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In order to avoid interference from the German air force stationed in Spain, the landing site of the US military was chosen far south of Casablanca. However, Morocco is mountainous. Except for the narrow plains along the northwest coast, the rest of the area is either mountainous, hilly or broken.
plateau, which has a high degree of mechanization
The U.S. Army caused great difficulties, but Kerim's Moroccan Corps was at ease, taking full advantage of their familiarity with local conditions and being good at mountain marching operations, and won many battles in succession. The U.S. Army, which had suffered heavy losses, was forced to move across the front
Return to the previous landing zone to seek protection from naval guns...
After spending such a long time and achieving no results, but at the cost of more than 20,000 casualties, Eisenhower finally dismissed the poor-performing commander of the Second Army, George Friedenda, and replaced him with the wise and brave George.
.Patton took his place
In just a few days after taking office, Patton quickly restored the already low morale of the Second Army with his outstanding leadership and seemingly rude but inflammatory words. Eisenhower's last-minute replacement seemed like
Seems to be a success...
Patton was not only brave, but also very thoughtful. Before he took over as commander of the army, he had realized that the US military relied too much on fire support and various technical equipment, and these would be greatly restricted in the mountains.
The prestigious Moroccan Corps was not surprising. So when Patton took over as commander of the army, he urged General Eisenhower to re-select the landing site. He believed that the landing should be done north of Casablanca and then fully deployed on the plains.
It would be a better choice to take advantage of the mechanized forces of the US military and drive south to capture this fortified city. On the one hand, it can reduce the losses caused by enemy aircraft, and on the other hand, it can mobilize the enemy and force them to go down the mountains to the plains.
Fight with yourself. If the Moroccans don't come down from the mountains, they can only sit back and watch Casablanca be captured by the US military. If they really fight the US military on the plains, Patton is confident that they will never come back...
Eisenhower listened to Patton's advice, but in order to prevent the German Air Force from increasing its troops in North Africa, he still asked for help from home again. But now Roosevelt was eager to recapture the Hawaiian Islands from the Japanese to relieve the threat to the homeland. The six newly completed ships were put into service.
The Essex-class heavy aircraft carriers and six Independence-class light aircraft carriers were all sent to the Pacific, so Eisenhower could only ask for a few escort carriers to make up the number...
Although the escort aircraft carrier can also carry the same carrier-based aircraft as the fleet aircraft carrier, due to the short flight runway, it must rely on catapults or the aircraft carrier sailing against the wind to take off. The launch speed of the aircraft is far less than that of the fleet aircraft carrier. At the same time, the aircraft
They often cannot be fully loaded with fuel and ammunition when taking off. This also greatly limits the combat effectiveness of carrier-based aircraft. However, Morocco is only a small country.
, and the terrain is long and narrow. The depth is not wide, so even for the carrier-based fighter jets on the escort carriers, the combat radius is basically enough. Moreover, the United States suddenly dispatched 10 escort aircraft carriers, all of which brought fighter jets, a total of two
There are as many as three hundred aircraft. Even if they are not enough to gain air supremacy, they can at least protect the US ground forces. Well, at least that's what it seems...
However, the mainland missed something. Before the American escort aircraft carriers came over, German submarines had already gathered. Although Dönitz rarely gave orders to submarines performing missions outside, he still sent orders to submarines returning to port to resupply.
There is no problem in assigning new tasks, not to mention that Casablanca is the most important German submarine in West Africa.
The Americans' previous attack on this important supply port was a blatant slap in the face. Therefore, whether it was the German submarines that had evacuated Casablanca when the US fleet came, or those that were supplying in Dakar or Spain, they all arrived near Casablanca.
Looking for fighter jets in the sea, trying every means to bite the Americans...
Of course, they don't dare to get too close to the U.S. fleet in case they are accidentally discovered, but these submarines can launch torpedoes from 10 kilometers or even farther away (if you don't care about accuracy at all), and the U.S. fleet is still defenseless, especially
The large size of the formation increased the hit rate of German submarine torpedo attacks in disguise, causing them to often fire torpedoes at a distance of 15 kilometers or even 20 kilometers, which greatly increased the difficulty of anti-submarine warfare for the US military.
After losing many ships in succession, the helpless U.S. Navy had no choice but to send out a large number of aircraft for anti-submarine patrols. Although it was not able to sink even a single German drop-shaped submarine, it was at least able to force the German submarines out of the effective range of the torpedoes.
.After all, airborne radar can detect snorkels 10 kilometers away, and the early warning range of radar wave detectors is even greater.
Far away, hundreds of aircraft repeatedly patrolled back and forth, resulting in German submarines not daring to extend the snorkel. Once the snorkel could not be extended, the submarine had to be powered by batteries, and its endurance was extremely limited. In terms of teardrop-shaped submarines,
Even though it was much better than the old ship-shaped submarine, it still couldn't hold on for long and had no choice but to withdraw from the control range of US military aircraft.
Because of this, this swarm attack by the German submarine force was far less successful than the original Battle of Iceland, but it cannot be said that their trip was in vain. First of all, the Americans had to consume a lot of precious aviation gasoline (although Americans with deep pockets are not
I care about this very much), and the pilots are exhausted because of the long flight time (flying for three to five hours in a row is very tiring, and now American pilots almost work two shifts, the level of fatigue can be imagined.). And fatigue
It's not just
The body is in a tense atmosphere that may be attacked at any time all day long, but it is impossible to find the enemy. This kind of psychological pressure also makes the U.S. Navy officers and soldiers miserable. And this kind of psychological tension is inevitably transmitted to
This aggravated the already irritable pilots and further aggravated their physical fatigue. If the U.S. government had not urgently dispatched five additional escort aircraft carriers later, the "two shifts" became a "three shifts."
, the pilots may stop flying...
The bigger problem is that a large number of aircraft are used for anti-submarine warfare, and coupled with the number of fighter jets that must be left to protect the fleet against enemy air attacks, the number of fighter jets that can be sent out to protect ground forces becomes extremely limited. As a result,
Not only did they fail to protect the ground troops well, but they were also outnumbered and their record was wiped out by the Luftwaffe... (To be continued...)