Iron Cross

It was called a discussion, but in fact it was to improve MacArthur's plan.

The first consensus was reached quickly, sending Ridgway to Recife, but everyone had objections to whether to send the entire 18th Airborne Army. Now, in addition to the two veteran airborne divisions, the 82nd and 101st, Ridgway has also formed three additional airborne divisions, the 11th, 13th, and 17th. The entire army has a total of 5 division-level units, plus other support units, which is considered the ace army in the hands of the army.

Because Ridgway was famous and had fought against the German army many times without losing (if it cannot be called a victory), this ace army was used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as an emergency firefighter. How could it be possible to fill it all in Recife? And Arnold thought it was impossible, because the Army Aviation had to cover the retreat of Patton's troops and deploy airborne troops, and it was impossible to dispatch so many aircraft.

Now, in order to ensure heavy transport aircraft and bombers, Boeing has cut all other production lines and concentrated on producing 4-engine large aircraft. Even so, it is still very tight, so no one dares to ignore Arnold's opinion.

Finally, Stilwell, who had just returned from China, came forward to propose a compromise plan, suggesting that Ridgway take the 101st Division and the 11th Airborne Division and officially take over as the commander of the Recife Group. He also proposed that Ridgway serve as the commander of the Fifth Army and the deputy commander of the South American Theater after the withdrawal of the Patton Group, and his rank will still be Lieutenant General. Ridgway's promotion speed is no different from riding a rocket in the US military. In just two years, he went from a division commander to an army commander and deputy commander of the theater, but no one was jealous of this. Instead, they thought that for such an excellent general, this promotion was still too slow.

The second consensus was proposed by Arnold. He believed that since Patton's troops were going to be evacuated, they had to race against time. Since heavy transport aircraft were insufficient, twin-engine medium transport aircraft had to be deployed. He suggested that they should retreat to Recife as much as possible, as 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. If they retreated to Recife, it would be easy to spread and affect morale;

Second, if airborne troops were to enter Recife, the airport and air routes would be very tight, and large-scale retreats would be easily disturbed.

Of course, according to MacArthur's opinion, retreating to Venezuela and Guyana would not work either, as it was too far away. The meeting finally selected the northern Brazilian ports of São Luís and Fortaleza as the retreat points. The navy still had several ships there to help retreat to Guyana and Venezuela.

The third consensus was the order of retreat. In order to prevent morale collapse, a strict order of retreat must be formulated. After discussion, the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided on the following order:

The first wave: Army and Navy crews. If they are in good health after retreat, it is recommended that they continue to take on other flight missions immediately;

The second wave: injured officers and soldiers, especially those seriously injured;

The third wave: Navy personnel under Hewitt;

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

The fifth wave: the remaining officers and soldiers.

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

Truman gritted his teeth and said, "All senior officers, including George, must retreat and cannot serve as German prisoners! That would be too damaging to morale. Also, tell the soldiers to stay in the prisoner-of-war camp after being captured. The Germans are quite reliable in this regard. Don't be deceived into joining the SS. That would bring shame to yourself, your family, and your friends and relatives."

Everyone smiled bitterly. The president was completely disgusted by the SS American Army. Fortunately, the British still had some sense of justice and did not hand over the more than 100,000 American troops in Britain to Germany, otherwise they could have formed two American armies. The situation in South Africa is also very tense now. Many of the German troops that retreated from the Eastern Front are moving to Africa, and the South African campaign is imminent. Unfortunately, the United States is now too busy to take care of itself, and even the affairs in South America cannot be settled. How can it have the energy to take care of South Africa? If things go wrong, the 100,000 troops in South Africa will all be finished in the end, and many people will inevitably continue to go to the prisoner-of-war camp.

This is also the reason why the United States did not strongly oppose the London government's withdrawal from the alliance and even some business with Japan - what would happen if Edward VIII was annoyed and handed over these 100,000 American troops?

"General MacArthur finally made a personal suggestion, is it possible to consider making peace with Europe?" Ike whispered and repeated another telegram from MacArthur, "He believes that in the current situation of being attacked from both sides, it is unthinkable to defeat Japan and Germany at the same time. He suggested facing the reality and asking Europe for peace conditions through a third country. Even a temporary ceasefire is better than being attacked from both sides!"

MacArthur and Admiral King were the trumpeters who advocated Asia first and Europe later. They were forced by Roosevelt to implement the policy of Europe first and Asia later. Now it is no longer a question of who comes first and who comes later, but to find a way to stabilize one of them.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to respond, because Truman made it clear that it would be impossible to sign an armistice agreement during his term.

