1028 For America's Future
?United States, Washington, in the Oval Office of the President of the White House, President Roosevelt sat in a wheelchair and looked at the staff he summoned. These people are all high-ranking officials in the United States, including think tanks Marshall and Eisenhower, and the current navy of the Royal Navy Minister Dudley Pound.
"Mr. President, it is not a wise thing to send so many troops to Italy without any external support to fight a war that has no chance of winning." General Bradley pointed to the Strait of Gibraltar, saying Roosevelt introduced: "Even if there are tens of thousands of troops, these troops will have to wander at sea for a long time. After landing in Italy, they need to go to the front line to fight immediately. They cannot stop the German army. Whoever commands them will end up the same."
General Eisenhower also nodded aside, agreeing with his colleagues: "From a purely military point of view, it is a very irrational act to deploy troops in Italy. We are sending prisoners of war to German concentration camps, and we want to Sending away tens of thousands of people. These people are isolated and helpless, and they don’t even have basic logistical support. After the ammunition is exhausted, they are no different from the troops of years ago.”
A general representing the U.S. Navy added: "Mr. President, if the Germans are not idiots, they will close the strait after Gibraltar is attacked once. To compete with the German army for a distant strait, even if we draw troops from the Pacific Ocean, it will not be possible.”
Dudley Pound of the British Royal Navy, who stood there without speaking, also nodded and said: "I have to admit that the combat capability of the German army is completely different from that of the Japanese army. The quality of the armored forces and aircraft is at least that of the Japanese army." Ten times, the number is also much larger than that of the Japanese army. Under such circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for an adventure to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar for a second time to supply supplies.”
He held back a sentence in his heart and didn't say it. He even felt that if the Germans were ruthless enough, then opening the Strait of Gibraltar directly, letting the Americans enter Italy and annihilating them in one go, would be the result once and for all. According to the assessment of the combat effectiveness of the Germans on the Eastern Front, even if the Americans transported 10,000 people to Italy, they would be thrown into the sea within a few weeks.
"Generals, I think that if we can fight in Italy, then the German-Italian North African Army, which relies on local supplies, will eventually lose the ability to continue to attack because of the supply being cut off." Marshall said: "In the end, they Because of the lack of weapons and ammunition, we will be kicked out of our hometown. The situation in the entire Middle East war will be reversed because of this. I think the entire Middle East will use 70,000 soldiers to fight for it. This is indeed within a reasonable range, isn't it?"
The reality is always so cruel. Everyone in this room knows very well that they sent these 70,000 American infantrymen and all the military supplies to Italy, and they simply sent them to die. As long as the losses of their troops are valuable, the Allied Forces will be able to find the initiative throughout the Middle East, which is the core purpose of the entire plan.
As for Italy, it will be shattered into scorched earth, all ports and airports will be bombed and destroyed by the US military and Mussolini in the rout, and the railway lines will also be bombed and destroyed. After this battle is over,
In a short period of time, it can only focus on reconstruction and whether Italy will eventually get the benefits they want. Who cares about the people in this room?
"Strictly screen the soldiers who participated in the mission this time. The elder brother and the younger brother cannot join the troops sent to Italy at the same time. If there is such a situation, one of them should be transferred immediately." General Eisenhower made up his mind to do so after thinking about it. He wants to exchange the lives of nearly 10,000 troops for a real victory on the Middle East battlefield.
If you analyze it purely from a military point of view, this will be a big victory that changes the course of history: Rommel's L Army and Scherner's K Army in North Africa have a total of over 10,000 people, plus Garibaldi in Italy The number of troops under the general's command is doubled. It is obviously a very cost-effective business to use tens of thousands of US troops to achieve the goal of completely annihilating the German and Italian coalition forces.
But will everything go as the Americans want? Obviously unlikely. How could such a huge operation not be noticed by the Germans? Regarding the confidentiality of intelligence, even the Americans themselves feel unsure. Otherwise, they would not hold another meeting to determine whether to use Italy to fight a turnaround war.
