Chapter 578: Victory Route
On the anniversary of Lenin's birth, British Prime Minister Churchill spent most of the day flying in the sky. It wasn't that Fatty Churchill had wings, but that he took a risk and flew all the way from northern Scotland to Newfoundland in a modified Lancaster bomber. , then refueled in Newfoundland and continued flying to Washington.
After the Lancaster aircraft carrying Churchill and three other Lancaster aircraft carrying the attendants left the combat radius of the P-38 fighter jets taking off from Iceland, they flew over the early morning without any air escort. The skies over the North Atlantic, where Germany controls 70% of the sea power.
Fortunately, the confidentiality work was better in advance. The Germans did not know that Churchill passed over the North Atlantic on that day, otherwise Roosevelt would be attending Churchill's memorial service now.
"Mr. Prime Minister, are you okay on the road? Did you encounter any German planes?" President Roosevelt asked with concern in the conference room of the White House.
"If we met, I would be a ghost now." Churchill said half-jokingly as he waddled into the room with a cigar in his mouth. "And this possibility does exist. Now there are fewer and fewer safe areas in the North Atlantic... Mr. President, did you know? We discovered another very dangerous German aircraft, which was discovered on April 15th. It’s a twin-engine bomber that can dive and drop bombs, and it can also attack with wire-controlled bombs. It has an amazing range and can operate over the sea more than 1,000 kilometers west of Iceland!”
During the battle on April 15, the German Ju.288 long-range medium bomber made its debut. Instead of attacking American warships, it sank many British merchant ships. The result was reported to the Royal Navy by the surviving merchant ship crews.
Of course there is a reason for these actions of Ju.288. Those merchant ships were full of military supplies. If they were all transported to the British mainland, future landing battles would be more difficult to fight. Moreover, the Germans did not find two relatively high-value American aircraft carriers at that time. As for those old battleships that could only be used to bombard the coast, the generals of the German naval aviation regarded them as waste and were not worth as much as merchant ships filled with weapons and gasoline.
"Is the news accurate?" Roosevelt frowned deeply. "The place where the battle took place that day was 2,000 kilometers away from the European continent, right?"
"It has been verified repeatedly." Churchill shook his fat head, sat down on a sofa in the living room, and lit a cigar for himself. "The combat radius of this aircraft should be 5,000 kilometers! It is also a twin-engine fighter. We estimate that the Germans have made a breakthrough in engines of the 2,500-horsepower level. It is not known that this German long-range aircraft uses air-cooling. The engine is still a liquid-cooled engine.”
This is definitely not good news! Because the engine is very important to the performance of the aircraft, without a good engine, no matter how good the design is, it is useless. For example, the American P51 was not outstanding when equipped with its own American engine, but after using the British Merlin 60, it immediately became the best fighter in the British and American camps.
Churchill went on to say: "During the Battle of the Faroe Islands, the Italian P.108 flew very fast at an altitude of 11,000 meters. This shows that the German turbochargers also passed the test..."
A 2,500-horsepower engine, plus a turbocharger, plus a wire-controlled glide bomb... It seems that it is still difficult to stop the Germans from advancing!
The atmosphere in the conference room was a bit dull. The fat man couldn't go on and the lame man looked a little depressed. U.S. Army Chief of Staff Marshall, who participated in the talks, broke his silence at this time. He said: "Mr. Prime Minister, now that our two countries are in combat against the German, Japanese and Italian groups at the same time, the U.S. Army believes that there should be a Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. As the highest military decision-making body of the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations.”
"This is what we should do. If you don't propose it, we will do it..." Churchill nodded, and then looked at Viscount Brooke, the Imperial Chief of Staff who came to the United States with him.
"Mr. President, Admiral," Viscount Brooke said, "Based on the current situation, the Germans will soon land on the British mainland, and will take action before the autumnal equinox at the latest. Since the Royal Navy has no way to defend the strait, we expect that There will be 1.5 million Germans on British soil...and we can hold out for 6-8 months at most."
Roosevelt and Marshall looked at each other. The American Joint Chiefs of Staff were not as optimistic as the British. They think the British can last for three months... This is actually very high for the British. No one has been able to survive the German Army's attack for more than a week without being defeated!
