Winter in Washington is much warmer than cities in northern America.

But in the Oval Office of the White House, the atmosphere was solemn.

Roosevelt's goal was achieved. The American battleship "Arizona" and two destroyers, which escorted the British transport fleet, were sunk, the "Pennsylvania" was severely damaged, and more than 2,000 casualties were killed and killed in the US Navy. Now, the American crowd was indignant, and the call for a declaration of war with Germany and Austria finally gained the upper hand. Of course, thousands of distorted reports were conducted in American newspapers, describing the US fleet as innocent victims, and the "evil" German fleet had no reason to "sneak attack" the "unprepared and justice-filled" American fleet.

However, the powerful and terrifying attack power of the German and Austrian fleet in naval battles made the conspirator who had been motivating the United States to actively participate in the European wars feel a little hesitant. The United States was not ready for war. The army's strength had just expanded to 570,000 people. The navy lacked main battleships. Although it had 7 aircraft carriers, the current battleships were all slow and old and outdated.

In a maritime battle against Britain, one-third of the main force of the British naval forces were eliminated, especially four aircraft carriers sunk, and there was almost no loss. This is the terrifying thing. Roosevelt thought that all the forces of the US Navy combined could not do this.

"We are not ready now. If we participate in the war now, even the Navy will not be able to ensure the safety of the US coast!" Navy Secretary Knox said with concern.

"But we have to participate, right?" Roosevelt looked up. "Frank, we have suffered enough of the lack of a colonial market in the economic crisis. The British used tariff barriers to close its global colonial market, which is also the main reason for the weak recovery of the United States. If it weren't for this war, we were still struggling in the quagmire of economic recession. Our industrial products require a huge global market, but the old colonial system is hindering the development of the United States. Think about it, the Germans now control almost the entire Europe and Africa. If East and Southeast Asia are obtained, how will we deal with the next economic crisis?!"

“Does the United States really need to dominate the global market?”

"Of course, this is a problem for us to expand our living space." Roosevelt looked up. "Even if we participate, the possibility of failure is very small, but if Germany and Austria rule the world, the United States is destined to decline."

Seeing that Roosevelt had made up his mind to join the war, Vice President Wallace opened his mouth but said nothing. He knew very well that the so-called "Roosevelt New Deal" did not drive the US economic recovery. In fact, if it were not for the war, the US economy would soon fall into recession again.

Roosevelt actually told the majority of lawmakers to agree that the United States would participate in the war, but it turned out that it was just concerned about the isolation of the people in the country. Now the American public opinion has shown the willingness to participate in the war. If it is delayed, I still don’t know what kind of changes will happen.

The news of the United States' participation in the war was not surprising to Lee Haydn. When the US declaration of war was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Hofburg Palace, he only took a few casual glances and ordered the secretary to archive it.

He had no mercy on the British. Everything was brought to his own fault. With the strength of Britain, he should not be involved in this war. However, the ambitions of those politicians' attempt to dominate Europe dragged Britain into the abyss. Without this war, the British Empire would still be a world power, but now, they will soon become a third-rate country.

Maybe he still has the ability to bully the Argentines... This may be an opportunity to drag South America into this war.

Lee Haydn was not very interested in the plan to land in the UK. He lost his maritime advantage, and Britain was just a meat worm and no longer had much threat. Americans were the biggest enemy. As long as Germany and Austria could maintain their maritime and air superiority, Americans would not dare to easily run to the British islands.

It is not a good idea to attack Britain now. Relatively speaking, use the maritime blockade to gradually weaken Britain's power and trade the war motto for the smallest price for the greatest benefit. With the current supply of materials from the British, it is good to not starve people to death, and they still want to restore their naval strength. With the resources of Britain, they cannot do this at all. The minimum resources are also the biggest weakness of all island countries.

The strategic focus now is about to start to shift to East Asia, and the Japanese have been arrogant for a year and a half. It is time to teach them some lessons.

