Admiral Jin shook his head with a wry smile: "The situation is probably not as optimistic as you think. South Africa is not dangerous on land, but there may be big trouble at sea. German submarines based on Madagascar can break through the shipping between us and South Africa; the Axis Fleet may take advantage of the opportunity to temporarily have the advantage of military strength. If the joint fleet joins the attack ranks together, the enemy will have a clear advantage: they can gather 4-5 aircraft carriers, 8-10 battleships, and that super battleship, which greatly overwhelms our naval forces. So, my suggestion is that if we judge that the main force of the enemy's naval appears, we should avoid the main force fighting as much as possible and wait for the strength to recover."

After he said this, Roosevelt's mood was destroyed, and he couldn't help but frown, but he had to admit that the other party was right: although Cunningham had been sworn in as commander of the United Kingdom-US Joint Navy aircraft carrier formation, his strength could not be achieved at once. Before mid-June, the core forces of the navies of the two countries could invest in combat in the Atlantic direction were only one medium-sized aircraft carrier (Unicorn) and two independent-class light aircraft carriers (Cowbons, Monterey), and by mid-July, there would be only one independent-class (Langley).

Not only did the Allied forces fall at a disadvantage in the number and performance of aircraft carriers, but the strength of battleships is also insufficient. They have no confidence in fighting with the German and Italian navy alone, and they are obviously even more unbeatable to fight with the three-country coalition forces, including the joint fleet. Although the US dominant escort aircraft carrier can undertake daily route protection tasks, it cannot be used for fleet combat.

Roosevelt thought about it for a long time and finally asked tentatively: "Do you need to draw the main force of the Pacific Fleet back?"

Not only Nimitz, but also General Jin, Li Hai and Marshall shook their heads to express their opposition: the Pacific Fleet is not too strong at present, with only two fleet aircraft carriers. Drawing troops back to the Atlantic Ocean can certainly increase the strength of the East Coast and Europe, but the West Coast and the Pacific Ocean are completely unavailable. In addition to attacking South Africa, the biggest possibility of the joint fleet is to return to the Far East. The Pacific Fleet is no match for the Japanese Navy one-on-one now. If it is drawn away, all Western Pacific islands except Australia and New Zealand may fall into the hands of Japan. Even Midway may not be able to protect it. The US Navy suddenly shrank to Pearl Harbor, and the United States was completely isolated in the Western Pacific, which is also difficult to explain politically.

"The Navy's suggestion is that no matter whether the enemy really attacks South Africa or not, we will not draw Pacific troops." General Kim said sincerely, "After the Panama Canal is paralyzed, it will take as soon as 45-50 days to depart from Australia to the east coast, and it will take 2 months to put into combat. This has broken our most pessimistic prediction before the war. The safe way is to take a defensive position in the Pacific. If some islands cannot be defended, they can be re-given to the Japanese, but the enemy must pay the price. The key is to keep Australia, new!"

Marshall said, "This is also one of the reasons why I consider agreeing to let Australia and the new troops retreat from Kenya first."

"But if you really go back to the Far East, the pressure will be too great. We have sufficient evidence to show that Japan has obtained huge amounts of military supplies and equipment from Germany." Donovan carefully interrupted.

General Jin disagreed: "The huge amount? How many? It will never be more than what we give to the British. Now the supply of refined oil per month is more than 1 million tons, and there are countless other materials and equipment."

"Not so much, but the meaning is completely different." Donovan was afraid that everyone would take it lightly, so he hurriedly said, "Japan's industrial capacity is very poor. The materials provided by Germany far exceed the meaning of our materials to the United Kingdom. Japan's steel production is only 2-3 million tons a year. Germany takes 500,000 tons to be equivalent to Japan's additional quarterly output out of thin air. For Germany or the United Kingdom, which has tens of millions of tons of steel, 500,000 tons is just a small number. Steel is one aspect, and what cannot be ignored is equipment. There is information that Japan has obtained a large number of tanks and aircraft, with unclear numbers, but it should be in thousands. Regardless of the aircraft, the tank performance provided by Germany is all stronger than Japan. In fact, in thousands, it is almost equivalent to Japan's domestic output for more than half a year."

"Japan has only such a small amount of tank production?"

"This figure was analyzed by intelligence analysts, and I think it is basically credible. Although it is currently impossible to penetrate Japanese production companies on-site investigation, we infer from Japan's steel production and maintaining a huge naval tonnage, we believe that it will basically not exceed 200 vehicles per month. After stopping the delivery of scrap steel to Japan two years ago, according to common sense, its steel production will only decline and not increase. This figure has also been verified in Italy. Italy's steel production is slightly more than Japan, and there is also a huge navy that needs maintenance and construction. Therefore, the tank production is very low, and it can barely improve with the blood transfusion of the Germans. The only surprise is that Russia, their steel production is lower than that of Germany, but can produce tanks with more quantity than Germany and not too lagging in performance. Unfortunately, since the Western and Southern Lines rental material delivery channels were forced to close, Russia lacked available armored steel, and the tank defense performance has dropped very significantly."

