The United States has mobilized a total of nearly 10 million armed forces so far, but after deducting the navy, national guard, army aviation, and miscellaneous auxiliary personnel, the total number of traditional infantry similar to the Soviet Union and Germany is about 4 million, of which more than 3 million are units that have only been expanded in the last two or even one year, because the US military requires a training cycle of one and a half years for new recruits, and most of the troops that have been expanded before and after the outbreak of Pearl Harbor have been included in the front-line troops. According to the opinions of the army bigwigs www.biquge.info the rest of the troops cannot be directly used to fight the war, so the army can only use a total of about 1 million front-line ground troops.

In longitudinal comparison, the speed of the U.S. military expansion is quite astonishing, and the total number of armed forces in the United States before the Polish campaign was less than 350,000, and by 1941 it had tripled to one million. However, compared with Germany, the speed of US military expansion is simply scum - when Germany restored the universal military service system before 1935, the country had only 200,000 troops (100,000 Wehrmacht + 100,000 reserves), and now the total strength is nearly 10 million, and more than 70% of them can be said to be front-line combatants.

In the final analysis, the US military's training intensity is too low and the starting point of its training is too low, and this is not to satirize the fact that Americans are stupid or have low cultural quality, but that the United States has been in a liberal atmosphere for a long time, with all kinds of strange ideas and a general lack of discipline and a sense of respect for authority among young people, which is very unfavorable to the formation of a strong army. On the one hand, the Hitler Youth League was established, and a large number of young people received training in the name of surviving in the wilderness, and the purpose of training "reserve soldiers" was achieved through military training, and on the other hand, a national labor dedication group was established, which was nominally to participate in voluntary labor, but in fact carried out on-the-spot military training through uniform instructions and with iron picks and shovels.

This training process is not a joke, nor is it comparable to the camping or sports that the younger generation in the United States likes, but it is a system of preparatory training and mobilization, in which the best performers are identified by the organizers as captains -- once they join the army, they are the backbone of the ranks. The German Junker aristocracy and social elite attach importance to the military, the yearning for military life and the strong will to revenge are the deepest cultivation soil of the military tradition, coupled with the regimental regiment under the 12-year military service system of Weimar Germany, this institutionalized advantage ensures the advantage of expanding the army.

In other words, the reason why it takes a year and a half for the United States to train recruits (Germany is generally half a year) is because the sense of obedience, team life, and discipline that recruits need to accept in the early stage of training are already possessed by Germans before they become soldiers. What's worse is that the United States entered the war two years later than Germany, and Germany has swept across Europe and paid little casualties. To use the dough as an analogy, in Germany, the dough is basically finished, and it can be formed with a little more water (recruits), while in the United States, the flour has just been available, and it is about to be kneaded with water (veterans), and it is still very early to form.

It can also be seen from the establishment of divisions that the German army has more than 200 at the division level on the Eastern Front alone, and the total number of troops is nearly 300 when the Western Front and the domestic part are added, while the US Army has less than 60 infantry divisions, more than 10 armored divisions, and two airborne divisions, which are basically the basic plate of the US Army's ground forces, and the remaining 3 million troops are on the way to new barracks or new formations.

The 1 million combat-ready troops were divided into various situations: some of them were led by MacArthur to fight in the Far East and the Pacific, and the number was about 150,000; Some were brought by Bradley in South Africa, and the number was about 100,000; The other part was in Britain, with about 80,000 troops, and the rest of Central and South America combined numbered more than 60,000 troops, which together accounted for 400,000. In order to carry out the joint element operation, the army is ready to use 12 divisions (including 2 armored divisions), which occupies more than 200,000 troops. At the same time, due to the successive losses in the African campaign and the Horn of East Africa campaign (more than 100,000 in total), Marshall had less than 300,000 actually available front-line troops, and excluding the larger armored divisions, the light infantry division was only about 150,000. Li Qiwei's one army and two airborne divisions combined were nearly 35,000 horses, which accounted for a very heavy weight in the last 150,000 troops.

Marshall originally wanted to transfer the armored division to Bermuda for the first time, but immediately thought that it was too late to estimate that the Germans would go to Bermuda tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and blindly going to the armored division would not be able to be dumpled halfway, and the speed of reinforcement of Bermuda must be fast, whether it is from the efficiency of sorties or from the operation, the airborne troops are the first choice, not to mention that the 82nd Airborne Division also has the experience of fighting with the German army, he thinks it is very suitable, and Roosevelt asked him to report the 82nd Airborne Division.

"But didn't the 82 Airborne Division just suffer heavy losses, with an overall attrition of more than a quarter?"

