Because of the jet lag, Washington time was five hours behind London time and seven hours behind Cairo time, and while Alamein was already in the middle of the afternoon, Washington had just woken up from the morning and basked in the December 10 sun, albeit a little cold.

In the White House, in the president's office, President Roosevelt was poring over the telegram transcripts and intelligence summaries sent from all sides, as had been the practice of successive presidents, especially during the war. The world war is in its third year for Europe and its second year for the United States, but the situation does not seem to be ideal in the current situation. The optimism that emerged after the Battle of Midway was hit to the bottom by the crushing defeat at the Battle of the Solomons, and in addition to the intelligence on the Pacific Theater, what particularly worried him was the report of the Army Air Force on the deployment of the Eighth Air Force in Britain, which showed that the situation was not optimistic.

“…… Since Germany launched its general mobilization system and intensified its propaganda about the 'European Union', Germany's industrial capacity, especially the sound production and manufacturing capacity related to the military industry, has been growing rapidly, while the consumer civilian industry has been transferred and infiltrated to neighboring countries, and intelligence has shown that the monthly production of Germany's major equipment has increased dramatically, and the output of individual products such as tanks and airplanes has increased exponentially, which has posed a great challenge to the idea of using strategic bombing to weaken Germany's military potential. The losses currently weakened by strategic bombing are far less than the increased production of Germany. ”

Roosevelt knew that the report was not exaggerating, on the contrary, it was worse than the report said, and the American idea of destroying Germany's economic potential by strategic bombing was in great trouble. In addition to speeding up the development of its military industry at home, Germany has also tried its best to transfer the relatively low-tech supporting industries in its military industry to Western European countries, and has distributed basic orders to a series of steel, metallurgy, chemical, machinery, munitions, medicine, and other industries. Even many less important parts were directly transferred to France, the Netherlands, and Belgium for production, and these developed industrial countries were able to easily produce the products needed by Germany according to German drawings, and the quality was no worse than that produced in Germany. For example, Belgium's major steel conglomerates received orders last month to produce 10,000 sets of wheels and tracks for Germany's No. 4 tank, while France also received large orders for aluminum alloys and aero engines -- which will undoubtedly end up being tanks and planes that can be fired on the battlefield.

In addition to spare parts, Germany ordered complete sets directly from these industrial countries, Swedish Bofors anti-aircraft guns, pistols of the Belgian company FN, and field rations from France. Not to mention that after the Italian industrial system was completely reversed to Germany, it began to produce munitions according to German standards and requirements. Crucially, the Germans placed so many orders for almost no money - by freeing prisoners, reducing the size of the area directly occupied, and partially allowing them to rebuild their defense forces. Germany receives significant amounts of military spending from the governments of these countries. Moreover, because of the success and success of Germany's military power, these countries consciously or unconsciously imitated German formations and adopted German equipment in the reconstruction of their national defense forces - which also made Germany money.

Now, the industrial machinery of several major industrial countries in Western Europe is recovering. It was providing basic and auxiliary assistance to the German war machine. And it's getting bigger and bigger.

To this end, the report specifically states: "...... We are deeply concerned about the aforementioned situation, and the frontline commanders have repeatedly called for increased strikes against these places and factory facilities, but we have been subject to many restrictions, and we hope that the president will give us more, greater authority. ”

Roosevelt knew that although these countries were producing for Germany, they were doing so through normal trade practices, even if Germany used prisoners and military expenses in the occupied areas as a means of payment, the countries concerned took the initiative to accept it, and this behavior not only eased the tensions between Germany and the occupying powers of Western Europe. It also alleviates the economic difficulties of the occupied countries themselves - it is better to produce for Germany than to starve! It is clear from this that Germany is preparing for the push of the European Union - and from a political standpoint, it is completely deserved.

But as a seasoned politician. Roosevelt knew that politics and military affairs were never pure actions, and that the reaction of the people had to be fully considered, and that if the Eighth Air Force carried out unscrupulous air strikes against Western European countries, civilian targets would inevitably be involved, and even a precise strike on factories would cause unemployment and displacement of workers -- this would easily arouse the hatred of the local people, and if the German military forces took the opportunity to present themselves as a military force resisting the US Air Force and took the opportunity to provoke conflicts between Europe and the United States, it would lose even more points politically The population will not understand why the Americans would drop bombs on their heads instead of hitting the Germans directly. If it arouses widespread opposition among the local population, there will never be a day when there will be a counterattack on Europe.

