Iron Cross

Although Roosevelt's words were not long, the meaning was clear: he was dissatisfied with the rigidity and restraint of senior officials in the army and navy in hiring personnel. The navy was okay, and basically all the generals who could fight were entrusted with important tasks, but the army had many problems, such as This time, for the sake of balance, Marshall began to select seniority-based generals for the second batch of reinforcements in South America. This made Roosevelt dissatisfied. What made him even more dissatisfied was the attitude of the top army officials towards Patton.

In Roosevelt's eyes, the African campaign was an out-and-out failure. Among so many military generals, the only one he admired was Patton. He believed that he showed rare blood and courage in the battle, especially his ability to gather the remaining defeated soldiers and march south on foot to fight with them. Roosevelt was deeply shocked by the fact that the main force gathered together instead of waiting in the distance to surrender to the Germans. Unfortunately, Patton was still admired as a hero when he returned home. After a period of time, he was plagued by negative news: some media commented that he was simple, rude, and had a bad temper. , often angrily scolded recruits and mid-level and low-level officers, and occasionally resorted to physical violence. After a while, other colleagues criticized his training for being extremely excessive - the training of crawling forward through barbed wire fire coverage. Patton often used machine guns to simulate it, most of which were in the air. Packed bullets, and occasionally live ammunition, scared a bunch of new recruits, and even shocked a bunch of defenders and democracy fighters. But Patton was completely indifferent to this kind of criticism, and even went so far as to get the German MG42 machine gun to attack. The fire was simulated, and when the "chichi" sound of tearing linen was heard, everyone thought he was a madman.

Marshall wiped Patton's butt for this kind of thing more than once, and even he was a little annoyed in the end. But then something bigger came out. When training infantry troops to follow the tank attack, Patton asked the artillerymen on the opposite side who were responsible for blocking the task. The artillery fire covered the training ground. Although it was only small and medium-caliber mortars and 105mm howitzers, and they were training rounds, the major of the artillery force refused to execute it because he was worried about friendly fire. As a result, Patton received two riding whips. The horsewhip incident and crazy training methods were eventually exposed, and public opinion was in an uproar. Although the veterans overwhelmingly expressed their support for Patton, the Army and all walks of life exerted great pressure. Under pressure, Marshall had to announce that Patton would be suspended for inspection. What's even more ironic is that Patton was just about to be promoted to lieutenant general because of his qualifications and performance. Under Marshall's mediation, the military legal authorities' follow-up opinions were roughly determined, and Patton was promoted to lieutenant general and arranged to retire from active service and transfer to reserve duty.

Roosevelt readily approved the report for promotion to lieutenant general, but he ruthlessly rejected the report for transfer to reserve duty. The above instructions made the top brass of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sweat profusely - "Attention, this is a mid-level officer." If an officer disobeys his superiors and causes an incident on the battlefield, he can be shot on the spot for his disobedience!”

There is no doubt that the president's butt is sitting on Patton's side. This kind of "politically incorrect" behavior that does not care about public opinion and is undemocratic will definitely be a weapon for his opponents during the election campaign. But now Roosevelt can no longer care about it. He wants to A general who is capable of fighting and has a tough style. During Li Qiwei's promotion ceremony, he had a question and answer session with Li Qiwei. After the exchange, he strengthened his view:

"Everyone in your unit can parachute?"

"Yes, if a division commander who is nearly 50 years old can skydive, there is no reason why others can't do it."

"What if there are soldiers who have mastered the moves but just don't want to jump because they're afraid?"

"Easy, just kick him in the ass. He won't have much chance to think in the air."

"Are all your soldiers so brave?"

"Of course! The coward will either be kicked out of the team by me, or wait to be killed by the Germans. I think the former option is more beneficial to them."

In other words, Roosevelt is now doing whatever it takes to win. If the Great Purge can bring victory, he will not hesitate to do it quickly. He firmly believes that the American people want a president who can bring victory, rather than a president who sticks to the rules and follows the rules. gentlemen. The rant just now was nothing more than him using the topic to express what he originally wanted to say in such a severe moment with a deafening voice.

As for "at all costs" and so on, it is actually an extreme expression of victory first, and it is also the requirement to fight against the opponent. The two are of the same origin. Since Roosevelt was a politician and certainly a hard-hearted person, how could he care about the loss of a few warships and thousands of troops? When he made the decision for the United States to enter the war, he estimated that there would be today's losses. For him, if he can capture Cape Verde and account for all aspects, this is not an unbearable price. If Cape Verde is not captured, the British-Canada route is not opened, and the Falkland Islands cannot be attacked, the troops will be busy and achieve nothing, which will damage long-term interests and national prestige.

