Lost a line of defense a day, Nimitz was speechless against the 6th Army.

After a long silence, he asked, "Where is the third line of defense of the 6th Army?"

Smith shook his head: "No more, after the second line of defense, the Brazilian East Coast Plain Belt will gradually widen, and it is difficult to defend. The 6th Army is currently trying to rely on the Port of Seguru to set up defense, but I have a kind of intuition that they can't stop the Germans here."

Nimitz smiled bitterly: "Just watching the Germans hit El Salvador?"

Smith had only one sigh.

It is impossible to fight to El Salvador. The German army has only a little force. The further away from Rio, the further they are from their logistics supply bases, and the easier it is to be cut off from the rear. On the contrary, the shorter the logistics line of the US military will be, and the defense strength and military density will be further improved.

It should not be ignored that as the German army further advances, the distance from the cover of the German Air Force will be further extended, and the distance of US Air 6 will continue to be shortened: on the first line of defense, German aircraft only needs to fly more than 4 kilometers, while the US military will fly more than 8 kilometers; on the second line of defense, German aircraft needs to fly more than 5 kilometers, while US Air 6 needs to fly less than 7 kilometers; if it advances to the Port of Seguru, it will be completely reversed. German aircraft needs to fly more than 8 kilometers, while US Air 6 only needs to fly 40 kilometers. Originally, there were more aircraft than Germans, and if the distance was shortened, four or even five times could be gathered at the same time.

"I don't plan to attack forward anymore. The troops will be prepared to defend based on the supplies, equipment and defense left by the US military." Shaoken explained, "Moving forward further has obviously exceeded our capabilities. Now the US Navy is eyeing it and it is possible to cut off this narrow, lengthy and fragile offensive route at any time. We should stick to the main fleet and reinforcements of the domestic forces to come and attack again."

On July 26, the Shaoken cluster began to stick to the deployment:

The main force of the 7th Armored Division guards Rio de Janeiro and its surrounding areas to ensure the safety of its bases and base camps;

The main force of the Flying Fortress Armored Division (with an armored grenade regiment) is guarding Camps, about 20 kilometers northeast of Rio, with the South Paraiba River, which has a lot of room for maneuver;

The 5o8 Heavy Armored Battalion cooperates with an armored grenade regiment to guard the area near Victoria as the second line of defense;

The 5o9 Heavy Armored Battalion cooperated with the 7th Navy 6th Battle Brigade (Ceylon Brigade) to guard the Liniaris and the Dorsey River defense line as the first line of defense;

The 86th Navy War Brigade (Indian Brigade) guarded Florianopolis;

The 56th Navy Battle Brigade (Bermuda Brigade) left Uruguay to the territory of the American Republic and guarded Port Alegre.

The 66th Navy Brigade (Carlland Brigade) continued to station in Buenos Aires and serve as the defender of the entire cluster.

The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and its port Santos, Shoken only arranged the 7th Armored Grenadier Regiment and the 42nd Anti-Tank Battalion (belonging to the 7th Armored Division), but both Brazilian divisions were arranged here, and Rio also had another Brazilian division.

Boer asked in confusion: "Sir, São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. Why do you only arrange such a small amount of troops (less than 5ooo people). Although there are two Brazilian divisions, I am afraid that once the US military reaches 6, they will flee in panic."

"I made this arrangement on purpose." Shaoken smiled, "Our army has limited military strength and must be concentrated on the blade. If you look at the map carefully, what are the characteristics of St. Paul?"

Boer and others carefully pondered the map and finally understood the intention of Shoken: Sao Paulo is a city surrounded by mountains, with hills on three sides and one side facing the sea. Although it borders 6 grounds with the American Republic, the road traffic conditions are very poor. Walking along the northeast toward the two hills, there is a strip-shaped basin between the two hills, one end connected to Sao Paulo City and the other end connected to Rio City. The wider the basin, the narrower the basin.

"On the surface, the enemy can make breakthrough progress in the 6th state of São Paulo and split the connection between our army (in the territory of Brazil in the Republic of America), but the traffic conditions in São Paulo are not ideal, and I have never tried to use 6 routes to maintain such a long supply line. Assuming that the enemy is in Santos or even São Paulo, our army can retreat based on this basin, and then let the 7th Armored Division support and build a defense line. It's better for the Americans to come, and it doesn't need to beat him. I just have to persist until the reinforcement fleet arrives. For us, it's only 5 weeks!"

Late at night that day, Patton and Roosevelt led the battle group that had been boarding the ship and left El Salvador and headed towards the south.

The loss of two lines of defense in succession made Patton extremely angry. Although this was the deployment arranged by Clark and had nothing to do with him, he still regarded it as a great humiliation for the Fifth Army: the German army was defeated by Rio, and after continuous advancement, one division was almost defeated. Before the battle was fought, the two divisions disappeared (although most of the personnel were still there), but they completely lost their energy. He asked Chief of Staff Major General Macmillan to reorganize them in El Salvador, trying to restore their vitality, and then issued a dead order to the 6th Infantry Division of the 6th Army, which was defending the 6th Port of Guru, "Defense to the Defence Line of Guru, you must not take a step back! You must fight until the last man and a shot!"