Half a day later, Turner spoke up: "I am actually very reluctant to make peace with the Germans. We have lost many more officers and soldiers at the hands of the Germans than at the hands of the Japanese! But now the country is in danger, and we must let go of things that we couldn't let go of before. I personally agree to talk about it. And if the talks are successful at the beginning of next year, the five aircraft carriers and four battleships/large cruisers of the Atlantic Fleet can reinforce and bypass the Falkland Islands to reinforce the Pacific..."

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

Li Hai gave him an idea: "Hasn't Mr. Dewey always advocated peace with Germany and toughness against Japan? Since you are ready to announce your withdrawal from the election, Mr. Dewey's probability of winning the next election is more than 95%. Why not let Mr. Dewey use this transition period to exercise some presidential powers in advance and lead the secret peace with Germany?"

Truman secretly praised in his heart: Li Hai is worthy of being the presidential chief of staff who is trusted by President Roosevelt, and he has a lot of ideas (bad water) in his mind! There are many benefits to sending Dewey to lead the peace talks:

If the terms of the contract with Germany are humiliating, then Dewey will be slapping himself in the face, because Truman will definitely delay the congressional review and final signing until after the new president takes office, and this word must be signed by Dewey rather than others;

If the terms of the contract with Germany are lenient, then Truman's sending Dewey to negotiate in advance is a great wisdom and foresight, and it is a display of the image of a politician who can bend and stretch;

If Dewey refuses this task, then his view of "peace with Germany and toughness with Japan" during the campaign is obviously a lie, and Truman will have a chance to make a comeback in the future.

So Truman is not worried that Dewey will not take this job. Even if the other party knows that he has bad intentions, he has to grit his teeth and take this task.

As for Dewey's attack on Truman for "bad governance and poor leadership", Truman accepted it completely: "Yes, it's all my fault. I have already announced my withdrawal from the election. What else do you plan to do? How about I announce my early resignation and let you take over as president in advance?"

For the Democratic Party, putting Dewey in such an embarrassing situation is also conducive to revenge for the Wallace incident.

Others kept silent after listening to Li Hai's words. Everyone knew that Li Hai and Turner were ready to resign. Turner even declared that "it's nothing to go to jail in the future. People always have to pay the price for their choices!" When they thought of his high-spirited plan A, B, C and even C+ for the assault on the Azores, everyone couldn't help but sigh.

"Sir, the Americans sent a hospital ship to pick up the prisoners of war. To express their gratitude, they also sent us a batch of medicine, including some relatively valuable special medicines. I heard from them that it is worth at least 3 million US dollars!"

Tsukahara Jishizo nodded with a smile: "The Americans have nothing else but money. Keep it for the soldiers to use. Don't be too stingy. Treating diseases and saving lives is the most important thing."

Halsey and Ingram gritted their teeth and took out the medicine. In the current situation, sending medicine is tantamount to aiding the enemy, but Tsukahara Jishizo has them ready: he knows that the US military cannot exchange the same number of wounded or prisoners, and can only exchange with other things. Although 3 million US dollars of medicine is valuable, it is only a matter of a transport plane flying.

More importantly, the Americans must give it. Not giving it is not only morally unacceptable, but also exposes their shortcomings of insufficient supplies-although Tsukahara does not believe this; secondly, the Combined Fleet released the people openly, but the US military trembled and did not express anything, and first fell behind in psychological warfare. So after consulting Washington, Ingram decisively agreed to send medicines - losing the battle is fine, but losing people is not.

Moreover, the two were also worried that if they did not express their opinions this time, the next time the Japanese army encountered American prisoners of war, especially the injured prisoners of war, they might just "shoot" directly - don't think the Japanese can't do it!

Kusaka Ryunosuke smiled and said, "Your business acumen is beginning to be closer to that of the commander."

"No, it's still far from that of the commander. What did Kakuta gain?"

"Not much. The U.S. military already knows that we are disrupting the trade. The fleet has all withdrawn to the mainland. The sea is cleaner than ever."

"Very good, this is a good sign. It will be good if the U.S. ships don't come out and wander around." Tsukahara 243 looked at the map, "Has the fleet's fuel supply been completed?"

"All completed. More than half of the subsidiary tankers are empty and are returning one after another."

"Well, prepare to head northeast."

"Are you going to attack the west coast?"

"Declare that we are going to attack the west coast and see how the Americans react. We can follow the commander's method of attacking the east coast and send a notice to the Americans. If the fleet in Pearl Harbor comes out, I will cooperate with Kakuta to eat it up."

"What if the enemy doesn't come out? Will you still attack the west coast?"

"Then not yet." Tsukahara shook his head, "I will kill a surprise attack and go around to the north of Pearl Harbor to air strike him again, but this time the target is not the warship, but the U.S. fuel!"