"To be honest, I am not satisfied with the result of today's attack." At night, Ozawa complained to Mashar while analyzing the enemy situation with everyone in the war room, "Our army dispatched more than 200 aircraft, successfully found the opponent and found all targets, and only achieved the results of 4 light aircraft carriers and several cruisers. This disappointed me. I originally thought that at least one Essex-class regular aircraft carrier should be killed, so that the threat we face next will be much smaller..."

Crank nodded, and he felt the same way, but he said it very tactfully: "The battlefield changes rapidly, and the commander of the attack group can only choose the way he thinks is the most appropriate. The main reason is that he does not know what the rear fleet is going to encounter..."

Maschel had different opinions on this: "I asked Frank. When he launched the attack, he did not know the attack of the mothership. Moreover, the air defense firepower of the enemy cruiser was very fierce. Cooperating with the air defense firepower on the aircraft carrier, it made people feel that he was facing a hedgehog. He estimated that the enemy was also equipped with anti-aircraft guns using near-explosive fuses. In order to maximize the preservation and reduce losses, he chose a safe tactic of peeling onions... He also said that if he knew about the situation at that time, he might have chosen a more radical tactic. But I think that we cannot be eager for quick success and instant benefits for the time being. This group of pilots is the elite we have finally cultivated. It is difficult to recover if the loss is too great. The ship... The head of state and Minister Sperer always have a way. It is said that there are more than 10 aircraft carriers waiting to serve on the ship platform. I think the biggest gap in the future is not the ship, but sailors and pilots, so we must keep every outstanding officer and soldier."

Ozawa nodded slightly and no longer discussed this matter. In this regard, he and the German generals had different ideas. The Germans believed that first of all, they could save themselves and then talk about eliminating the enemy. He believed that the enemy should be eliminated first and then preserved themselves. This was also the idea of ​​most Japanese generals. However, this idea was criticized by Hori Teiki, who believed that Ozawa ignored the human factors, especially the insufficient reserve of excellent pilots in the joint fleet. Ozawa accepted this criticism, but he believed that Germany did not have this problem at all. The head of state was also the commander-in-chief of the three armies. The air force could continuously provide pilots. In terms of the rich reserve force, no naval country could be like Germany. However, he often couldn't understand what the Germans thought, and Maschar's attitude was not isolated, and even the head of state himself thought so. As an outsider, he naturally was inconvenient to point fingers.

Crank immediately changed the topic: "How to arrange the war tomorrow? The fleet has moved closer to us. Assuming that our army moved east as planned, the gap between the fleet and the fleet will be narrowed to within 400 kilometers tomorrow morning, and the ship-based aircraft will be fully staffed after being supplemented. In this way, we have 3 aircraft carriers, 3 enemies, and the enemy has land aviation. We also received some land-based troops on Newfoundland Island. In addition, the pilot quality is better than the enemy, so I think there are all fights."

"Where is the fleet that escorts the captive cargo ship now?"

"It is about 1,300 kilometers away from Azore. It will enter the Azore air defense circle tomorrow morning. It is relatively safe. If nothing unexpected happens, you can arrive in Azore on the evening of December 5."

"This will reduce a big trouble, which will allow Hippel to leave the escort mission and join the escort fleet to escort. Luzov, Oi, and other warships such as Kitaga continue to escort the fleet." Ozawa looked at the chart and knocked on the spot more than 400 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland Island. "I suggest that the main force of the fleet leave Newfoundland Island and arrive at a change tomorrow, and appropriately distance from the US military. Except for 4 heavy bombers, other attack aircraft cannot easily hit us at this location."

"What if the Americans don't chase them?"

Ozawa naturally agreed to continue fighting. He estimated that the Americans had at least half of the planes, and believed that the enemy had only aircraft carriers but not aircraft was also empty, but in fact Cunningham lost more than 60% of the planes. He laughed and said, "I got a lot of inspiration from the head of state's strategy this time... It would be best if the enemy did not come. We can take advantage of the situation to attack Cape Verde and take out all the battleships and escort carriers there and dispatch three fleet aircraft carriers. We are fully confident in dealing with the dozen or so escort carriers."

Maschel and Crank exchanged glances and agreed that this suggestion was feasible. The staff and the advisory team also became active to make calculations: the first type may be successful in the assault, which can at least eliminate more than 70% of the enemy's strength in Cape Verde; the second type is that the enemy escaped, which at least lifted the siege of Cape Verde; the third type is that Cunningham chased and fought at that time, the battlefield would be far away from the North American continent, which means that both sides abandoned land-based aircraft to support and fought head-on battles. Everyone believed that the 3vs3 win was more than 70%.

"In this way, we must consider withdrawing the Marines..." Crank pondered, "consider letting the Skyhawks and the Landing Fleet retreat together. Anyway, the speed of both sides is about the same."

