Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 885 The Pacific Barrier

  The room was completely silent. Some people shrugged their shoulders in private, expressing their helplessness. Most people were just silent.

  President Theodore Roosevelt was never a broad-minded person. He was known in Washington as "Mr. Cowboy with a smile and a big stick".

   At this time, no one was so stupid.

   Secretary of the Army William Howard Taft was a social activist and planter before taking office, good at de-escalating conflicts.

   He glanced at the chief of staff, Major General Fred C. Ainsworth. Seeing that he had no intention of speaking, he coughed twice to attract the attention of the people around him, and said;

"It's really embarrassing, Mr. President, the existing manpower and size of the Army Staff are unable to cope with a war of 100,000 people at every turn. You must know that before this year, the Federal Army had only 3 to 4 divisions, and Not satisfied with the compilation.

There are only 942 officers on active duty in the Federal Army. After the mobilization of the war, we had to urgently recruit more than 1,000 volunteer officers during the Spanish-American War. The military mobilization departments of various states are seriously short of personnel, the logistics department is seriously short of personnel, and a few newly formed volunteer officers A militia battalion can only send a second lieutenant officer to lead the troops in training and combat.

   We can't even organize a decent front-line headquarters, and can only let the West Coast states temporarily fight on their own.

   Difficulty is omnidirectional

Although the War Department has briefly increased to more than 70 people, in addition to the Chief of Staff Major General Fred, we have two federal brigadier generals and five colonels, and a group of captains and majors over 40 years old, but this is not enough to command 50, or even 100 divisions fought.

   To deal with a war of this magnitude, we need a certain amount of time, and now it is precisely the time that is lacking.

   Mr. President, what kind of opponent did you find for us? "

   With a long sigh, Minister of the Army Tafto sat in his seat with a sullen expression. He originally thought it was a relaxing and comfortable journey in office. Suddenly, Mr. President put two mountains on the burden. This is going to kill people!

   All the officers of the Federal Army here have a lot of sympathy. If they hit soft persimmons like the Spaniards and Mexicans, the army generals here can pat their chests and make rhetoric;

   But against the ruthless character Ocean Empire, the cowboys really have no idea!

It is a lie to say that you are not afraid. It is rumored that the fierce Ocean Empire soldiers will kill and set fire everywhere once they land, just like a demon. The powerful ship formation led by Major General Schroeder was beaten and wiped out. terrifying.

  Some priests in the society are bewitching. The monarch of the Ocean Empire, Li Fushou, is the incarnation of Satan, the lord of hell.

   "God bless America!"

  President Roosevelt reverently drew a cross on his chest. He knew that panic could not be allowed to spread. What he needed most now was to help each other. The previous anger was out of line and had to be made up, so he softened his tone and said;

   "Guys, our country needs you, our people need you to stand up, I will lead you against the mighty demon army, firmly believe that the light of democracy and freedom will break through the darkness, this is our sacred mission.

Behind us, the National Guardsmen of Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas are on their way to the West Coast, with a strong industrial and economic base and the full support of 90 million people , backed by Europe, will surely win the final victory in this doomed and arduous war.

   Now all we have to do is to act now, I have received a lot of good news from the team visiting Europe, some experienced German and French officers will return to North America with the delegation to join the ranks of the volunteers.

Our just war will surely be supported by the whole of Europe. Ships full of arms are coming from Europe's major ports across the Atlantic continuously. What we need to do now... is to make full use of these favorable conditions, train and Form troops and send them to the west coast to prepare for battle.

   Gentlemen, I implore you to fight with me until the day the war is won.

   I firmly believe that God bless America, Amen. "

   President Roosevelt deserves to be an outstanding speaker chosen by thousands of people. His impassioned promise and encouragement finally made the faces of the federal officers look better, and the resistance was not so serious.

White House Chief of Staff Dawn saw this opportunity and lost no time to echo: "After the former Secretary of State Mr. Rutte resigned, he sold the farm and invested in the formation of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the North Carolina National Guard. Let us give him a thumbs up and some applause for the 8,300-strong cavalry division taking the train to the West Coast."

   After saying that, he applauded vigorously.

   There was sparse applause in the office, which calmed down the atmosphere just now.

Dawn then said; "Then let the War Department report continue, I want to remind Lieutenant Colonel Mike that the president's time is extremely valuable, you try to delete all the irrelevant content, and focus on some specific numbers, such as How many troops do we plan to send to the west? How many gaps are there? What difficulties are we facing and need the help of the president? Whether it is a lack of materials, personnel or funds, please try to use the specific figures as the standard, and don’t talk about some vague concepts. thanks!"

  Lieutenant Colonel Mike looked at President Roosevelt with a stiff face, saw that he reached out and made a gesture of please, so he bit his head and said, "Okay, I'll try my best."

