Seeing Turner return to the Joint Conference in a noble manner and even give advice on such a critical occasion, the depressed spirit of the Army, especially the senior management of Land Aviation, is really indifferent. Turner's strategy of "changing crew tankers" has greatly damaged Land Aviation's vitality, and he is still unable to recover.

But Land Airlines had no way to accuse Turner of the situation because the intention to get Turner back was clear. The Navy wanted to protect the Pacific Fleet, or at least to protect the backbone of the Pacific Fleet. This was not only President Truman's determination, but also Dewey's request. Even if Turner and Dewey turned their faces and expressed their dissatisfaction with Dewey in public and private occasions. At least in this small-scale public meeting today, Dewey still shook hands with Turner with grace, and General Turner, General Turner greeted him briefly for his retirement life. As a politician, he should be good at concealing his true feelings. He treated Turner not for Turner himself, but for the Navy behind Turner.

Many people, including Nimitz, have criticized Turner's linear thinking. Even Spruins, who has a close personal relationship with him, also recognized this evaluation, but this did not prevent them from seeing Turner as their own. Turner did, in his dictionary of life philosophy, "Naval interests are the first!", only by understanding this sentence can he truly understand Turner.

People with linear thinking are a little bit good and will get stuck. As long as they have a given direction, they will definitely be able to make moves. As for whether the moves are good or bad, they will have other side effects, they are the second and even ignored.

Turner first made clear his opinion that he opposed the dispersed escape or the rapid force fleeing first, and also opposed the idea that Halsey put forward the idea of ​​"fighting the death with the Japanese army on the southern or northern fronts" was the mainstream view developed by the staff of the Joint Council in an emergency situation.

He first asked a question, it was simple and thought-provoking, or was it important to face or fleet? Political or military?

As the only mobile force on the west coast, the Pacific Fleet is not a Japanese opponent in the short term, but if it still exists, it can at least play a role in restraining and delaying time. If Halsey's idea of ​​"death vigorously", although it can defeat 2-3 or even more Japanese aircraft carriers, it will definitely not change the situation where the Japanese army will be in the Pacific. Once the Pacific Fleet is completely destroyed, it will soon be Hawaii's turn. Turner asked Clark: "Suppose Hawaii has no land aviation and naval support, how many months do you think you can hold on with the current 100,000 defenders and related materials on the island?"

Clark cannot say that Ai Ai cannot say, let alone that he cannot say that even MacArthur cannot say. For the Hawaiian defenders who have "no reinforcements outside and no fuel inside", once they face Japanese siege and landing battles, their morale will decline very quickly. Maybe it is very strong for three months, or maybe it is impossible for one month. In short, no one in the army dares to guarantee it.

Similarly, Turner analyzed the current situation: Not to mention that the Navy will not be able to deploy power to the West Coast for a long time (6-8 months) in the future, even if it can be deployed, there will not be too many resources available in the future. The Navy Shipbuilding Commission has just confirmed that by June 1945, in addition to completing three Essex-class ships by the end of this year, an additional 10 ships can be completed.

It sounds like there are quite a lot of numbers, but the distribution of these 10 ships is actually very uneven: only 4 ships were completed in the first three months, and 2 ships per month in the next three months, starting from April 1945, the Essex class will continue to stabilize at the standard of delivering 2 ships per month. Unfortunately, this time point is of little significance to the United States, or it is too slow: the warships delivered in June will not be put into operation in at least August, and the situation on the West Coast is now in danger and cannot be dragged down at that time.

So after Turner asked this question, Nimitz quickly stated on behalf of the Navy: Fleet is the first, face is the second; military is the second, politics is the second. Even as long as Halsey and the main force of the fleet can be saved, Nimitz can bow to Horitiji and beg for mercy, the top leader of the Navy has said this, Truman and other senior executives can only agree.

This is also why Nimitz instructed Spruins to invite Turner back. It is said that he also received guidance from General Jin. Simply asking for some plans and plans can completely let Turner privately tell the two that now let Turner be the inappropriate title of "Deputy Director of the Office of the Navy Affairs Advisor of Retired Generals", which obviously requires Turner to say that everyone understands the truth that everyone thinks about the Navy but cannot say on the surface.

In fact, Turner is now used as a gun, but he is willing to do so without the towering tree of the Navy, Turner is nothing. Not to mention giving advice, he might have to go to prison in two days. At least he doesn't have to go now. Nimitz and Spruins even found a considerable place in the Pentagon to set up a "advisor office". In addition to naval affairs, maybe there will be military affairs in the future. Who knows?

Turner's view is of course different from others. He believes that the most dangerous time for the TF50 is not the next few hours, but in the early morning of the 31st. As for the current situation, as long as the fleet retreats in groups and uses escort aircraft carriers to guard the core warships, it is absolutely fine to spend the next few hours safely.

