Chapter 876 Accident (5)

Li Hai asked tentatively: "Can I understand your words as..."

He was still thinking about which more euphemistic and indirect words to express the appropriate meaning, but Roosevelt nodded readily: "That's what it means. We are all our own people. Let me be frank."

Everyone here is a smart person, but you still can’t tell that this is the president’s intention to give up on Britain? Marshall, General King and others nodded to each other. To be honest, they were tired and even desperate. The endless aid to Britain not only dragged down the financial and defense capabilities of the United States, but also caused many internal disputes. They believed that it had It's no longer necessary. Of course, this is not the decisive factor. The most critical fundamental factor is that this matter no longer has much value.

Now, the United States has basically controlled the four major dominions. Apart from a few islands and the precarious India, Great Britain no longer has any territory worth mentioning. In addition, the United States also used the pretext of concentrating on the development of science and technology during the war to obtain core British technologies including jets, high-performance liquid-cooled engines, radars, materials, etc., and also obtained Great Britain's outstanding scientists, skilled shipbuilders, and related technicians and engineers. It also reached North America, using half inducement and half threats to get the wealthy and capitalists on the island of Great Britain to transfer their assets to North America - even if the transfer to Canada was still equivalent to being under the control of the United States.

In other words, in addition to attracting some firepower for the United States and containing some axis forces, the British Empire also has a few warships and millions of defense forces of unknown level, which no longer have much appeal to the United States. In order to protect the British Isles, the United States has continued to send warships, supplies, and aircraft to the sea. The cumulative cost has exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars. In the foreseeable future, it may cost tens of billions of dollars more. This is increasingly Become a heavy burden.

In addition to money, the United States also suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. However, only a small part of the troops were lost at home or on the American continent that was closely related to U.S. interests.

Based on this fact, neither Britain nor the United States believes that they owe each other: the British Empire sold its position as the global hegemon, sold its best technology, engineers, scientists and skilled workers, sold its most elite dominions, and defended the Americans against hundreds of thousands of people. With thousands of enemy troops, it is completely natural for the Americans to assist themselves; the United States believes that it has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of casualties to rescue the British Empire, and what it received from the United Kingdom is not enough to make up for its own losses, let alone those colonies and If the United States did not take over the Dominion, the British would not be able to keep it.

"In the future, you can tell Harry: The British Empire's military strength should be calculated at double the count, but its political strength should not be included. He has an instinctive sensitivity to numbers and will understand!"

Everyone immediately understood what "double" in Roosevelt's words meant - the British Empire's military strength was doubled on the Allied side, and if it followed France's example and joined the Axis, it would require an additional double calculation. Roosevelt had obviously considered this ebb and flow process, but he was unwilling to easily exaggerate Britain's smooth joining of the axis. He added without leaving any trace: "For those who are willing to continue to resist to the end and continue to defend freedom on the American continent." We should provide great understanding, support and help to the officers, soldiers and other people from all over the world, and they should be placed in Canada together with His Majesty the King."

Of course Roosevelt was a ruthless man, otherwise he would not have been able to dominate the United States for 12 years. On the one hand, he said nothing about the formation of the British government-in-exile in Canada, and only allowed George VI to continue to serve as the head of Canada (this was one of his official identities); on the other hand, he wanted to use the name of continued resistance to control the British armed forces. The most valuable parts are those that serve the United States - such as the several battleships that are about to be formed into the army, skilled pilots with combat experience and other technical arms.

As for Churchill's own arrangements, he didn't say anything at all. Everyone could guess the reason just by thinking about it - this tough and cunning politician must not be placed on the North American continent. It would be a big deal for the United States to continue to control Canada in the future. resistance.

Although Roosevelt had made up his mind to sell Great Britain at the appropriate time, he did not even bother to worry about the price - obviously the sooner the loss-making assets were divested, the better, but he himself was obviously unwilling to be such a bad person. The first suitable opportunity that everyone thought of was January 1945 - the day when the new president was sworn in. Whether Mr. Harry Truman will be able to become the new president as he wishes is not something anyone can predict. Perhaps in Roosevelt's mind, he did not rule out the possibility of losing the election, so he confessed this sentence to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in public, and the implication was that it would be the same if Dewey was replaced.

Only the kind-hearted Eisenhower said sadly: "Without us, the British Empire might not be able to survive for a month. This is too difficult..."

"We have tried our best." Roosevelt said calmly, "I have tried our best too. The next step is up to you. I am just preparing for the future and telling you about the future situation. I am afraid whether to do it, how to do it, and when to do it. It’s not something I can decide, it depends more on the people’s wishes. At least for now, we have to bite the bullet.”

