At night, the TF48 fleet slowly sailed across the periphery of Port France, which is the closest port to the Antarctic in the southern Indian Ocean and part of the French overseas territory. The island is 3,000 kilometers away from Madagascar, and there are almost no people on it. After bypassing the island, the journey to Perth, Australia is almost halfway.

The weather was biting cold, the weather was gloomy and the visibility was extremely low. Except for the necessary staff on duty, everyone else was curled up in the cabin to sleep.

"Did the Japanese occupy Midway?" Nimitz, who was in the bridge, asked in a low voice with his head down.

In order to keep it as confidential as possible, the entire TF48 fleet strictly achieved radio silence, only receiving telegrams and not sending them to the public.

Smith knew he was very sad and comforted: "This is an expected result. Except for more than 100 aircraft and thousands of ground troops on the island, nothing else can stop the main force of the joint fleet. Now the Pacific Fleet uses aviation weakening method to continuously dispatch b-29 and b-17 heavy bombers to attack the Japanese fleet. It has sunk more than ten enemy ships in succession, including four tankers that are very important to Japan. I don't think the situation is as pessimistic as you think."

This method of "heavy bombing and replacing ships" was summarized by Turner, and it was barely a bit of a victory: the US land, which launched continuous attacks, HNA sank nearly 100,000 tons of Japanese ships and more than 40 Japanese fighters at the cost of nearly 300 heavy bombers.

It is hard to say whether this deal is cost-effective, because the loss of US aircraft and bombs consumed were nearly 200 million US dollars, and the results they achieved were only over 100 million US dollars. In addition, behind the 300 heavy bombers that were shot down, there were hundreds of barely flying back to the base, with scarred and nearly scrapped aircraft, which was also a considerable expense.

In addition to the unfavorable comparison of economic losses, personnel losses are also greatly detrimental to the United States. The 300 heavy bombers and other losses were nearly 3,000 people, while at least half of Japanese pilots and crew members fell into the water were successfully rescued, and Japan's total personnel losses were only more than 1,200.

Midway Island has a voyage of more than 2,400 kilometers from Hawaii. The heavy bomber group cannot get escorted by a fighter. This attack that is ready to die is even more tragic.

Ingram, Halsey and others watched the pilots come from the West Coast to support one by one, attack from the base and then come back sparsely. Each crew was asked to write a suicide note before attacking. If the crew members think they are not mentally prepared, they can slow down and attack again and again. However, inspired by patriotic passion and peers' imitation, the US air force did not disobey for the time being, and gritted their teeth and carried out high-intensity attacks for five consecutive days.

Compared to the despair of losing hundreds of aircraft a day in the Battle of Iceland, Newfoundland, and Caribbean, this war of attrition is more like cutting off the flesh with a blunt knife: the Americans are using nearly 5:2 economic losses, personnel losses and Japanese consumption.

In the eyes of ruthless and rational people, this exchange ratio is relatively high, but it is still worth it: 400 heavy bombers are just the production of Boeing after full power. If it can eliminate 100,000 tons of Japanese ships and related materials every week and defeat 40 opponents of the 40 aircraft, Japan will never win this war. Japan will not be able to build 5 million tons of warships a year.

Not to mention 5 million tons of warships, even Japan cannot build the most ordinary ship with 5 million tons. As long as we continue to fight unremittingly, the United States will definitely win in the end. But everyone doesn’t know when this turning point will come, at least there is no hope now, and only sees aviation troops who will never return to the team after attacking one by one.

In this war of attrition, the lives of crew members are calculated in the sky and in the hours.

The Japanese side was also deeply troubled by this war of attrition. After the restoration and deployment of Midway Airport, land-based F-190a8 and do-412 were all launched, and electric dual 128mm anti-aircraft guns and 88mm anti-aircraft guns were also set up. The 90mm anti-aircraft guns left by the United States were also used by Japanese officers and soldiers.

But if the United States still maintains such a high-intensity bombing frequency and without the cover of the mobile fleet, it would be impossible to survive the continuous air strikes in Hawaii by relying on the more than 100 aircraft and some anti-aircraft guns on the island. Helplessly, Tsukahara, called for support from the domestic market, was preparing to leave behind several escort aircraft carriers and precious carrier-based aircraft pilots to deal with the war of attrition.

The Tokyo Base Camp has urgently requested Germany to increase the purchase of do-412 and add a new purchase of ta-152, and requires the army to provide pilots and tankers to fight in the Pacific. Considering that Hori Teiki has won a lot of benefits for the army on the Guinea issue, even Gustav and K5 can be obtained, the army believes that this face should be given. Ishihara Kanir stroked his pen and drew 3 pilots from India, China and Kanto Army to collect 400 fighter pilots and 12 tankers with varying tonnages for the navy to use aircraft, fuel, logistics and sailors on the tanker were all included by the navy.