His judgment is as follows:

First, Halsey has 230 fighter jets, which can cause serious damage to the invading enemy. In fact, he believes that the Japanese army has long had the opportunity to attack the TF50, but it is nothing more than worrying about the huge losses and refusing to take action. As long as the aircraft carrier is escorted to the Essex class at sea and in the air, and at the same time, it is collectively retreated at a speed of 18 knots, and it is not a big problem to survive until the sun sets safely.

Regarding the first reason, many people also thought that some staff members proposed to give priority to the retreat of 2 Essex-class, 2 South Dakota-class and 8 cruisers, and the escort aircraft carriers to take off fighter jets all the way. However, Turner believes that escort aircraft carriers can also block mines for warships at critical moments and act as meat pads. Now the Essex-class is not afraid of Japanese bombs, but the Japanese torpedo is deadly. As long as you hit the previous one, there may be no risk of sinking, but you must slow down. Now, the situation will be done as soon as you slow down.

Second, after sunrise tomorrow, the risk of the Halsey fleet will be reduced to a relatively low level.

The second judgment is actually extended based on the first judgment: Since the Japanese army did not fight in the early stage, they were concerned about the killing of US escort fighters, as long as they maintained sufficient fighter jets and speed, the Japanese army would still be concerned about their own losses and were quite restrained.

The diagram he drew on the chart is quite obvious: the current fleet time is 10:30, and it will be about 20 hours from the sunrise on the 31st. Now it is 1,800 kilometers away from the West Coast. If you can move slowly at a speed of 18 knots, you can advance at least 650 kilometers within 20 hours, which means it is only 1,150 kilometers away from the West Coast. Land and HNA have many p-51p-47f4u fighters on the west coast. After loading the secondary fuel tank, they can provide a large range of about 2,500 kilometers, allowing them to set off from the West Coast, always hovering over the fleet, and use the remaining fuel to escort the fleet.

For this view, Land Airlines instinctively expressed disgust, and Spasse subconsciously asked: "Army pilots do not take off and land at all. At such a long distance, they can't fly over the head of the warship and stay for a few minutes and then return, and they cannot escort for a long time."

"I never said I'll let them go back!"

"You!" Spatz glared.

"No need to return is not to let them commit suicide. The planes will cover the fleet until the oil is exhausted or the sea is forced to land, and then let the destroyers rescue it... I have learned that these aircraft can basically maintain 2 hours of escort at this position. The closer the fleet is to the west coast, the longer the escort aircraft can stay." Turner smiled bitterly, "This is what Hori Teiki did in the Battle of the South Pacific, and we will learn it now."

Everyone nodded and their faces began to relax. Although the pilots inevitably suffered some losses in this way, there was at least a rescue channel, which was much better than simply dying. The generals of the China Airlines looked at each other and agreed with their noses, saying that the 350 aircraft were not stingy, but that there were not many skilled pilots who could still maintain skilled combat after flying 1,150 kilometers. Nimitz dug out his mind to draw 400 HNA planes, and said that the first batch of HNA boards at dawn was first to be put on. After HNA was exhausted, it would not be flying 1,150 kilometers, or maybe 950 or even 850 kilometers.

Now Lu Hang has nothing to say and agrees with a stingy bullet.

According to Turner's calculations, although 750 aircraft are not very safe, they are basically enough.

"The biggest risk now is that the time before sunset today and sunrise tomorrow, I infer that the enemy will send elite night attack teams, and we do not have good defense methods, so night air defense is simply a difficult point. The West Coast cannot defend, and the fleet cannot defend either..."

Everyone nodded with a cold expression, which was also the reason why everyone unanimously wanted to save the naval fleet: without the naval fleet, the West Coast would be harassed every day, and at that time, both political and military would be extremely passive, and more people would be killed in the Land Air Force, responsible for national defense.

"According to my understanding, the biggest difficulty of night attack is to discover fleets. As long as the fleet is discovered, it is not difficult for Japan to launch an attack, so..." Turner raised his head and emphasized, "The night formation must be dispersed, and at the same time, to deploy suspicious soldiers. My idea is to use 12 escort aircraft carriers to simulate it as the main fleet to attract the Japanese army's firepower for us. The main fleet takes the opportunity to escape, escape separately at night, and find ways to gather together into small clusters at dawn tomorrow. When scattered and escaped at night, each fleet can play the fastest speed."

Everyone thinks that some reason is: scattered escape at night will definitely greatly enhance the search of the Japanese army. The difficulty of attacks. The group of escort aircraft carriers that still hang together will become relatively eye-catching targets. The Japanese commanders will definitely eat the easy-to-fight escort aircraft carriers before looking for other warships to be unlucky. In this way, there will be more opportunities for escape. After all, it is impossible for Japanese aircraft to cast a net to search all over the sky after flying hundreds of kilometers. They will also be subject to fuel restrictions.

There is another advantage of accelerating escape at night. You can be closer to the West Coast at dawn. At that time, it may not be 1150 kilometers but 1050 or even 1000 kilometers...
Chapter completed!