To say that it is a discussion is actually a refinement of MacArthur's plan. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The first consensus was quickly reached to send Ridgway to Recife, but there was opposition to whether or not to send the entire 18th Airborne Corps. At present, in addition to the 82nd and 101st veteran airborne divisions, Li Qiwei has also formed three additional airborne divisions, the 11th, 13th, and 17th, and the entire army has a total of 5 division-level units, plus other support units, which can be regarded as the ace army in the hands of the army.

Because of Ridgway's fame and many battles with the German army (if it cannot be called victory), this ace army was used by the Joint Staff as an emergency firefighter, how could it be completely filled in Recife? Moreover, Arnold thought that it was impossible, because the army aviation had to cover the retreat of Patton's headquarters and deploy airborne troops, so it was impossible to have so many aircraft dispatched.

Now that Boeing has cut all other production lines to protect heavy transport aircraft and bombers, it has concentrated on the production of four-engine aircraft, but even then it is still very tight, so no one dares to ignore Arnold's opinion.

In the end, Stilwell, who had just returned from China, came forward with a compromise plan, suggesting that Ridgway take the 101st Division and the 11th Airborne Division and formally take over as commander of the Recife cluster, and also proposed that Ridgway be appointed commander of the Fifth Army and deputy commander of the South American Theater after the retreat of the Patton cluster, with the rank of lieutenant general. Li Qiwei's promotion speed is no different from riding a rocket in the US military, and he has gone from division commander to commander of a group army and deputy commander of the theater in just two years, but no one is jealous of this, but thinks that this kind of promotion is still too slow for such an excellent general.

The second consensus was put forward by Arnold, who believed that since he intended to retreat from Patton's headquarters, it was necessary to race against time, and now that there were not enough heavy transport planes, it was necessary to let the twin-engine medium transport planes also play, and suggested that he should withdraw to Recife as far as possible, so that the distance was relatively close, only about 800 kilometers.

However, the proposal to retreat to Recife was opposed by Eisenhower and Stilwell for two reasons:

First, the morale of the retreating officers and soldiers was low, and if they retreated to Recife, it was easy to spread and affect their morale;

Second, if there is an airborne army in Recife, the airfields and air routes will also be very tight, and the large-scale retreat will be easily disrupted.

Of course, it was not possible to retreat to Venezuela and Guyana, as MacArthur had suggested, because that would be too far, and the conference ended up choosing the northern Brazilian ports of San Luis and Fortaleza as the retreat points, where the Navy had several ships to help with the evacuation to Guyana and Venezuela.

The third consensus is the order of retreat. In order to prevent the collapse of morale, it was necessary to establish a strict order of retreat, and after discussion, the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided on the following order:

The first wave: the crew of the Army and Navy Airlines, if they are physically good after retreating, it is recommended to continue to undertake other flight tasks immediately;

The second wave: wounded, especially seriously wounded officers and soldiers;

Third Wave: Hewitt's Navy;

The fourth wave: technical arms and officers, such as telegraph troops, artillery, armored troops, etc.;

Fifth wave: the rest of the remaining officers and soldiers.

In principle, the order of retreat is like this, and the specific arrangements are made by Patton and others.

Truman gritted his teeth and said: "All senior officers, including George, must all retreat and cannot be taken prisoner by the German army!" That's too damaging to morale. In addition, they told the soldiers that they would stay in the prisoner of war camp after being captured, and that the Germans were reliable in this regard, and that they should not be deceived into joining the SS or anything, that would be to discredit themselves, their families, relatives and friends. ”

Everyone smiled bitterly, the president had been completely disgusted by the SS American Army Group, but fortunately, the British were still a little moral, and did not hand over the more than 100,000 American troops in Britain to Germany, otherwise they could have formed two American Army Group. The situation in South Africa is also tense now, and many of the German troops retreating from the Eastern Front are moving to Africa, and the South African campaign is ready to fly. However, the United States is now too busy to take care of itself, and it can't even settle the affairs of South America, so where does it have the energy to take care of South Africa? If you don't do it well, the 100,000 or so troops in South Africa will eventually be wiped out, and many people will inevitably continue to go to prisoner of war camps.

This is also the root cause of why the London government withdrew from the alliance, and even hooked up with Japan to do some business, and the United States did not strongly oppose it - what if he annoyed Edward VIII, he handed over the 100,000 American troops?

"General MacArthur finally made a personal suggestion, is it possible to consider making peace with the European side?" Ike whispered another MacArthur telegram, "He thinks that it is inconceivable to win a war between Japan and Germany at the same time in the present situation of being attacked on both sides, and he suggests that he face up to the reality and ask the European side about the terms of peace through a third country, even if it is a temporary truce, it is better than being attacked on both sides!" ”

MacArthur and Admiral King were originally advocates of the Asian-Asian-European-only faction, and it was only under Roosevelt's pressure that they stubbornly implemented the policy of Europe-first and Asia-first.

Everyone looked at each other and didn't know what to do, because Truman made it clear that it was impossible to sign an armistice during his tenure.