"This was true after being removed from the battlefield, but Matthew quickly reorganized after becoming the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, and the problem is not serious at the moment." After Marshall's specific explanation, everyone understood Li Qiwei's rapid transformation of the 82 Airborne Division and the 101 Airborne Division: Li Qiwei took the 505 Regiment, which suffered the greatest loss from the 82 Airborne Division, as a skeleton, and transferred ready-made personnel and recruits from the 101 Airborne Division to supplement it, and all the officers and soldiers who survived the battlefield were generally promoted to one level, and the newly formed 505 Regiment with actual combat experience constituted the backbone of the 101 Airborne Division, and then the complete 506 Regiment was transferred from the 101 Airborne Division to supplement the 82 Airborne Division. Other vacancies were then filled, and officers with real combat experience were rotated internally.

After his big moves, the strength of the 82nd Airborne Division was stronger than before the First Battle of Bermuda, and the 101st Airborne Division also invisibly improved its strength because of the valuable veterans and actual combat officers -- although it was not significant because of the insufficient degree of running-in, Marshall believed that as long as he gave Li Qiwei another 3-4 months, he would hand over a stronger and complete airborne force to himself, and he would also need valuable actual combat experience.

The reason why Li Qiwei was able to complete such a drastic move in a short period of time was because of Marshall's support, and all kinds of requests for transfer, supplementation, and rotation applications were approved as soon as possible, and even he was okay to cut first and then play; On the other hand, because of his skills as a staff officer in the War Department and Taylor's vigorous assistance, and more importantly, his glittering medals and combat experience can shock others more than the rank of lieutenant general, and Li Qiwei is completely incomparable in the 18th Airborne Army.

"Very good, this is the officer we want to vigorously promote and reuse, don't care if it is in line with the rules or not, in wartime, it is the biggest rule to be able to win!" Roosevelt nodded with satisfaction and said in a serious tone, "Find an opportunity for Patton to lead the Panzer Corps, put the tank crews in order, and let him fight the Germans again, he is more suitable to lead the troops than Ike, who is not convinced to let him come to me." During the war, the dissemination of strange remarks and the decisions of the President and the Commander-in-Chief of the three armed services must be strictly controlled, as long as the civilian officials are dismissed, the military attaches are retired, and the legal responsibility is investigated, and at the same time, Director Hoover is allowed to investigate to see if there are any ulterior motives and other backgrounds behind it, so that we should not be deceived and think that the other party is a good citizen. ”

The four of them, you look at me and I look at you, are deeply surprised but remain silent, and they have already seen that the president's thinking and line have undergone a fundamental change: at first, he took into account the factors of his re-election campaign and the livelihood of society, compromised many things, and maintained and coordinated relations between all parties as much as possible. When this relationship became more and more difficult to maintain as the battlefield became unfavorable, he had to use all means to ensure that the situation improved, and to use strategic superiority to complete the third presidential term, with the same idea and original intention as the original routine of using state intervention in the national economy to tide over the difficulties -- as long as the economic situation improves, the people will not care whether it is capitalism or socialism, and in the same way, as long as the war can be won, the people will not bother to care whether the president is now close to dictatorship or closer to democracy.

Since Roosevelt had this request, Admiral King could only cooperate: "The Navy initially considered continuing to increase its forces to complete the Cape Verde strategy, keeping the artillery fleet, escort fleet, and landing fleet near Cape Verde, and the aircraft carrier formation maneuvering between Cape Verde and Bermuda, and reinforcing the enemy's main fleet wherever there appeared." ”

Roosevelt nodded: "This method is okay, it's better than being stupidly led by the nose by the enemy, gentlemen, it's time to fight a turnaround......"

As soon as he was halfway through speaking, the phone rang, and then Hoover's voice came from inside: "President, the Germans are making an emergency broadcast demanding that the East Coast be evacuated, and they will launch a new offensive!" ”

"Bastard!" Roosevelt slammed his fist viciously on the table, "One day I'm going to hang Hitler, the warmonger, on a bomb and drop it from the air!" ”

"What now?" Hoover was a little anxious.

"Don't fall for the enemy's tricks, tell the people that we have what it takes to keep them safe, and we'll make the enemy pay ten or a hundred times the price." Roosevelt thought for a moment, "The air defense of key cities must be in place, at least not to allow the enemy to bomb New York or Washington again." ”

Arnold hurriedly stood up: "Yes, I promise!" ”

"In addition, this cannot be ruled out as a bluff of the enemy, and your campaign deployment should not be affected, and you can fight as you want, and I believe that the American people can withstand the threat of bombs -- this is a wolf story, and it will not work if you try a few more times. In the event of irreversible consequences, as long as you fulfill your responsibilities, I will make a national speech as soon as possible to reassure the people. ”

After Roosevelt's encouragement, everyone went out again full of fighting spirit, and Roosevelt watched his subordinates leave, turned around and collapsed in a wheelchair and was sent to the emergency room...... (To be continued.) )