Chapter 981 Nimitz's Counterattack (14, 2700 Votes Plus More)

"What do you think of George's suggestion?" Nimitz was a little unhappy after receiving Patton's telegram that he wanted to go to Victoria, but he did not express his position quickly. Instead, he asked his chief of staff Smith first.

"Although his reason is very simple, I think it makes sense from the army's point of view." Smith walked to the map and said, "Aerial reconnaissance showed that the enemy did not make a sudden advance after capturing Lignaris. A small force - estimated to be the size of an armored search battalion - was sent forward to conduct reconnaissance, but the main force returned to defend. This shows that the enemy believes that the use of its forces has reached its limit, and Victoria happens to be in the center of the German northern and southern defense lines. I can understand George. He hoped to cooperate with the main force of the Fifth Army advancing from the front after landing in Victoria and eat up the first line of defense in the north. "

"You think the Army can do it?"

"able!"

"So, you agree with his suggestion?"

"No, I don't agree! As I said just now, his opinion makes sense from the perspective of the Army, but it doesn't make sense from the perspective of the Navy and the overall situation."

Smith explained his point of view: "Although the South American campaign requires ground troops to be fought section by section, in the final analysis it lies in sea control. If we cannot control the sea control along the coast of Brazil, no matter how far we advance on the ground, we will inevitably be flanked by the enemy." The key to gaining sea control is to annihilate or defeat the current German fleet, and our time is very tight. I predict that the German reinforcements will arrive in 2-3 weeks, leaving us little time. , 2-3 weeks are not enough for George to solve the problem. It is impossible for the main force of the Fifth Army to gather and advance without 7-10 days from El Salvador to Linaris. Reinforcements are coming, and the troops landing in Victoria will be wiped out."

Nimitz nodded: "I am closer to your idea. The key to the Brazilian war situation lies at sea. As long as we can win the naval battle, the Army can win no matter how it fights. On the contrary, no matter how the Army fights, it will lose. Please put this in He clearly told George that I am willing to cooperate with him to win, but the premise is that the army must first cooperate with the navy to stabilize the situation."

"You can't just say that." Smith shook his head. "You know George's temper. He is more stubborn than an ox. You have to make the situation more serious."

"How to say?"

"If the Germans are decisive enough, they can completely abandon their northernmost troops - so what if the Fifth Army eats them all? Within 3 weeks, if the navy cannot destroy or repel the German fleet currently operating in the South Atlantic, we will Lost!" Smith spread his hands, "Now it's not a matter of destroying this or that part of the German army. The top priority now is to eat the opponent's squadron before the German reinforcements arrive!"

"Sir, General Nimitz called us back. He does not agree with us landing in Victoria." Roosevelt Jr. handed the telegram to Patton. "He still asked to land in Santos or Rio!"

After reading Nimitz's telegram, Patton was overwhelmed with thoughts and was speechless for a long time.

The telegram revealed a very cruel reality: the Army was likely to win a landing battle but would waste a small amount of time.

Patton originally planned to launch the Victoria Landing Campaign on July 30, using 3-4 days to cut off the German army's retreat, and then let the main force of the Fifth Army solve the problem. But if the German army does not care about this loss, the U.S. military can at most eat 8,000-9,000 German troops, and then it must prepare for the next offensive plan. At that time, it will have to carry out the Santos or Rio landing battle. All in all, the German army set up a long snake array that meandered for 2,000 kilometers on the east coast of Brazil from Lignaris to Porto Alegre. It seemed that there were loopholes everywhere, but the real fatal point was in the middle section - Santos. Or Rio, other places can only start or end, and cannot play a universal role. The German army can delay the time even with partial losses.

Seeing that he was still very hesitant, Roosevelt persuaded him again: "If General Nimitz is unwilling to land in Victoria, you cannot carry out the landing mission insistently. Don't forget - General Hewitt controls the landing fleet, and there is no Nimitz agreed, how dare he change the attack target at will? We can't hijack another naval ship, right?"

Patton smiled bitterly and shook his head: The Army had already hijacked a navy ship in the last Cape Verde battle, but Kennedy came to Congress to testify and crushed Wallace to death - everyone knew that this guy died unjustly, but everyone dies. Okay, what’s the point of saying more? Although Patton is sometimes a little uninformed, it does not mean that he has no IQ. A fool cannot become a lieutenant general in the army.

He stared at the map again and again, and finally sighed helplessly: "Forget it, let's go to Santos to land. I hope we can draw out the damn German fleet."

Although Rio and Santos have the same strategic significance, Button believes that Santos is easier to fight than Rio. After all, the latter is the capital of Brazil. Not only is it heavily defended by the German army, but there are also a large number of German aircraft that can provide nearby support. The landing losses will be huge. He only has a division of 20,000 troops on hand, and he doesn't dare to mess around.

