“…… Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula, Syria and Transjordan are all in a mess. More than 3 million officers and soldiers on both sides are engaged in the fiercest fierce battle on the land of West Asia. And we, the Wavell-Stilwell cluster, the most powerful armored cluster of the Anglo-American Allied forces in the Middle East, have nothing to do in the port of Jeddah! That's a full 27 divisions, including 10 armored divisions! This is a powerful force that can turn the tide of the war in the Middle East! If there was one mistake we made in this battle, it was undoubtedly that we did not put this force in the right direction in the first place. - The above is an excerpt from Lieutenant General Stilwell's memoir "The Wrong War".

As Stilwell said in his memoirs, from May 2, 1935, the worst of the Middle East war had come. Ubolevich's 8 armies rushed into Palestine and Sinai like a flood, and 1 Indian army group, which was compressed in the south of the Sinai Peninsula, also burst out with the strongest combat power, and flanked the 3 armies of Ubolevich's group, crushing a British infantry army on the Sinai Peninsula, and even pursued the Suez Canal with victory! The other five armies of Ubolevich's group advanced north along the western side of the Arabian Valley, crushing the 1st U.S. Marine Division near Jerusalem, which had rushed to intercept it, and then drove straight to Haifa Port, the U.S. logistics base in the Middle East theater.

At this time, in the Middle East US Military General Headquarters in Haifa, there was an atmosphere of chaos, panic, and confusion. The staff officers who had been resourceful in the past are now coming in and out with blank faces - no one knows what they are up to? Or arguing loudly around the map. On the map, four huge arrows representing the Indian Red Army are either stretching or oppressing, pinning down the British and American forces on the battlefields of Syria and Transjordan. However, the most powerful combat power of the British and American allies in the Middle East is more than 1,000 kilometers away in the port of Jeddah, and some are cruising in the Arabian Sea on ships and warships.

By this time, these self-proclaimed clever American and British soldiers finally realized what a stupid thing they had done! Send their most powerful armored forces and ten divisions to act as reserves to outflank the enemy's rear, only to have the enemy copy their own rear! If the troops of those 37 divisions were still in Egypt or Palestine, the Ubolevich cluster that had been slaughtered from the Hejaz Mountains would only have a dead end, but the current battlefield is really difficult to save the gods!

The war room was full of people, and bad news kept coming.

"Admiral. A huge marching column of the Indian army has passed through the Suez Canal and is advancing towards Cairo! ”

"Report, the vanguard of the Indian army was found near Tel Aviv airport! Indian artillery shells have already fallen near the airport tarmac, and Major General Thomas of the Army Aviation Corps has requested the withdrawal of the army and naval forces to Haifa! ”

"Alexander's Middle East Theater Command ordered us to immediately send at least one division by sea to Alexandria to participate in the defense of the city!"

"Admiral, Lieutenant General Magrud of the Seventh Army reports that his troops are being oppressed by the superior forces of the Indian army, and if they are to retreat, the losses will be very heavy!"

"Admiral. Lieutenant General Stilwell telegraphed that he request that the Persian Gulf operation be carried out as originally planned - this is our only chance to turn the tide of the war in the Middle East! ”

"General Patton sent a telegram requesting that the Persian Gulf operational plan be immediately abandoned and that the landing force be immediately transferred to Egypt......"

Marshall sat in the war room in a daze, listening to his subordinates report bad news after bad news. These staff officers in the entire headquarters are circling like ants on a hot pot. These "elites" of the U.S. military, who had never fought a war and were only ensignants and lieutenants not long ago, couldn't believe what was happening in front of them. The United States and Britain have invested more than 1.6 million troops in this battlefield, and in the past two months, they have easily crossed the Suez Canal, seized Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon, most of Transjordan, half Syria and half of the Hejaz, and killed and captured almost 250,000 Indian Red Army! Just as he was about to give the final blow to his opponent, in just a few days, the battle situation completely collapsed! The Persian Gulf battle plan in situ became a complete joke. The situation in Palestine is so dangerous that it is about to collapse! Even the impregnable Suez line of the British army was declared lost in a panic! The raging flames of the world revolution have spread to Africa! The Indian Red Army is marching towards the pyramids......

How could the battle have turned out to be like this? Aren't the American and British armies overwhelmingly firepowered? Didn't American planes occupy the skies of the entire Middle East? Aren't the navies of the United States and Britain in control of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean? Isn't India a backward country with a weak industrial base, where the common people don't even have enough to eat, and the blindness rate is as high as 95% (the original blind rate is not so high, but there are many literate Asandu class enemies)? And those teachers of India, weren't the Soviet Union defeated by China and Germany? How could they defeat the Anglo-Americans! How could such a thing happen!

Admiral Marshall now knows why the tide of battle has suddenly turned, because the previous smooth sailing is all an illusion! It's all Blyukhel who is paralyzing himself and Sir Macint! Compared with this famous Soviet general who has experienced a hundred battles, the command art of a general who has never really been on the battlefield is not worth mentioning! Gen is a fool who can cheat as much as he wants!

