles.

Early in the morning, he first went to the White House to meet with the president, and then went non-stop to the Navy Department to meet with the admirals. Although Admiral King didn't like him very much before, he still voted for his appointment this time. Fletcher could He is not a fool like Halsey, so he naturally wants to express his gratitude. Judging from the harmonious atmosphere when the two parties met, it seems unimaginable that the two of them were strangers just a few months ago.

After the courtesy visit, the high command composed of Ingersoll, Fletcher and Turner began to operate at full capacity. It took only three minutes for them to agree that the battleship Iowa would serve as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. Ingersoll took command; Lexington served as the flagship of the aircraft carrier formation, and Fletcher took command from above.

"How do you plan to fight?"

Fletcher did not rush to answer Ingersoll's question, but asked: "Do you think the Japanese or Germans dare to land?"

"I don't believe they are crazy to do this! Let alone whether they can successfully land, even if they are lucky enough to find a beach and successfully land, their warships and infantry will soon be torn to pieces by our shore-based defense forces. …”

However, Ingersoll was somewhat lacking in confidence when he said this, because the Army Aviation currently guards the east coast and has only about 2,000 aircraft that can be directly put into combat. The Navy also has some naval aviation units in several major ports and naval bases. There are probably close to a thousand planes. It sounds like a lot, but the coastline of more than 2,000 nautical miles is still full of loopholes. Except for large cities such as New York and Washington that have sufficient anti-aircraft guns and other air defense measures, the air defense forces in other areas are quite small. Because the United States never expected that it would encounter a large-scale air attack, its homeland defense work was relatively poor, and it has not even implemented a light blackout so far - this is in sharp contrast to the United Kingdom!

"Passive defense is useless..." Fletcher shook his head, "The five Japanese aircraft carriers have about 300 aircraft that can be used for attack. According to the proportion, there will be about 120 fighter jets and 180 attack aircraft that can carry bombs. , the fleet commander usually leaves 40 aircraft to cover the aircraft carrier battle group, so that the Japanese devils can invest 260 aircraft in the attack. If they attack strong strongholds such as New York, Washington, and Norfolk, they will be dead, but if they What about playing places like Miami, Florida, Savannah?”

Fletcher talked about a city, and Ingersoll kept breaking out in cold sweat and sweat on his forehead. Those places could not stop the raid of 260 planes...