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Chapter 1793 Theater Planning

Washington, White House. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After more than a month of consultations between the War Department and the Navy Department, the United States' defense responsibilities in the Pacific region have finally become clear. Roosevelt is holding this meeting today to determine the specific candidates and take up their posts as soon as possible in order to deal with a new attack by the Japanese army that may occur at any time.

Miss Lehand pushed Roosevelt into the conference room, glanced at the Navy and Army generals in the room, smiled slightly, and instructed the staff to bring a cup of fresh coffee in front of everyone, and then stepped back.

Roosevelt's face was grim: "Gentlemen, you must also know that Port Moresby, the largest port city on the island of New Guinea, has fallen into the control of the Japanese army. According to information from the intelligence services, they are now launching attacks on the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides and the Fiji Islands. Once the deployment of troops on the periphery is completed, a landing operation will be carried out against Australia!

"Gentlemen, I don't ask you to make a perfect plan, but you must come up with a plan to deal with it as soon as possible, otherwise Australia and New Zealand will be lost, and we will lose the bridgehead for the counteroffensive in the Pacific, and then the war will drag on indefinitely!"

Chief of Naval Operations Harold. Stark stood up, walked over to the large map of the Pacific Ocean that the staff had prepared on the side of the conference room, picked up his baton, pointed to the map, and said:

"I have to admit that it was undoubtedly very wrong for us to not interfere too much in the invasion of the Lanyin Islands at the beginning, and just verbally protested. After more than two years of development, the Japanese army has built countless military airfields on the Lanyin Islands, including the western part of the island of New Guinea, which it occupies, including Marauchi, Jayapura, Obaka, Kimaan, Abbero, and Uda.

In addition, in Kupang, Dili, Vik, Tuala and other places on the island of Timor near Australia, the Japanese army has also built military airfields, and its B17 bombers imported from China can completely cover the northern region of Australia and the waters of the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Coral Sea. From the very beginning, our Pacific strategy has been in a passive position, and with the decisive superiority of the Navy in the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor incident, our strategic deployment has become more and more passive......"

Roosevelt interrupted Stark: "Harold, I don't want to hear these complaining words, I just want to know now, how to solve the current troubles?" It's almost late February, and if your navy and army staff can't come up with a solution to the problem, I don't mind changing the right person again. ”

Stark's face became very ugly, and after a while he said:

"The war that we are waging is primarily a battle for forward bases, in other words, a battle for continents and islands in the Pacific. The South Pacific Theater includes the Lanyin Islands, the newly occupied islands of New Guinea, New Britain and New Ireland, the Eastern Islands of Australia, and Australia and New Zealand, which we are defending.

"Long before the outbreak of war, we had made every effort to strengthen our forces in the South Pacific, and by now the Army had transferred one army division, three army brigades, to Australia. Our Marine Corps also formed a temporary brigade and was transferred to Samoa for reinforcements. You must know that before last year, the strength of the entire South Pacific region was only a negligible battalion.

"Since the outbreak of the war, Army units have been moved to strategic points in Australia and the island of New Guinea to defend against Japanese attacks, and we have lost a brigade of troops in the previous battles. The Marine Corps' provisional brigade, in partnership with the New Zealand Guard, is responsible for the defence of the Fiji Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and the Lane Islands.

"Last year, at the height of the war in Europe, we built a series of air bases on these islands to protect the shipping routes from Hawaii to the islands, mainly Johnson, Palmyra and Canton Island. Now with the loss of Hawaii and the disruption of the Panama Canal, this sea route has become useless, and the Japanese army will definitely not let these islands go unpunished, and it is expected that they will be occupied by the Japanese army in a short time. Since the Japanese army has a vast colony, on these islands, there is no need to put too many troops, a few Japanese officers with a few companies of indigenous troops are enough, but the threat to us is infinite!

"To support Australia and New Zealand from the east coast, we must bypass Cape Horn in southern South America, enter the Chatham Islands and Antipodis Islands from the southwest basin of the Pacific Ocean, and then support Australia from New Zealand, the Kermadec Islands, and Norfolk Island. This sea route is the only safe route at present, and in order to ensure safety, it is necessary to ensure the safety of New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands, the Tonga Islands, and Samoa, which is very likely to be the focus of contention between our side and the Japanese for a long time to come.