Roosevelt turned his head to look at Nimitz, who had been commanding the Far East war and obviously had a greater say.

Nimitz said after considering it, "If the Pacific Fleet does not withdraw, relying on General MacArthur's troops, the islands near the Australian and New Zealand line have a high chance of defending. I refer to New Guinea and Lai City line, but the Solomon Islands have a big problem. Among them, Bougainville and Monta Island have not yet established a complete defense system, which is more difficult to defend than Guadalo."

"In the short term, I suggest setting only one low goal, namely, sticking to the front line of New Guinea and giving up the Solomon Islands if necessary." Nimitz said cautiously, "The closer we get to Australia and New Zealand, the more we can rely on the support of land-based aviation forces. Only with air supremacy can we have sea supremacy, and then we can stick to the islands. We paid a significant price in the previous island capture, and in turn, Japan must pay a significant price to retake these islands again. I have decided to rush to Australia to command in the near future and must maintain this crucial frontline for the United States."

Roosevelt nodded, obviously convinced, and said to himself: "I hope the Japanese fleet will really return to the Far East instead of continuing to mess with us in South Africa..."

Everyone looked helplessly, nodded heavily and pinned their hopes on certain actions of the enemy. This was a great shame and irony!

When Donovan talked about the aid channel to Russia just now, Roosevelt frowned again and asked, "Has their food crisis been resolved?"

Hull was responsible for coordinating this matter. He sighed: "I can only say that it will be alleviated temporarily, which is still very early to fundamentally resolve it. Britain received 100,000 tons of food from India and took the Afghan passage. However, the poor transportation conditions in Central Asia made this batch of materials very difficult. We sent Stalin about 50,000 tons by sea, not that we didn't want to give it more, but it was really a capacity limit. Then we learned through secret channels that Stalin and the Japanese made a secret transaction and got a batch of food from Manchuria. The quantity was unknown but it was the fastest transport batch."

When everyone heard the "secret transaction", their faces were different: Japan and the Soviet Union are now neutral, and it makes sense to conduct transactions legally, but when the axis is completely opposite to the Allies, such transactions always have a strong sense of conspiracy.

"Is there a conspiracy that is not conducive to us?"

"Not yet. The Russians refused to say more, they just said they spent money to buy, but our people told me that it was not so simple." Hull also became hesitant after speaking, "It is not satisfactory to ask the Japanese to buy, but at least it is logical, but... in addition..."

"What other shameless things we don't know?" Roosevelt took a deep breath.

"Russia dispatched troops to Xinjiang, China to grab food! I heard that many people died! It involves factors such as the local warlords in China and the complex internal relations. The relationship between the two countries is very tense now. Chiang has sent me a few telegrams, hoping that we can uphold justice. I considered the overall situation and only comforted his emotions, saying that we are morally on China's side, but Russia is currently an important ally and needs to be mutually understanding." Hull sighed, "Then some time ago, the Russians issued a statement and decided to dissolve the Communist International... This incident gave Chiang a great encouragement, believing that it was the beginning of the full demise of the Bolsheviks. His royal literati became very active, and the media linked two isolated matters together and continued to attack the Bolsheviks in China. Our observers believe that this is the prelude to the further escalation of the conflict between the two parties."

"He was more concerned about the destruction of the Bolsheviks than us, why didn't he be so concerned about the Japanese who drove away their territory?" Roosevelt sneered, "The contradiction escalated, and then they fought a small-scale civil war like they did a few years ago? I really feel sad for the United States. What kind of allies are there in our stalls? The British are hypocritical! The Russians are cruel! The Chinese are stupid! The most terrible thing is that they are all disobedient! To be honest, I would rather have Italy now, even if I can't fight, at least not cause so much trouble."

Everyone looked at each other, and Hull could only smile bitterly.

Transporting supplies to the Russians is a big problem. At present, there are also major problems with the United States' own material transportation. After the Panama Canal is cut off, all ships must detour Cape Horn before they can pass. This greatly increases the time and increases the risk of exposure to submarines. Therefore, Marshall proposed to change the mode of transportation: the materials produced on the east coast are first transported to the west coast through the main railway artery across the local area, and then transported from the west coast to the Pacific.

Smart businessmen have seen that the change in transportation mode is imperative, so after the attack in New York, other stocks fell sharply, only military and railway stocks rose against the trend, and the rise of railway stocks was even stronger than military. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!