Chapter 1090: Waiting for the Americans' News

In the President’s Oval Office in the White House, Washington, Roosevelt coughed but said nothing. Beside him, an aide was reporting on the naval battles currently underway in the Pacific and the Atlantic.

“In the Pacific theater, Japan has committed suicide attacker units and is engaged in a fierce battle with our fleet in the waters near the Bismarck Archipelago. As of two hours ago, 7 of our warships have been damaged. The Japanese fleet has also suffered heavy losses. The specific battle situation is still developing,” the aide said, placing the telegram on President Roosevelt’s desk.

Recently, the voices questioning President Roosevelt had been growing louder. Many politicians had begun to openly express their opposition to his war policy. These individuals had proposed a new plan that was more in line with American interests: to reach a peace agreement with the European Axis, to abandon the already-collapsed Britain, and to focus all efforts on the Pacific theater to reclaim their lost interests.

A portion of the Jewish population had begun to support this view, because a genuine, neutral Jewish state had been born in the Middle East. This country, which had been established with German support, had not sided with the Axis, but had instead chosen an independent path of development.

This choice had left a very good impression on the United States and other Jews around the world. The number of people supporting Enrique, who was now the first president of the State of Israel, was growing. Meanwhile, Baurman, who had once been the final word among American Jews, was now facing increasing pressure.

“Is there any news from Admiral Nimitz? Is our fleet confident of annihilating the Japanese fleet in the waters near the Bismarck Archipelago?” Roosevelt’s health had not been good recently. He coughed violently twice, and only then did he ask his aide, who had just stopped.

“After all, it is the vast, open ocean. To completely annihilate the cunning Japanese fleet seems to be an impossible matter. If there are no surprises, we can inflict heavy losses on the enemy this time, which will create a very good environment for the upcoming attack on New Guinea.” The aide repeated, verbatim, what a naval liaison officer had just told him, to his president. The battle was still ongoing, and this was the most optimistic promise that could be made.

Sure enough, Roosevelt nodded, having lost his enthusiasm to ask any more about this matter. He looked at the huge Pacific Ocean on the map, his thoughts unknown. A silence spread through the Oval Office, an oppressive feeling that was almost suffocating. In the end, it was Roosevelt himself who broke the silence, continuing to ask, “Then, on the Atlantic front, what is the situation?”

At the mention of this, the aide was clearly a little embarrassed. Because within the framework of Anglo-American cooperation, the defense of the Atlantic had always been guaranteed by the British Royal Navy. The main force of the U.S. Navy had always been in the Pacific, which was the fundamental reason why it could crush the Japanese Navy in terms of numbers.

But recently, in the operation concerning Italy, the United States had, through coercion and inducement, made Britain also take out its “coffin money.” The fleets of both sides had sortied, escorting the landing force in an attempt to launch a sneak attack and to backstab the Germans in Italy. But this massive plan was doomed to fail. And so the massive Anglo-American combined fleet had been forced, by the equally powerful German High Seas Fleet, to take a tour around the South Atlantic.

The most direct consequence of this “all-expenses-paid tour” was that the naval defense of Iceland had been left empty, and a German detachment had taken the opportunity to slip in. The German battleship Grand Admiral Raeder, under the cover of several cruisers, had shelled the sparsely defended coastal facilities of Iceland, a direct and humiliating slap to the face of the King of England.

The action of shelling Iceland had sent far too many messages to the high command of the United States and Britain, so many that it had made Roosevelt somewhat despairing. First, the renewed, dense sortie of German heavy warships was a sign that the German Navy had already solved its practical problem of a lack of fuel. And to have solved the problem of a lack of fuel meant that the five aircraft carriers in Germany’s hands could be sortied at any time to threaten the East Coast of the United States.

At the same time, for a battleship to have approached and shelled Iceland also showed that the German Navy had, psychologically, broken free from the original curse of “going weak in the knees at the sight of the British.” It showed that the German Navy already had all the conditions for an active offensive. This was, for the Allied forces, who were split between two oceans, likewise not good news.

These signals were dangerous and terrifying. Because the Allies lacked a fleet in the Atlantic that could stand up to the German Navy, once Germany began to take the initiative and to seek a naval engagement, the American convoys in the Atlantic would be facing a catastrophe.

“Mr. President, four hours ago, the German battleship that had shelled Iceland had already left. The British side is just in the process of mobilizing their main fleet, to make combat deployments to defend Iceland,” the aide replied in a low voice to President Roosevelt’s question. It was clear that even he could see the British Royal Navy’s lack of confidence.

