Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 900 Buenos Aires Front

The rescue of the "Connecticut" has evolved into an operation of extremely political significance. Under the threat of the Ocean Empire's military force, the ports of Chile can only remain neutral, and dare not take a step beyond the mine, and dare not accept the entry of American ships into the port for repairs, even oil and water. No supply.

   After staying for a few days, the Atlantic fleet is not at ease to continue to stay in the Pacific waters. Who knows when the expeditionary strike formation will gather?

   Now the lineup of 4 battleships and 2 heavy cruisers is already a headache, and a few more battleships may not be enough!

   Today in the US Navy, the atmosphere of fear of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire is permeated from top to bottom. With the fermentation of time, it has not only not weakened, but has become stronger and stronger.

   Therefore, after the state of the "Connecticut" battleship stabilized a little, the US Atlantic Fleet carefully towed it into the Strait of Magellan.

  Be careful and careful along the way, stop and go for more than half a month.

  Unfortunately, on January 17, 1909, the battleship "Connecticut" capsized in the 11th class of strong winds and waves in the Strait of Magellan and sank into the icy seabed of more than 1,000 meters.

The result of    really made the Atlantic Fleet cry without tears.

   At this point, the battle of the Strait of Magellan in the second phase of the "East Pacific Pursuit of Thousand Miles", the final results came out.

The "Samarinda" ship formation sank a battleship, a large armored cruiser, lightly injured two enemy battleships, and the proud record of 4 cruisers, which blinded the titanium alloy dog ​​eyes of the melon eaters. .

   As a result, the Royal Navy's "Manguye Tactics" became famous.

   After the end of the second phase of the naval battle, the US Navy cancelled the temporary establishment of the Great White Fleet, and the remaining ships were all included in the Atlantic Fleet sequence.

  Reminisce back then

The Great White Fleet has a huge lineup of 16 post-90s battleships, more than 10 cruisers, 38 logistics supply ships, and 5 auxiliary ships (including hospital ships, repair ships, marine engineering ships, etc.), heading for the port of San Francisco on the Pacific coast. In the end, only three battleships and one cruiser came back. Two of the battleships were still wounded.

   The Pacific Fleet, which originally belonged to the old ship concentration camp, was also destroyed in the previous naval battles. Most of the warships sank into the icy seabed, and a small number were captured, and they became a member of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire.

After the war, the US Atlantic Fleet has 8 battleships (3 Great White Fleet, 2 new battleships), 24 cruisers, a total of more than 100 lightning destroyers with displacements ranging from 260 tons to more than 800 tons. The strength is still not weak. .

   At Hampton Anchorage, there are two more outfitting battleships that will join the Atlantic Fleet as early as early March.

   In various shipyards along the Atlantic coast, 13 battleships were rushing to work day and night. In addition, President Roosevelt staged his last madness and approved the construction of more than 40 large cruisers in one go.

  Leave time

   The U.S. Navy is hopeful that it will quickly regain its former strength and be better than before.

For the most powerful industrial country in the world today, building warships has never been a problem, nor is funding a problem. The biggest problem is that too many experienced naval officers and soldiers have been lost in previous naval battles, with a total of more than 17,000 people (including thousands of them). captives), it is difficult to make up for it in a short time.

   Now, the Atlantic Fleet faces an even bigger problem, that is, President Roosevelt and the next president.

   By a formal order signed by President Roosevelt;

  The main force of the Atlantic Fleet must stick to the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and guard the vital Strait of Magellan to prevent the Royal Ocean Empire from easily occupying the place and threatening the vital cities and shipyards on the west coast of the United States.

   In a word, reject the enemy thousands of miles away.

   This kind of consideration sounds reasonable at first, but it is not.

Supplying a powerful warship always maintains a high level of combat effectiveness, requires a high level of ship repair and construction enterprises, naval maintenance bases, and the supply capacity of oil, water, coal, grain, vegetables and other professional materials, not Buenos Aire. A city with almost no heavy industry like Sri Lanka can support it.

  Welding, riveting, machining equipment, cutting equipment, hoisting equipment, etc. required for ship maintenance are not available here, nor are there boiler production capacity and other professional equipment production capacity. It can be berthed for a short time, but not for a long time.

   The machining factory here is good for repairing farm tools, but where can you repair large warships?

   Insert your fingers and do the math;

  The Atlantic Fleet has been heading south since October, and it has been more than three months. Many ships have been unable to sail normally due to various reasons such as maintenance parts and lack of special lubricants.

   After one battle and two crossings of the Strait of Magellan, half of the ships had many problems, and they urgently needed to return to the Hampton anchorage for repairs and maintenance. This is a rigid requirement.

   For example, there is a problem with the hydraulic feeder of the main naval gun, how can I fix it here?

   However, no matter how the Atlantic Fleet pleaded and showed the reasons, President Roosevelt was determined not to allow a single ship to retreat and must remain at the forefront of the fight.

