Iron Cross

7 Everyone was dumbfounded by this statement: the French were indeed unable to deal with Sherman, but now the Germans were in Tobruk, and the tanks in their hands were man-eating tigers. Once Britain and the United States land in Morocco and Algeria, the Germans who react will inevitably rush over from the front and attack them in large numbers. Without reliable armored forces, they may not be able to consolidate the landing sites. But towards this collaborator of Operation Torch, British IT will soon reveal his arrogant and unruly side. Hewitt had never had any dealings with Patton. At first, he admired this armored major general who seemed passionate and ruthless. However, in order to prepare plans related to the Torch Project, his impression of Patton plummeted.

The staff of Task Force 34 proposed that a large-scale amphibious landing campaign would require at least 6 months of preparation from the time the order was received to the departure of the fleet. However, due to the endless quarrels between Britain and the United States, Task Force 34 was only given 7 weeks in the end. Preparation time - this is the most complex military operation in American history. The lack of time originally drove Hewitt crazy, but Patton's casual attitude made the army-navy collaboration even more painful. Although Patton kept scolding the damn idiots in Washington for their delay in making up their mind to fight, instead of moving his headquarters to Hampton Roads, Patton continued to stay in a spacious and bright office on the top floor of the Munitions Building on the National Mall in Washington, doing nothing.

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In this way, in the eyes of Task Force 34, Patton became a "nuisance" who could not be beaten, scolded, or separated from him. He himself was not aware of it. There was a joke circulating in the Task Force Headquarters: I told you to complain again. In the future, I will meet Barton when I go out. What will you do?

Hewitt was still thinking about whether he should go back to the Navy Department to wait for news. Suddenly, Dr. Hewitt called his name: "General Hewitt, you are in the Navy. Do you think we need to postpone our departure?"

Barton was joking with the people next to him, but when he heard this, he suddenly cast his gaze over, as if expecting Hewitt to give a different answer. Hewitt did not want to offend the Army, nor did he want to argue with the British anymore. After pondering for a long time, Hewitt asked a question: "How long will it take at the fastest to produce this batch of tank guns and supporting shells?"

"It takes about 20 days if you work overtime continuously."

"Is it troublesome to replace the tank gun? Does it require special equipment?"

"It requires experienced workers and a crane, but the rest is not that difficult."

"Then I suggest postponing departure for 20 days."

"Why?" the student asked strangely, "I can't complete the assembly in 20 days."

Hewitt replied: "Why must it be assembled before leaving? It takes nearly 300 hours to travel from Hampton Anchorage to Casablanca. With this time, we can urgently produce a batch of parts and put them on the ship for assembly - as long as we With enough workers and cranes, we have enough transport ships, and at worst we can bring a few more to the fleet. We have assembled a lot of things at sea, from aircraft to engines, and can even repair ships in emergencies. It is believed that tank guns can be modified on the road, and as many as they can be modified can be modified, and those that cannot be modified will be given to the British army for use - they do not mind short barrels. "

"Hey... it's a good idea, I like it." Eisenhower, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. He shook Hewitt's hand enthusiastically, pretended not to hear the last part of the sentence, and said with a pun, "You can do it here? It helped us a lot with the task force issue.”

The British next to him glared at Hewitt, obviously they were worried about the last part of the sentence. To put it bluntly, they knew what those short-barreled Sherman tanks were better than the Americans. If the domestic pressure was not too tight, they would also want to Better tanks. Now the rear admiral has pierced the paper, and they are very angry.

Button came over and hugged Hewitt's shoulders carelessly. The man who was almost 60 years old was not stable at all. He said in a familiar tone: "You can help them out. Postponing the departure for 20 days should not cause any problems." , It is always more reliable to use a new tank. Who doesn’t like thicker and longer tubes? Today I went to your place to talk about the landing-I always feel that there should be some adjustments to make it more perfect.”