The Atlantic Fleet sent back two plans: Admiral Ingersoll believed that the opportunity to lure the enemy had been lost, the fleet itself had suffered serious losses, and taking Cape Verde would not help change the balance of power between Germany and the United States and the fundamental strategic situation in the Atlantic, so he suggested retreat. Are you still vaguely worried about whether you can hold on to Cape Verde after taking it? How to keep it? Is it more ironic to not be able to hold on? The second plan was proposed by Turner, who believed that since so much has been paid, we must persist to the end no matter what. Retreating now is like cutting off heavy losses from heavy stocks when the stock market was at its lowest point. Of course, the losses will not expand, but the losses will be reduced. Even the chance to flip is gone.

From the bottom of his heart, Admiral Kim agreed with Turner's opinion, but he did not expect that the President was more determined than he was - using words like "at all costs". He knew the meaning behind this sentence, which was not just to win with just one finger. The President will definitely insist on holding on to Cape Verde for a period of time in the future, and then extend "at all costs" to the battle for the Falkland Islands and the battle for the Azores. In other words, Roosevelt's mentality has changed. , he has demanded victory regardless of the adverse impact of casualties on future re-election.

Everyone was silent for a while, and after half a day, Arnold spoke: "There is an important situation that I need to report additionally. I just received news early in the morning that the Army Aviation lost tracking of the German fleet in the Azores air defense circle - they can't be found. Now The fleet dispatched reconnaissance planes to search everywhere, but still found nothing, but there was very strange information. The last time our reconnaissance planes spotted the enemy fleet was more than 300 kilometers west of the Azores... I have never understood where the Germans arranged the fleet. What does it mean?

After getting angry, Roosevelt calmed down a lot and his thinking became more rational. He asked thoughtfully: "If the German fleet has taken action, where do you think it might go? Attack the aircraft carrier fleet? Rescue Cape Verde? Or maybe Is it something else?”

Everyone's eyes suddenly focused on Admiral Jin. This was a very important judgment of the enemy's situation, and no one could afford the consequences of making a mistake. The latter took a deep breath and thought for a few minutes before saying: "Although the current enemy situation information is not sufficient, based on my understanding of the Germans' consistent combat style and my grasp of Hitler's nature, I personally judge that the German fleet is likely to Going to Bermuda..."

"Bermuda..." Others gasped.

"Are you sure you can hold it?" Roosevelt immediately asked Marshall.

"I'm afraid it's difficult, now on the island..."

"I saw it last time. They surrendered in less than two days. They are all a bunch of trash!"

Although it was November weather, big beads of sweat still rolled down Marshall's head. Roosevelt's accusation was very serious. Although he was clearly scolding the British, there were still many American troops up there. It was true that they surrendered in two days. It doesn't quite make sense, and what's worse is that a large amount of supplies and a relatively important heavy oil depot are left behind, which is simply intolerable. Thinking about it makes me feel ashamed: How did the Germans in Cape Verde defend so well? He actually knocked down half of his battleships? The world is most afraid of comparisons with others. Originally, he thought it was completely normal to be unable to defend himself, and there was nothing to blame. But now that he has Cape Verde as a reference, the gap between his superiors and inferiors is immediately apparent.

Seeing that the top leaders of the army and navy were scolded badly, Li Hai stepped forward to smooth things over: "I'm afraid it's really not easy to defend. The German army in Cape Verde has been operating for nearly 9 months, and Bermuda just fought a war not long ago, and a large number of facilities and defense lines were destroyed. The material reserves are insufficient, and the defense fortifications are under emergency repair, which cannot be simply compared..."

Roosevelt nodded noncommittally, and turned to ask General Kim: "Didn't they say that the German submarines and torpedo boats are powerful? Torpedo boats and submarines are not high-tech. The United States also has them, and can prepare more. Can you think of a way to mobilize 100 "If the German fleet really comes to attack, can you imitate the Germans and go to the vicinity of Bermuda with 30 torpedo boats and 30 submarines? I don't ask you to sink 4 battleships, but I think even one is pretty good."

Admiral Jin's face twitched for a while, and then he replied subconsciously: "I will go to deploy immediately, and we will do our best not to let you down."

Roosevelt issued another order to Marshall: "Add some more troops to the island. We must hold on to this vital strategic island. We can no longer easily fall into the hands of the enemy, and we cannot let the enemy get this weapon aimed at the east coast." pistol."

Everyone nodded, and Marshall said that two regiments would be sent up as reinforcements. No matter how many troops there were, they would not be able to spare.

"Who are you going to use this time?"

"What about Major General Maxwell D. Taylor?"

"This name seems familiar."

"He was Ridgway's chief of staff. After Matthew served as the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, he recommended him to take over as the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He was the second batch of troops to arrive for reinforcements in Bermuda last time and played a great role in fighting with the Germans. He has fought against each other, has practical experience and is familiar with the situation in Bermuda.”

"The 82nd Airborne Division again?" Roosevelt couldn't help but frown, "They just suffered serious losses, can they go into battle again soon? With so many troops in the United States, do they always use the 82nd Airborne Division to fight?"

Marshall blushed for a while. Roosevelt's accusation was reasonable, but for him, he actually had little choice. He considered his words and gave a detailed explanation to Roosevelt and everyone...