I actually want to play some tricks with an old fox like someone who rolls out on the battlefield! What frontal attraction, what outflanking of armored forces, what landing in the Persian Gulf...... In the eyes of those scheming Soviet generals. You must be the biggest fool in the world! Because of their own stupidity, hundreds of thousands of young Americans may soon lose their lives! I am afraid that the dream of the United States to lead the world is coming to an end, and it is the greatest sinner in the history of the United States of America......

Just when Marshall was ashamed and didn't know if he was about to commit suicide to apologize, Eisenhower suddenly pulled Alexander, the chief of the general staff of the British forces in the Middle East, out of the war room.

"Sir Masint, Mr. Admiral, has sent me here to hear your thoughts on the current state of the war." Alexander, who exudes an aristocratic atmosphere all over his body, is very calm, I don't know if it is because he is used to eating too much in defeat, or because this British Empire nobleman is naturally slow to react.

"My opinion?" Marshall came only ashamed and had no idea, so after hearing Alexander's question. He began to think, and thought for a full ten minutes before nodding at Alexander and saying, "I want to hear the opinion of Sir Sizzle." ”

Listening to Marshall's words, Alexander sighed in his heart. It seems that this American four-star general has run out of ideas...... That's fine. The British Empire has one last chance to fight!

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath and showed a resolute expression: "Mr. General, there are some repetitions in the current battle area, but we have not been defeated yet, and we are all under control. As long as the Persian Gulf operation is successful, the Middle East will still be the world of Britain and the United States! ”

"But what about the frontal battlefield? Anglo-American troops in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Transjordan and Lebanon are in crisis! Marshall asked rhetorically.

"Sir thinks that the forces on the front should be reduced, and in Egypt we are prepared to abandon Cairo and retreat to Alexandria. It is the home port of the Mediterranean Fleet, it has a strong defense system, and now there is 1 British division deployed in Alexandria, and if the United States can provide another division, we will be 100% sure to hold Alexandria. ”

"Is one division enough?" Marshall asked rhetorically.

"One division is all it takes."

"Okay, Ike, you go and call Lieutenant General Lin Zuo, the chief of staff of the Caliphate. He was asked to send a division to reinforce Alexander, to be airlifted by American planes, and to collect all the weapons to Alexandria as long as the soldiers and officers were there. ”

"Caliphate? That's not going to work! Alexander immediately objected: "The Caliphate cannot be allowed to enter Alexandria!" 80% of the inhabitants of Alexandria are Sunni mulls, and they are all followers of the caliphate! ”

Marshall sneered slightly: "Isn't that better?" When the caliphate army can be expanded on the spot in Alexandria, a division will become an army, or even more! ”

"But what about after the Battle of Alexander?" General Alexander asked rhetorically: "Is the caliphate of that army still willing to leave Egypt and go back to the Hejaz?" Admiral. King Fouad I (King of Egypt) was frail and sickly, and Prince Said, the crown prince, was a well-known playboy who was uneducated and unskilled, and their father and son were far less prestigious in Egypt than Hussein Ali, who had the title of caliph! If the caliphate is allowed to gain a foothold in Egypt, Egypt will become part of the Arab Empire as soon as King Fouad dies! ”

The British, who had once dominated the Middle East, certainly understood the prestige of Hussein Ali of the Hashemite family among the Arabs. At the end of the First World War, he was proclaimed King of the Hejaz, and his three sons, Faisal, were elected King of Greater Syria and then King of Iraq. His second son became the ruler of Amman. If it weren't for Britain's behind-the-scenes bad support for the Saud family, Caliph Hussein would have dominated the Arab world long ago.

And now, before the Persian Gulf oil is extracted and turned into a lucrative source, the most important and fertile territory in the entire Middle East is undoubtedly Egypt. The fertile land of the lower Nile made Egypt the most populous country in the Middle East, and once Caliph Hussein became the master of Egypt, he would be able to raise an army of one or two million or more in a short period of time, with such force and the support of China. The rise of the Arab Empire will be unstoppable. At that time, why will Britain and the United States still dominate the oil in the Persian Gulf? Without oil and with the loss of India, what will the future revival of the British Empire?

"General Alexander!" Marshall's expression was stern, and he said in a hoarse voice: "The first thing we have to consider now is how to save the hundreds of thousands of troops on the battlefield in the Middle East!" If all these forces are gone, how are we going to give an account to Washington and London? ”

Marshall, who had been looking sluggish just now, snapped to his feet. His face was gloomy, and the corners of his mouth trembled slightly: "General Alexander, please tell Sir Macint that the Middle East theater is facing great danger!" If, if we want to make a last stand, we must enlist the support of the Arabs! At least until the battle for the Middle East is victorious, we must keep Caliph Hussein and his hundreds of thousands of troops on our side! Otherwise, our armies in Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Transjordan will not be able to hold out until the moment of victory in the Persian Gulf! Do you understand? ”

……

May 5, 1935, Washington, White House.

