At the Fort Leavenworth Military Academy in central Kansas, John was perusing a copy of the U.S. Army Combat Training Department's newly revised Army Combat Doctrine in his cadet dormitory. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The book was presented as a gift to Middleton when he visited its main writer, Major General Leslie McNair, director of the Army Staff Combat Training Division and director of the Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, before enrolling.

In this new edition of the "Army Operational Regulations," Major General McNair has made many new revisions to the basic principles of infantry combat, the tasks and applications of various arms of the army, the preparation and conduct of offensive and defensive battles, the movement, camping, transportation, and shift changes of troops, and the methods of combat command and support in light of the new changes that have taken place in the current European war.

At that meeting, Major General McNair told John in no uncertain terms that the short course he had attended was held specifically for mid-level commanders in the army for the purpose of implementing the new version of the combat doctrine. Learning, mastering, and skillfully applying the new infantry combat regulations is the core task of this training and study.

Of course, for the other 104 students of the school that John attended, it was mainly the newly revised content that was to be learned, and even the daily lessons were designed to address these new changes in the regulations. After all, all officers were already familiar with those old rules of war, except for John, a colonel who was a halfway monk.

In his previous life, as a military enthusiast, John could tell everything about the weapons and equipment, strategy and tactics of the US military during World War II, and even the development process of an important battle. But he knew very little about the specific combat regulations that these front-line commanders had to apply on a daily basis. To put it bluntly, he is a typical man who talks on paper, and he can talk about the truth at the operational meeting, and if he really wants to command the troops to implement it, he will have to be blind.

Now, John is beginning to grasp a little bit of what Middleton says is the mindset of a front-line commander. As a front-line commander, you must not only have decision-making power, but also execution ability. In John's current divisional command position, the ability to execute an operational plan is far more important than the ability to draw up an operational plan.

Even if John later ascended to a higher command post, if he lacked a deep understanding of how the front-line troops carried out the battle plan, the battle plan he formulated would be a castle in the air, and the implementation would inevitably be full of problems and distorted shapes.

Therefore, as soon as he has time, John will take out this "Army Combat Regulations" and think about it repeatedly, trying to make up for his shortcomings in this regard.

Now, John is very grateful to Stimson for giving him the opportunity to study at Fort Leavenworth. If he had gone directly to the 82nd Infantry Division, he would probably have had to rely on himself behind closed doors. After all, if a colonel's deputy chief of staff does not even understand what many ordinary lieutenants are proficient in, and he still asks his subordinates for advice, his prestige will be seriously damaged.

In a military school, no matter what rank or position you held before, everyone is an equal cadet and can communicate without obstacles. When he encounters a problem that he does not understand, he can always ask the teachers and classmates around him for advice. Anyway, there is no direct superior-subordinate relationship between the trainees, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, his diligent and inquisitive attitude quickly won him a good reputation among his classmates and teachers.

Of the 105 cadets in John's short course, there were 34 lieutenant colonels, 65 majors and 5 captains, and John was the only one with the rank of colonel. This is not surprising, Fort Leavenworth Military Academy was originally a school specializing in the training of middle-level officers, and colonels have generally come here for training a long time ago, and even if they need to study, they will go to the Army Military Academy to receive senior officer training to prepare for future promotion to generals.

Although John had the highest military rank among the more than 100 classmates, he had the shortest military experience. Even those captains have been in the army for at least eight or nine years. In John's opinion, apart from the few future generals whose names he knew, these five captains were the ones who deserved his attention the most. Those who were recommended to study at Fort Leavenworth Military Academy during their tenure as a lieutenant either had a deep relationship background or outstanding personal ability, and in short, they were all key training targets of the Army.

As a simple example, historically, the Fort Leavenworth Military Academy also had 5 lieutenants out of 125 cadets admitted in 1933. Of these five people, three later became four-star generals, one became a three-star lieutenant general, and one became the director of the CIA and deputy secretary of state.

Although John did not find any information about the five lieutenants in his class in his memories of his previous life (it is likely that he was too junior to rise to a high position during World War II, so he was not well known to the outside world). But he believed that if these five people had not been in the war in the future, they would have become powerful figures in the military.

"John, you're still reading. Let's go, the conduct class is about to begin. While John was concentrating on his book, Lieutenant Colonel James, who lived next door, pushed the door open and walked in.