Sa Shijun was admitted to the Austro-Hungarian Naval Hospital in Pola again.

"How is it? Why are you injured again?!" Cheng Yaoheng took a pile of fruit to the hospital to visit this old comrade-in-arms.

"It's nothing, a shrapnel pierced in his shoulder." Sa Shijun said, "There's no way, we'll be bombed when we see the enemy plane. How is the Guangxi now?"

"It's not so good. It will take at least three months to repair it." Cheng Yaoheng said, "Guangxi" was severely damaged. General Lukins once persuaded the Chinese Navy to give up, but Sa Shijun commanded all the officers and soldiers of the ship to risk the warship sinking at any time, and struggled to drive the seriously injured "Guangxi" back to the St. Nazere Shipyard.

"I heard that the Austrians are finally ready to go to war with the Japanese?"

"The battle plan is being formulated. Austro-Hungary wants to wait until the four new aircraft carriers have completed the sea trial before starting the operation. It will take several months. You can restoring your wounds with peace of mind. The repair of the Guangxi USS. is someone from the Ship Bureau staring at the construction period." Cheng Yaoheng said, "The country has also recently started a counterattack. After fierce battles, the National Defense Forces recovered Xuzhou!"

"It's a pity that we can't help much. The domestic military and civilians are fighting tenaciously, but we have been staying in Europe." Sa Shijun said depressedly.

"We can't say that, the whole war is a game of chess. The Germans and Austrians are always dominated by Europe. However, we will be able to go back soon and believe that we will eventually defeat Japan."

"The Austrians are very timid and have to wait for the new ship to serve, just to crush Japan with their industrial advantages. Their tactics have no technical content, they are just to rely on their strength and are simple and crude." Sa Shijun said, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy's drag and pulling aside made him very upset.

"Oh, being strong is also a skill. We want to fight head-on with the Japanese. Unfortunately, our strength is always poor. In today's wars, tactics and other things are secondary. The gap between military power between countries is getting bigger and bigger." Cheng Yaoheng said, "In the final analysis, what determines the victory or defeat is the industrial strength."

In winter, the Russian battlefield returned to static again. The German army entered the Cuban line in the summer and finally saved the Maikop oil field, which was very important to it. After losing the source of crude oil from the Baku oil field, half of Germany's oil supply needed to rely on this oil field. In the Middle East, the German-Austrian coalition forces have occupied the entire Arabian Peninsula and are speeding up the restoration of production after obtaining the Mosul and Basra oil fields.

The Ottoman Empire has basically disintegrated, and the only areas around the Marmara Sea can be controlled by Sudan. The Kurds achieved autonomy with the support of Austro-Hungary and fought against the Anatolian People's Army to fight for control of the eastern mountainous areas of Anatolia. The People's Army led by the Turkish Social Labor Party has occupied most of Anatolia and has launched fierce battles with the Ottoman army around Ankara.

Germany and Austria began to step up the formulation of Far East combat plan, and then the Italians joined in. Far East combat was of course mainly naval. After the North Atlantic Naval Battle, it established a naval strategy dominated by aircraft carriers. The Austro-Hungarian Navy planned to dispatch six aircraft carriers. Germany initially promised to dispatch two aircraft carriers. However, as the two modified "Prussian" class aircraft carrier projects progressed smoothly, the German Navy finally agreed to send four aircraft carriers.

The Italian "leader" is naturally a person who likes to show off. In Mussolini's view, the joint efforts of the German and Austrian navy are enough to crush the Japanese joint fleet, so the leader promised to send a fleet composed of two modified aircraft carriers and two battleships to follow the German and Austrian fleet.

This winter seemed very calm. After the United States declared war, the British seemed to have a shot of a strong man and mustered up the courage to continue to resist stubbornly. Both Germany and Austria were accumulating strength, and there was no battle to make a big splendid battle.
Chapter completed!