If this had been in a previous era, any enemy warship that had dared to provoke the authority of the British Royal Navy would have been hunted down by the Royal Navy’s massive, globally-deployed fleet—the Graf Spee and, in another timeline, the Bismarck, had both met such an end.

But now, the German High Seas Fleet, in its overall strength, had already surpassed the main fleet of the British Royal Navy. The massive carrier fleet could, by relying on its more advanced carrier-based aircraft and its more complete electronic equipment, sink the battleships that the British Empire was so proud of. It was unknown when it had begun, but the glorious tradition of the Royal Navy, to “engage the enemy on sight,” had now become the “passive avoidance of battle” that was so criticized by all. It could be said that in terms of their so-called state of mind, the British Navy had already been defeated.

Although the elderly Admiral Dudley Pound was still maintaining the last shred of the British Royal Navy’s dignity; although the massive Royal Navy, in terms of numbers and training, still had the capital to fight a life-or-death battle with the German Navy; although this former empire, whose homeland had already been occupied, still had countless loyalists who believed it could be reborn from the ashes… it truly did not have much capital left for its decision-makers to squander one more time.

“If… if we can’t come up with something to strengthen the British base on Iceland, then Britain might be squeezed out of the war…” Roosevelt muttered his own thoughts with a frown. He knew that the last bargaining chip that was keeping Britain in the fight was the still-respectable strength of the Royal Navy. If the Royal Navy were to be defeated, then Britain would very likely completely collapse.

A United States that had lost Britain would very likely be forced to make peace with the Third Reich, and the bargaining chips for that peace would be the already-lost Middle East and the interests in the Atlantic. The United States would be forced to withdraw from the stage of world contention, and to hand over the alliance it had built with its own hands to Germany.

And in that state of a forced peace, it would not just be the exiled British government on Iceland that would collapse. Next would be de Gaulle’s Free French government. As long as the United States lost the Atlantic, these governments-in-exile from Europe would be scattered to the winds, without even a piece of paper left behind.

“While we still have an overwhelming majority in Congress, give Britain a few preferential policies, and then find a way to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Atlantic Fleet,” Roosevelt said after a moment’s thought. “Call the arms dealers who support us. Have them provide a support plan for the reconstruction of the Iceland airbase.”

After he had said this, he once again fixed his gaze on the position of Iceland on the map. In the end, it was unknown if he was trying to convince his aide, or himself, as he said, “Strengthen this base, and use our bombers, at all costs, to destroy the Norwegian iron ore. This is our only chance.”

While the President of the United States was in his office, full of worry, on the bridge of the British Royal Navy’s carrier Ark Royal, Dudley Pound was, with his officers, carefully studying the route of the German naval battleship squadron.

“There are simply too many routes the enemy can use. We have no way to track their battleship, the Grand Admiral Raeder,” an officer of the Fleet Air Arm, his hands behind his back, said to his superior. “They can return directly to the Norwegian ports to the east. They only have to go half the distance to be within the protective range of the Norwegian land-based air arm.”

As he spoke, he drew his hand from behind his back and pointed to the relevant position on the map. “If they head southeast, they can enter the air defense range of the British Isles… Chamberlain’s North British Air Force is there, and there are often ME-109C fighters on patrol. Of course, if they have sufficient fuel, they can also return directly to Wilhelmshaven. We likewise have no way to catch them.”

“The distance is too delicate. Their carrier fleet, within the combat radius of their land-based aircraft, can launch planes to cover this battleship fleet. If we were to sally out rashly, we would suffer losses.” Dudley Pound’s current situation was a typical case of “a clever wife cannot cook without rice.” The surrounding sea area was, for the most part, within the combat radius of the German land-based aircraft. For his navy to want to achieve anything was truly as difficult as reaching for the sky.

“We must find a way to lure the German fleet to the vicinity of the American East Coast. Only on the vast ocean would it be possible to encircle and annihilate this fleet,” the captain of the Ark Royal said, standing by Dudley Pound’s side. “The probability of this is simply too small. Unless the Germans are fools, they won’t fall for it.”

The officer in charge of the submarine force shook his head, rejecting this operational plan to lure the German fleet. “Even if we were to lay out sufficient bait, the only thing that would take it would be those damn U-boats under Dönitz. The German Navy’s surface ships are much more cautious than their submarine force. To this day, they have not even entered the central North Atlantic.”

“We still have to take a long-term view,” Dudley Pound said with a sigh. “What we need to do now is just to prevent the German Navy from continuing to threaten Iceland. As for other matters, we will wait for news from the Americans.”

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