Roosevelt lightly covered the report and said to Admiral Henry Arnold, commander of the Army Air Force, who had come to report in person: "I can understand your feelings, but the matter of expanding the scope of the attack still needs to be considered in the long run, and at least the level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Britain and the United States should reach a unified understanding." ”

Arnold nodded: "We are well aware of your difficulty in making decisions in this matter, but the losses of the Army Aviation are too great, the losses of the Eighth Air Force have been increasing rapidly in recent months, and the proportion of bombers shot down/irreversible losses has continued to rise, 9.74% in September, 11.97% in October, 15.86% in November, just over a week after December, and the loss rate in the first week was close to 18%. ”

Roosevelt was also taken aback by this number, frowned and asked, "It's a terrible proportion, what causes it?" ”

"There are many reasons, first of all, the Germans have strengthened the construction of the air defense system - in their words it is called 'Skynet', which is a set of air defense systems consisting of a series of facilities such as ground observation posts, dense radar networks, core air defense headquarters, anti-aircraft artillery positions, fighter wings, etc., covering the English Channel all the way to the whole of Germany, and the density is getting higher and higher, especially in the past few months they have used it." The Todd organization and the local workforce, oh, and a lot of Jews, have intensified their efforts in all parts of Western Europe, and secondly, they have adjusted the order of priority production of some anti-aircraft equipment, and increased the production of fighters and anti-aircraft guns, which used to be bombers first, then fighters, but now fighters are given priority -- especially the Fw-190, which is a heavy firepower fighter with high speed, strong defense, and 4-6 20mm guns, which poses a particularly great threat to us. Intelligence officers got the situation of internal production in Germany, including Do-217, He-177, He-111 several models of bombers completely out of production, and Fw-190 production soared, it is said that the scheduled production of Fw-190 in December will be as high as 800, and eventually increase to more than 1200; Thirdly, the Germans adjusted their air force strategy, and the bombing of Britain was completely terminated at present, and there were sporadic air raids in September and October, and after November, German planes were no longer seen in the skies over Great Britain, and at the same time, the Germans also carried out drastic reforms in the air force system, abolished the establishment of the air corps and divisions, and expanded the composition of the wings, the direct consequence of which was to reduce the redundant personnel and increase the proportion of pilots, and those excellent ace pilots, for example, Marseilleu were forcibly brought back from the front to teach at the Sailin Aviation School. The ranks of reserve pilots swelled dramatically to 5-6 times their original size. ”

"Marseilleu? Wait, I think I've heard that name. ”

"This is the so-called hero of the German Propaganda Department in recent months, this guy is known as the Star of Africa, once shot down more than a dozen British planes in one day, and all of them were fighters, and his personal total score exceeded 200, which is the trump card of trump cards! There is also a Ranke who is known as 'always with us', the guy in the back blew up the super secrets of the British with the commando, and the Germans made a movie with his experience and story - "Ranke Commando", the intelligence officer said that the fascist propaganda is removed, the characters in the whole film are distinct, the storyline is twisty and bizarre, and the battle scenes are fierce and hot, although the specific plot is ridiculously different from what they actually did in Britain, but it is super good-looking, it is simply an empty alley, It's going to be kept in Hollywood as the best movie of the year -- mom! Why isn't this guy from our side? Speaking of this, Arnold couldn't help but curse

Roosevelt didn't mind the foul words of his subordinates, but enlightened him: "This is also a good thing, at least the Germans have stopped their air raids, the British can concentrate on domestic production, and Prime Minister Churchill has completely won the British Air War." As for the super-secret...... Originally, I thought that the British were half responsible, but after knowing that there was such a person as Rank, I thought that the British should at least be more than 60% responsible. ”

"But this has come at the cost of a lot of losses in our bombers, and in the three months from September to November alone, we lost more than 600 aircraft and 3,000 crew members. In addition, in addition to daytime bombing, the losses of the British in night air raids also skyrocketed, perhaps a little better than ours...... Now Goebbels' propaganda machine is attacking us and deceiving us that no crew member can complete the mission and survive. ”

"What does that mean?"

"The British stipulated that a bomber crew could be transferred after completing 30 air raid missions, and we now set a limit of 25 times. However, in terms of probability, assuming a 15% battle loss rate, the probability of performing 25 missions and surviving is less than 2%, and if it is 30 times less than 1%, the front-line commander is recommending whether to reduce this number to 20 times or less, so as not to affect morale. (To be continued.) )