Chapter 933 America’s Trump Card
"Great." Roosevelt was obviously very satisfied with the arrival of B-29s. He nodded and said, "General, we need more B-29s. Before the end of June 1944, the Army Air Force should at least have them." Can 500 combat-ready B-29 bombers do it?”
"500? Or...the Army Air Force?" William Leahy was stunned for a moment. "Mr. President, where are we going to use B-29s to bomb? Are they taking off from Newfoundland to bomb the British mainland?"
The B-29 has a very long range, slightly exceeding the German Me264's range of more than 9,000 kilometers. But that is the ultimate range, and the combat radius after attaching bombs is usually around 3,000 kilometers. Even if we adopt the method of carrying less bombs and removing some self-defense weapons and armor to increase the range, bombing the British mainland, which is more than 3,000 kilometers away from Newfoundland, is still the limit.
"Of course not," Roosevelt shook his big head, "Britain is our ally after all. How can we kill the British people in occupied areas from the air? Moreover, the air defense forces in Europe are very powerful, and our B-29s will suffer heavy losses. of."
William Leahy breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked: "So where are we going to bomb? Is it the Hawaiian Islands?"
"No." Roosevelt looked at William Leahy with a question mark on his face, smiled slightly and said, "I want to bomb the oil fields controlled by Japan!"
"Bomb... bomb the oil fields controlled by Japan?" William Leahy's eyes widened, "Where did the plane take off from?"
"From Port Hedland in northwest Australia... Admiral, have you heard of this place?" Roosevelt laughed.
Of course William Leahy had heard of Port Hedland, an important stronghold of the US-Australian coalition forces in northwest Australia, which was almost as important as the Port of Darwin. And it is only 2,400 kilometers away from the Japanese-controlled Palembang oil field (the most critical oil field)! Completely within the ideal combat radius of the B-29 long-range bomber. In addition, almost all Japan's oil fields in Southeast Asia can be covered by the combat radius of B-29 bombers taking off from Port Hedland and Port Darwin!
In other words, the United States only needs to deploy a few hundred B-29 long-range bombers in northwest Australia to drop 500-1,000 tons of bombs or solidification weapons every day over the Japanese's most precious oil fields.
In addition, the reconnaissance version of the B-29 long-range bomber taking off from northwest Australia can also be used to search for the Japanese fleet in the South China Sea. Although it is not convenient to use the B-29 to break the diplomatic relationship, it can telegraph the location of the fleet to the United States. Submarines (most of the submarines operating in the South China Sea also depart from Australia). This will greatly improve the efficiency of U.S. submarines in breaking diplomatic relations.
"Admiral, I think this is the Achilles' heel of the Japanese," Roosevelt continued. "B-29 bombings, searches, and the destruction of submarines will definitely significantly reduce the amount of oil Japan obtains from Southeast Asia, at least More than 80% reduction!”
Japan now has about 8 million tons of oil production per year in Southeast Asia. An 80% reduction would mean 6.4 million tons (a decrease of almost 100% in history). In this way, Japan's oil acquisition will drop significantly to less than 2 million tons. This is simply impossible to sustain a war!
"But Mr. President, the B-29 only has a maximum transit range of 9,654 kilometers, and the distance from the United States to New Zealand is more than 10,000 kilometers. It is difficult for the B-29 to reach it."
In this time and space, Japan performed mightily in the first two years of the Pacific War. Not only did it capture the Hawaiian Islands, but it also won successive victories in the South Pacific. The U.S.-Australian coalition's strongholds in the South Pacific have also been significantly reduced, and the only island that can accommodate B-29 takeoff and landing is New Zealand.
"Isn't there Christmas Island?" Roosevelt raised his eyebrows. "It is a very flat coral island, and there is a large airport built by the Japanese. As long as we can capture it, the B-29 will have a foothold." Yet?"
Fortunately, the Japanese have 731, otherwise they really would not be able to force the United States to attack the impregnable Hawaiian Islands - Americans never like to fight such tough battles with mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Their style is to throw money at them and burn them with oil! Transport the B-29 thousands of miles to Australia, and at the same time load bombs, gasoline, parts, and everything else by ship. Regardless of the consumption on the road, just use B-29 to bomb the Japanese oil fields regardless of the cost.
Moreover, the B-29 also has three major advantages: high altitude, high speed and heavy firepower. The current main model of the Japanese cannot deal with it at all. They could only watch their precious oil fields being blown up. If the Japanese did not want to wait for death, they would have no choice but to take the risk and invade Australia. This played into Roosevelt's hands. After more than a year of operation, Australia's defense has become very stable. A large number of P-51s and P47s have been deployed to Australia. These two aircraft are not comparable to Japanese carrier-based aircraft. If Japan wants to take advantage of Australia, it will definitely lose very ugly.
"Admiral," Roosevelt asked, "are we confident that we can capture Christmas Island by early 1944?"
"That's no problem," Admiral Leahy replied. "The fighting from late September to the present not only cost Japan a lot of precious fuel, but also lost many very good pilots. This was very fatal to them. Strike, as long as we adhere to the correct tactics, Japan can only give up the North Pacific, and judging from the current situation, they are indeed shrinking. "
"Won't Japan train more pilots?" Roosevelt seemed a little uncertain, "They used to train many excellent pilots, didn't they?"
"Yes, but that was in the past." Admiral Leahy said, "Our current tactics, in the final analysis, are to compete with Japan for fuel... Not only does the fleet burn a lot of fuel, but excellent pilots are actually burned with fuel.
Except for a very small number of geniuses, for most pilots, success is nothing more than practice makes perfect, just fly more. 300 hours is just a possible qualification (not 100% qualified, a 50% qualified rate is good), and then 200 hours of training with the team before going to the battlefield. If you want to go on an aircraft carrier, you have to train at least 200 hours more. After becoming a formal fighter pilot, there will be a lot of daily training and adaptation training (adapting to new aircraft models or new combat environments), so most of the truly excellent pilots have experienced thousands of hours of flight training and almost The same flight mission (not necessarily combat)... and every promotion of pilot training is accompanied by a considerable proportion of elimination rate. "
William Leahy smiled proudly: "So we can regard a truly excellent pilot as hundreds of thousands of gallons (Leahy is talking about US gallons) of high-quality aviation gasoline (fighter pilots save some, bomber pilots are more fuel-intensive to train, and the average is about this number)... The excellent pilots lost by Japan in the past less than a month are worth at least several billion gallons of aviation gasoline. As long as we keep burning it, Japan will definitely lose!"
William Leahy said a reality that the Japanese dared not imagine. The pilots they lost in the past few weeks were worth at least 1 million tons of aviation gasoline - pilots' experience is gained through fighting, but skills are gained by burning oil... and without oil, there is no technology. Without technology, at most you can gain experience in parachuting and being shot down, and you cannot become an ace.
One million tons of aviation gasoline is not a big deal for the United States, but it is a loss that cannot be made up for for Japan. For Germany now, one million tons of B4 or C3 gasoline means the possibility of taking Moscow and Stalingrad after next spring!
So while Hessman agreed to provide Japan with 200 "Silver Reapers" and 2 Me262 jet fighters (the engine is also Rolls-Royce's W1B), he refused to provide Japan with a large amount of fuel, and only gave 2,000 tons of aviation kerosene for the "Silver Reaper" and 2 Me262s.