Chapter 1026: For America's Future

In the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., President Roosevelt sat in his wheelchair, looking at the aides he had summoned. These were all high-ranking officials in the United States whose words carried great weight, including his “brains,” Marshall and Eisenhower… as well as the current First Sea Lord of the British Royal Navy, Dudley Pound.

“Mr. President, to transport so many troops to Italy without any external support, to fight a war with no chance of winning… is not a wise thing to do.” General Bradley pointed at the Strait of Gibraltar and explained to Roosevelt, “Even with 100,000 troops, these units will have to spend a long time at sea, and after landing in Italy, they will need to be immediately sent to the front to fight. They cannot possibly stop the German army. It doesn’t matter who is in command; the outcome will be the same.”

General Eisenhower also nodded from the side, agreeing with his colleague’s point of view. “From a purely military perspective, to commit troops to Italy is an extremely irrational act. We would be sending prisoners of war to German concentration camps, and 100,000 of them at once. These men would be isolated and without support, without even basic logistical guarantees. After they have exhausted their ammunition, they will be no different from the troops of 200 years ago.”

A general representing the U.S. Navy spoke up to add, “Mr. President, if the Germans are not idiots, then after Gibraltar has been attacked once, they will seal this strait. We have no way to fight with the German army for a distant strait, within the strike range of the German Navy and the German land-based air force. Even if we were to transfer forces from the Pacific, we could not do it.”

Dudley Pound of the British Royal Navy, who had been standing there without speaking, also nodded and said, “I have to admit, the combat capability of the German army is on a completely different level from the Japanese army’s. The quality of their armored forces and aircraft is at least ten times that of the Japanese, and their numbers also greatly exceed the Japanese… In this situation, a risky venture might get through the Strait of Gibraltar once. A second time, for resupply, is absolutely impossible.”

There was one sentence he kept to himself. He even felt that if the Germans were ruthless enough, they would just open the Strait of Gibraltar, let the Americans enter Italy, and then wipe them out in one go. That would be a once-and-for-all result. Based on an assessment of German combat effectiveness on the Eastern Front, even if the Americans were to land 200,000 men in Italy, they would be driven into the sea within a few weeks.

“Generals, I think that if we can make a ruckus in Italy, then the German-Italian North African army, which relies on its homeland for supplies, will, because its supplies are cut off, ultimately lose its ability to continue its offensive,” Marshall said. “In the end, they will, due to a lack of weapons and ammunition, be driven back to their old homes. The situation of the entire Middle East war will be reversed because of this. I think that to fight for the entire Middle East with 70,000 soldiers is indeed within a reasonable range, isn’t it?”

Reality is always so cruel. Everyone in this room was well aware that to send these 70,000 American infantry, and all their military supplies, to Italy was to send them to their deaths. As long as the losses of these troops were of value, then the Allies could regain the initiative in the entire Middle East. This was the core purpose of the entire plan.

As for Italy, it would be turned into a piece of scorched earth. All of its ports and airfields would be blown up and destroyed by the American army and Mussolini in their rout. The railway lines would also be bombed and destroyed… The entire Italy, after this campaign, would, in a short time, be able to do nothing but focus on reconstruction. And as for whether Italy would ultimately get the benefits it wanted, who in this room would care?

“Strictly screen the soldiers participating in this mission this time. A brother and a brother cannot be sent to Italy at the same time. If such a situation exists, immediately transfer one of them,” General Eisenhower said after a moment’s thought, having made up his mind. He was going to use the lives of nearly 100,000 troops to exchange for a real victory on the Middle Eastern front.

If one were to analyze it from a purely military perspective, this would be a great victory that would change the course of history. In North Africa, Rommel’s L Army Group and Schörner’s K Army Group had a total of more than 300,000 men. In addition, with the troops under the command of the Italian General Garibaldi, the number was more than double that. To use 100,000 American troops to achieve the goal of annihilating 600,000 German-Italian joint forces was clearly a very worthwhile deal.

But would everything go as the Americans wished? Clearly, that was not likely. How could such a massive operation not be detected by the Germans? As for the security of the intelligence, even the Americans themselves were not confident. Otherwise, they would not have convened another meeting to determine whether or not to use Italy to fight a comeback war.

