"How many escort carriers will we have by the end of next month?"

"Excluding the current Borg in the Far East, there are 7 ships in total, but the president has agreed to support five British ships first."

"How many escort carriers do your country have at present?" Turner turned his head and asked Admiral Noble.

"There are only 3-4 ships," Noble explained. "There is one ship being injured and repaired. I don't know if it will be completed next month. There will be four ships after repair, otherwise it will be three."

Turner looked as if he saw a ghost and asked in surprise: "Why are there so few? I remember there are almost 20 escort aircraft carriers handed over to your country, right?"

"To be precise, there are 19 ships in total." Noble explained helplessly, "The North Sea Battle sank 8 ships, the torch, the North Africa and the Indian Ocean battle sank 6 ships. In addition, they were hit by U-boat during the escort, and several ships were lost sporadically, and this is the only thing left."

Several bigwigs from the Joint Conference frowned: Noble said a few words from understatement that the 200,000-ton warship was gone.

"Concentrate all the escort carriers we have, regardless of whether they are 10 or 11, drive to the appropriate distance from the Azores, and then release all the aircraft above, leaving few or no escort aircraft, so that we can gather 200-220 aircraft into the second wave of attack (the first wave is a heavy bomber formation from the UK). As for the aircraft carriers converted by merchant ships, we give the enemy a bait. If they like to blow up, let them explode and attract enemy aircraft as much as possible. Every time they draw a point of strength to deal with the escort carrier, the defense power on the island is one point. At this time..." Turner gestured with his hand, "The carrier-based aircraft on our aircraft carrier fleet, the real elite troops set out to attack the island, clear obstacles, and create opportunities for battleship artillery shelling. As long as they can achieve a firepower density similar to the Japanese devils on Gua Island, the Germans will be finished..."

"To this end, in addition to drawing all escort aircraft carriers, I am also preparing to assemble all aircraft carriers and battleships of the Atlantic Fleet." Turner read the list, "They include three aircraft carriers, Lexington (Essex-class), ** and Princeton (**-class), four battleships, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Tennessee, plus 4-6 heavy cruisers in good condition and 203mm caliber guns, and they will take on the shelling mission together."

In Turner's plan, the entire Azores offensive battle was divided into four waves of fleets, namely:

Bait fleet: 10-15 escort aircraft carriers are composed of some destroyers;

The shelling fleet: The core consists of 8 battleships and 8 heavy cruisers;

Aircraft carrier fleet: composed of 6 aircraft carriers and some escort warships;

Landing fleet: Prepare 2-3 land combat divisions, of which 1 division must be guaranteed for the first wave of landing.

Then the air attack waves are divided into three times, the first is a heavy bomber formation; the second is a carrier-based attack aircraft formation that escorts the aircraft carrier; the third is a carrier-based attack aircraft formation that escorts the aircraft carrier.

"But the three warships, Lexington, Iowa and Princeton, have not even completed the sea test."

"Go ahead, and you must complete it before the end of March," Turner said. "It is the war period, and there are a large number of casualties every day. The enemy will not give us the opportunity to be calm and follow the steps. If it were me, I could wait until all the warships on the ship are completed before going to settle the score with the Germans, but then Britain was finished first, and no matter how many aircraft and warships there are, it would not work."

The British generals, including Marshal Deer, rolled their eyes, thinking Turner's words were so harsh, "Britain will be finished first", which seemed to be the Americans as a savior, but when they thought about it carefully, they felt that the Americans did not brag without the strong support of the "Lease Act", and Britain was indeed about to be finished.

Turner estimated the total number of 2 German aircraft carriers to be 100-120, and the land-based aviation force quickly entered. He believed that the Germans could assemble about 300 aircraft in the war zone. Considering that land-based airports are much resistant to explosions than aircraft carriers, and considering that Germany has about 100 reinforcements from Spain in an emergency, he planned to assemble 500-600 aircraft to press over to escort aircraft carriers. In his opinion, the number of aircraft carriers is still a little smaller. If there are 20, it would be better. In this way, the bait formation can form a group of about 400 aircraft, and the aircraft carrier formation forms a group of about 300 aircraft, which can steadily suppress the German aircraft on the island.

Although Turner has been fighting in the Pacific War Zone, this tactic is very different from that in the Pacific. The battle for Pacific islands also relies on aviation forces, but because any Japanese aircraft had to be transported from the local area 6,000 kilometers away, and the US military can get supplements from Australia nearby. Therefore, the US military has enough time to slowly consume it, but the Japanese army cannot afford it. But the situation in Azores is just the opposite. The island is only 1,600 kilometers away from the West, Portugal and the east coast of the United States is more than 4,000 kilometers away. Therefore, if you want to fight, you must take it directly with a thunder strike. Slowly delay time, you will definitely be drained by the German army from the mainland to continuously draw troops from the mainland.