He himself, together with Major General Roosevelt, led the Fifth Army assault group, consisting of two infantry regiments of the First Infantry Division, three armored battalions and three artillery battalions in the First Cavalry Division, and were preparing to carry out 6 6. Of course, all personnel were drawn from these two divisions, but the equipment, especially heavy equipment, were all drawn from other divisions.

Of course, Patton's transfer was not a whim, but he believed that the current divisions of the 6th Army, especially the armored divisions, were not reasonable enough, and he looked down upon them. He hoped to reorganize according to his wishes, and the Joint Conference would obviously not accept his ideas, so he had to build a military force that he thought was qualified to be equipped with armored divisions within his own authority.

If Shaoken sees the organization of this assault group, he will definitely exclaim: an armored regiment, an artillery regiment and two infantry regiments (most of the US imperial infantry regiments are equipped with armored vehicles, close to the German armored grenade regiment), and other professional battalions. Isn’t this the real German Armored Division 1944 organization?

Although the United States is the world's most powerful armored power, the Americans are very self-aware and know that they are definitely not the world's number one armored power. They learned from Germany when assembling armor divisions. However, adding the unique improvement of the United States has damaged the original advantages.

The first armored division of the US military was called the 1942 armored division. It is typical of the Second Armored Division where Patton is located, with armored brigades and infantry regiments. The former has 9 tank battalions (more than 6ooo people), and the latter has 3 armored infantry battalions (more than 2ooo people). If German standards are applied, it will be found that the US armored brigade is larger than the two German armored regiments, and its infantry regiment is weaker than the German armored grenade regiment. It is equivalent to forcing two tank regiments into an armored division but only one unsatisfied infantry regiment. The organization looks majestic, but it is actually extremely bloated and unscrupulous on the vast battlefield. The armored regiment without infantry cooperation is a target.

Later, the US military learned lessons, improved the tank battalion organization, and formulated the 1943 organization, called the Light Armored Division, with 3 armored battalions, 3 armored infantry battalions and 3 armored artillery battalions (the number of each battalion organization is larger than the 1942 organization), with more than 10,000 people in the entire division. If the German standards are applied, it is a standard three-three armored division with 1 armored regiment + 1 infantry regiment + 1 artillery regiment. Although it is not as good as the German 1943 or 1944 organization, it is still an armored division that can operate normally.

But the Americans have to create a battle group with unique intentions. A 1943 armored division forms three battle groups, each battle group includes 1 armored battalion, 1 infantry battalion and 1 artillery battalion. The entire division forms three battle groups, called a battle group, b battle group, and r battle group (reserve). On the surface, this battle group seems to be very powerful, with tanks, infantry and artillery, and has the power to fight against any German regiment alone. Problem, the regiment in the German combat sequence is not a battle unit, but the division is the standard battle execution unit. Any German armored division hits a US legion-level battle group without any suspense, and the two are the same, but if three combat groups join together, why do they still have a single reserve battle group?

As the 1944 units formed by the SS showed their faces on the Soviet-German battlefield, some American generals felt a profound crisis: not to mention the somewhat equipped German 1944 units, this strength alone has completely crushed the American Armored Division. More importantly, Patton believed that there were too few infantry in the American Armored Division. If such troops were used in offensive battles, it would be difficult to expand the battlefield range without supporting infantry follow-up; if they were invested in defensive battles, the battlefield width would be insufficient due to the lack of infantry.

In history, the US military after the success of Normandy 6 also encountered the problem of insufficient infantry. Many armored divisions and the shortage of front-line infantry in the infantry divisions could not be supplemented even for 5 months. It was entirely due to the strong air suppression of the US military and the coordination of British troops (the British ** team had too many infantry and few armored troops). In addition, in the later stage, the German armored division was generally organized, and the strength and supply were insufficient, so it could not give the US military enough to kill and damage.

But it's different now. The Flying Fortress Division is a 4-unit 1944 unit, and the 7th Armored Division is a standard 4-unit 1943 unit, and none of them is easy to chew. In desperation, Patton had to make the idea of ​​flexibly drawing, using the two infantry regiments of the Dahong First Division, the armored regiments and artillery regiments of the Cavalry Division as backbone, plus other sporadic professional battalions and command centers, a total of more than 20,000 people to temporarily build the 1944 US military. The overall strength and the Flying Fortress Division are basically half a pound.

After leaving the port, Patton sent a telegram to Nimitz. In addition to thanking him for "spoken justice" for himself, he raised the question that caught Nimitz off guard: Why do we fight Sao Paulo? Shouldn't we beat Victoria and cut off the German army in half?
Chapter completed!