With confidence in the success of the "Lady Liberty Project", George. General Patton boarded the high-speed C-69 transport plane and flew back to his headquarters in Port of Spain. The day after Patton left www.biquge.info General Mark Wayne Clark, commander of the U.S. Ground Forces in Canada and commander of the 15th Army Group of the Coalition, also rushed to the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.

Clark, who is only 47 years old this year, is the youngest general ever in the U.S. Army, having previously been the youngest lieutenant general. An elite of the U.S. Army elite, recognized as future Army Chief of Staff and expert on amphibious warfare -- his title as an expert on amphibious warfare comes from a strange place because he is not from the Marine Corps and has not fought a single amphibious operation. In fact, he has not been on the battlefield since the end of World War I.

But the U.S. military's number one amphibious warfare expert is not Richmond, who specializes in landing operations in the Navy. Lieutenant General Turner, nor Marine Corps Champion Holland. Smith, not to mention Turner, Holland. Smith worked with George Smith, who had been fighting in the Hawaiian Islands for almost a year. Patton, but the one who rose to prominence in an amphibious landing exercise in 1939 and was selected by Marshall, has risen through the ranks to serve as deputy chief of staff, chief of staff and commander of the U.S. garrison in Canada since the U.S. entered the war, and was always ready to command a multinational coalition to counterattack the European continent.

And for the past two years, Admiral Clarke, in addition to preparing for a counteroffensive in Europe, has been developing various operational plans to defend Canada. As an expert in amphibious warfare, Clark knows all too well that defending Canada's eastern coastline is not easy.

Because the coastline of eastern Canada is so long, and there are many bays. In the spring and summer, when the climate is relatively mild, there are too many bays suitable for landing and anchoring large fleets. And the biggest headache for Clark is that most of the bays in eastern Canada are in areas where land transportation is extremely difficult.

Although the extremely inconvenient land transportation was conducive to the defenders to contain the advance of the landing enemy forces in depth, it also made it difficult for the coalition ground forces guarding the east coast of Canada to launch counterattacks, and there was no way to deploy too many ground defense forces in those inaccessible bays. Because the garrison needs logistical support, if the logistics can't keep up, the troops can't fight at all. In many remote bays, supplies cannot be transported by land, only by sea. And the sea line is now threatened by German submarines, and once the Germans start landing operations, they will definitely be blocked by surface ships and aircraft carriers, so the sea supply line is simply unreliable.

Supplies by sea were unreliable, and land transportation could not support large armies due to road conditions and distance constraints. As a result, Clark was unable to deploy his army across the entire eastern coastline of Canada, which was in fact guarded by only a small number of Canadian militia and light ships of the British Royal Navy. If the Germans had really landed in some bay, they would not have met with strong resistance at all.

“…… They could land in any bay north of Newfoundland and would certainly have easily succeeded, since there was not much defense. The Germans would then be able to set up makeshift airfields and ports there, deploying their jets and Fw190s or Fokker 636s to the North American continent. Using it as a base to launch an air attack on Newfoundland, the German Grand Fleet, supported by these shore-based aircraft, would be able to send landing troops to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Saint Pierre and Miquelon! ”

In a conference room in the Pentagon, Clark, a recognized expert on amphibious landing warfare, was presenting his views to members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As an expert in amphibious warfare, Clark knew that the bays along Canada's long coastline were "islands" that could not be defended without sea supremacy. And the Germans could capture only one of them and gain air bases close to places like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

And then it's a war of attrition against shore-based aircraft! If one refers to the exchange ratio of the American and German air wars of attrition over the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the Allied air power in eastern Canada will soon be overwhelmed. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia will be difficult to defend at that time!

"If that happens," asked Marshall, who had picked up Clark, "will your men be able to hold on to places like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia?" ”

"It's difficult," Admiral Clark looked worried, "and Newfoundland isn't a big problem, because the coastline there is a rough terrain, with many cliffs, and there aren't many sandy beaches suitable for landing craft to beach. Moreover, there are usually terraces and heights up to a few tens of meters high near these beaches and pebble beaches, all of which are natural fortresses that are impossible to conquer, and even if the Germans use tsunami bombs, the effect is not very large.