Everyone nodded. In the short term, Britain and the United States will still be inseparable allies and have an unbreakable friendship. The British hold half of the shares in the British and American combined fleets. If they fall out now, the axis of maritime advantage will be too great.

Reminiscent of Roosevelt's promise to send two British divisions to India, everyone sighed. This was probably part of future strategic arrangements.

"We still have a chance to win a decent victory." Seeing that everyone was not in high spirits, Roosevelt encouraged them, "Scientists told me that some major inventions may make breakthroughs within a year, which will develop into absolutely superior weapons. In addition, the rockets displayed by the Germans are not something mysterious. The Rocket Bureau said that they will be ready to launch similar devices by the end of this year. Maybe the accuracy and range will be a little worse, but the principles and development direction are the same. If we pay attention to it, we can speed up the work."

The first half of the sentence is obviously an introduction to the progress of the Manhattan Project, and the second half is basically bragging, because Roosevelt cut off the other half of the original sentence: "...If you want to reach the level of Germany's current rockets, it may take at least 2 years."

The rocket height that the US Army Rocket Bureau can control is only 15 kilometers, and the range is only 60-70 kilometers, which is only equivalent to the level of Germany in 1937. It is considered super ****** to be able to produce a V2-level rocket in 2 years. However, no one came forward to correct the president's mistake. The endless new weapons of the Germans put a lot of pressure on the US side. Everyone held their breath and wanted to show the Germans the real ultimate weapon after the completion of the Manhattan Project - this was also the source of Roosevelt and the Joint Chiefs of Staff's confidence.

Everyone spent a sleepless night with a heavy heart, submitting response strategies around various possible situations. Roosevelt was very calm and went back to rest after the meeting - at this critical moment, he must have the confidence to be well-prepared.

Early in the morning of April 24, hundreds of reconnaissance planes were dispatched from Bermuda and Newfoundland to fly in suspicious directions, and observers were required to search every sea area they passed carefully and carefully. But the result was that nothing was found. By noon, the reconnaissance range had been expanded to 1,500 kilometers east of Bermuda and Newfoundland, and nothing was found. As for the British search for the German army, it was also in vain - the German fleet was just resting and replenishing in the Canary Islands, how could it be found? After tonight, they will head towards Cape Verde. The reconnaissance of the United Kingdom and the United States is completely in the opposite direction.

Everyone is waiting for the reconnaissance results of the Nimitz fleet. In theory, the sea area within 1,000 kilometers east of the Azores is currently a black hole for Allied reconnaissance. If the TF46 fleet that ventures deep into the sea cannot find the Germans, then this farce can basically be put to an end.

Now TF46 is still 2,000 kilometers west of Ireland. Nimitz decided to continue to march southeast to further check the situation.

On April 25, the two countries' land-based reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly searched but still found nothing. Now everyone began to suspect that the news about the German landing fleet was just false intelligence. The German Air Force continued to attack the southern radar station with hail bombs. The British had no good way except to passively shut down the radar station to reduce losses. Experts did try to deploy mobile radars in the distance as bait to divert these bombs, but they did not expect that the bait bombs would still be bombed.

That evening, the TF46 fleet arrived at a rather delicate position - about 1,600-1,800 kilometers away from the Azores, La Coruña, Spain, and Brest, France. Nimitz was determined to continue to advance southeast and to launch a new round of reconnaissance the next morning. He cautiously asked the fleet to avoid the 1,200-kilometer aviation reconnaissance circle of the Azores - if no more discoveries were made before noon tomorrow, they would immediately return to North America!

That night, TF46 continued to advance southeast, but an unexpected change occurred. The fleet commanded by Ozawa also left the port at night - after Crow was arrested by the SS for careless actions a year ago, Britain and the United States completely lost their intelligence sources in the Azores, and now this place is a black hole for them.

On the morning of April 26, the Nimitz fleet was 1,300 kilometers slightly west of the Azores due north, and the Ozawa fleet was 400 kilometers due north of the Azores, with a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers between the two sides. The two commanders simultaneously released reconnaissance planes, unaware that the fleets were approaching each other.

At 11:00 a.m., the distance between the two fleets had narrowed to less than 800 kilometers. Just as Nimitz was considering turning back to the east coast and Ozawa was considering going to Ireland-Iceland to put pressure on Britain, the reconnaissance planes of both sides sent reconnaissance intelligence to the two commanders almost at the same time:

"Enemy fleet spotted!"