"Because of the large number of colonies and the abundance of Japanese troops, it is very likely that while fighting with us for these islands in eastern Australia, it is very likely that a landing operation will be carried out from the northwest corner of northwestern Australia, the Kimberley Plateau, or the port of Darwin, and it is also possible to use Port Moresby as a forward base to force a landing on the Cape York Peninsula. It is even possible for the enemy to go on an expedition from the Lanyin Islands to bypass the western coast of Australia, and from the Indian Ocean to launch a surprise attack from the Nullarbor Plain, Spassey Bay and Bass Strait in the Great Australian Bay.

"In a word, because the Navy temporarily has the right to control the sea in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, we cannot contain the enemy's military operations, so we can only defend step by step in Australia and the South Pacific region, stabilize our positions first, and wait for the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive. This will be the main battlefield in the South Pacific, and according to the agreement we have reached with the Army Operations Department, we have decided to form the Supreme Allied Command in the Southwest Pacific Theater here, with General MacArthur as the commander-in-chief, temporarily under the command of one army division, three combat brigades, two Marine Corps brigades, and six Australian divisions urgently formed by the Australian militia. ”

Roosevelt frowned a little displeased: "Why didn't you tell me about this decision earlier?" I had just promised two days ago that General MacArthur would lead his troops from the Philippines to participate in a counteroffensive against the Japanese in northern China. Now that the order is changing, how will the Nanjing government view us? ”

Army Chief of Staff George Brown. Marshall stood up and said, "This decision was also made after our repeated consultations. No one in the army has the prestige of Douglas, and his declaration of 'I want to go back' at Nanhua Xinjing Airport has spread all over the world, and there is no one more suitable than him as a hero we proclaim vigorously. ”

"So, what about the Chinese side?" Roosevelt asked.

Marshall replied, "We are prepared to send General Stilwell to take Douglas's place." A graduate of West Point, General Stilwell fought in the last European war and served as military attache at the U.S. Embassy in China. From 1926 to 1929, he served as the battalion commander and chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Regiment stationed in Tianjin. Five years ago, he went to China again as a military attache stationed in China, and then inspected the defense of Guangzhou, Guilin, Wuzhou, Nanning, Hankou, Xuzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and other places. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in China, he set up an intelligence group to report the progress of the war to the country in a timely manner. Two years ago, he returned to China and served as the commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division. In January last year, he was appointed commander of the 7th Division and commander of the Oder Barracks in Monterrey; In April, he was promoted to major general, and in August, when the whole army was expanded, he became the commander of the Third Army.

"Originally, we were going to appoint General Stilwell as commander-in-chief of the North African Dispatch Army after Germany declared war on us, but now that Germany has not declared war on us, and the Pacific theater is in full swing, in view of General Stilwell's close relationship with China, we have consulted with the Naval Operations Department and believe that he is the only suitable person to replace General MacArthur as commander of the Chinese theater. In the future, when the Navy opens up the Indian Ocean passage, the department can be transferred to Australia to support operations there. ”

"Stilwell!?"

Roosevelt pondered, and after a while remembered who this monarch was, and was greatly satisfied: "Very well, General Stilwell has been to China many times, can speak fluent Chinese, and he may be more suitable for dealing with Chinese than General MacArthur." This is a good appointment, and the appointment can be issued immediately after the meeting. ”

Stark was a little embarrassed: "Now we have a problem, we don't know how to get General MacArthur to where he needs to go quickly and easily. The Japanese army has taken all the sea and air routes from the Indochina Peninsula to Australia, even if it returns from Europe and ventures from the west coast to Australia, it will take a month or two to go around. ”

"I'll coordinate this!"

Roosevelt waved his hand and said with a smile: "The British have promised to return all the cultural relics they plundered from China, and many of the Chinese cultural relics in our major museums are stolen by thieves, and I am ready to return them to the Chinese when the time is right." South China has a naval force, and among them there are submarines acquired from the Far Eastern Republics, and I think General MacArthur can go directly to Australia in ocean-going submarines. Of course, this may make him suffer, but it is the quickest and safest way to do it. ”

Stark was very happy to hear this, and then explained the battle situation against the map.

