Iron Cross

Ps: I have finally finished writing about the great battle in the South Pacific. Please give me your monthly tickets...

The South Pacific naval battle that broke out in the Solomon Sea lasted less than a day and ended, but its subsequent impact was further fermented.

Although the warships of TF16\\17 were basically sunk, the last batch of aircraft sent out to attack flew desperately towards New Guinea after completing the desperate attack, and then parachuted out when they ran out of fuel. After the Japanese fleet and aircraft retreated the next day, the US military dispatched a large number of PBY (Catalina seaplane) fleets for search and rescue, and successively rescued more than 20 crew members or pilots from the sea. Except for a few unlucky ones, the last batch of carrier-based aircraft Most of the pilots were saved.

Japan's losses continued to expand. Late that night, the heavy cruiser Aoba, which was returning accompanied by the destroyer Shigure, ran into an American submarine halfway and was hit by a torpedo without warning. The scarred Aoba sank without the ability to struggle. , the Shigure was too late to rescue the crew members who fell into the water, and finally had to leave in frustration. At this point, of the four Aoba/Furutaka-class heavy cruisers built by Japan before the war, only one, Kinugasa, remains.

Due to the time difference, Hoffman received the complete report on the situation in the evening of that day. Cole, who was far away in Tokyo, also sent a similar telegram, but he was still skeptical. Japan was very good at lying and concealing reports. Criminal record.

"Is the situation true?" Hoffman said to Redel who came to report, "Don't lie about military information like the Battle of Midway."

"It's true this time." Redl smiled brightly. "The Navy sent two generals to observe and learn from the Japanese mobile fleet. They participated in almost the entire battle and visited the Japanese attack fleet pilots after the war—— Now that we are quite familiar with each other, we also send telegrams to confirm. Of course, warships below the level of cruisers and destroyers may be wrong, but targets as big as aircraft carriers and battleships cannot be wrong.”

Hoffman became excited: "Does that mean that the U.S. Pacific aircraft carrier fleet has been temporarily wiped out?"

"I think so, Führer." Redel couldn't suppress his excitement. "The Zeppelin will be put into use in January next year. Richthofen's aviation troops have done a good job recently and accumulated practical experience. Italy The Eagle will be put into service almost early next year. If we transform the two French warships into aviation battleships, the strength of the Imperial Navy will be greatly improved in the next six months, and the balance of power will also change. "

Hoffman nodded: "If the Americans want to continue to maintain the situation in the Pacific, they must once again mobilize warships from the mainland and the Atlantic. This will affect their global strategic deployment, not to mention that many of their warships are now drifting in the Atlantic and preparing to go Landing in North Africa..."

Having said this, he immediately picked up the phone and called Dönitz: "Are all your boys available? How many boats are there?"

"Absolutely, I'm just waiting for your order. There are currently a total of 34 submarines ambushed in northwest Africa." Dönitz reported confidently, "They are all a little impatient waiting."

While the United States was intensively promoting Operation Torch, Hoffman was also making various preparations. One of the countermeasures was to instruct Dönitz to mobilize all submarines in the Atlantic to fight in this direction. He even spared no effort to achieve this goal. Temporarily reducing the ambush against the British merchant fleet, the submarine fleet has now expanded to 34. Although there will be more in a few days, it is clear that Hoffman cannot wait any longer.

"Let these lurking sea wolves attack tonight so that Roosevelt can't sleep." Hoffman gave the order without hesitation, "The priority target is the transport ship, which either contains the US Army or combat supplies. Without these things The Americans can't fight, don't touch those warships - they can't get ashore."

"As you wish, my Führer."

Not only Roosevelt can't sleep, but from Australia to North America, from Halsey to Nimitz, all senior US Navy generals closely related to the South Pacific can't sleep in pain. There is no market for concealing reports and lying in the US military system. Halsey and Nimitz did not bother to do this. After receiving farewell telegrams from Major General Li on behalf of TF64 and Kincaid on behalf of TF16\\17, Lieutenant General Halsey cried and cursed in the headquarters, "It's like this." "Madman", the adjutant quietly removed all the bullets from his gun for fear of danger. Not long after, he heard curses coming from inside: "Even this damn broken gun is against me..."

Hopkins only learned of the disastrous defeat on the front line in the early morning of November 6, Washington time. He immediately hurried to the President's Office. Before he could reach the door, he heard Roosevelt banging the table inside and roaring: "It's not that cheap, lose." If you want to leave now? I have to pay the tuition for the next person? No, if you want to leave, you have to win before you can resign!"

