"Can the Hawaiian Islands be defended?"
President Roosevelt asked two questions at this time, "If the Hawaiian Islands can't be defended, what should we do next?"
Today there are only two active-duty servicemen in the Oval Office, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark and Army Chief of Staff Admiral Marshall.
Roosevelt's question was naturally for both of them.
The two admirals looked at each other, and they were a little embarrassed.
The probability that the Hawaiian Islands will not be able to hold is already very high Now that the planes on Oahu have run out, it seems that the fortress on the island will not be able to stop the super battleship.
The battleship forces of the Pacific Fleet are now almost completely wiped out, and although the aircraft carrier has lost only one ship, the "Raider" follows the main activities of the Pacific Fleet, but does not participate in the night battle on Hawaii Island, and there are not many planes at the time, and it is now being withdrawn to San Diego.
The only ones left to fight were the four aircraft carriers "Enterprise", "Saratoga", "Yorktown" and "Lexington".
If it weren't for the kind of Japanese dreadnoughts that sank the "Hornet", these aircraft carriers of Halsey would have been able to fight.
But now, it seems that the remaining four aircraft carriers have no chance of turning the tide.
Moreover, these four fleet aircraft carriers are almost the only surface ships of the Pacific Fleet that are more than a little threatened by the Japanese for a long time in the future.
Once lost, the Pacific Fleet will have to support the market with submarines and camouflaged attack ships.
In addition, once Hawaii falls, the shipping lanes to Australia will not be very safe.
Without the participation of these four aircraft carriers in the escort, it is difficult to say that the United States would not have been able to send reinforcements and supplies to Australia.
"President, we must defend Australia," Admiral Marshall said, carefully refraining from saying things like "Hawaii is falling."
"If Australia falls, Japan will go from being a barren and cramped island nation to a continental power like the Soviet Union and the United States," he said.
Moreover, the struggle for living space between Japan and its Asian neighbors may also end as a result, so that Japan can really concentrate its efforts on fighting us.
In addition, if Japan seizes a continent of the white race, then its image and status in the yellow race world will be completely changed, and Japan is likely to become the leader of hundreds of millions of yellow people, so defending Australia is the key to winning the war and moving towards victory."
Marshall's statement is not entirely true, but there is some truth to it, 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 is difficult for Japan to become a convincing leader because it has always pursued a policy of "losing from Europe and the United States and taking from East Asia".
Moreover, Japan is not large enough to truly subdue the East Asian continent.
But if the Japanese had seized a continent of more than 7 million square kilometers from the whites, there would be no need for it to "take from East Asia" again, and it would have become large enough and prestigious enough for all the yellow nations to be its leader.
"Yes, we have to defend Australia," President Roosevelt nodded his head and affirmed Marshall's claim.
He then glanced at Chief of Naval Operations Stark and said, "The Navy must send enough supplies and troops to Australia in the near future to be able to independently resist the Japanese invasion with the temporary interruption of sea traffic." ” "President, but we don't have plans to reinforce Australia at the moment, Europe is the focus.
Our plan is to prioritize Germany," Commerce Secretary Hopkins whispered at this time.
"Europe first" was a national policy that was set before the outbreak of war.
But at that time, no one thought that Japan might capture Hawaii Roosevelt glanced at Hopkins and said lightly: "Then make a plan right away so that Australia has the same priority as Europe" "But Mr.
President," Hopkins frowned, trying to remind Roosevelt that "double priority is no priority."
But Roosevelt interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "Harry, the situation has changed now, and the fall of Hawaii and the fall of the Philippines have different meanings.
Now, there is a possibility that the United States will be defeated by Japan" "The United States will be defeated by Japan," Hopkins looked at Admiral Stark and Admiral Marshall with some incredulity.
Secretary of the Navy Stark explained with a sad face: "The current situation is similar to the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905, although the Japanese army did not set foot on Russian territory until the end of the war, and now Hawaii is not really American territory, but Japan still won the war."
And what made the Tsar lose the war was the long supply line from Moscow to Manchuria in China.
After the fall of the Hawaiian Islands, we will also encounter such a situation.
Australia would become another Manchuria, and the transportation routes from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of Australia would likely be overwhelmed by the American forces fighting in Australia. ” "But it's a long way from Japan to Australia."
