Britain and the United States have always been paying close attention to the whereabouts of the German and Italian fleet. They were relieved when they heard that they did not appear in the direction of India, but they were more vigilant about the axis attack on South Africa. Although the specific location of the German and Italian fleet is not clear, the navy concluded that the German army would start an attack on South Africa in early September based on the time calculations of the German and Italian fleet through the Suez Canal.

In general, this is bad news, but it is good news for the US military that is determined to launch an overlord operation. This means that by September, they can rely on the South African direction to drag the German and Italian fleet and not give it a chance to support the Azore direction. At the same time, the joint fleet's attack on Australia and New Zealand also deeply hurt the Allied authorities, prompting them to start crowd transfer and evacuation in advance, and no longer be foolishly standing in the coastal areas and being beaten.

After careful discussion, Britain and the United States, in order to ensure that the possible interference in the "Overlord" campaign was eliminated, they pretended to be ignorant of the attack on South Africa, waiting for the enemy to launch an attack to prevent the German and Italian fleet from frightening them back. At the same time, since they were sure that the Axis fleet was not in the Mediterranean Sea or around Azores, the transportation of materials to Britain through the North Atlantic route began to return to normal. Of course, the losses of the transport fleet were still mainly caused by aircraft and submarines on the Azore base.

Now the German army has formed a new idea to deal with the merchant fleet, one is blockade, and the other is to break the diplomatic relations. The blockade mainly relies on the main aircraft carrier formation, which has good results but is unsustainable; the breaking diplomatic relations mainly relies on aircraft and submarines, which has a long-term effect but cannot cut off the transportation line, which at best only increases the losses of Britain and the United States.

During the process of breaking the traffic, large aircraft were first dispatched for reconnaissance, and then positioned it. Finally, summoned and carried out group attacks with aircraft submarines. The ju-290h was upgraded from the ju-290c, with a faster speed (maximum speed of 455 kilometers per hour) and a longer range (nearly 6,600 kilometers). The nose was equipped with the latest German sea search radar, which could fully cover the waters centered on Azores, from Greenland to West to Newfoundland, and from Ireland to East. None of the must-pass routes of the British and American routes were leaked, and it was simply unfavorable, becoming a new generation of "Atlantic Surveillance" that was terrified.

Once the merchant fleet is discovered by the "Atlantic Surveillance", it will enter the processing period: if the ones close to Azores are attacked by joint attack aircraft, if the distance is far and there are submarines, the wave troops will be notified to deploy in advance on the road that the opponent's route must pass. If the distance is far away and there are no submarines, the German army also has a killer weapon to dispatch American bombers from French bases.

The American bomber was originally a bidding project of the Ministry of Arms, requiring it to attack the east coast of the United States and return safely. Therefore, the range was almost abnormally started at 13,000 kilometers, which greatly restricted the airline's product design. However, the German army later occupied Azores and obtained a reliable forward base. In addition, Hoffmann was not interested in strategic bombing of the United States for the time being, and the "super bomb" was still far away. The Ministry of Arms used the American bomber project to bid for heavy bombers for other purposes.

Based on absorbing the relevant models of the B-29b-17 Lancaster, Germany's design concept and application methods for heavy bombers have become more mature, and the main indicators have also been changed to: a range of more than 9,000 kilometers, and can carry 4 HS-293 anti-ship gliding bombs or 2 anti-ship bombs + 1 torpedo for sea attacks. The first to break through the siege was Messerchmitt's me-264. By July, 36 had been deployed along the Atlantic coast of France, followed by Ju-488, and the first batch of 16 aircraft were arranged in early August. Both aircraft reached a range of 9,000 kilometers under a load of 5 tons.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the two products were directly invested in the Atlantic strangle war. Whoever had the most results and had the most stable performance would become Germany's strategic bombers.

The Allied anti-breaking tactics are constantly advancing, and the German strangle tactics are also constantly improving. From practice, the effect of heavy bombers carrying torpedoes is not ideal. The drop at high altitudes is not effective directly, and the drop at low altitudes is easily attacked. Finally, it was determined that all HS-293 guided anti-ship bombs were used. After achieving outstanding results in the Mediterranean Battle, the German army promoted it on a large scale, but later found that the use of guided bombs was too strict, requiring control of the airspace to both speed, evasion ability and air defense firepower to be high. Therefore, withdrawing from the front line of attacking enemy warships and focusing on attacking merchant fleets in the Atlantic Ocean. They are slow, large, and air defense firepower is almost non-existent, which is the most handy target of HS-293.