When he entered, he found that Admiral Ernest Joseph King, Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, was also there. Admiral King was of course a strong man. Roosevelt appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. He said something like this - "...when something bad happens, they will come looking for the turtle son." Today, the situation was not good, and Roosevelt called General Kim here again.

After asking, I learned that both Halsey and Nimitz had submitted their resignations early this morning. Faced with the resignation of the two admirals in order to take responsibility, Roosevelt naturally refused, but the president was so emotional that Hope Kings still didn't expect that even Roosevelt's anger after receiving the Pearl Harbor telegram would not be as angry as it is today.

As a politician, Hopkins knew that Roosevelt was protecting his men. After all, this failure was too disastrous, and its impact even exceeded that of Pearl Harbor: Pearl Harbor was defeated and Japan had an excuse for a sneak attack. This Solomon Sea battle was completely It was a tit-for-tat public confrontation between the two sides. Japan used some tactics, but the United States was not completely without a chance. With the fight like this, it is certainly debatable whether there were any problems with the command of Nimitz and Halsey. In addition, the failure of this battle occurred after the victory at Midway. After the victory at Midway, everyone thought that Japan was nothing to worry about. Unexpectedly, only 5 months later, the Japanese not only returned the favor, but also returned the favor to the navy. An even more ugly record - breaking three fleets in one day, turning the United States into an aircraft carrier-less navy in the Pacific in a short period of time (Saratoga was still undergoing repairs at Pearl Harbor).

After asking more carefully, I understood the essential source of Roosevelt's anger: Army Chief of Staff Marshall questioned the war situation on behalf of the Army and believed that the Navy had improper timing when it launched such a major battle in the Pacific just as the North African war was about to begin. . Hopkins saw this very clearly. The Army did not think that the Navy should fight this battle, but because there was a fierce competition between Navy Nimitz and Army MacArthur when they competed for the command of the counterattack in the Southwest Pacific. In the end, Roosevelt reluctantly coordinated before finally making the decision to let Nimitz take command. Now that the result is like this, it is natural that the spearhead has the intention of targeting Nimitz.

Admiral King was also very angry about this, but he thought about the problem from a different perspective: Nimitz and Halsey were certainly responsible for the failure of the war, but they could not replace them as soon as the battle was lost. Not only did the Army fail to report the defeat, The act of jumping up to the same enemy made him feel very uncomfortable - was MacArthur that good? If it’s good, doesn’t it also have a bad record of losing to the Philippines?

Seeing Hopkins come in, Roosevelt restrained his anger and reluctantly said hello and exchanged a few words. Everyone had their own thoughts, but no one spoke for two minutes, and the office remained awkwardly silent. It took a long time for Roosevelt to break the calm: "Harry, you are not a soldier, how do you think I should handle this matter?"

Hopkins looked at General Jin who was hesitant to speak. After thinking for a while, he said: "I agree with your idea. There is no victorious general in the world. Generals Nimitz and Halsey may have made this mistake in their command." Such a mistake is inevitable. There are not many people in our navy who can do better than them. It is not advisable to replace people as soon as the war is defeated! What's more, the navy can also provide more and better command talents. Who can guarantee that the new ones will do better than others?"

“But some outsiders say that the reason why Japan was so effective in this battle is entirely because they replaced the new commander-in-chief of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the fleet...” Roosevelt said irritably, “Some well-informed people think that we should also learn from Japan. The way they did it was that they lost the game after midway and made substitutions, but they won this time.”

"Then..." Hopkins sneered, "please ask them to learn from Yamamoto Isoroku, recommend candidates and bet their political careers on this general. If 50 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are willing By supporting a certain naval general and promising to quit politics if he fails, we might as well give this popular general a chance..."

Of course, it goes without saying that no politician is willing to bet his or her political life on a victorious general, especially at this critical moment. Who dares to say that the person who can turn the tide is the one I am optimistic about? Roosevelt and General King smiled knowingly after hearing this, and they understood each other tacitly - the trend and rumors of replacement can be dealt with in this way.

Suddenly, the adjutant hurriedly handed over the latest information. Hopkins, who was the closest and the presidential adviser, took it and glanced at it briefly. It was okay not to read it, but after looking at it, he felt that the situation was even more difficult.

"Harry, what's the bad news?" Seeing Hopkins' expression getting worse after reading the briefing, the keen Roosevelt noticed it immediately.

"It's not very good." Hopkins handed over the information. "I suggest that we need to re-arrange and coordinate the next phase of the war."