"There are about 2,500 nautical miles," Stark said, "and it used to be 6,500 nautical miles from the West Coast of the United States." ” "That's 4,000 nautical miles," Hopkins shook his head, "but our industrial power is more than 10 times stronger than Japan's." ” Admiral Stark sighed: "If Hawaii had not fallen, the 6500 nautical mile shipping line would not have been a problem for the United States.
But once Hawaii fell, all the 6,500 nautical miles of transportation were exposed to the guns of the Japanese fleet.
Japanese aircraft carriers from Pearl Harbor could fully operate within 40,005,000 nautical miles south of Hawaii.
It only takes one Akagi to wipe out an entire convoy of convoys Conversely, the 2,500 nautical miles from mainland Japan to Australia will be protected by heavily defended Japanese islands.
We have no other way than to use submarines to strike at Japan's transport lines. ” The breakdown of aircraft carriers had already happened in the Atlantic, although the effect at the time was not good.
But now the Japanese Navy has an advantage in the Pacific Ocean, and after occupying Hawaii, they can send a fleet of broken diplomatic relations, including aircraft carriers, to operate on the US-Australia route.
If the Americans want to maintain the US-Australia route, they must come up with a truly powerful fleet aircraft carrier to do the escort business.
Admiral Stark said to the President of the United States in a tone of utter anguish: "Mr.
President, a choice must be made now, whether to let Vice Admiral Halsey's aircraft carriers take the risk of attack, or to let them retreat as the main force to protect the smooth flow of the U.S.
-Australia route for the next 12 months." ” "Let Halsey retreat" President Roosevelt gritted his teeth and gave an order that could be understood as "preparing to abandon Hawaii."
"But Hawaii cannot be given up easily," Roosevelt said reluctantly, "and we must delay the fall of Hawaii as long as possible in order to buy time for us to deploy on the West Coast and Australia."
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He looked at Stark and Marshall, "Is there anything you can do?"
"President," Marshall had already thought of the answer, which Roosevelt liked to hear, "now the only way to defend Oahu is to rely on the Army, and there are two divisions of Army on the island, and there are many Marines.
There are more than 450,000 personnel who can fight, and the weapons and equipment are also quite good, so they can be held for a long time.
If Pearl Harbor and Horununu could not hold on, the troops could also move to the inland mountains to hold on.
There should be no problem with 23 months. ” Marshall said good things, and Admiral Stark of the Navy could only say something disheartening, and he said to Roosevelt: "Mr.
President, the immediate priority is the pilots and ground crews who have lost their planes from Hawaii, the engineers and technicians of the Navy, the naval officers and sailors who have lost their ships, and the families of the officers and men of the Navy and the Army.
I think we can use the long-range B17 aircraft and destroyers to evacuate personnel, and while the Japanese aircraft carriers are still chasing Halsey's fleet, we still have a chance to evacuate some personnel. ” Roosevelt nodded and said, "Then immediately make a plan for evacuating the personnel and holding on to Oahu."
He paused, and then added, "Besides, we have no surplus supplies to hand over to Britain in the coming month." ” "President" Hull and Hopkins exclaimed in unison when they heard Roosevelt's decision.
Of course, they knew how much material the U.S. government had in its hands and couldn't say what they wanted, but it was enough to send war materiel to Australia and Britain at the same time.
"President," Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, also reminded Roosevelt, "if the Lend-Lease shipments were to be suspended for a month, the strategic bombing of Germany would not be on time." ” Strategic bombing was an important means of defeating Germany in the American plan, and in order to carry out strategic bombing, it was necessary to build a large amount of infrastructure in Britain, including airfields, oil depots, ammunition depots, etc., and also to hoard fuel, bombs, and aircraft parts.
So there are a lot of things to ship from the US to the UK.
"A one-month pause," Roosevelt stressed, "we cannot now turn the other cheek with the Germans."
He glanced at Hull, "Tomorrow I will have a banquet at the White House for Mr.
Hess."
Now the balance of naval power between the United States and Germany has been reversed, and the United States has lost 8 battleships at once, including 2 and 1 aircraft carrier stranded in Pearl Harbor.
The remaining battleships and aircraft carriers were to defend Australia, so there was no strength to fight the combined German, Italian and French fleets in the Atlantic.
Therefore, Roosevelt could only temporarily show weakness to paralyze Germany, hoping to delay the time when Germany declared war on the United States. t1706231537: