The Rise of the Third Reich

"Can the Hawaiian Islands still be defended?" President Roosevelt asked two questions at this time. "If the Hawaiian Islands cannot be defended, what should we do next?"

There are only two active-duty service members in the Oval Office today, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Stark and Army Chief of Staff Adm. Marshall. Roosevelt's question was naturally directed to both of them.

The two admirals looked at each other, both a little embarrassed.

The probability that the Hawaiian Islands...can't be defended is very high!

Now that the aircraft on Oahu have been exhausted, the fortress on the island seems unable to stop the super battleship. The battleship force of the Pacific Fleet is now almost completely wiped out. Although only one aircraft carrier has been lost, the "Raider" (which follows the main activities of the Pacific Fleet, but did not participate in the night battle on Hawaii Island) does not have many aircraft on board and is now withdrawing. To San Diego. The remaining four aircraft carriers that can fight are the "Enterprise", "Saratoga", "Yorktown" and "Lexington".

If it weren't for the Japanese Dreadnought aircraft that sank the Hornet, Halsey's aircraft carriers would have been able to put up a fight. But now, it seems that the remaining four aircraft carriers cannot turn the tide. Moreover, these four fleet aircraft carriers are almost the only surface ships in the Pacific Fleet that will be threatened by the Japanese for a long time in the future. Once it is lost, the Pacific Fleet can only use submarines and camouflaged attack ships to support the market.

In addition, once Hawaii falls, the waterway to Australia will not be safe. Without these four aircraft carriers participating in the escort, it is hard to say that the United States would not be able to send reinforcements and supplies to Australia.

"President, we must defend Australia!" Admiral Marshall considered his words and tried not to say things like "Hawaii is about to fall."

He said: "If Australia falls, Japan will suddenly become an intercontinental power like the Soviet Union and the United States from a barren and crowded island country. Moreover, the struggle for living space between Japan and its Asian neighbors may also end as a result. , so that Japan can really concentrate on fighting us. In addition...if Japan seizes a continent of white people, its image and status in the world of yellow people will be completely changed, and Japan is likely to become hundreds of millions of yellow people. The leader of the people! So defending Australia is the key to winning the war and winning the war!"

Marshall's statement is not entirely correct, but it does make sense, at least in the eyes of Americans. Although Japan has always regarded itself as the leader of the yellow race in Asia for decades, it has always been pursuing the policy of "losing to Europe and the United States and gaining from East Asia", making it difficult for Japan to become a convincing leader. Moreover, Japan is not big enough and it is difficult to truly conquer the East Asian continent.

But if the Japanese seize a continent of more than 7 million square kilometers from the white people, then it will no longer have to "take it from East Asia", and it will become large enough and prestigious enough to make everyone All yellow countries regard him as their leader.

"Yes! We must defend Australia!" President Roosevelt nodded his big head and confirmed Marshall's statement.

Then he glanced at Chief of Naval Operations Stark and said: "The Navy must transport sufficient supplies and troops to Australia in the near future so that it can independently resist the Japanese invasion when maritime traffic is temporarily interrupted."

"President, we have not yet formulated a plan to reinforce Australia. Europe is the focus. Our plan is to give priority to Germany..." Secretary of Commerce Hopkins reminded everyone in a low voice at this time.

"Europe First" was a national policy established before the war broke out. But no one thought at that time that Japan might capture Hawaii!

Roosevelt glanced at Hopkins and said calmly: "Then immediately formulate a plan to give Australia the same priority as Europe!"

"But Mr. President..." Hopkins frowned, trying to remind Roosevelt that "double priority means no priority." But Roosevelt waved his hand and interrupted him: "Harry, the situation has changed now. The fall of Hawaii and the fall of the Philippines have different meanings. Now, the United States may be defeated by Japan!"

"Will the United States be defeated by Japan?" Hopkins looked at Admiral Stark and Admiral Marshall in disbelief.

Secretary of the Navy Stark explained with a gloomy face: "The current situation is like the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905... Although the Japanese army did not set foot on Russian territory until the end of the war (now Hawaii is not a real American territory ), but Japan still won the war. The reason why the Tsar lost the war was the long supply line from Moscow to Manchuria. After the fall of the Hawaiian Islands, we will also encounter this situation. Australia will become another Manchuria. , and the transportation line from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of Australia is likely to drag down the U.S. troops fighting in Australia.”

"But it's also a long way from Japan to Australia."