The British side is undoubtedly the most hopeful that the Americans will take action in Italy, because after this battle, everything may turn around accordingly: the Germans will completely fail in the North African battlefield, and the British will be able to seize a large number of colonies. Germany is bound to be able to weaken the Atlantic barrier to deal with the Italian crisis. At that time, it will be a great time to recover the British mainland.
"Be careful of Italy. If they deliberately pretend to cooperate with us and trick us into trapping themselves, all this seems to make sense." General Bradley is also very afraid of intelligence issues. After all, the Germans have a pervasive intelligence network. It is hard to guard against, and many seemingly very covert Allied operations have been detected by those German spies. And this time the operation against Italy is obviously not so hidden in terms of confidentiality.
"The Italians have been integrated into the industrial production of the whole of Europe. I really doubt whether the Italians are really stupid to plan to break away from the Axis powers." Eisenhower also felt that the Italians' defection was very problematic, at least Analyzing in the political and economic fields, Italy's betrayal of the Axis powers is completely worth the candle.
At this time, President Roosevelt suddenly spoke. Compared with these generals present, he is a real expert in the political field. He is the only person in this room who understands Mussolini best: "Gentlemen, just because Italy is becoming more and more integrated into the economic and political system of the Axis powers, it is gradually losing its true independence. Isn't that true?" What Mussolini wanted to see, so these things are the reasons why Italy cannot do without the Axis powers, and the reasons why Italy is determined to leave the Axis powers."
What Mussolini hoped was to use the opportunity of Germany's war to complete his ambition of revitalizing the Kingdom of Italy into the Roman Empire. What he wanted was to be the great leader and founder of the new Roman Empire, not to be a small follower of the Third Reich, not to be an unknown minion in the Axis powers. A person does not have the slightest intention of surrendering in terms of political stance, so when he considers issues, he will never produce any compromises. Mussolini is such a person, a speculator with strong political ideals.
He surrendered to the force of the Third Reich because he had no choice. When Germany swept France and defeated Britain, he could only hide his good wishes to establish the Roman Empire in his heart. So when the Americans came to him and offered him another option that didn't require him to be inferior, he immediately wavered.
In this matter, he was seen clearly by Roosevelt, because Roosevelt had seen too many people like Mussolini. However, after Roosevelt finished speaking, he immediately added: "However, the relationship between Italy and Germany has indeed affected a large number of Italians. We must pay attention to this influence and find ways to eliminate these unfavorable influences on us. "
"Information sent shows that Mussolini still has a relatively strong control over the Italian navy, so it is relatively certain that the Italian navy helped to raid the Strait of Gibraltar." The general of the US Navy pointed to the report on the table and said : "As long as their bombardment starts on time, it can go on almost smoothly until landing in Italy"
"Accompanied by the escort ships of the fleet, the entire Mediterranean region will be blocked at that time, bombarding Alexandria and Greece, and cutting off the supply line of the German army in North Africa." He pointed to various locations on the map, then sighed helplessly, and continued: "The more difficult problem is that there are German airports on Malta and Crete, and they may encounter interference during the blockade mission, and the losses will be huge."
This is why there are almost no large ships on the Allied warships heading to the Mediterranean. These warships will be blocked in the Mediterranean Sea, and most of them may be lost in this sea area as the war progresses. Therefore, in order to compress losses as much as possible, the Allied forces will mostly use destroyers and cruisers as escort ships and enter the Mediterranean Sea.
The general situation of the combat plan is that the main force of the British Royal Navy and the main force of the US Atlantic Fleet will escort the transport fleet to the Strait of Gibraltar, then hand over the transport fleet to the Italian Navy, and then the main fleet will return. This transport fleet and a small number of cruisers and destroyers will fight in the Mediterranean until the entire army is wiped out or the US military successfully recovers the Middle East and North Africa.
"Since there are no problems, let's start implementing this plan! Everyone, the United States' first large-scale military action plan against Germany is about to begin. Please work together to win this war for the future of the United States." Let's go!" Roosevelt looked at the generals in front of him who determined the whereabouts of the US army with a total of more than three million, and said in a calm tone.
"Yes! Mr. President!" Everyone in the room agreed loudly, except for Admiral Dudley Pound of the Royal Navy.
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