In this training, all officers, regardless of rank, lived in double dormitories. It's just that because the number of cadets is odd and John is the only colonel, he enjoys the "single room" treatment.

As soon as he heard that the conduct class was about to begin, John couldn't help but sigh. Since entering the school, he is not afraid of anything else, and the most frightening thing is the conduct class. There is no way, although his physical fitness is good among his peers, but after all, he is 36 years old, and he usually doesn't exercise often.

Therefore, compared with those front-line troop battalion and company commanders who spend all day on the training ground and the soldiers on weekdays, his performance in the conduct class is simply miserable. On the first day of class, I was practiced vomiting, and in the end, I was carried back to the dormitory by Lieutenant Colonel James.

However, as a commander of a front-line unit, you still have to pass the basic combat subjects. He can't stay in the office all the time and command remotely, in case he has to be on the front line one day. Today's training will most likely save his life in the future. Even if he was reluctant, John could only get up and prepare to go to the training ground with James.

Seeing John's sad face, James smiled extraordinarily brightly. "Let's go, John. Your physical fitness is actually good, but you haven't exercised vigorously for too long. Just a few more days of adaptation. I've got experience in this area, and I'm sure you'll be able to catch up soon. ”

"Thank you, James." John replied helplessly, dragging his heavy steps. At this moment, how he envied the strong physique of Lieutenant Colonel James, the former West Point football backliner.

Lieutenant Colonel James, like Eisenhower and Bradley, graduated from the famous West Point "Generals Class". If you just say his name, many people may not know it. But with the surname Van Vliet, the vast majority of later Chinese will suddenly realize that this is not the commander of the US Army's Eighth Army who commanded the Battle of Shangganling during the Korean War.

That's right, Lieutenant Colonel James' full name is James Alward Van Vliet, the one who is known in history as the "lucky unlucky guy". He also served as deputy commander of the 5th Infantry Division in Maine.

The reason why Van Vliet is called "the lucky unlucky one" is entirely caused by Marshall. This old man's early military career was very unsmooth, although he performed well at work and his direct superiors admired him, but every promotion and commendation report would be rejected by the General Staff.

Many officers of the same period were inferior to him in terms of personal ability and work performance. But when the promotion report is handed in, others often pass it successfully, but he is brushed off every time. So much so that his classmate Dwight D. Eisenhower became a general, and he was only a colonel.

For this reason, his superiors and classmates Bradley were very puzzled. There have always been rumors in the military that Van Vliet's files were tainted or that he had offended the army's top brass somewhere.

It wasn't until just before the Normandy landings that Bradley was chatting with Lieutenant General McNair, commander of the Army's ground forces (the head of the Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth who sent John's book), that the mystery was unexpectedly solved.

At the time, McNair asked Bradley, "Who of your men is doing the best?" ”

"Van Vliet, of course." Bradley told McNair unmistakably.

"It's a pity that he has a bad drinking problem!" McNair said regretfully.

"Oh my God! You must be mistaken. I've known him for over 30 years and Van Vliet definitely doesn't drink. Bradley hurriedly defended his old classmate.

He later learned that Marshall had confused James Van Vliet with another drunken and troublesome guy who also had the last name. So over the years, the hapless Van Vliet has been pressed by Marshall every time he has been promoted and commended. This misconception of his was also transmitted to other high-ranking members of the Army, causing McNair and others to also have a bad impression of Van Vliet.

Fortunately, Marshall can be regarded as "correcting when he knows his mistakes". Knowing that he had made the wrong person, he immediately corrected the mistake. In less than 100 days, Van Vliet was rocketed from regimental commander to commander of the 3rd Army of the U.S. Army. After the war, Van Vliet was also appointed deputy commander of the European forces in Europe, commander of the Eighth Army, and finally became a 4-star general.

However, even if John knew that Van Vliet was still unlucky, he did not intend to meddle in the matter. It's easy to find a chance to settle this misunderstanding in front of Marshall, but it's not necessarily a good thing for Van Vliet. If Marshall hadn't felt that he owed Van Vliet, the future compensation would have come so violently.

What John has to do now is to quickly solve the big problem of conduct class with the help of this old man. Now when he thinks about those training subjects, his calves tremble.