Hearing Henry's answer like this, Elman's face showed an unexpected expression. He finally understood that his old superior took me on the destroyer without the permission of the superior. ￠￡,

I carefully observed the expression of the Elman Center, and I could see that he was also hesitant. Although I don’t know what the U.S. military’s regulations are, I did not get permission from my superiors to bring people to warships without permission. The behavior should be forbidden, even if Colonel Henry is Elman's old superior, there is no possibility of workaround.

Henry saw Elman's embarrassed expression. After taking a look at me, he turned to Elman and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, if this makes you embarrassed, we will disembark immediately."

I thought Elman would follow the boat and agreed that Colonel Henry would take me away with me. Unexpectedly, he stretched out his hand to stop Henry and turned to the sergeant and whispered a few words.

"Yes, sir!" The sergeant replied loudly, then turned and left.

After the sergeant left, Elman smiled and said to Henry: "Colonel, you cannot take your guests to visit our warship without the permission of your superiors, but it does not prevent me from asking you and your guests. Go to the cabin and have a cup of coffee. It just happens to be time now, so you can have lunch with me." Then, he gestured to Henry, "Sir, please!"

I followed Elman and Henry to the narrow command cabin and saw a long table fixed on the deck, actually covered with white linen tablecloths, and several folding chairs were placed on both sides of the table.

After welcoming us to sit down, Elman yelled outside: "Come in."

Following his orders, four sailors wearing white chef hats walked in from the hatch. At the forefront was a black man. He placed the shiny knives and forks in front of the three of us, and then stepped back, standing with his back against the bulkhead, and let the remaining three sailors Lunch was placed in front of us.

After the sailors left, Elman broke the silence first. He pointed to the sumptuous lunch on the table. Said to me politely: "Sir, please taste the food of our American sailors."

I deliberately waited for Colonel Henry to do the translation for me, then smiled and said thank you to Elman, and then I took up the knife and fork to deal with the food in front of me. The U.S. Navy’s lunch is really good. There are hamburgers, eggs, chunks of pork ribs, a salad of mixed ham and vegetables, and a cup of steaming coffee. Better than any meal I have eaten in the past six months.

"General, it tastes good, right?" Henry's amiable face showed a friendly smile. "If you think the food is delicious, eat more, and there will be more after you finish it." At this point, he seemed to think of something, and again He added, "I know that because Ukraine, the largest granary in the Soviet Union, is occupied by the Germans, you are now implementing a supply system and the food you can usually get is very limited. But you can rest assured. At most one month later, your food supply situation will be It will get better, because in our Soviet aid supplies, there are a lot of canned meat, sausages and lard, vegetable oil, powdered eggs, milk powder, cheese and other foods."

I know what Henry said is true. Before he went to Russia to do business, he always thought that after the Soviet Union had survived the great defeat at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it had finally stabilized its position and could barely resist the German attack by its own strength. The US aid is nothing more than the icing on the cake, becoming the last straw that crushes the German camel. But wait for me to stay in Moscow for a few years. Occasionally, I was stunned when I saw the US military's aid list. This is more than a straw, obviously pressing up the whole camel.

Ten thousand transport vehicles, ten thousand tons of oil. With the aid of so many tanks and armored vehicles, all kinds of aircraft, and so many supplies, if the Germans still cannot be beaten, the Soviet Union would really be an idiot that cannot be afforded. Zhukov himself said after the war: "...without American gunpowder, we would be in a very difficult situation. We would not be able to produce as many ammunition as needed for war; there would be no American Stibeck cars. , We have no way to transport our artillery. They do ensure our frontline transportation to a considerable extent. The special steel that is needed in all aspects of the war is also provided by the United States."

"...The Americans quickly produced and supplied a lot of materials for us. Without these materials, we would not be able to form our reserve forces or continue the war. We do not have explosives and gunpowder. Without these things, rifles would have no bullets. The Americans sincerely produced and provided us with a lot of steel quickly. Without the steel provided by the Americans, would we be able to produce tanks quickly?"

"...Without assistance from the West, the Soviet Union could not only win the Patriotic War, but could not even withstand German invasion, nor could it produce enough weapons and technical equipment, nor could it guarantee the fuel and ammunition used in the war."

Although I have been in this world for more than a year, there is one thing that I haven't figured out, so I took this opportunity to ask: "Colonel, I have a question. I want to ask you something."

"General, please ask," Colonel Henry said politely.

I organized a vocabulary in my mind, and then asked: "Colonel, I want to know why American aid materials for the Soviet Union are not shipped from the mainland of the United States through Canada to Alaska, and then from the Bering Strait to the Far East of the Soviet Union?"

Hearing my mentally handicapped question, Henry sighed softly and said: "If you have seen the local geographical environment and the climate change throughout the year, you will understand that transporting supplies on this route is very difficult. If it is difficult, the loss on the road will be astonishing. Even if you barely reach the Far East, there are still tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Soviet combat front."

"It is precisely because of this," Elman also continued: "The fleet transporting supplies will choose to transit through the UK, take the Arctic Ocean, and finally reach the route of Murmansk in the Soviet Union, which is a natural ice-free port. Aid to the Soviet Union. All of the supplies were unloaded there, and then transferred to various parts of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, this road is also not very safe. The road is prone to attack by German submarines. Almost every time you go out, you will lose a few ships."

"By the way, Lieutenant Colonel, I want to ask you something." After Henry translated Elman's words to me, he suddenly turned to ask the other party: "Will the Atlantic Fleet deliver a batch of ships to Russia next month? ?"

Hearing Henry's question, Elt couldn't help but glanced at me vigilantly. Henry may have seen his worry and said in a low voice: "Don't worry, she doesn't understand English. You can assume that there are only two of us here. You can rest assured. Speak boldly."

