After a brief chat with John, Lieutenant General Morgan politely took his leave and left. As soon as he left, Jairo grabbed John's arm and whispered, "Are you familiar with that Englishman?" ”

When John and Morgan were chatting just now, Jairo had always suspected that they were old acquaintances. Because according to the military foreign affairs norms of equal ranks, it is okay for a colonel not to salute when he sees a senior general of a foreign army (there are too many high-ranking officers on the "Augusta", and they are generally not required to salute in private), and the minimum courtesy and respect must still be there.

How can there be someone like John, who not only takes the initiative to talk to others, but also uses casual tone and words when talking, clearly putting himself on an equal footing with Morgan. If he and Morgan were not old acquaintances, there was no need for the other party to be so polite to a little colonel.

"Not too familiar. It was only at this meeting that I met. John shook off Jairo's hand, "I'll talk to him a few times, though." Morgan is not bad, and he doesn't have that aristocratic arrogance. ”

"Tsk, presidential advisers are just different." Jairo said half-teasingly, half-enviously. In his opinion, Lieutenant General Morgan must have looked at John's position as an army adviser to Roosevelt, so he would ignore the difference in rank and deign to befriend him.

"It has nothing to do with this, it's Admiral Freeman's thread." John flatly denied it.

"Admiral Wilfrid Freeman?" Jairo was even more surprised, "You and him?" ”

Lieutenant General Morgan was nothing more than a senior staff officer in the British Army Command (Morgan had been commander of a combat group in the Royal Army's 1st Armoured Division at the beginning of the war, and had been in the Army Command since Dunkirk until October 1942, when he was relegated to the position of commander of the Royal Army's 1st Army).

Admiral Freeman is the number two man in the British Royal Air Force, and he is the top military boss who accompanied Roosevelt and Churchill to meetings with Marshall, Stark, Arnold, Deere, and Pound at their heads. How could John have a relationship with him?

"We met in '39 when he led a delegation of the Procurement Committee to the United States to purchase arms." John knew that if he didn't explain this problem clearly, Jairo didn't know how to guess when he went back, "You also know that in addition to the deputy chief of staff of the Royal Air Force, he also has a position in the government - the head of the aircraft production department." All matters related to aircraft research and development, production, and procurement are under his control. ”

"I remember, a lot of the aid planes they got were made by your aircraft company, right?" Jairo said with a sudden realization.

"In '39, they ordered a batch, plus the Lend-Lease Act later, a total of about 1,000 racks." John said proudly.

Among all the current aircraft manufacturers in the United States, the -51 "Mustang" fighter and the B-24 "Libertador" heavy bomber are the two fist products (for the convenience of everyone's understanding, after the H1 and D2 of the Hughes aircraft entered service, I can't afford to have a new name.) You can think of the H1 fighter and the D2 bomber as enhanced versions of the historical P-51 and B-24) were very popular in Britain, Finland, the Philippines, China and other places, and even the Soviets snapped up more than 200 after the assets were unfrozen.

"The day before yesterday, the Royal Air Force raided Cologne, you know, they used our company's planes. Admiral Freeman went out of his way to thank me, and Lieutenant General Morgan was there at the time. ”

The Royal Air Force's air raid on Cologne was big news on board the ship in the past two days, and it was certainly impossible for Geiraud not to know about it. Just one day before the start of the Atlantic Conference, 56 B-24 bombers from four squadrons of the British Royal Air Force, escorted by more than 30 P-51 fighters, penetrated 150 miles into the German air defense circle in broad daylight and successfully bombed Cologne.

Unlike in history, when 54 "Blenheim" lost almost half of them and only set fire to the coal piles of two power plants, this time the operation of Major General Norman Portemley was an unprecedented success. In addition to destroying key targets such as power plants, railway junctions, tank factories, indiscriminate bombing of industrial areas in Cologne. And none of the 56 "Liberators" were lost, only 8 were slightly damaged.

The reason why this air raid was able to achieve such "brilliant" results was, first of all, because the B-24's performance far surpassed that of the "Blenheim," the bomb load alone was more than three times higher, and the speed, armor, and firepower were not the same, and it was also equipped with advanced bomb-dropping sights, and the bombing success rate was much higher.

Secondly, because of the escort of P-51 fighters. In the previous life, the "Blenheim" that attacked Cologne, although it was also escorted by fighters. However, due to the range, the escort fighters returned home over Antwerp. In other words, those "Blenheim" bombers carried out an approach attack on the Cologne power station almost 150 miles deep into the German defense system alone, which is why they suffered so much damage.

In any case, the Royal Air Force's large-scale bombing of Cologne, an important industrial city in Germany, in broad daylight not only achieved the predetermined goal of "seriously damaging the morale of the German people, especially the industrial workers," but also gave a generous gift to the convening of the "Atlantic Conference."

After the news reached the "Prince of Wales" through the telegraph system at the bottom of the Atlantic, Churchill even personally informed Roosevelt of the victory. Admiral Freeman also went out of his way to find John, thanked him, and hoped that Hughes aircraft would be able to deliver more "Mustangs" and "Liberators" as soon as possible.

For John, the raid was tantamount to a big advertisement for Hughes Aircraft Company in disguise. Nothing is a perfect reflection of the performance of Hughes Aircraft Company products than real results on the battlefield.

In addition, Churchill and a number of British military and political leaders took the initiative to promote him, and the fame of "Mustang" and "Liberator" immediately increased greatly, as if they had become a generation of famous machines. John believes that Hughes Aircraft will soon see a new surge in orders. Perhaps, the "Liberator" who seized the opportunity will be able to take Boeing's "Flying Fortress" down in one fell swoop.

In addition, this incident had another unintended consequence, which was the intersection between John and Lieutenant General Morgan.

During this time, Morgan, who had a strategic vision, was already working on the so-called "encirclement and annihilation" plan for counterattacking the European continent. An attack on the European continent, he argued, "did not require the use of such large forces as in the First World War." Relying on armored forces with powerful striking and assault capabilities, it was possible to quickly achieve a decisive victory. ”

Morgan has some vague understanding of the role of strategic bombing, but it is not very clear. The bombing of Cologne (this air raid was not aimed at military targets alone, but an indiscriminate bombing of the industrial area of Cologne for the purpose of demoralizing German industrial workers, and it had initially taken on the characteristics of strategic bombing), gave him a lot of inspiration.

At Admiral Freeman's place, John could not help but take out the routine of the later General Li May's strategic bombing of large cities in Germany and Japan, which immediately attracted the attention of Lieutenant General Morgan, who thought that this would be a powerful supplement to the "encirclement and annihilation" plan.

After that, Morgan communicated with John privately several times. The two men have developed a lot of common language on the issue of strategic bombing, and they have a feeling of sympathy for each other. John even felt that when Morgan formulated the "Overlord Plan" in the future, if he didn't add his name, he would be sorry for the dry goods he revealed.