The Allies quickly developed interference equipment for wireless HS-293. Although the German army improved the wireless frequency, it would not take long for the Allies to improve electronic countermeasures technology. In the end, they simply abolished the wireless, directly upgraded the use of wired, and added a TV guide with the bullet head. They can observe the real-time situation of the battlefield through the wires, which facilitates the controller to see the situation below clearly at high altitudes and in harsh weather, and facilitates the aircraft to launch air strikes at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters. Although the weight of the bomb was increased to more than 900 kilograms, it is still more than enough to carry 4 hs-293ds for both me-264 and ju-488.

Since escort aircraft carriers often take off fighter jets to drive away the "Atlantic Surveillance" after the Caiyun carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft was put into use, the German army was furious to use land-based colorful clouds for forcibly reconnaissance. The Caiyun not only flew fast but also flew far, but also often used line-of-fire teasing tactics, making all Allied carrier-based fighters trying to catch up with it.

Once the reconnaissance aircraft finds that the merchant fleet does not have an escort aircraft carrier, it is responsible for continuous tracking, and directly summons heavy bombers to attack with gliding bombs, one shot at a time; if it is found that an escort aircraft carrier is found, it will first use a submarine to ambush and knock it off, and then do the same the next day.

Under the joint strangulation of German submarines and aircraft, the loss rate of British and American merchant ships rose sharply, basically stable at 30-35%. The United States is desperately increasing the manufacturing efforts of the Freewheeler, hoping to offset the losses with more ships and cargo, but ships and materials can be continuously increased, and the sailors and personnel on the fleet cannot accumulate. The Eighth Air Force initially suffered only 15-20%, which was already unbearable. In the face of the fleet's 30% loss rate, it means that the probability of successfully completing 10 sailing missions and retreat without more than 3%!

Even so, in order to make up for the backlog of material demand in the previous few months, the relevant transportation still has to bite the bullet and promote the monthly supply demand of 1 million tons of refined oil, which will cost people a lifetime.

However, the German army could not find a better solution to the strategic air transport of Britain and the United States. With the comprehensive advancement of the "Overlord" campaign, the strategic air transport entered a saturation stage. Thousands of British workers, army, navy, and pilots arrived from Britain to the United States to prepare for war, either receiving equipment to carry out training, or investing in targeted training for the US military, or investing in vigorous large-scale production.

In major shipyards on the East Coast, workers could not stop at all, and rushed to work the Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers like crazy. The construction speed was constantly refreshed, and the construction period was updated almost every hour. The supervisor also quietly relaxed the project quality requirements and let go of all the defects that were not principled and decisive. They thought that the superiors temporarily lowered the quality standards in order to pursue quantity, but they did not understand that in the minds of General Jin and Turner, these escort aircraft carriers worth tens of millions of dollars were just cheap consumables of the Battle of Overlords. It was unnecessary to pay too much attention to quality.

The training of carrier-based pilots to match these 50 aircraft carriers is also underway. After a large number of British pilots have been added, the skilled personnel are still very insufficient. Those rookies who have just obtained qualified take-off and landing certificates have also been stuffed into the escort queue. The requirements given to them are very simple. Be sure to master the take-off and combat key points, be able to take off from the escort aircraft carrier and participate in combat.

A novice pilot named George Bush asked: "Sir, what should I do if I want to land after the battle? So many aircraft carriers and aircraft may not be able to find the way home by then."

"If you are sure, just find an aircraft carrier to land as long as it is an Allied aircraft carrier."

"What if you're not sure? It always feels very difficult to land in such a small place."

The commander shrugged: "Then just jump, I hope there is a destroyer that just picks you up..."

Washington is constantly adding weight to the scale of war, and the power and materials that are being launched by Operation Overlord are becoming increasingly tilted.

At this moment, Nimitz, who was resting in Pearl Harbor, found that he was in a dilemma: from the perspective of combat requirements and situations, he should deal with the main force of Horitiki's joint fleet; but from the domestic requirements, he should be more cautious. General Jin sent him a telegram. Although there was no word "protecting the first ship", he could understand the hints between the lines: Once the direction of Azores suffered a severe blow, the Pacific Fleet was the only hope of turning the tables on the US Navy, so Nimitz had to control Halsey and not to be Menglang.

In fact, Halsey's careless and reckless character is just an illusion. This guy is more sloppy than anyone else. If anyone believes the nonsense he says, he is so fooled that he can't find North. He suggests that Nimitz is cautious and wait for the independent light aircraft carriers supported from Cape Horn to meet with the main force of the fleet.

Since the Australian direction has been informing the Joint Fleet that it has 5-6 aircraft carriers, Nimitz, who was deceived by intelligence, combined his own strength, General Jin's hints and Halsey's suggestions, finally made a decision to not attack for the time being, and wait for the arrival of domestic reinforcements to converge.
Chapter completed!