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Where there are people, there will be rivers and lakes, and where there are interests, there will be disputes. This kind of thing is not a problem peculiar to a certain country or nation, but a stubborn disease that is common all over the world.

In the Army Staff, as a number of generals of infantry and aviation joined the "war group", the seminar on the Battle of Crete began to become more and more explosive. Soon, except for Marshall, Arnold, McNair and other bigwigs, most of the officers attending the meeting have been divided into two factions.

Officers who came from infantry basically advocated expanding the size of the airborne troops to the division level as soon as possible. General William Lee and a general of the Infantry Directorate (the "Air Infantry" program is currently under the jurisdiction of the Infantry Bureau) even put forward a huge plan for the formation of 2 airborne divisions and 4 separate airborne regiments.

Most of the generals from the army aviation units advocated limiting the number of airborne troops to less than 5,000 people, forming several airborne troops at the brigade level (regimental level), and placing them under the direct leadership of each air force.

However, there are no exceptions. For example, Major General Carl Spatz of the Army Air Corps, who recently returned from London. The major general, who has been a military observer in Europe for more than a year, seems to be very optimistic about the new tactics of airborne operations. He strongly advocated the creation of an airborne division directly under the command of the Army Aviation Corps.

If it weren't for knowing that Spets was a fanatical strategic bomber (during World War II, Sparks was the commander of the Army's Strategic Air Force), looking at the momentum he discovered, John couldn't help but wonder if this guy wanted to take the opportunity to solve his job because he had not been assigned a job after returning home.

Today's controversy really opened John's eyes. This is just a small dispute of interests within the army, and it can be tense to this point. It is no wonder that the Pentagon has been working hard for so many years, but it has not been able to tune out the perfect "purple" (purple is a metaphor for the Pentagon, which means to harmonize the colors of green (army), blue (air force) and white (navy) uniforms to achieve a blend of purple realm).

John watched the play here with relish, and for a time he didn't even notice General William-Lee's frequent glances at him. In the end, Gavin, who was still sitting in the row behind him, reminded him in a whisper, and he realized what he was doing today, and hurriedly raised his hand to ask to speak.

"Generals, airborne combat is a new tactic that has just been born, and even the Germans themselves are still studying and exploring, and they are far from being mature and complete. The Battle of Crete was the first time since the birth of airborne tactics that an airborne force attempted a large-scale independent operation. Although the German 7th Parachute Division suffered heavy losses and failed to achieve the expected combat results, I do not consider this airborne combat operation to be a failure. ”

Just now, the generals of the army aviation opposed the formation of a large-scale airborne force, and the most common reason they used was that airborne tactics were only suitable for small-scale surprise operations and could not play an important role in large-scale combat missions. John is trying to refute this idea at its roots.

"First of all, it is undeniable that the ultimate strategic purpose of this German airborne operation was achieved. Through this operation, the Germans successfully occupied Crete, greatly limited the scope of operations of the British Mediterranean Fleet, improved the safety of the sea route from Sicily to Benghazi, and ensured the supply of supplies for military operations in North Africa, while keeping Romania's oil-producing areas out of the threat range of British bombers. They could even use Crete as a base to further threaten the island of Malta, the Suez Canal, and even Syria and Iraq from the air. ”

John: This is not alarmist. Historically, if Hitler hadn't been in a hurry to point the finger at the Soviet Union, at least the British would not have been able to contain Malta, a sea and air base in the middle of the Mediterranean. This point was admitted even by later British military historians. Had Hitler had taken action on the island of Malta at that time, the capture of it would have been an easy task.

Many historians regard the failure of the German army to capture the precarious island of Malta as a strategic mistake that affected the entire war later. It was precisely because of the existence of the sea and air bases on the island of Malta that Rommel frequently fell into a situation of unfavorable supply and finally lost the North African campaign.

"So, from a strategic point of view, this Cretan airborne operation, no matter what the cost of the Germans, was worth it. This operation of the German 7th Parachute Division just proved that the Airborne Forces are fully capable of strategic tasks at the campaign level. ”

Seeing that someone on the side of the army aviation was about to open his mouth to refute, John did not give him a chance to interject, and then continued: "As for what many people have just mentioned, there are many unsatisfactory aspects of the German Airborne Forces in the operation. That can only show that the airborne tactics are not perfect enough and need to be further improved, and cannot be used as a reason to deny the tactics themselves. ”

"Colonel Vanderbilt Hill, we are not against airborne tactics. The effectiveness of airborne operations has been fully demonstrated in Norway and Belgium. However, it is the suddenness of the action that is the core advantage of airborne tactics, and large-scale airborne operations will sacrifice the suddenness of the action. During this operation in Crete, several hundred transport planes of the Germans had just taken off when they were discovered by the British. As a result, the paratroopers were besieged as soon as they landed, and none of the three airfields were captured. ”

John looked at it and almost dropped his jaw. It was Major General Lewis Brilton, who had just been promoted from captain of the 17th Bomber Wing to commander of the 3rd Air Force.

The key point is that Britton was the commander of the Allied 1st Airborne Army, and he was the one who commanded the US 18th Airborne Army and the British 1st Airborne Army in Operation "City Garden". If John had remained in the 82nd Division, Britton would have been his immediate superior by August 1944 at the latest.

However, the commander of the 1st Airborne Army, the commander of the largest airborne forces in the history of mankind, would oppose the formation of a large-scale airborne force? What kind of fuss is this?

But at such moments, John didn't think too much about it. "General Britton, no tactic in the world is perfect from birth, and we cannot completely dismiss it just because it went wrong at the first attempt. On the contrary, I believe that this operation of the Germans has provided a lot of valuable experience for the improvement of the tactics of large-scale airborne operations, and has pointed out the direction for the improvement of airborne tactics in the future......"

"Colonel Vanderbilt." Chief of Staff Marshall, who had been sitting and watching the two factions arguing, suddenly opened his mouth: "How much room do you think there is for improvement in airborne tactics at this stage?" ”