But Nova Scotia is a bit of a problem, with lots of sandy beaches, flat terrain and equally good beaches nearby, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island.

In addition, near Newfoundland, about 20 kilometres from the southwestern coastline of Newfoundland, there is a small French territory called Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and a very narrow island of Sable. The terrain of these small islands is also relatively flat, with many sandy beaches suitable for landing, and the area is not too small enough to build a large airport. ”

Wallace, the current Secretary of War, was also listening to the report in the conference room, and as soon as Admiral Clark finished speaking, he asked with a frown: "That is, as long as one of the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Sable Island falls, there will be a huge hole in our defense line in eastern Canada?" ”

"Not a huge hole," Clark stressed, "is the collapse of the entire defensive line...... These areas are less than 1,600 kilometers away from New York, including more than 1,500 kilometers from New York's farthest islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and less than 800 kilometers from the southern tip of Nova Scotia. ”

This distance will not only allow the Me264 bomber to fly to New York and drop the atomic bomb, but even the Germans may launch missiles from their bases on Nova Scotia to bomb New York and Washington!

Moreover, the United States' countermeasures against the German atomic bomb -- a one-way attack on Europe with B-29 loaded germ bombs -- would not be able or difficult to implement because of the fall of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Saint-Pierre Island, and Miquelon.

Listening to Clark's words, the generals present all looked at each other. The words of this amphibious landing expert, who has not fought an amphibious landing war, are not wrong at all. At present, the strength of the Allied forces (the United States, Britain, France, etc.), especially the naval and air forces, is actually not sufficient, and there are not enough forces to deploy enough planes and warships on the east coast of Canada, the east coast of the United States, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and other places.

Therefore, in terms of naval and air forces, the Allied forces are currently adopting a method of focusing on deployment, first ensuring sufficient forces in the Caribbean theater and second, ensuring the security of the east coast of the United States and Bermuda.

And in order to ensure absolute security in the Caribbean theater and on the east coast of the United States, including Bermuda, the naval and air forces on the east coast of Canada have been decreasing over the past few months.

"It is said that the target of the German attack was the islands of Trinidad and Tobago," Wallace asked the generals present, frowning, "is that certain?" ”

The generals looked at each other, and none of them answered Wallace's questions. Although all indications now point to Germany's target for the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the war is already full of all kinds of deceptions, and who can guarantee that the Germans are not bluffing in the Caribbean theater?

There was silence in the conference room, looking a little embarrassed, and after a while, I heard the Army Air Corps' Henry . Admiral Arnold said: "Mr. Minister, if we stop the bombing of Buenos Aires and the attack on Santiago, we will be able to add 1,500 warplanes to the eastern front of Canada......"

"No," Wallace immediately rejected Arnold's proposal, "and our operations in Chile and Argentina are about to succeed, and that will be decisive." ”

The generals all sighed in their hearts, and in fact the United States was in a dilemma in both Chile and Argentina.

Even before the vote in last November's election, the U.S. government claimed to have invaded Chile's capital, Santiago — a notable fact that Santiago is a large area, not just in urban areas, but also in large rural areas. The U.S. military hit the perimeter of downtown San Diego before polling day on November 6, '44, and surrounded downtown San Diego on three sides. The situation did look very good, and it seemed that the U.S. military was about to liberate San Diego.

But after the election, the situation developed to disappoint Wallace and the new president, Harry Truman. Although they did their best to meet Eisenhower's request for reinforcements, the offensive on San Diego was long and bloody. The bloody battle began in mid-December '44 and continued until March '45, and Eisenhower's forces captured less than a third of the San Diego city at the cost of more than 100,000 casualties.

The air raid on Buenos Aires was similarly costly and ineffective. While bombs and incendiary bombs dropped by American heavy bombers turned much of Buenos Aires' downtown area into ruins, Juan . Peron's regime was not overthrown...... For now, at least, Peron was still hiding in the basement of the Rose Palace, giving orders. The Americans, on the other hand, paid a huge price for the airstrikes that lasted for months, with more than 2,800 warplanes not returning after their missions.