On Wednesday, November 22, Stilwell took up his post at the War Department, but before he could familiarize himself with his job, Marshall assigned a special task: to visit northern Shaanxi on behalf of the U.S. military, and to invite underground party leaders to attend the Allied summit around the end of January and early February next year.

After returning to the office, he patted his head, how could he feel like he was being calculated by his little brother Panson?

Facts have proved that even if Stilwell is really calculated, Li Junhao is also very righteous, and has prepared his latest upgraded special plane to send him to China, if it is not for the War Department to send him an entourage, he is ready to prepare it for him in person!

Of course, Stilwell didn't want to take on this task, he left the Far East for two years, he really wanted to go back to see, especially he has always had a good impression of northern Shaanxi, this time he was able to visit as an official faction, it was really a beautiful difference for him, but he was always arranged by the little brother, which made him a little angry!

As a result of thinking like this, he got drunk again in Li Junhao's No. 1 villa......

The next day, after Stilwell had breakfast and said goodbye to Li Junhao, he was sent to Andrews Air Force Base and took a special plane to the Far East.

——

For the next period of time, Li Junhao fell into a busy transactional work.

The work on the land and sea side has been relatively straightened out, and the departments under the headquarters are now running smoothly. The main forces have now formed a regular mode of combat rotation, and the two specially organized amphibious landing fleets are basically fixed and can conduct sustained operations on the two oceans at the same time.

Each amphibious fleet is equipped with two command ships and can carry out landing operations with troops from two armies, and if necessary, it can be split into two sub-fleets to conduct two small and medium-sized landing operations at the same time.

With the help of a specialized amphibious fleet, the island-grabbing and landing operations in the two oceans proceeded very smoothly.

——

Li Junhao's work focuses on intelligence work......

With the course of the war, the intelligence agencies of various countries are also maturing day by day, the intelligence cooperation between the allies is becoming more and more frequent, the CIA's partners are rapidly increasing, the number of overseas branches is increasing every hour, and the amount of information obtained has increased exponentially, and the CIA has not even expanded the intelligence analysis team to thousands of people!

As a result, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which he was responsible for, had to be expanded again and again.

At this time, Congress demanded that government intelligence work must be legal and could be effectively supervised, and for this reason, the two intelligence committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence made a special division of labor.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is responsible for regulating the personnel and operational legitimacy of intelligence services at all levels of the country;

The Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives is responsible for reviewing the budget and final accounts of the intelligence department;

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for the coordination, management, and operational leadership of the intelligence gates.

However, in such a division of labor, the three parties tacitly did not mention the issue of the CIA - everyone understands that this agency is specifically accountable to the president, and it is difficult for Congress to intervene when the president is relatively strong; Of course, if the president isn't strong enough, that's a different story.

Now that Roosevelt has confirmed that he will be re-elected president for a fourth term, it can be regarded as extremely powerful, so the current CIA is completely independent, and Li Junhao is taking advantage of this rare time to implement his will throughout the department in order to achieve absolute control.

——

In December, on the European battlefield, the Soviet counteroffensive on the Eastern Front had broken the German defense line and advanced to the German mainland; On the Western Front, however, the offensive stalled due to the serious undersupply of the Allied front-line troops, giving the Germans more time to react; The Germans lost the supply of Romanian oil fields, and the oil supply was also extremely short, which was also extremely difficult.

However, the situation on the battlefield unexpectedly gave the Germans a helpless advantage - they finally had to defend all of Western Europe, the front was greatly shortened and closer to the heart of Germany, and even though the Allies had full air supremacy, the Germans were still able to improve their supply problems.

In addition, the extensive telephone and cable telegraph network in Western Europe meant that the Germans no longer had to rely entirely on radio communications, and thus evaded the Allied secret weapon: Ultra interception!

In early December, both the CIA and the Army's Intelligence Agency found signs that the Germans were planning a counteroffensive and notified the Allied Command in time, but did not attract the attention of the Allied forces.

On the 16th, the Germans suddenly launched a large-scale counteroffensive against the Allies in the Ardennes area of Wallonia, Belgium, and the Allies, who lacked vigilance, were taken by surprise!

The Germans used 30 divisions of the 5th Panzer Corps, the 6th SS Panzer Corps, the 7th Army, and the 15th Army to launch the offensive - this was also their last mobile force, and the German counter-offensive formed a raised salient in the Ardennes. At the same time, the German army implemented the "Greif Plan" to form English-speaking companies, change into US military uniforms, and break into US military defense areas to create chaos.

The Ardennes area, which was chosen by the Germans, was what the Allies had previously considered to be a calm area, and was used as a training ground for new troops and a recreation ground for the retreat of front-line troops, and when attacked, the inexperienced U.S. 99th and 106th Infantry Divisions and the U.S. 2nd and 28th Infantry Divisions, which had been withdrawn from battle formations for regrouping.

Eisenhower and the main Allied commanders did not establish until the 17th that the battle in the Ardennes was a major German offensive and not a local counterattack, and ordered a large number of reinforcements to be sent in a very hasty manner, and 250,000 troops were sent to the area within a week; In addition to this, the 82nd Airborne Division was also airdropped close to Liege to support the fighting in the northern part of the salient.

On the 19th, Eisenhower convened an operational conference to study and confirm that the purpose of the German offensive was to attempt to capture Liège and Antwerp, encircle and destroy part of the Allied attacking forces, and gain local battlefield superiority.

Therefore, Eisenhower decided: the Allies on the south side launched an offensive on the 22nd, forcing the German army to move from offensive to defensive; The Allies on the north flank took the defensive first and waited to switch to the attack.

——

The Joint Chiefs of Staff were very concerned about the sudden fighting in the Ardennes, because the main target of the German attack was the American army.

Because the CIA had warned the Allies beforehand but had not heeded it, the Joint Staff Committee was very dissatisfied with Eisenhower.

Li Junhao was also very unhappy because of this, the key information that the agents of the intelligence front had obtained riskily and painstakingly was ignored by the allied expeditionary forces, resulting in the current battlefield disadvantage, which is really hateful!

(End of chapter)