   President Roosevelt did this, of course, out of political considerations, as well as his own unspeakable difficulties.

  After the Battle of Magellan

   As if he had caught a life-saving straw, President Roosevelt's Republican Party went into battle with almost full force, activated the public opinion machine, and brought the Great White Fleet back to a tragic and tragic state.

  Under the frantic siege, pursuit and interception by the Devil Corps of the Ocean Empire, the Great White Fleet can be said to have suffered blood and tears all the way, and has always maintained its original intention, which is the deep love for the country of America.

  Especially the battleship USS Connecticut, the flagship of the Great White Fleet, is truly a bruised veteran with countless touching stories...

   Anyway, the cowhide has been blown out.

   President Roosevelt did this to save the credibility of the collapsed government and to preserve the last bit of political capital for the Republican Party. Although this presidential election failed, what about the next one, the next one?

  The story of the tragic return can't wait to be publicized. Who knows, the battleship Connecticut has sunk so much...

   What the **** is this? ? ?

  It is said that after receiving this news, President Roosevelt, in a rage, picked up the chair in the Oval Office and slammed it on the table, resulting in two deaths, the chair and the table were completely destroyed!

   His presidency ends on February 22, and before that, the Atlantic Fleet will never be allowed to retreat half a step.

   How will the next Democratic President Woodrow Wilson cope?

  Then it has nothing to do with Roosevelt, the former president. After I die... who cares about his flood?

  If the Atlantic Fleet withdraws to the Hamptons anchorage, then it is completely foreseeable that the Royal Fleet of the Ocean Empire can follow along unimpeded, and it might even land on the East Coast.

   President Roosevelt couldn't take it, the Republicans couldn't take it, it was political suicide.

   In any case, the Atlantic Fleet must be nailed to Buenos Aires and guard this Atlantic front-line port.

  The Democratic President-elect Woodrow Wilson, who won the election, strongly criticized the current President Roosevelt on this issue, accusing him; it is extremely irresponsible and selfish to put the Atlantic fleet in an extremely dangerous situation.

   However, when a reporter from The New York Times asked him whether he would send the children of the Atlantic Fleet home after taking office…

  Woodrow Wilson's face changed suddenly, and he just didn't respond to this question directly.

   For President Roosevelt, letting the Royal Fleet of the Ocean Empire flow all the way to the gate of New York Harbor was de facto political suicide.

   For Woodrow Wilson and his Democratic Party, why not?

  The poor Atlantic Fleet went south to Argentina full of ambition to serve the country, but was left there as an abandoned child, and the hope of returning home became extremely slim.

  South America, Chile

   Port Essen, more than 840 kilometers north of the Strait of Magellan

   On calm anchorage outside the harbor

The 10 battleships of the expeditionary strike formation of the Royal Ocean Empire's Royal Navy are quietly moored here. Now the lineup here has grown a lot. The Queensland formation arrived recently, accompanied by three battleships "Queensland" and "Tasmania". The No. 1 and the "Beilun" arrived with more than 10 cruisers, along with more than ten troop carriers and more than 20 freighters, carrying nearly 20,000 officers and soldiers of the "Shangri-La Field Infantry Division" and a large amount of supplies and equipment.

   Li Jie officially took over the command of the expeditionary strike formation, which brought together 7 battleships and the main lineup of 2 heavy cruisers.

   Just three days later, another battleship formation arrived, including the "Victoria", "New South Wales" and the USS Kansas, which were completely captured, and the accompanying 6 "Flower Moon" class cruisers.

   This trip also brought the personnel and equipment of a Tucker battalion and an infantry regiment of the East Kalimantan Infantry Division to join the expeditionary strike formation sequence.

So far, the Royal Navy's expeditionary strike formation has assembled a strong lineup including 10 battleships, two heavy cruisers, and 37 cruisers of various types. combat capability.

  The unparalleled huge hull of the British battlecruiser "Lion" is particularly conspicuous, and it is also anchored at the outer anchorage of Essen Harbor, which can be recognized at a glance from a great distance.

   in the spacious officer's quarters

  Major Admiral Sherman and Captain Pete were drinking coffee while looking at the expeditionary strike fleet of the Royal Ocean Empire, which was densely packed on the anchorage, through the porthole. Respect for strength was revealed between the lines.

"I like the mental outlook of these soldiers. They don't miss the smallest details. The leather shoes should be polished at all times. This is the first lesson the Royal Navy taught them. Obviously, Yang Guo learned it very well." Major General Sherman made a pertinent assessment with the kind tone of an old father watching his daughter leave the cabinet.

Colonel Pitt is a senior officer of the First Battle Cruiser Squadron of the British Home Fleet. He inherited the title of Viscount Edford. He is a great British nobleman who can be on an equal footing with Earl Sherman. The two are also good friends in the army. More than 200 years of marriage history.

  The newly emerging Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire is a topic of great interest to them. In their leisure time, further derivation around the development of the war is the central topic of their endless enjoyment.

   (end of this chapter)