Everyone can't understand why Americans fight like this. Isn't it that Americans value human lives the most and are the least willing to fight to the death? Why are they now starting to fight a bad battle that kills 2,000 enemies and loses 5,000 on their own? Even if the US imperial wealth is rich and does not care about consumption, does their president not care about human lives or votes?

If you can't figure it out, the opinions of the headquarters army and navy are unanimous. If Midway Island is taken, it is impossible to give up, otherwise the joint fleet will not have enough foothold. If the supply line is cut off, the entire joint fleet will have the risk of death overseas. No matter how difficult it is, you must grit your teeth and withstand it.

Lieutenant General Takiji Oshiki, who once served as the Minister of Aviation and is currently the Deputy Chief of the Military Command, made a generous speech at the base camp meeting: "Since Americans are not afraid of death and dispatching heavy bombardment to engage in unescorted operations, how can we be afraid of death? We should face the battle bravely and let the enemy see our courage and perseverance! Let who can't stand it first!"

Nimitz didn't know the strategy of Truman and Marshall preparing for the Great Transfer of the World, but only knew that personnel adjustments occurred in the South American theater: the position of commander of the South American theater, he was dismissed and Clark was temporarily acting. Clark's acting time would not be long, because Lieutenant General Stilwell had left Chongqing to rush to Irkutsk, preparing to go to Kamchatka as soon as possible and Aleutian returned home. In order to commend his contribution to working in the Chinese theater for many years and leading the Allies to "recover lost land", Truman decided to promote him to Army General.

Knowing that Stilwell was leaving, the Chongqing authorities were excited. Although the Americans were too busy to take care of themselves now, everyone thought that the United States was still powerful. To this end, the axis only dared to say that the United States was in a standstill instead of that the United States surrendered. It shows that each other was afraid of the United States. The establishment of Pakistan was much beyond the expectations of the Chongqing authorities. Many people believed that there was something to do in the middle. Chongqing had sent secret diplomats to ask Germany to mediate the Sino-Japanese conflict. Although China and Germany declared war, everyone knew that this was a superficial article. China and Germany had never fought at all. The relationship before the war was very good. Now Germany is in a big way, and holding Berlin's thigh is obviously the meaning of it.

With the end of the Indian battle, the former Southeast Asian theater was announced to be disbanded, Chief of Staff Weidmai replaced Stilwell to China, and the US military stranded in Pakistan also broke the case with the British side. This is also the content of the British-Japanese armistice contract.

Due to the particularity of the British-American war alliance and side-by-side fighting, Mountbatten, who presided over the overall situation in Pakistan, could neither detain the Americans nor hand them over to the Japanese as in China, nor could he continue to take them in. Finally, Mountbatten proposed to send American gifts out of China, and Japan agreed. Although Pakistan, including Slim, Okinlek, Wilson and other military leaders, once they did not fight, their rights immediately shrank. Edward VIII obviously trusted Mountbatten more, who was his adjutant when he was young and had a close relationship with the royal family.

In terms of striving and coordinating relations between all parties, Mountbatten is obviously more suitable for dealing with domestic, Iran, Japan, and Pakistani autonomous governments than several military leaders.

With his mediation, the vast majority of the US military took a plane to leave Peshawar for Chongqing. A small number of grassroots officers and soldiers who were unable to leave and unwilling to leave continued to stay in Pakistan. In order to complete the agreement with the Japanese army, Mountbatten adopted a great measure in Britain that they swear allegiance to Edward VIII and then broke away from their American nationality, became citizens of the Pakistani autonomous region and transformed into instructors of the Pakistan Defense Forces.

Japan also knows the small moves made by the British on the US military issue, but Japan now hopes that Britain will pay compensation materials as soon as possible, and also hopes to cooperate in other economic, trade and technical fields, which is considered a demand for the British and Germans. Pakistan clearly has support from Britain and Germany, and Japan is deaf and dumb about this and turns a blind eye. Tomoto Yamashita even took the initiative to release a group of British and Pakistani officers and soldiers injured in the Indian battle in order to ease relations.

After this effort, the situation in India began to stabilize.

Nimitz was worried about more than a battlefield in the Pacific. The day after Japan occupied Midway Island, the German main fleet arrived in Brazilian waters. Mashar divided the fleet into two. Most of the army troops continued to march towards Rio under the protection of four escort aircraft carriers and prepared to land, while the main fleet rushed to El Salvador.

In the afternoon of the same day, the main German formation entered the 800-kilometer air defense circle of El Salvador. After repelling the last round of air strikes of the El Salvador Army Aircraft, Marshal, commander-in-chief of the South Atlantic War Zone, decided to use a brand new tactic to deal with the US troops entrenched in El Salvador.

"Is this tactic really feasible?"

Ozawa shook his head: "I don't know either. It's my first experience like you. I never knew that wars could be fought like this."

"Then let's try the strategy of the head of state today. It doesn't matter if it fails anyway. He always has many incredible and deviant ideas." Mashar smiled, "It's just that many ideas seem to be right in hindsight."

All the staff officers laughed...
Chapter completed!