Chapter 727 Atlantic Strangulation War (36)

Of course, Marshall had a high opinion of himself or the Canadians, thinking that they were all Japanese troops living on Tarawa or German troops in Cape Verde. Even with Lieutenant General Bei's fierce firepower, there were no permanent underground or semi-underground fortifications. They couldn't stop them, let alone the Allies, and the Germans themselves couldn't stop them. Otherwise, why would the Germans on Sal Island put the Americans on the beach to fight?

After losing his temper, he had no choice but to turn to Eisenhower angrily: "Ask Matthew to take the 101st Airborne Division to Maine, and be ready to support Newfoundland before the evening of December 1st..." "

Everyone mourned in their hearts, this was not a good thing.

The sky was gradually getting brighter, and the first German attack wave had returned. Although it had achieved the goal of completely destroying Corner Brook Airport, the loss of more than 10 aircraft made the fleet's top brass frown. Including the first air raid, the fleet's total losses More than 30 aircraft were lost. Although the spare aircraft in the inventory can make up for this loss, the pilots cannot make up for it. No matter what, the battle had to continue. Ozawa sent more than 40 fighter jets to the artillery fleet to provide air defense cover. The remaining aircraft, except the fleet direct cover aircraft, all landed on the mothership to replenish oil bombs.

The second bad news came soon. Lieutenant General Bei reported that a US military reconnaissance plane appeared outside the port of St. Johns. Although our air defense fighters tried their best to destroy it, the intelligence was probably sent out, and the US military must have discovered our shelling. The position and distribution of the fleet will also see the captured freighters slowly moving eastward. He is worried that it will affect the subsequent battle.

Lieutenant General Bay's concerns were not unfounded. There was a heated discussion at the top of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on where the first round of air strikes on Prince Edward Island should be targeted. The meeting put forward a total of four opinions: first, find the German aircraft carrier formation and attack it with air; Second, air attack the German artillery formation at the nearest location; third, air attack the German landing troops; fourth, air attack those freighters that failed to be evacuated to prevent supplies from being used by the German army.

The last opinion was quickly ruled out, because there are still a large number of Allied sailors and officers and soldiers above. Once an air attack occurs, it may be difficult to explain this matter in the future. The top priority is to destroy the enemy. Once the German fleet is killed, there is a fear that it will not be recovered. Are these freighters?

The third opinion was quickly postponed because the Germans had not launched a landing. Arnold said that he would send Maine heavy bombers to bomb these landing forces, so the focus of the meeting focused on whether to attack the German artillery formation or the aircraft carrier formation.

Both Arnold and Admiral King demanded that the aircraft carrier be attacked first. After destroying the aircraft carrier, the artillery fleet would be a turtle in the urn and not a concern. Marshall and other top army officials demanded that the battleship be attacked first. They had already been warned by the results of attacking the Japanese aircraft carrier first in the last Caribbean campaign. Fang was frightened by the story of the total destruction of the aircraft carrier, and thought it would be better to have one bird in the hand than two birds in the forest.

Since the exact location of the German aircraft carrier formation was still unclear at this time, after fierce debate, Marshall reluctantly persuaded Admiral King to agree to attack the artillery formation first. Since the Prince Edward Island Air Base was nearly 800 kilometers away from the German fleet, the enemy had a shorter range. The sea attack aircraft did not return after completing the operation, but went directly to Newfoundland to parachute, and the P51 fighters and bombers returned to the base.

"Sir, Admiral Cunningham sent a telegram. His fleet is still 1,500 kilometers away from Newfoundland. He will arrive at the battlefield on time in 2 days."

Admiral Jin nodded and said fiercely: "This time we will keep the entire daring German fleet here."

In the Zeppelin command tower, intense tactical maneuvers were also being conducted. Ozawa believed that the US military base on Prince Edward Island was too obstructive and must be removed. He asked the entire fleet to move southwest and destroy it in the evening. On the one hand, Machar was worried about the air support needs of the landing force, and on the other hand, he was worried about the air defense umbrella of the artillery fleet, and he seemed a little hesitant. But not long after, the good news came. The cross-platform combat fleet had arrived at the designated location and released its aircraft. The reinforcements on the Azores also took off at the same time. According to the schedule, the first batch of 48 combat aircraft carriers were launched. Carrier-based aircraft will fly to the main fleet for support at around 10 a.m., and reinforcements from the Azores will arrive at the aircraft carrier at about the same time.

With these 48 reinforcement aircraft at the base, Machar immediately agreed with Ozawa's opinion. On the one hand, the fleet moved to the southwest, and on the other hand, the reconnaissance aircraft expanded their reconnaissance field of view to find out the situation on Prince Edward Island. At the same time, 48 aircraft were dispatched. Aircraft reinforcements land on the battlefield.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, a total of more than 180 aircraft, including 36 P51s, 32 SBDs, 32 TBFs and more than 80 B-24\B-25\B-29s, were dispatched to St. John's with murderous intent. They rushed towards the harbor, aiming directly at Lieutenant General Bei's troops. However, when they arrived at the designated attack site, they found that the German army had begun to land. The German battleships were wandering in the deep sea area, and the German army had nearly 70 fighter jets intercepting them... Considering that horizontal bombers were not effective in attacking ships, the commander made a temporary change and sent more than 40 bombers to attack the German troops landing on the beach, while he led the remaining aircraft to attack the German fleet.

Although the number of U.S. troops was nearly twice that of the German troops, the German elites who had experienced hundreds of battles showed no fear and fought against the U.S. troops. Everyone admits that the P51B is a good aircraft, but its low-altitude maneuverability is not as good as the Bf-219. The German pilots who knew this well did not stupidly rush to fight with the opponent's fighter jets, let alone attack those with poor accuracy. Level bombers, their only targets are SBD and TBF.

The two sides fought fiercely outside the port of St. John's. The sailors on the freighters escorted by the Germans kept cheering for the Northern pilots, but the result was quite disappointing. They only saw a few bombs hit the German fleet. The fighters finally opened a bloody path for the attack planes, but were defeated by the fierce close-range anti-aircraft firepower of the Germans - the dense formation. The other planes were not in good condition either. Basically, the Allies had to lose 3 or 4 planes to exchange for 1 German plane crash.

Seeing this scene, everyone became secretly anxious.

But soon, they cheered warmly. After a loud "boom", a torpedo hit the starboard side of the Strasbourg. Although the plane was quickly shot down by the Germans, everyone couldn't help but cheer.

"Damn it!" Lieutenant General Bay stood up in astonishment, "Quickly let the Strasbourg report the damage..."