Due to the time difference, Washington is the city with the latest nightfall, and the quarrels in the Joint Conference are no less than those in London.

"We should find a way to assist Iceland. Even if we cannot directly enter the battle, it is necessary to restrain the German army at the appropriate time." Nimitz stood up, not knowing how many times he was making a speech. From the beginning of receiving the news, he planned to follow Spruins's method to use the only remaining fleet aircraft carrier to take 4-6 escort aircraft carriers to Iceland to fight.

After several months of construction, the US military has produced a bunch of Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers. In addition to the British-Canada route, the South African route cannot be taken, and Australia and New Zealand are controlled by Japan and cannot move. In addition to transporting supplies to the Caribbean Sea and the four ships thrown in the Indian Ocean (although one of them is British, it is made by the United States in the final analysis), the loss rate of escort aircraft carriers has finally dropped to a relatively low level that is affordable.

The prominent problem in the United States is that there are not enough skilled carrier-based pilots. The last time thanks to Cunningham's final cover, Nimitz successfully left the battlefield with the Franklin and collected nearly 150 people (groups) of British and American pilots. The Joint Conference arranged them all to the newly-served Hancock and Bennington. With several months of training results and desperate transfers, he finally collected the number of carrier-based pilots for these three aircraft carriers.

But this number is only the number of first-tier teams, with the overall number of less than 357 people (groups), and even the minimum coefficient of 1.2 (referring to the ratio of the number of pilots to the capacity of aircraft carrier-based aircraft) has not reached, not to mention the expected 1.5 coefficient. Among the three major aircraft carrier countries, Germany's coefficient is as high as 1.6, Japan also has 1.3, but the United States has less than 1.2.

The combat is not only about the quantity coefficient, but also about the pilot experience and ability. In this regard, the United States is the worst. Among German carrier-based aircraft pilots, the proportion of those who have participated in more than 5 battles (referring to carrier-based aircraft) is as high as 45%. Those who have participated in more than 3 battles are 75%, and those who have participated in at least 1 combat experience are 90%. Those who have participated in more than 5 battles are more than 50%, but those who have participated in more than 3 battles are less than 65%, and those who have participated in at least 1 experience are about 0%.

If the US military uses the same experience standard, the proportion is less than half of that of Japan. Especially the American pilots who have survived 5 battles but still survived are all treasures. They all withdraw from the front line to serve as training instructors, and how can they be willing to go to the battlefield? If we consider the land-based battles that German pilots participated in before joining HNA, then their technical level is completely crushing from heaven and earth. Not to mention anything else, the more than 400 groups of trained pilots on Socotra Island (mainly Germany, some Japanese and Italian) are enough to overwhelm the power in Nimitz's hands.

This is just the third echelon of the German fleet's strength. The first echelon includes existing carrier-based aircraft members and pilots who can perform cross-platform tactics at several major bases; the second echelon includes pilots who can board ships at various naval bases but currently perform land-based operations; the third echelon is the Socotra Island special training base; as for the larger fourth echelon (attributed to HNA but not targeted carrier-based aircraft training) and the fifth echelon (attributed to the Air Force but not transferred yet).

Now the number of first-line aircraft and pilots of the Luftwaffe and HNA in Germany is almost equal to the total of other major powers except the United States (Japan, Britain, Soviet, and Italy).

This front-line pilot ownership is not inferior to the United States. After both sides jointly eliminated the pilots of 4 heavy bombers (transporters), the number of pilots in Germany and the United States was basically the same. If the United States had not relied on those more than 4,000 sets of 4 heavy aircraft, it would not have a numerical advantage over Germany. In the field of jets that represents the future, Germany has exceeded 3,000. Not only are there jet fighters, but also jet bombers pilots, while the combined figures of Britain and the United States are less than 15% of Germany.

In fact, the number of HNA carrier-based pilots is not large, but the number of top players with high technical skills is too small, and the aircraft is not very powerful, so people have repeatedly made high exchange ratios in combat. If the United States is willing to calm down and put all the pilots on the escort aircraft carriers into the front-line combat ranks, there is a lot of room for improvement in the embarrassment situation of US Navy pilots. Although the total number of 42 escort aircraft carriers (almost all of them are Casablanca-class) in the US Navy has not yet met the lower limit of Turner's original C+ plan (50), compared with the 12 German ships and 9 Japanese ships, it has a completely overwhelming advantage, which is also a huge scale of nearly 1,500 people (groups).

Among the three major naval forces, the ratio of the number of aircraft carriers to escort aircraft carriers in Germany is nearly 1:2, Japan is nearly 1:1.5, but the United States is only 1:10. In short, there are too few regular aircraft carriers and too many escort aircraft carriers. Truman, who does not understand the navy, is very sensitive to numbers, pointed out the issue keenly, and proposed to stop the routes to aid Britain and aid the Soviet Union. This will not only save a lot of materials and financial funds, but also use precious shipbuilders for the construction of main aircraft carriers and cruisers, and can also alleviate the urgent needs of pilots. Unfortunately, the reality of the two ocean navies forces the United States to maintain a huge escort aircraft carrier formation, otherwise, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand will die for you immediately.