"You can consider using Skyhawk as bait, with the shore-based aviation force as the guard, gathering and annihilation of enemy attack aircraft. Tomorrow's key is reconnaissance, and whoever discovers first will be more beneficial..." The second batch of Azore reinforcement aircraft that transferred today, especially the arrival of 48-190a8s specially equipped with a special fuel tank for large transfers at the request of the fleet, added a lot of confidence to Ozawa. In order to strengthen the combat power in the direction of Newfoundland, after HNA put the pre-production model of do-412 into the front line, the Air Force also fought and sent the first batch of eight ta-152s that were newly launched to Newfoundland, hoping to test the results in actual combat. The range of the ta-152 is basically the same as that of the do-412, and it can easily transfer after hanging the secondary fuel tank.

After 2 hours of consultation, the fleet formed a consensus and sent the telegram to Berlin.

Upon learning that four light aircraft carriers and six light cruisers were lost in one day, everyone in the combat room of the Joint Conference in Washington also took a breath: The main force of the Cunningham fleet is basically still there, but the losses of other warships are too serious, so it is difficult to set up a complete wheeled air defense array now. If the second aircraft carrier formation was not allowed to set up a reinforcement of Cunningham, no one would be optimistic about the prospects of this battle.

Admiral Jin and Ingram also sighed repeatedly: Although there were more than 20 Cleveland-class cruisers lying on the ship platform waiting to be completed and launched, although they were destined to be attacked by enemy forces as air defense cruisers, and although the losses of so many warships and even battleships were almost numb, the speed of 6 ships a day still made them shake their heads.

Admiral Jin said in a hoarse voice: "Let the injured Badan and the two light cruisers retreat as soon as possible. In addition, the Navy may need to add more Cleveland-class cruisers to build at least 1 dozen..."

"The budget matter is easy to talk about, as long as you can win, it is not a problem." Marshall asked hesitantly, "The problem now is how to fight next?"

"Are Matthew's airborne troops ready?"

A staff officer responded: "Everything has been in place before this evening, and actions can be set off at any time."

Ingram nodded and praised: "I suggest that we first recover Newfoundland, should we airborne tomorrow, use land aviation and ground forces to destroy the German Marines and entangle the Germans..."

Hearing the Navy's suggestion that the fire should not be opened the next day, Eisenhower raised his head in shock: "Will the German fleet run away?"

"Believe me, they can't run so quickly unless they don't plan to reclaim the Marines and landing transport fleets of thousands of people. Without the cover of aircraft carrier formations or battleship formations, they will never survive. And..." Ingram emphasized that "the reinforcement fleet is still far from General Cunningham's existing troops. The two sides cannot form a joint force tomorrow morning and cannot exert the maximum effect. It is very beneficial to us to slow down for 1-2 days. Once the army establishes a solid control zone, it means that the offensive and defensive momentum of the Newfoundland airport can be reversed immediately!"

Arnold nodded: "Yes, if Newfoundland is used as a base, Land Airlines will be able to perform better."

Marshall's face darkened and gritted his teeth and said, "Let Matthew go and fight. The Canadians are so unreasonable. I'm embarrassed for them. Newfoundland has been under the control of the Germans for a long time. The impact of the long-term control of Newfoundland is too bad. It must be taken back as soon as possible."

At 2 o'clock in the morning, the engine roared on the Maine Aviation Base. Lieutenant General Matthew Lieutenant brought the officers and soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to board the transport plane in turn. Although Marshall made it clear that Lieutenant Lieutenant was not needed to take risks, the latter insisted that he had to be with his young men. Seeing Lieutenant General Lieutenant Lie and William Major General Li take the lead in boarding the transport plane (not the same aircraft to prevent accidents from happening together), all the officers and soldiers of the 101st Division cheered, and even the ground crew and other officers and soldiers of the Land Aviation nearby also applauded. The troops immediately had a backbone and their morale was greatly boosted!

Speaking of which, the bigwigs of the Joint Conference could no longer bear the Canadian's poor performance and were very angry: Canada has a total of 2 infantry divisions on Newfoundland, and its armor and artillery strength are complete, but it was defeated by the German army, which was far fewer than them. So far, the Canadians have not only given the entire St. Johns port and many airports, material distribution centers and 40 kilometers deep to the German army, but also suffered more than 6,000 casualties, and sent a telegram begging for reinforcements to Washington at all costs.

This incident also indirectly affected their perception of Eisenhower. He believed that Ike bragged that Canadians in Africa had good combat effectiveness, and resolutely gave up the opportunity of the US team to retreat and asked the Canadians to withdraw first. Unexpectedly, there were such a group of soft-legged crabs. If he had known this, it would be better to let Patton's troops retreat more, and the pressure on domestic public opinion would not be so great.
Chapter completed!