Chapter 913: Encirclement (5)

Due to the time difference, Washington is the city where night falls the latest, but the quarrels in the Joint Chiefs of Staff are no less intense than in London.

"We should find ways to assist Iceland. Even if we don't directly enter the battle, it is necessary to properly contain the German army." The anxious Nimitz stood up and did not know how many times he was giving a speech. From the moment he received the news, he planned to follow suit. Spruance's method used the only remaining fleet aircraft carrier to bring 4-6 escort aircraft carriers to fight in Iceland.

After several months of construction, the US military has produced a bunch of Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers. In addition, the British-Canadian route has been cut off, the South African route cannot be used, and Australia and New Zealand are controlled by Japan and cannot move, except for transporting supplies to the Caribbean and in the Indian Ocean. After losing four ships (although one of them is British, it is ultimately made by the United States), the escort carrier loss rate has finally been reduced to a relatively low and affordable level.

The current outstanding problem of the U.S. Navy is that there are not enough skilled carrier-based aircraft pilots. Thanks to Cunningham's final cover last time, Nimitz successfully left the battlefield with the Franklin and gathered nearly 150 people (groups) of British and American pilots. The Navy arranged all of them to the newly commissioned Hancock and the USS Hancock. On the Nington, coupled with the results of several months of training and the desperate transfer of escort aircraft carriers, carrier-based aircraft pilots were finally gathered for these three aircraft carriers.

But this is only the number of first-line echelons, with a total of only 357 people (groups). It has not even reached the minimum coefficient of 1.2 (referring to the ratio of the number of pilots to the aircraft carrier's aircraft capacity), let alone the expected coefficient of 1.5. Among the three major aircraft carrier countries, Germany's coefficient is as high as 1.6, Japan also has a coefficient of 1.3, and only the United States has a coefficient of less than 1.2.

Combat does not only depend on the quantitative coefficient, but also on the experience and ability of pilots. In this regard, the United States is at the bottom. The proportion of German carrier-based aircraft pilots who have participated in more than 5 battles (referring to carrier-based aircraft) is as high as 45%, 75% have participated in more than 3 battles, and 90% have at least 1 combat experience; Japan has participated in 5 The proportion of those who have participated in more than 3 battles exceeds 50%, but those who have participated in more than 3 battles are less than 65%, and those who have at least 1 experience are around 80%.

If we use the same standard to measure the U.S. military, the proportion is less than half of Japan's. In particular, there are almost zero American pilots who can survive five battles. They all quit the front line to serve as training instructors. How can they be willing to go to the battlefield again? If we also consider the land-based battles that German pilots participated in before joining HNA, the difference in technical level is even greater. Not to mention anything else, the more than 400 groups of trained pilots on Socotra Island (mainly German, some Japanese and Italian) were enough to overwhelm Nimitz's power.

And this is only the third echelon of the German fleet - the first echelon includes existing carrier-based aircraft members and pilots from several major bases who can perform cross-platform tactics; the second echelon includes naval bases who can board ships but currently perform land-based tactics. pilots for base operations; the third echelon is the Socotra Island special training base; as for the larger fourth echelon (belonging to Hainan Airlines but has not conducted targeted carrier-based aircraft training) and the fifth echelon (belonging to the Air Force and has not yet transferred to other positions) ) is more.

The number of front-line aircraft and pilots of the Luftwaffe and Luftwaffe is now almost equal to that of the other major powers combined (Japan, Britain, the Soviet Union, and Italy) except the United States.

This number of front-line pilots is not inferior even to that of the United States. After jointly excluding 4-engine heavy bomber (transport aircraft) pilots, the number of German and American pilots is basically the same. If the United States does not rely on the more than 4,000 groups of 4-engine heavy aircraft, it can talk about There is no numerical advantage over Germany. In the field of jet aircraft, which represents the future, the number of pilots in Germany has exceeded 3,000. There are not only jet fighters but also jet bomber pilots. The combined number of British and American pilots is less than 15% of Germany's.

In fact, the United States has a large number of carrier-based aircraft pilots, but there are too few highly skilled pilots, and the aircraft are not very powerful, so that the exchange ratio has been repeatedly used in combat. If the United States is willing to calm down and gather the pilots on all escort aircraft carriers into the front-line combat ranks, there will be much room for improvement in the embarrassment of its carrier-based aircraft pilots. Although the total number of 42 active escort aircraft carriers in the United States (almost all of them are Casablanca class) has not met the lower limit (50 ships) of Turner's original C+ plan, compared to Germany's 12 ships, Japan's 9 ships have an overwhelming advantage. This is also There are nearly 1,500 people (groups) present on a large scale.

Among the three major navies, the number ratio of German fleet aircraft carriers to escort aircraft carriers is close to 1:2, Japan is close to 1:1.5, and only the United States is an abnormality with a ratio of 1:10. In short, there are too few regular aircraft carriers and too many escort aircraft carriers. Truman, who did not understand the navy, was very sensitive to numbers. He sharply pointed out this problem and proposed stopping routes to aid Britain and the Soviet Union. This would save a lot of materials and financial expenses, use precious shipbuilding workers for the construction of main aircraft carriers and cruisers, and also It can alleviate the pilot's urgent needs. It is a pity that the reality of two-ocean navies forces the United States to maintain a large escort aircraft carrier fleet, otherwise the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand will die immediately.