Admiral Jin also believed that it was necessary to adjust. There were two Essex-class aircraft carriers (Good Man Richard and Randolph) in service from July to August, and there were Shangri-La, Lake Champlain and Antitan three aircraft carriers in service from September to October, and there were also at least 600 pilots in the shortage. In contrast, the current gap in cruisers is extremely large, and it has even been reduced to a dangerous level. The number of cruisers that maintain the 3 aircraft carrier is not enough. If 5 aircraft carriers are added, I am afraid that all the useful cruisers in China will not be used for aircraft carrier formations, and it is impossible to use them in the escort force at all.

So in late May, the Navy Committee formed a resolution: reduce the production of 80 escort aircraft carriers in the fiscal year 1944 to 45, and invest the funds, raw materials and workers in the construction of the Auckland-class air defense cruiser, adding 16 ships in one go.

Given that the construction period of the Auckland class is long (about 20 months), the Navy Committee has put forward a large number of simplified opinions, including the removal of torpedo tubes and the construction of a modular system, and also requires the use of a three-shift manufacturing operation like the Essex class to compress the construction period to less than 14 months. As for the size, the Brooklyn class (10,000 tons of light patrol), which has a larger displacement and a longer time, except for the warships that have started construction on the ship platform, the rest will no longer be built. As for the more complex and troublesome heavy cruisers, no one mentioned it at all.

The number of excellent pilots has become a heart disease in the United States, and they are completely at a disadvantage in this regard, but they never expected that their confident aircraft production advantages will gradually be eliminated.

The total number of aircraft production in individual countries is still a significant advantage: the monthly output is more than 8,000 aircraft, which is more than the second place in Germany. However, compared with the data in 1942, the gap is significantly narrowed: the US production exceeded Germany by more than twice the production. The production of aircraft of the Axis allies Italy, Japan, France and even Belgium is still steadily increasing. The production of Japanese aircraft was nearly 3,000 aircraft per month after the army and naval models and resource allocation were successively unified, and Italy's production exceeded 1,000 aircraft per month for the first time. France and Belgium's aviation industries recovered the fastest, and the sum of the two was more than 1,000 aircraft per month. Considering that France is insufficient than its own equipment demand, at least 500 aircraft per month will be added to Germany.

However, due to resource restrictions, the production of aircraft is declining steadily due to resource restrictions. Take the United Kingdom as an example. Originally, aircraft production was the same as Germany, about 2,000 aircraft per month. When the German mobilization peak gradually approached 5,500 aircraft, the UK's production volume not only did not increase but dropped to 1,500 aircraft per month due to the blockade of resources. If it were not for the existence of wooden aircraft such as mosquitoes, the number would have been smaller; the Soviet Union was even worse. Due to the continuous loss of major industrial bases and raw material bases, the production volume suddenly dropped from 3,000 aircraft per month to less than 2,000 aircraft per month.

Overall, the monthly production of aircraft in the three alliance countries is less than 12,000 aircraft per month, while the four Axis countries are more than 10,000 aircraft per month. After excluding four heavy aircraft from each other, the production of axis aircraft is even slightly more than that of the Allies.

Although Germany and the United States cannot accurately obtain each other's numbers, they can know from the process of fighting and each other that they can expand to what level the opponent's strength has expanded to while Germany can fight on the Eastern Front while allowing local air force to continue to suppress the British southern aviation force. Even the number of air fleets in Norway has expanded to more than 1,500 aircraft. It is conceivable how strong Germany is.

Based on various factors, General Li strongly opposed the dispatch of the fleet, and also obtained Marshall's understanding and General Jin's echo: There are three divisions on Iceland, but there are eight divisions in South America. What if the remaining naval forces are brought in for Iceland, what should South America do? As for the Iceland issue, the British should send air force to cover and lose Iceland. America will lose three divisions at most, but Britain is completely ruined. Shouldn't it use all its strength to fight?

The figures holding this concept have selectively forgotten the situation where Britain has not had much fuel reserves for high-level aviation, and have also ignored the possibility that Britain is unwilling to continue to fight. Although Nimitz's loud voice made them realize the seriousness of the problem, they had no clue what to do.

Truman concluded: "This is also needed to save, and that is also needed to save it, and in the end it is impossible to deal with it. Gentlemen, we must face up to our own lack of strength now. Not to mention the strength of the Falkland Islands and Azores, even Iceland may not be able to save it. It is not a wise act to put strength into places that are doomed to fail."

That's right, Nimitz could understand it completely. He even praised him before, thinking that it was a way to deal with it with caution, but when he thought of Cunningham's expression when he was separated from him, he felt that he could not say such words.

Under this subtle emotion, the members of the Union rejected Nimitz's request, and Truman sent a telegram to refuse rescue.

Unfortunately, not long after, information about an air strike in Iceland came...
Chapter completed!