As for wanting to keep it for 6-8 months, this is optimistic to the point of being unscientific, and no one with a brain would believe it.
"The situation will not be that bad," Roosevelt said confidently, "Moscow will not watch the last country in Europe that can contain German military power fall. And we in the United States will not let Britain, the bridgehead of democracy, be Nazi Germany occupied... If we lose Britain, it will mean the loss of the bridgehead for the counterattack. The entire European continent will be ruled by dark and evil forces."
Roosevelt said "all of Europe"! This included lands under Bolshevik rule.
Churchill glanced at Roosevelt: "The United States is now standing with us, but the Bolsheviks are still waiting and watching! Maybe...Stalin will finally stand with the Germans and continue their comradely and brotherly friendship."
"This is unlikely." Roosevelt tilted his head and glanced at Commerce Secretary Hopkins, who would soon leave for the Soviet Union to discuss "business issues" with Stalin.
"Stalin needed a route to victory rather than defeat," Hopkins said. "If such a route existed, the Soviet Red Army would soon attack the Nazis. If the Soviet Union joined our side, we would win! "
"Victory?" Churchill frowned, "We don't think the Soviet Union has such power."
"In fact, they do not have such power," Marshall took over the topic and said, "Although the Soviet Union has a very powerful tank force, their number of trucks is insufficient. Even with our assistance, it is still too few to fully mechanize the army.
In addition, their air force lacks truly high-performance aircraft, and there is a generation gap between their engine technology and ours and Germany's. But as long as the Soviet Union gets our support, it can at least greatly consume Germany's power and lay the foundation for final victory. "
Churchill asked: "You already have a plan?"
"Yes," Marshall replied affirmatively, "we already have a feasible victory plan."
"Allowing the Soviet Union to attack the British mainland behind the German army was a sneak attack?"
Marshall shook his head and said: "This plan is not very sure... Large-scale tank assaults seem to be the specialty of the Germans. We believe that those Germans must also have countermeasures."
The Americans launched a tank assault on Oahu and were severely beaten by the German ally Japan! Therefore, senior U.S. Army generals like Marshall doubted that the German infantry would be able to withstand the opponent's tank attacks like the Japanese infantry.
"So how to win?" Churchill asked.
"Bombing!" Marshall said, "It's still strategic bombing. American and British planes took off from the Soviet Union to bomb the oil fields in the Middle East and Romania. As long as Germany's oil supply is cut off, their armies will become weak."
Strategic bombing was the core of several anti-German combat plans jointly formulated by the U.S. Army Staff and the Department of Naval Operations - without bombing to destroy Germany's war potential, the United States would simply not be able to win.
In the original plan, bombers would take off from the British mainland to level Germany. But now the British mainland is unlikely to be a departure point for bombers, so the Soviet Union is the only option.
Roosevelt said: "Mr. Prime Minister, as far as I know you, Britain, have been preparing to bomb Germany."
Churchill puffed on his cigar. He already understood the Americans' plan. In this plan, Britain needs to use its own bombers and pilots to work with the Americans and the Soviets to use Soviet land as a base to conduct intensive and repeated bombings of German oil gathering areas until they are completely destroyed. .
"Continuous bombing is a war of attrition!" Churchill said hesitantly.
The reason why he has been reluctant to send planes to bomb German cities is that he knows that Britain, which is now blocked, cannot afford such a war of attrition. There aren't enough planes, parts, pilots and gasoline. If it were to hit the airtight air defense net of the Germans, the Royal Air Force might not have anything flying in its hands in three or four months.
"We know," said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lacey, "that we must maintain the Newfoundland-Greenland-Iceland-Murmansk route... It will be a winning route!"
"What to maintain?" Churchill asked.
"Sustain it with the navies of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union!"
U.S. Chief of Naval Operations William Lacey said with his fingers: "Now we have the USS Washington and seven other old battleships, the USS Massachusetts will be commissioned in May, and the USS Alabama will be commissioned in August. And now you have the York. The Duke, Renown, Nelson, five Queen Elizabeth class ships, and the Anson and Howe will be in service around the autumnal equinox, and the Soviets will also have two super battleships and a brand new battlecruiser by then. So we were fully capable of maintaining the Newfoundland-Greenland-Iceland-Murmansk route and getting enough bombs and planes and pilots to the Soviet Union."