After I understood these words Henry said. He immediately buried his head and continued to eat his own food, and at the same time pricked his ears to listen to the content of the chat that the two were about to start.

Elman said in a homely tone: "Yes, according to the plan, we will provide Russia's Pacific Fleet with boarding 6 ships next month. So that they can board the Japanese mainland for use during the war. Aid Russia's boarding 6 ships. There are two types: the former can carry 21 soldiers each, and the latter can carry one soldier. However, because our navy is also in urgent need of various types of boarding 6 ships, the date of boarding 6 ships being delivered to the Russian navy is determined It will be postponed to one year later."

"This decision of the commander of the navy is really unwise." Colonel Henry expressed his opinion while sipping his coffee: "Since we have agreed with Russia on the delivery date of the ship, when it comes to the delivery period, we must The date is delayed by one year, I think the Russian side will be very annoyed."

"It's okay. Although they will not be offered to board the 6 ships for the time being, it will not have any impact on their next strategy. Anyway, they will not have any boarding operations this year." Elman said disapprovingly: "We will provide them here. Ten am minesweepers and ums minesweepers."

"Yes, this is the ship they desperately need." Henry put down his coffee cup and continued: "After the Soviet-German war broke out, one-third of their Baltic fleet was sunk by German mines and suffered a great loss. Last May. Britain. We have provided them with a number of minesweeping ships that can use audio and electromagnetic systems to clear mines. The Soviet army has never used such an advanced minesweeping system before."

"Yes," Elman continued: "The minesweeping ships we provide to Russia are all advanced. Among them, the am type is 914 tons, the degree is 14 knots, the hull is a steel structure, and it is equipped with a sound detection system. The weaponry includes 9 artillery. The UMS type is a wooden hull. The displacement is only tons..."

"Are there no warships?" Henry asked curiously: "You must know that it will not take long to build a ship based on our country's industrial level."

"There are four more Tacoma-class frigates," the two really thought I didn't understand English. Because sitting opposite me unscrupulously talked about these U.S. Navy secrets: "This kind of ship has a displacement of tons, a navigation distance of 19 knots, a cruising range of 15,000 kilometers, and weapons including three 76mm naval guns and two Millimeter naval guns and nine millimeter guns. In order to allow them to better deal with Nazi submarines, this type of ship is also specially equipped with sonar systems and depth charges. And we also provide their navy with radar and sonar every month... …"

"Report!" Just when I tried to hear more U.S. Navy secrets from the two, I heard a voice shouting at the door. Elman yelled without looking back, "Come in!"

quickly. The person calling the report appeared in front of the three of us. It turned out to be the sergeant just now. Henry looked at him and asked, "Sergeant, what do you want?"

"Sir, I am sending a call back to the captain of the fleet headquarters." The sergeant straightened up quickly and reported to Henry.

"Show me." Before Henry asked again, Elman reached out to the sergeant, ready to take the message in his hand. The sergeant was also more clever, and quickly handed the message to the captain.

Henry waited for Elman to finish reading the telegram and put it on the table before he asked: "What did the Fleet Command say on the telegram?"

"Sir!" Elman looked at Henry and said with a serious expression: "I just ordered the sergeant to telegraph to the Fleet Headquarters, report to him what happened here, and ask if you are allowed to visit the ship. Now the headquarter's reply Arrived."

Henry glanced at the telegram on the table, did not reach for it, but slowly asked, "What did the headquarters telegram say?"

"Sir, the command of the headquarters is very clear. Visiting warships is absolutely not allowed." Elman said dumbfounded: "But you can tell the friendly commander about the ship's parameters."

"Lieutenant colonel, since this is the case, then you can introduce it." Henry heard the command from the headquarters, and said helplessly: "Anyway, the general is only the 6th army, and she doesn't understand the navy, even if you I took her to the tour. I guess I won’t remember anything at the end. It’s better to report the parameters of the destroyer to her so that she has a general understanding."

"This is also a way, so I'll just tell her briefly here." Elman also pleaded with Colonel Henry: "Sir, you still need to be an interpreter for me."

Seeing Henry nod in agreement, Elman turned his head to look at me and said politely: "General, I cannot take you to see my warship because I did not get permission from the Fleet Command. But in order to keep you empty. After this trip, I can still introduce you to our destroyer."

I waited for Henry to finish the translation before putting on a regretful expression and said: "It turns out that I can't go on the ship and walk around. It's really a shame. But if you can hear the lieutenant colonel, you can briefly introduce the ship In the circumstances, I am worthy of this trip~lightnovelpub.net~General, our ship is an **** destroyer, and the main task it undertakes is to **** the merchant fleet." Lieutenant Colonel Elman sees Henry is ready , Began to introduce the situation to me: "We are Mahan class destroyers, although we do not have the fire control of offensive weapons and destroyers, nor do we have a faster speed, and then our hull has more maneuverability according to Europe. It has a smaller turning radius than the destroyer.

In order to keep up with the aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers in the fleet, destroyers often need more than a knot. An **** destroyer only needs to be able to move relative to the slow **** convoy, and be able to withstand enemy aircraft attacks, detection, pursuit and attack. These lower requirements for enemy submarines greatly reduce the size and cost of the hull and the crew required to **** the destroyer. "

"Okay, Lieutenant Colonel, be brief." After Henry translated this series of words for me, he suddenly whispered to Elman: "I don't have to say anything that shouldn't be said."

Elman nodded, and then introduced: "The Eldridge has a length of meters, a width of meters, a draft of 3.2 meters, and a maximum flight of 37 knots. It is equipped with five 5-inch 38-diameter main guns and four millimeters. Machine guns, three quadruple 533 torpedo tubes, two depth-water bomb projection rails..." (To be continued.)