Shadow Spy

Chapter 453 The Birth of the Sea and Land Admiral

On June 6, a supreme military meeting was held in the underground command room of the Allied Expeditionary Force headquarters outside London. Most of the commanders of the Allied forces participating in the war attended, including Li Junhao, who made a special trip from Washington.

After the meeting began, Eisenhower first introduced Lieutenant General Panson, commander of the US Marine Corps, who was unanimously welcomed by the generals attending the meeting, and even the British generals were even more enthusiastic! The Commander-in-Chief then remembered Pan Sen’s other identity and secretly laughed that he was worrying in vain!
  Chief of Staff Smith introduced Li Junhao to several major generals attending the meeting, giving him a basic understanding of the situation at the Allied Expeditionary Force Headquarters:

Commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. Army General.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Arthur William Tedder, General of the British Air Force.

Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, U.S. Army.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Frank Morgan, Lieutenant-General, British Army.

Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Bertram Ramsay, British Admiral.

Commander of the Air Force, Trevor Leigh Mallory, General of the British Air Force.

Commander of the Army (21st Army Group), Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army General.

U.S. Army 1st Army Commander, Omar Nelson Bradley, U.S. Army Lieutenant General.

Commander of the 2nd British Army, Milly Dempsey, Lieutenant General of the British Army. It has jurisdiction over 5 armies and 13 divisions.

Commander of the 1st Canadian Army, Duncan Grenim, British Army Lieutenant General. It has jurisdiction over 1 army and 3 divisions.

There are also several major generals who are still on duty at their posts, such as Lieutenant General George Patton Jr., commander of the U.S. 3rd Army as the second echelon, General Harris, commander of the British Strategic Bomber Force, and the U.S. Strategic Air Force in the UK. Major General Doolittle, commander of the 8th Wing, Major General Kirk, commander of the Western Task Force (US), Major General Vian, commander of the Eastern Task Force (UK), and others.

Later, Eisenhower said: "Generals, I specially invited Lieutenant General Panson to attend our meeting. I hope he can tell us the key points of the landing operation so that our 'Overlord' plan can be maximized while ensuring success." Reduce the casualties of soldiers..."     In fact, he did not say it, but everyone knew that it was for this reason. In the middle of last month, after learning about the battle of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Theater, the Commander-in-Chief urgently stopped the landing plan. It was said that the combat plan was significantly modified based on the successful experience of the "Food Requisitioner" campaign... Now that Lieutenant General Pan Sen, who successfully commanded the island seizure campaign, was invited here, it must be because of this incident!

Li Junhao was not polite and immediately explained the characteristics, tactics, precautions, etc. of beach landing operations that he had "summarized"...

Then, he also elaborated on his positioning of the Marine Corps, defining its functions and tasks as: using landing troops that have undergone strict professional training, with professional tactics and equipment, and with minimal sacrifices and losses, Win the beach landing battle!
  After the meeting, General Eisenhower talked to him again and said that he had submitted a formal application to the White House Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S.-British Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference to mobilize naval and land forces to join the counterattack on the European continent and be responsible for the first wave of beach landing operations. ! In addition, the commander-in-chief hoped that Li Junhao could join his headquarters and personally command the landing operations.

Li Junhao said: There is no problem in dispatching and commanding naval and land forces to participate in the war, but he needs some time to consider whether to serve in the Allied Expeditionary Force Headquarters.

Eisenhower expressed his understanding and said that they would definitely cooperate happily! ——
  On June 6, the U.S. Navy was ordered to organize a specially organized large-scale transport fleet to begin transporting Marine Corps combat troops to the United Kingdom. The completed LCC-22 "Stuart" amphibious command ship accompanied them.

These participating forces include the first, third, and fifth main naval and land armies, the newly formed sixth and seventh armies, and five newly formed special operations brigades.

In addition, the Second, Fourth and newly formed Ninth Army were sent to the Pacific Theater to participate in the war. The Eighth, Tenth Army and 15 special operations brigades stayed on the mainland and continued training as rotational units.

After the Battle of Mariana, using the newly trained recruits, Li Junhao strengthened the five main armies to 7 people, each with 6 brigades and 1 troops directly under the army; he mobilized veterans of the five armies as the backbone, In addition to the newly trained recruits, the sixth to tenth corps were formed, each with five brigades and 5.5 troops directly under the corps, each with 20 troops; [-] special operations brigades were also formed, five of which were female brigades.
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  On the same day, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff applied for and President Roosevelt signed an order: Ognyan Lee Panson was promoted to General of the U.S. Marine Corps - another record-breaking military rank. After Lieutenant General of the Navy and Army, he became The first land and sea general in the history of the US military!
  The U.S.-British Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference issued an order: Appoint Admiral Panson as deputy commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force and commander-in-chief of the landing operations, with full responsibility for the first wave of landing operations!

After receiving the order, the Allied Expeditionary Force Command immediately began to modify the landing plan. The main change was to replace the Army troops originally scheduled to perform beach landings with U.S. Marine Corps troops.
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  Li Junhao did not expect to be promoted to general at this time, although in terms of merit, he was completely qualified - his military exploits in the India-Burma theater alone were no less than Eisenhower's achievements in North Africa! It's just that he is much younger than the current generals in the army, and his qualifications in the army are too junior; but in other respects, he has many part-time jobs and is more important than those generals in the army.

According to the current situation, after World War II, he will have no problem earning another five-star general for the land and sea! Of course, he still has to fight the next battles well.
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  After taking office as deputy commander-in-chief, Li Junhao officially joined the leadership team of the Allied Expeditionary Force. He then attended several meetings and took over the Landing Operations Command under the General Headquarters, guiding the staff to revise the operational plan and adjust The number, distribution, and waves of landing troops, ships, and fighter planes...

Shortly afterwards, he also met at the headquarters with Lieutenant General Ridgway, the commander of the First Airborne Group of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Before the first wave of landing operations in Operation Overlord, Ridgway would unified command of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions of the US Army. and the British 6th Airborne Division. Their main mission was to airborne in the interior of Normandy before the beach troops landed, attracting German defensive forces, preventing German reinforcements from reaching the beachhead, and protecting important road nodes and bridges.

(End of this chapter)