"It's about 2,500 nautical miles," Stark said. "It's 6,500 nautical miles from the west coast of the United States."

"It's 4,000 more nautical miles," Hopkins shook his head, "but our industrial strength is more than 10 times stronger than Japan's."

Admiral Stark sighed: "If Hawaii had not fallen, the 6,500-nautical-mile transportation line would not be a problem for the United States. But once Hawaii fell, all these 6,500-nautical-mile transportation lines would be exposed to the cannons of the Japanese fleet. From then on. The Japanese aircraft carriers departing from Pearl Harbor can operate within a range of 4,000-5,000 nautical miles south of Hawaii. Just one "Akagi" can destroy an entire escort fleet!

On the contrary, the 2,500 nautical miles from the Japanese mainland to Australia will be protected by Japan's heavily fortified islands. Apart from using submarines, we have no other way to attack Japan's transportation lines. "

The issue of aircraft carriers breaking diplomatic relations has already happened in the Atlantic Ocean, although the effect was not very good at the time. But now the Japanese navy has an advantage in the Pacific. After occupying Hawaii, they can send a break-up fleet including aircraft carriers to the US-Australia route. If the Americans want to maintain the US-Australia route, they must use truly powerful fleet aircraft carriers to do the escort business - if they only rely on those escort aircraft carriers with weak combat effectiveness, and encounter Japan's main aircraft carrier, it will basically be a meal. .

Admiral Stark said to the President of the United States in a tone of great pain: "Mr. President, you must make a choice now: let Vice Admiral Halsey's aircraft carriers risk an attack, or let them retreat to protect the United States and Australia in the next 12 months. The main force of smooth shipping routes.”

"Let Halsey retreat!" President Roosevelt gritted his teeth and issued an order that could be understood as "prepare to abandon Hawaii."

"But Hawaii cannot give up easily..." Roosevelt said reluctantly, "We must delay the fall of Hawaii as much as possible in order to buy time for us to deploy defenses on the west coast and Australia." He looked at Stark and Marshall, "What can you do?"

"President," Marshall had already thought of the answer, which was what Roosevelt liked to hear, "now we can only rely on the army to defend Oahu. There are two army divisions on the island and many marines. They can fight. With more than 45,000 personnel and good weapons and equipment, it can be defended for a long time. If Pearl Harbor and Honolulu cannot be defended, the troops can be moved to the inland mountains and defended for 2-3 months without any problem. "

After Marshall said good things, Admiral Stark of the Navy could only say some depressing words. He said to Roosevelt: "Mr. President, the top priority now is to evacuate personnel from Hawaii...the pilots and ground crew who lost the aircraft personnel, Navy engineers and technicians, Navy officers and sailors who lost ships, and also the families of Navy and Army officers and men. I think we can use long-range B-17 aircraft and destroyers to evacuate personnel while the Japanese aircraft carriers are still there. Chasing Halsey's fleet, we still have a chance to evacuate some personnel."

Roosevelt nodded and said: "Then immediately formulate a plan to evacuate personnel and hold on to Oahu." He paused and then said: "In addition, in the next month, we have no extra supplies to hand over. Britain."

"president!"

Hull and Hopkins exclaimed in unison when they heard Roosevelt's decision. Of course they know how much supplies the U.S. government has in hand - they can't say that they will get whatever they ask for, but it is still enough to send war supplies to Australia and the United Kingdom at the same time.

"President," Army Chief of Staff Marshall also reminded Roosevelt, "if Lend-Lease material transportation is suspended for one month, the strategic bombing of Germany cannot be launched on time."

Strategic bombing is an important means for the Americans to defeat Germany in their plan. To carry out strategic bombing, it is necessary to build a large amount of infrastructure in the UK, including airports, oil depots, ammunition depots, etc., and to stockpile oil, bombs, aircraft parts, etc. of. So there is a lot of stuff being shipped from the US to the UK.

"Let's suspend it for a month!" Roosevelt emphasized. "We can't fall out with the Germans right now." He glanced at Hull. "I will host a banquet for Mr. Hess at the White House tomorrow!"

Now the balance of naval power between the United States and the United States has been reversed. The United States suddenly lost 8 battleships (including 2 stranded in Pearl Harbor) and 1 aircraft carrier. The remaining battleships and aircraft carriers will still be used to defend Australia, so there is no power to fight the combined German, Italian and French fleets in the Atlantic for the time being.

Therefore, Roosevelt could only temporarily show weakness to paralyze Germany, hoping to delay Germany's declaration of war on the United States.