The British side was undoubtedly the one that most hoped the Americans would make a move in Italy. Because after this one campaign, it was possible that everything would take a corresponding turn for the better: the Germans would be completely defeated on the North African front, Britain would be able to retake a large swath of its colonies, and Germany, with its front and back exposed, would inevitably have to weaken its Atlantic Wall to deal with the Italian crisis—that would be the perfect opportunity to retake the British homeland.

“We have to be careful of Italy. If they are deliberately pretending to cooperate with us, to lure us into a trap, all of this seems to make sense,” General Bradley was still very wary of the intelligence aspect. After all, the Germans’ all-pervasive intelligence network was impossible to defend against. Many of the Allies’ seemingly very secret operations had been detected by those German spies. And this time, the operation against Italy was clearly not that secret in terms of its security.

“The Italians have already been integrated into the industrial production of all of Europe. I really doubt if the Italians are really that stupid, to have the idea of breaking away from the Axis…” Eisenhower also felt that the Italian defection was very problematic. At the very least, in the political and economic fields, for Italy to betray the Axis was a move where the losses completely outweighed the gains.

At this moment, President Roosevelt suddenly spoke up. Compared to the generals present, he was a true expert in the political field. And he was the only one in this room who truly understood Mussolini. “Gentlemen, it is precisely because Italy is becoming more andd more integrated into the Axis economic and political system that it is also gradually losing its true independence… This is not what Mussolini wants to see. So these things are the reason why Italy cannot leave the Axis, and also the reason why Italy is determined to leave the Axis.”

What Mussolini had hoped for was to take advantage of the opportunity of Germany launching a war to fulfill his ambition of revitalizing the Kingdom of Italy into a Roman Empire. What he wanted was to become the great leader and founder of this new Roman Empire, not a little follower of the Third Reich, not an unknown lackey in the Axis. A person who had no intention of submitting in his political stance would never compromise in his thinking. Mussolini was such a person, an opportunist with very strong political ideals.

He had submitted to the military power of the Third Reich because he had no other choice. When Germany had swept through France and had defeated Britain, he could only hide his beautiful wish of establishing a Roman Empire in his heart. So when the Americans had come to his door and had offered him another choice, one where he did not have to be subordinate to others, he had immediately begun to waver.

On this matter, he had been seen through by Roosevelt, because Roosevelt had seen too many, too many people like Mussolini. However, after Roosevelt had finished speaking, he immediately added, “But the relationship between Italy and Germany has indeed affected a large part of the Italian people. We must pay attention to the impact of this aspect and find a way to eliminate these unfavorable influences.”

“The intelligence sent back shows that Mussolini’s control over the Italian Navy is still relatively strong, so the matter of the Italian Navy helping to launch a surprise attack on the Strait of Gibraltar is still relatively certain,” the U.S. Navy general said, pointing to the report on the table. “As long as their shelling begins on time, then everything, up until the landing in Italy, should be able to proceed smoothly…”

“The escorting warships of the fleet will, at that time, blockade the entire Mediterranean region, shell Alexandria and Greece, and cut off the supply lines of the German army in North Africa,” he said, pointing to the various locations on the map. He then let out a helpless sigh and continued, “The relatively thorny problem is that there are German airfields on the islands of Malta and Crete. When we are carrying out the blockade mission, we may encounter interference. The losses will be very great.”

This was also the reason why almost none of the Allied warships heading for the Mediterranean were large ships. These warships would be sealed within the Mediterranean, and most of them would, as the war progressed, be lost in these waters. So the Allies, in order to compress their losses as much as possible, would use mostly destroyers and cruisers as escort ships to enter the Mediterranean.

The general situation of the operational plan was that the main force of the British Royal Navy and the main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet would escort the transport convoy to the Strait of Gibraltar, and then hand the transport fleet over to the Italian Navy, after which the main fleet would return to base. This transport fleet, and a small number of cruisers and destroyer units, would then fight in the Mediterranean until they were either completely wiped out or the U.S. military had successfully retaken the Middle East and North Africa.

“Since there are no more problems, then let’s begin to execute this plan! Gentlemen, America’s first large-scale army operation against Germany is about to begin. Please, let us all work together to win this war for the future of America!” Roosevelt said, looking at the generals in front of him, who were deciding the direction of America’s total army of over three million, his voice calm.

“Yes, Mr. President!” everyone in the room, except for the British Royal Navy’s Admiral Dudley Pound, answered loudly.

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