Barton was talking about "thicker and longer pipes" in a serious tone, but in Hewitt's ears, it seemed that this old and shady guy was describing the man. He frowned deeply, and several The younger staff officers couldn't help but suppress their laughter, while Dr. Marshall, Marshall and Eisenhower pretended not to hear. Only the British were dumbfounded - they didn't understand the American slang Patton had just used.

The decision to postpone the departure for 20 days was reached immediately. The British probably also knew that the Americans would not leave until they replaced the tank guns, so they pinched their noses and approved the decision, but finally asked to report it to the leaders of the two countries. . This is almost just going through the motions. As long as the student insists, President Roosevelt will probably agree. As long as Roosevelt persists, Prime Minister Churchill will most likely agree in the end - it has been postponed many times anyway, and he does not care about another 20 days of delay.

Hewitt took a long breath. After arguing for so long and being nervous for so many days, he finally got the good news that he would postpone his departure and prepare calmly. Button was also willing to discuss with him to complete the landing plan. Everything seemed to be going well. Advancing in the right direction, he secretly prayed in his heart: I hope this guy doesn't come up with any extra tricks.

Finally, the commander-in-chief of the operation, Eisenhower, proposed a compromise plan: it was recommended to land simultaneously in and outside the Mediterranean Sea, but not beyond the east of Algiers, because the German army might send aircraft from Sicily and Sardinia to carry out air strikes, and only carry out a small-scale landing in Ponique. Capture the airport. Unfortunately, the British were not satisfied and insisted on a large-scale landing in Pawnee or further east. After more than half a month of quarreling, and countless telegrams exchanged between Roosevelt and Churchill, until September 15, the two sides finally reached an agreement: November 8 was the designated landing day, and the Algiers landing was agreed to be included in the plan, but American troops landed only in Casablanca, Morocco, and Oran, Algeria, with British troops landing in Algiers and further east.

The order Hewitt received was to lead the U.S. Task Force 34, with 102 U.S. warships (including 29 transport ships) and a total of more than 30,000 U.S. troops from Hampton Anchorage in Virginia to Casablanca, Morocco, to carry out a cross-country mission. A 4500 nautical mile expedition. The task of capturing Oran was handed over to the middle task force, which consisted of nearly 20,000 US troops.

Barton was joking with the people next to him, but when he heard this, he suddenly cast his gaze over, as if expecting Hewitt to give a different answer. Hewitt did not want to offend the Army, nor did he want to argue with the British anymore. After pondering for a long time, Hewitt asked a question: "How long will it take at the fastest to produce this batch of tank guns and supporting shells?"

"About 20 days if you work overtime. Patton was joking with the people next to him. When he heard this, he suddenly cast his eyes over, as if expecting Hewitt to give a different answer. Hewitt did not want to offend the Army. Not wanting to argue with the British anymore, I asked a question after pondering for a long time: "How long will it take to produce this batch of tank guns and supporting shells? "

"It takes about 20 days if you work overtime continuously."

"Is it troublesome to replace the tank gun? Does it require special equipment?"

"It requires experienced workers and a crane, but the rest is not that difficult."

"It can repair ships. So I think tank guns can be put on the road and modified as much as they can be modified. Those that cannot be modified can be given to the British army for use - they don't mind short barrels."

"Is it troublesome to replace the tank gun? Does it require special equipment?"

"It requires experienced workers and a crane, but the rest is not that difficult."

"Then I suggest postponing departure for 20 days."

"Why?" the student asked strangely, "I can't complete the assembly in 20 days."

Hewitt replied: "Why must it be assembled before leaving? It takes nearly 300 hours to travel from Hampton Anchorage to Casablanca. With this time, we can urgently produce a batch of parts and put them on the ship for assembly - as long as we With enough workers and cranes, we have enough transport ships, and at worst we can bring a few more to the fleet. We have assembled a lot of things at sea, from aircraft to engines, and can even repair ships in emergencies. It is believed that tank guns can be modified on the road, and as many as they can be modified can be modified, and those that cannot be modified will be given to the British army for use - they do not mind short barrels. "