   After he finished speaking, he flipped through the speech in his hand, and after skipping 7-8 pages, he said with a long sigh of relief;

   "The West Coast Pacific Barrier Defense Plan...is a defense system in depth built with major coastal cities as the support and coastal towns as the backbone, striving to create an indestructible...

  Cough cough... skip this paragraph.

   Well, from here on out…

  The northern part takes Seattle, the capital of Oregon, as the core of the defensive fortress, and the southern part takes San Francisco as the core of the defensive fortress, forming a pattern of north-south echoes, embellishing important cities such as Newport, Salem, Portland, etc., forming an impregnable Pacific barrier.

  The entire Pacific Barrier plans to build 11 bay fortresses, 7,700 reinforced concrete bunkers, 37,000 kilometers of barbed wire, and 22,000 mines, forming a dense line of defense thousands of kilometers from north to south, with a depth of 50 kilometers.

   To this end, it is planned to set up 55 divisions with a total of 613,000 powerful troops, together with the West Coast militia to guard the Pacific Barriers, and strive to achieve the combat goals of discovering the enemy first, eliminating the enemy first, networking across the board, and rapid mobile reinforcement.

   So far

The National Guard in various states across the country has formed 37 divisions, 11 of which have arrived on the West Coast front by various means of transportation. .

   By the end of the year, 30 infantry divisions are expected to arrive at the front of the Pacific Barrier, forming a formidable defensive force totaling 350,000 men.

   The remaining troops will arrive on the west coast of North America as planned by April to May next year.

   There are 8 cavalry divisions, 42 infantry divisions, and 5 artillery divisions, together with a total of 850,000 logistical support personnel, forming three heavy army groups in the north, middle and south.

Now, we are facing many difficulties in forming troops. Most of the soldiers have their own guns. The arms ships purchased from Europe have not yet arrived. The weapons companies are still preparing new production lines. There are many models and brands of rifles, and it is difficult to supply special ammunition.

   We don't have enough leather boots, military uniforms, the troops lack tents, water bottle belts, soldiers' underwear and pantyhose, and we don't even have the same bowls for eating.

The cavalry units lacked hay and black beans, blacksmiths who repaired horseshoes, and leathersmiths who repaired leather goods. There was no shortage of professional grooms. However, the cavalry did not have uniform knives, standard saddles, and cavalry guns, so most cavalry used The 1873 Winchester lever rifle.

  The best cavalry rifle in the world today is the Zero semi-automatic rifle of the Ocean Empire. Obviously they will not sell it to us. We can only buy the German Mauser 1871 cavalry rifle to equip the troops.

  Thank goodness, this is an improved Mauser magazine rifle. The best is the 7.62mm cavalry gun produced by Azure Arms. It not only carries a large amount of ammunition, but also shoots accurately and has low recoil.

   Obviously, this is another rifle that we can't buy.

The German Mauser 1871 carbine we can buy uses a heavy 11mm bullet, the recoil of this gun can make inexperienced cavalrymen fall off their horses, and the cavalry call it "Futeng" Fort Shaker "..."

   "Sorry, excuse me for interrupting, then why don't we buy the latest German-made Type 98 rifle, which also uses 7.62mm bullets. It is said to be an excellent rifle." Someone suddenly interjected and asked.

Lieutenant Colonel Mike pouted and replied reluctantly; "Because the German-made Mauser 98 rifle has not yet produced a carbine with a shortened barrel, and we do not have the ability and time to improve it for the time being, we can only use what we have. Are you satisfied with this answer?"

   "OK, I'm fine."

  After greatly reducing the content, Lieutenant Colonel Michael finally completed all the introductory speeches after an hour and a half, so that the key players present had a preliminary understanding of the progress of the Pacific Barrier plan, the huge difficulties encountered and the problems faced.

   In general, the idea is very good, and the future is very bright, but in reality, there are many difficulties, especially the limited transportation capacity of a Pacific railway that runs through the east and the west, and the contradiction is very prominent.

  If 300,000 troops arrive on the West Coast front as planned by the end of the year, then just maintaining the logistical supply of this huge army will be enough to collapse the Pacific Railroad.

  There is a huge amount of materials piled up on the west coast, from steel, cement to quilts, but they cannot be quickly delivered to the west coast. After losing control of the sea in the Pacific Ocean, this is the biggest difficulty.

   President Roosevelt made a inspiring closing speech, using a very provocative tone to inspire everyone's fighting spirit, firm belief in victory, and personally promised to solve a series of current difficulties.

   In his mouth, that's nothing.

   from start to finish

   Admiral Doug Smith, Secretary of the Navy, sat at the table with a livid face, looking like he was wandering, and he didn't know what he was thinking?

   (end of this chapter)