However, the Americans were obviously too nervous and exaggerated. After receiving two batches of supplies, the total number of German aircraft carrier-based aircraft carriers reached only 80, while the land-based forces were only more than 120, including more than a dozen water reconnaissance aircraft. The number of aircraft was only 200. It was not that the German army did not want to gather more troops, but because the airports on the island and the hangars were under construction and could not accommodate more aircraft for a while.

Everyone was thinking silently that after the battle, no matter whether Azore could be defeated or not, at least the 10 escort aircraft carriers and a large number of carrier-based aircraft pilots in the bait fleet would be done, and the losses of fleet aircraft carrier pilots would not be light. Several generals privately combined to kill pilots in this way would at least half of the casualties would be caused. They were all carrier-based aircraft pilots with the highest training difficulty and training cost. They could not recover their vitality without 6-9 months of rest and recuperation. But they also believed that Turner's idea was correct. Without this force, he would be afraid of the loss and should not fight the Battle of Azores.

Seeing that there was no one talking for a long time after Turner's introduction, Marshall had to break the deadlock and asked, "What's General Turner's plan? You can discuss it."

"This..." General Ingersoll did not expect such a "magnificent" plan in advance, and did not want to easily refute Turner's ideas for a moment, so he asked tactfully, "Are there any other plans? I mean a plan that sacrifices less."

"This is Plan A, and Plan B, which considers the worst-case scenario." Turner explained, "It is to dispatch an advantageous aircraft carrier formation to eliminate the German main fleet in advance, and at least the two aircraft carriers must be killed, so that a lot of losses will be reduced when launching an offensive battle."

Marshall turned to Spruins: "Is Plan B feasible?"

The latter thought about it: "The aircraft carriers that can be used immediately now include three British armored aircraft carriers and **, two George V-class battleships, two Queen Elizabeth-class, and one Pennsylvania. It is enough in terms of force, but it is not easy to catch the Germans..."

Marshall nodded and turned his gaze to General Jin. When asked about his thoughts, only General Jin nodded and made up his mind could the plan be implemented.

Admiral Jin did not speak out directly and asked Turner: "How long does it take to complete all preparations?"

"Today is March 1. If you hurry up, one month of preparation time will be enough. On March 31, the fleet, army, materials, and transport ships will complete the assembly. Departure on April 1, depending on the weather and tide conditions, launch an attack on April 7 or 8, landing successfully within one day, control the situation within three days, and strive to end the battle within ten days." Turner's grand plan caught up with the good times, and the landing forces were almost ready to be carried out. The original plan was planned to carry out the Kenyan landing war and prepared combat troops.

"So we have a month to use?" General Jin said after pondering for a moment, "Plan a can continue to be demonstrated and refined, but the preparations must be planned first, and Plan b will be implemented immediately tomorrow."

When General Jin made the decision, Ingersoll breathed a sigh of relief. Turner nodded in agreement. The British side believed that this was a positive and prudent plan, so he unanimously approved that as long as Roosevelt nodded, Spruins would be able to lead the team to the battle starting tomorrow.

"Also..." Turner interrupted, "To prevent the Axial Navy from rushing out in the Mediterranean, the British side must be asked to lay mines in the Strait of Gibraltar."

"This?" Noble hesitated, "Spain, Portugal is still a neutral country at present. Will it be possible to directly bury the mines?..."

While everyone was still talking, an emergency report suddenly came: An hour ago, at 8 pm local time, the German army suddenly began to attack the Gibraltar Fortress. At least 200 artillery pieces with a caliber of 150mm were fired. The airport was trapped in a sea of ​​fire. Most of the planes were unscathed in the bunker. The British fortress artillery fought back fiercely. At present, the personnel losses were not large, and the results of the rest were unknown...

"Gentlemen, the Germans have already taken action. Do you still have to hesitate about Breth?" General King glanced at the British delegation in dissatisfaction.

Noble repeatedly agreed: "I will notify the defenders to lay mines immediately and prepare to block the strait."

Just as the meeting was announced, another news came in: "Fleet of Great H-148 from Canada reported that they were attacked by German aircraft 400 nautical miles northeast of Newfoundland Island, losing 4 merchant ships, 2 escort destroyers and 1 auxiliary cruiser. The escort aircraft carrier was severely damaged and lost its take-off and landing function... In safety concerns, the fleet is ready to be disbanded and sailed alone by each ship, but will still go to Britain."

"German aircraft carrier formation, this must be the German aircraft carrier formation."

Noble was sad: Even if the injured escort carrier can be repaired now, there will be only three available escort carriers in a short period of time.

Spruins stood up "Hao": "I will lead the fleet to encircle and suppress these miscellaneous pieces tomorrow..." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!