Admiral King also believes that adjustments must be made: from July to August there will be two Essex-class aircraft carriers (USS Bonhomme Richard and USS Randolph) in service, and from September to October there will be USS Shangri-La, USS Lake Champlain, USS Ann The third aircraft carrier Titan is in service, and there is a gap of at least 600 groups of pilots. In addition, the shortage of cruisers is huge, even reduced to a dangerous level. There are not enough cruisers to maintain three aircraft carriers. If five more aircraft carriers are added, I am afraid that all the domestic cruisers that can be used will not be enough to ration the aircraft carrier formation.

So the Navy Committee reached a resolution in late May: to reduce the production of 80 escort aircraft carriers originally planned for the 1944 fiscal year to 45, and to invest the freed-up funds, raw materials and workers in the construction of Oakland-class anti-aircraft cruisers, adding 16 ships at once.

In view of the long construction period of the Oakland class (about 20 months), the Navy Committee proposed a large number of simplification opinions, including the removal of torpedo tubes and the construction of a modular system. At the same time, it required the implementation of the same three-shift production as the Essex class, and compressed the construction period to within 14 months. As for the Brooklyn class (10,000-ton light cruiser), which is larger in size and displacement and takes longer, no new ones will be built except for the warships that have been started on the slipway, and no one even mentioned the more complex and troublesome heavy cruisers.

The number of excellent pilots has become a headache for the United States, which is completely at a disadvantage, so Admiral King is reluctant to let Nimitz's fleet go out to fight.

The problem is not only the pilots, but also the confident aircraft production advantage of the United States is gradually disappearing:

Individually, the total number of aircraft produced by the United States still has a significant advantage - the monthly output is more than 8,000, which is 50% more than the second place Germany's nearly 5,500/month output. But compared with the data in 1942 when the United States' production was more than double that of Germany, the advantage has shrunk. The aircraft production of the Axis Allies - Italy, Japan, France and even Belgium is still steadily increasing. After the army and navy successively unified the model and tilted the allocation of resources, the production of Japanese aircraft is nearly 3,000/month. Italy's production exceeded 1,000/month for the first time. The aviation industry of France and Belgium recovered the fastest, and the sum of the two also exceeded 1,000/month. Considering the insufficient equipment demand of France and Belgium, at least 500 of these 1,000/month should actually be added to Germany.

However, due to resource constraints, the aircraft production of the United States' allies - Britain and the Soviet Union has been declining. Take the United Kingdom as an example. Originally, the aircraft production was on par with that of Germany, about 2,000 aircraft/month. When the peak of Germany's total mobilization gradually approached 5,500 aircraft, the production of Britain did not increase but dropped to 1,500 aircraft/month because of the blockade of resources. If it were not for the existence of wooden aircraft such as the Mosquito, the number would be even less; the Soviet Union was even worse, with the continuous loss of major industrial bases and raw material bases, and the production suddenly dropped from 3,000 aircraft/month to less than 2,000 aircraft/month.

In general, the monthly aircraft production of the three Allied countries was nearly 12,000 aircraft/month, and the four Axis countries was just over 10,000 aircraft/month. After eliminating 4 heavy aircraft from each other, the number of Axis aircraft production was even slightly more than that of the Allies.

Although it was impossible for Germany and the United States to get each other's numbers accurately, they could know each other's strength from the process of fighting each other-Germany could allow its domestic air force to continue to suppress the air force in southern England while fighting on a large scale on the Eastern Front, and even the number of aircraft of the air force in the Norwegian direction expanded to more than 1,500. It is conceivable how strong it was.

Based on various considerations, Admiral Lee strongly opposed the dispatch of the fleet, and even won the understanding of Marshall and the agreement of Admiral King: There are 3 divisions on Iceland, but there are 8 divisions in South America. If the remaining naval forces are put into Iceland, what about South America? As for Iceland, the British should send the air force to cover it - if Iceland is lost, the United States will lose 3 divisions at most, but Britain will be finished. Shouldn't they use all their strength to fight?

People who hold this view have selectively forgotten that Britain has few high-grade aviation fuel reserves, and even ignored the possibility that Britain is unwilling to continue fighting. Nimitz's loud call certainly made them realize the seriousness of the problem, but they had no idea what to do.

Truman concluded: "We want to save this and that, but we can't handle them all. Gentlemen, we must now face up to the fact that we are not strong enough. Not to mention that we don't have the strength to capture the Falkland Islands and the Azores, we may not even be able to save Iceland. It is not wise to deploy forces to a place that is doomed to fail."

That's right, Nimitz can fully understand it, and even thought it was wise before - this is the way to deal with it with prudent use of force, but when he thought of the scene when Cunningham and him separated, he felt that he couldn't say such words.

In this delicate mood, the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected Nimitz's request, and Truman sent a telegram refusing rescue.

Unfortunately, not long after, intelligence about Iceland being attacked by air came...