Half a day later, Turner spoke: "I am actually very reluctant to make peace with the Germans, we have many more officers and soldiers who died in the hands of Germany than in the hands of Japan!" But now that the country is in crisis, we must let go of what we couldn't put down before, and I personally agree to talk about it. And if it is negotiated early next year, 5 aircraft carriers and 4 battleships/large cruisers of the Atlantic Fleet can be reinforced, and the Falkland Islands will be able to reinforce the Pacific side......"

Truman was speechless for a while, and finally squeezed out a sentence weakly: "We can consider peace talks, but the key is, who to send?" ”

Lehi gave him an idea: "Hasn't Mr. Dewey always advocated peace with Germany and tough on Japan, since you are ready to announce your withdrawal from the election, and the probability of Mr. Dewey winning the next general election is more than 95 percent, why don't you let Mr. Dewey take advantage of this transitional period to exercise some of his presidential rights in advance and lead the secret peace with Germany?" ”

Truman secretly exclaimed in his heart: Lehi deserves to be the presidential chief of staff reused by President Roosevelt, and he has a high stomach (bad water)! The benefits of sending Dewey to the lead in peace talks are numerous:

If the terms of the contract with Germany were humiliating, then Dewey would have slapped himself in the face, because Truman would certainly delay congressional deliberation and final signing until after the new president took office, and this word must be signed by Dewey and no one else;

If the terms of the contract with Germany were lenient, then Truman's sending Dewey to negotiate in advance would be wise and prescient, and it would be an image display of a statesman's ability to bend and stretch.

If Dewey refuses this task, then his repeated views on the election campaign that he is "peaceful with Germany and tough with Japan" are obviously lies, and there will be a chance for Truman to make a comeback in the future.

So Truman was not worried that Dewey would not take over this stubble, even if the other party knew that he had bad intentions, he had to grit his teeth and take over the task.

As for Dewey's attack on Truman's "unfavorable governance and lack of leadership," Truman accepted it in its entirety: "Yes, it's all Lao Tzu's fault, Lao Tzu has announced his withdrawal from the election, what are you going to do?" Why don't I announce your early departure and let you take over as president early? ”

For the Democrats, putting Dewey in such an embarrassing scene would also be conducive to avenging the Wallace affair in the first place.

The others were silent when they heard Lehi's words, and it was clear to everyone that Lehi and Turner were ready to resign, and Turner even declared that "it is not a big deal to go to jail in the future, people will always pay for their choices!" When they remembered that he was in high spirits to formulate Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and even Plan C+ to attack the Azores, everyone couldn't help but sigh.

"Sir, the Americans sent a hospital ship to pick up the prisoners of war, and as a token of gratitude, they also sent us a batch of medicines, including some more valuable special medicines. Listen to them, it's worth at least $3 million! ”

Tsukahara 243 nodded with a smile: "Americans don't have anything else, they just have money, put it away and use it for the soldiers, don't be too stingy, it's important to treat the sick and save people." ”

Halsey and Ingram gritted their teeth and took out the medicine. In the current situation, sending medicine is tantamount to financing the enemy, but Tsukahara 243 is sure of them: he knows that the US military cannot exchange the same wounded or prisoners, and can only exchange other things, and although the 3 million US dollars in medicine is precious, it is also a matter of a transport plane flight.

More importantly, the Americans had to give, and not only was it morally unjustifiable, but it also exposed their shortcomings in material inadequacy - although Tsukahara did not believe this; Second, the Combined Fleet released its personnel generously, but the US military trembled and said nothing, and it was the first to lose the upper hand in psychological warfare. Therefore, after seeking Washington's opinion, Ingram decisively agreed to send medicine -- it is okay to lose, but it is not necessary to lose.

Moreover, the two of them were also worried that if they did not express themselves this time, the next time the Japanese army encountered American prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners of war, they might directly "make a sudden breakthrough" -- don't think that the Japanese would not be able to do it!

Kusaka Ryunosuke smiled, "Your business is starting to move closer to the chief. ”

"Where, it's still far from the chief, what has Tsunoda gained?"

"The gain is not big, the US military already knows that we are breaking diplomatic relations, the fleet has all been retracted to the mainland, and the sea is cleaner than ever."

"Very good, this is a good phenomenon, it is good that the American ship does not come out and shake around." Tsukahara two-four-three looked at the map, "Is the fleet refueled?" ”

"It's all done, and the attached tankers are more than half empty, and they are returning one after another."

"Alright, let's get ready to head northeast."

"You're going to hit the West Coast?"

"I declare that I will go to the West Coast and see how the Americans react, but I can follow the example of the commander who attacked the East Coast in the first place, and send a notice to the Americans, if the fleet at Pearl Harbor comes out, I will cooperate with Tsunoda to eat him together."

"What if the enemy doesn't come out? Do you still go to the West Coast? ”

"Then let's not go." Tsukahara shook his head, "I'll kill him back and go around to the north of Pearl Harbor to attack him again, but this time the target is not a warship, it's US fuel!" ”