"The North Pacific theater, which includes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Aleutian Islands are located in the southwest of Alaska, in the form of a semicircular belt, from east to west, almost up to the vicinity of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Asia, with a total length of more than 2,700 kilometers. Most of the islands of the Aleutian Islands are volcanic islands, some volcanoes still have intermittent activity, the climate is affected by the Alaskan warm current and the polar ocean air mass, rainy fog and strong winds, the temperature difference between the four seasons is small, because of the strong wind and no trees, the vegetation is mainly meadows and mosses. We have only a battalion of Marines stationed in Holland Harbor on the island of Unarasca, and it must be reinforced again in the future, otherwise it cannot be ruled out that the Japanese will attack here, and in a sense, attacking Alaska is also an attack on our territory in North America, which is of great symbolic significance. ”

Secretary of State Cordell. Hull frowned: "The Aleutian Islands and Alaska are desolate and foggy all year round, *** people will not dare to be interested, but I am worried now that their aircraft carrier task force may threaten the security of our West Coast." After all, after the bombing of the Panama Canal, the mysterious fleet suddenly disappeared, and we must always be vigilant. ”

Stark did not argue and continued:

"The Central Pacific region consists of a vast ocean strip of desert located north of the equator, stretching from Hawaii to the Philippines, including the *** mainland. Most of the area is small islands, and most of the reefs were ruled by the League of Nations after the last European war.

"The largest of these island groups is the Caroline Islands, which run from east to west, and in the middle is the giant naval base of Turuk, known as 'Pearl Harbor'. To the east is the Marshall Islands as a barrier, and behind it is backed by strong bases on the islands of Berke and Saipan. With the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor and the landing of the army on Oahu, plus the islands of Guam, Wake Island, and Midway Island that they occupied from us, the entire Central Pacific region has built a well-established defensive line. Through the airfields built on these small islands, the Japanese army can send a steady stream of locally produced fighters and bombers to Oahu, supporting the war in the entire Central Pacific region, and in the future, we will launch a counterattack, and this island chain will become our biggest threat and obstacle.

"In coordination with the Army Operations Department, the Central Pacific and North Pacific regions became a new theater of operations, the Pacific Theater, with General Nimitz, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, as commander-in-chief. The main task of this theater at present is to prevent the navy from attacking and harassing our Pacific coastal areas, and after accumulating sufficient strength, it will launch a counterattack against the Japanese army, and the primary goal is to capture the Hawaiian Islands, obtain a fulcrum in the Pacific Ocean, and then advance step by step until it approaches the mainland of China. ”

Roosevelt was not surprised by the appointment, he nodded, and then immediately greeted the newly appointed director of the wartime production bureau, Donald Bush. Nelson asked, "Dear Donald, are you sure you will produce enough guns and ammunition, as well as ship cannons, to support front-line operations?" ”

Donald. Prior to his appointment as Director of Wartime Production, Nelson was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hills-Roebuck and had extensive experience in managing production. Without hesitation, he replied: "Yes, Mr. President." Within two weeks of my inauguration, a ban had been placed on the production of 300 consumer goods, from iron molds for baking custards to toothpaste, canned beer, and automobiles, all metal products, with priority given to the needs of the war. Factories across the U.S. have shifted from civilian production of toys, sporting goods, and dining tools to guns and bullets. We are sure that by the end of the year, we will produce 25,000 aircraft, 25,000 tanks, 10,000 antiaircraft guns, and 4 million tons of new ships, so as to quickly recover the decline in the war against Japan. ”

"No, this production plan is too conservative!"

Roosevelt shook his head and said irrefutably: "I will now set you a target -- by the end of the year, the number of planes produced must reach 40,000, the number of tanks must also be 40,000, the number of antiaircraft guns must be 20,000, and the number of new ships must be 8 million tons." Only such a number can completely deter *** people and Nazis, and they will think about it, what are their achievements in the past? Such oppressive figures would symbolize the efforts of the United States to defeat its enemies and to outperform them in production in a general war that permeates our lives at all times. ”

Donald. Nelson was stunned for a moment, then smiled wryly: "Dear Franklin, it seems that I am going to ban the production of hundreds of consumer goods again...... Alas, now my villa is probably going to be filled with rotten eggs and rotten tomatoes thrown by the angry crowd! ”

All the attendees, including Roosevelt and Hull, couldn't help but laugh. They unanimously decided that when the industrial sector of the United States vigorously carries out production according to the plan, no matter how big the victory is, it will be defeated in the end, and the industrial power of the United States will produce more products than the first country, and just fighting for consumption is enough to drag the first product down.

But is it really that simple?

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