As President Roosevelt said in a hoarse voice, "Please come in." Colonel Carton, the president's adjutant, opened the door to the Oval Office for visiting Hopkins. Roosevelt, dressed in a plaid shirt, sat behind a large desk, hunched back and eyelids down, looking closely at a map of the Middle East front that covered his desk. The office was smoky, and a couple of generals in beautiful military uniforms were sitting across from the president, smoking cigars or pipes. No one spoke, it was very dull.

"Harry," President Roosevelt beckoned to Hopkins, called him to his side, and pointed to the map and said to him, "See, we're in big trouble, big trouble!" ”

The entire Sinai Peninsula and Palestine on the map have been dyed red. The small flag representing the U.S. military command in the Middle East has been moved to Beirut, where a large red arrow is pointing. Roosevelt coughed a few times and looked up at Hopkins. "Beirut is the last hope, and if we can't keep our troops in Syria and Transjordan, it's over. Marshall had already tried his best to mobilize troops to defend it, even using transport planes to airlift two infantry regiments from Jeddah. Now that he has 50,000 men at his disposal, he should be able to hold out for a while. I think it should be able to hold it! The last sentence seems to be said by the President of the United States to himself.

Hopkins looked at MacArthur, who was sitting across from the president and smoking vigorously with a corncob pipe. The American World War I hero had a grim face, his eyebrows twisted into a ball, and he looked like a catastrophe was coming.

"Admiral MacArthur, can you hold it?" Hopkins asked.

"I can hold it!" MacArthur replied in the affirmative, but then he sighed under his breath: "But it's still very bad, very bad...... A British infantry corps in Sinai has collapsed. The Indians also took advantage of the chaos to force their way across the Suez Canal - from the pontoon bridges built by the British themselves, and seized at least a thousand truckloads of baggage along the way! Cairo had already been declared an undefended city, the British were empty of forces in northern Egypt and were now barely cobbling together a division to guard Alexandria, and our transport planes were airlifting troops from the port of Jeddah, a Caliphate Guards Infantry Division. ”

"Caliphate Guards Infantry Division! How so? Hopkins shouted, suppressing the caliphate is the common policy of Britain and the United States!

"It was built by Admiral Marshall, who thinks we need to cooperate with the caliphate and the Chinese now!" President Roosevelt chimed in. "Also. Marshall did not want to give up the Persian Gulf campaign, and he believed that our troops on the Mediterranean coast could hold out for a while, and if the Persian Gulf campaign could be successful, perhaps we could turn defeat into victory. Harry, what do you think? ”

Hopkins was stunned for a moment, he is a politician, how can he be asked what he thinks about military matters? But think about it. He already understood what the president meant. Roosevelt was not asking about the military, but about international politics!

"Mr. President, Admiral Marshall has no confidence in victory in the Persian Gulf war. That's why we need to get closer to the caliphate and China. ”

Roosevelt laughed bitterly a few times in his hoarse voice and asked the same question: "Harry, what do you think?" ”

"President. I wonder what else the British can do to reverse the decline in the event of a defeat in the Persian Gulf? ”

Roosevelt smiled knowingly and seemed pleased with Hopkins' question. If you talk about international politics, the combination of him and Hopkins should be the strongest in the camp of China, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy, but it is a pity that the soldiers under him are always uncompetitive, and they have lost to Japan twice in the Pacific, and now they have lost to India on land! World hegemony seems to be moving further and further away from the United States.

"Mr. President, can I answer that question?" MacArthur saw Roosevelt nod his head, and then said: "I think the British will ask Germany for help, as long as Germany sends troops, the Indian Red Army in the Middle East will definitely be defeated!" ”

Roosevelt looked at Hopkins, who nodded and said, "It seems that Admiral Marshall has made a brilliant move." ”

Roosevelt smiled bitterly and nodded: "It's a wonderful move, I should have made Admiral Marshall Secretary of State or something instead of the commander-in-chief of the US forces in the Middle East, because his talent is completely out of the battlefield!" ”

"But, Mr. President, do you mean that if the Persian Gulf war is not successful, we will introduce the Chinese into the Middle East? Will China's power be too strong in that case? I'm afraid it's not good for us and the UK, right? MacArthur interjected.

Roosevelt glanced at the chief of the army general staff, and said in his heart: "I am really stupid, the position of chief of the general staff should be given to Marshall, MacArthur has no political brains, he should go to the battlefield to show his talents!" ”

"General, once the Middle East battle is lost, our special relationship with Britain will no longer exist." Hopkins reminded: "As soon as the Middle East is defeated, the British Empire is finished, and it will no longer be the top four of the anti-Soviet camp, at most another Italy." Therefore, the United States can no longer choose Britain as a friend, otherwise it will definitely not be able to resist the pressure of Germany, China, and Italy in the future. ”

MacArthur had already understood, and he looked at President Roosevelt: "Mr. President, so Marshall let the caliphate's army into Egypt is actually a courtesy to China, and in case the Persian Gulf war fails, we will abandon Britain and win over China?" (To be continued.) )