"Sir, I received a telegram from General Clark. The intelligence shows that the German army has deployed two Brazilian puppet divisions in Sao Paulo and Santos. Its own strength is only one regiment, about 4,000-5,000 people, while the Brazilian puppet division in Rio only has one. , but the German army has nearly 2 divisions.”

"This shows that the focus of the German defense is in Rio. Let's attack Santos and Sao Paulo." Patton was full of complaints. "It's just that the army can't defeat the Germans. Why can't even the navy defeat the Germans now?"

Roosevelt shrugged. Fortunately, Hewitt didn't hear what he said. But he didn't know that Nimitz also sent a telegram to Hewitt: If Patton dares to be stupid, just hold it back!

Why let Patton stay on the New Jersey and Hewitt with him? At best it's called protection, at worst it's called strict supervision - who knows what Barton might do if his head gets hot. At that time, the command tower with armor thickness as high as 445mm will be Patton's best prison.

Now that Patton was so cooperative, Hewitt naturally greeted him with a smile. Not only did he lead him to visit every corner of the New Jersey, he also deliberately deviated from the scheduled route midway, allowing the New Jersey, accompanied by other warships, to break into the direction of Victoria Harbor and conduct on-site operations across the shore. The heavy bombardment misled the German and Brazilian troops to judge. Seeing the huge power of the 406mm naval gun when it was fired, Patton sighed to Hewitt: "Why were there no such powerful warships in the Horn of Africa? Otherwise, it would have been useless. Liu Liu turned into a drowned rat and crawled ashore. I have been thinking about revenge all the time for the past year and a half! "

Hewitt nodded in agreement.

With a "boom", the entire warship fired more violent artillery fire. Patton was startled. Hewitt told him that this was a salvo fired by the naval gun after the test fire just now. The power of the salvo was obviously much greater than the test fire.

He made a pun: "It seems that the pipes in the world - whether they are gun barrels or anything else, all have something in common. Sure enough, they must be thicker to be more powerful!"

Hewitt rolled his eyes, pretended not to understand the implication, and passed away laughing.

Seeing that Hewitt did not "resonate", Patton turned around and began to incite the naval officers and soldiers: "Boys, keep going! This time, let's show the Germans a little bit. In two years, I will fight with you to Tokyo." Go, use these thick pipes to blast the Japanese palace to rubble!"

The soldiers cheered.

Hewitt quietly asked Roosevelt Jr.: "I think he is very popular with the soldiers, but why does he always feel that he is not serious enough?"

"This is his style." Roosevelt Jr. smiled bitterly, "There has never been an American general who was so popular with soldiers and hated by other generals at the same time. He is a freak. If he had been born a hundred years earlier, he would have been the best cowboy in the West. What a pity, I was born a century too late!”

At this moment, Krank, who is determined to hide and seek with Nimitz, is currently hiding with the main fleet 550 kilometers southeast of Sao Paulo, just beyond the coverage of the US Army aviation reconnaissance aircraft, and also beyond the coverage of Nimitz's fleet reconnaissance aircraft. However, for the German reconnaissance aircraft based in Rio, the enemy's movements were clear.

"Sir, we found that the US fleet is heading south...not only the main fleet, but also the transportation and landing fleet. In addition, the US military also shelled Victoria Harbor this afternoon, and the Brazilian army and port facilities suffered varying degrees of damage. The Air Force tried to launch "The attack was unsuccessful," Hinz reported to Krank, "I think the enemy is coming for us."

"The enemy doesn't seem to care about exposing the target, otherwise they would not pour firepower on Victoria at all - shelling without landing is of no value at all." Krank pondered, "Nimitz should be coming to find us."

"What about the landing force?"

"Maybe this is bait for us... If I really swallow the hook, I will be fooled. Who knows if there is anyone inside?" He stared at the chart and studied it for three minutes. "Continue to move south and keep distance from the US military. , let the submarines attack the Americans and give them some color!"

Since the first discovery of the U.S. fleet, the German submarine has not shown its face for many days. This has given the U.S. military the illusion that either they really did not encounter a submarine that day, or they only encountered an occasional German submarine passing by. They never expected that Krank had already mobilized a force of more than 30 submarines to deploy on the coast of Brazil during this period, intending to concentrate on giving the Americans a hard blow.

"The domestic reinforcement force formation has been completed, including one armored division, two armored grenadier divisions, one infantry division and one heavy armored battalion. Now we are waiting for the two British aircraft carriers to complete their final sea trials, Marshal Machar It is expected to set off around August 15th - the transport force will pass through the Strait of Gibraltar and join the main fleet earlier. In addition, there is news from Japan that the combined fleet is making final preparations and is expected to set off in mid-August..."

Krank smiled slightly: "It will be very difficult for Americans in September this year..."