Chapter 614: Waiting for a Miracle

“Mr. President! Mr. President!” A staff officer rushed towards Roosevelt, who was being pushed in his wheelchair by a servant down a White House corridor. The officer was clutching a document and practically running, clearly in a hurry to deliver the news to his president.

“Is it news from the front?” Roosevelt asked from his wheelchair. He didn’t know whether to feel anticipation or dread at this sudden scene. He was a normal man; aside from his immobile legs, he was in fact hundreds, even thousands, of times more brilliant than the average person. Yet he still felt fear, because the burden he now carried seemed even heavier than the one on the shoulders of the first American president, George Washington.

He dared not imagine the series of problems that would follow if his fleet were defeated. Although these problems would have to be dealt with by someone, Roosevelt, who deeply loved America, had never wanted to imagine what he would look like in the face of his country’s failure. He sometimes even thought of Churchill, with whom he had dealt, and felt that the former Prime Minister of the British Empire had made the right choice in committing suicide. No one is willing to face failure, especially when that failure affects the future of a hundred million people.

“Yes! Mr. President! News from the front! Good news!” The officer was so excited he almost fumbled his words. He felt the message in his hands was as good as a victory. At least in the preceding three and a half months, no news had been so inspiring.

Good news? Roosevelt finally summoned the courage to take the telegram from the front and read it carefully. The message was very simple, just three words: “We can fight!” But this sentence nearly made Roosevelt leap from his wheelchair with joy. It was the most exciting news he had heard in three months.

The U.S. Navy’s F4F fighter was no match for the Japanese Navy’s Zero. In response, the U.S. Navy had urgently modified a batch of Army Air Corps P-40 fighters as a decisive weapon. This aircraft had its own model code in the Navy, the F40, but because Nimitz was grateful for the Army Air Corps’ support, everyone still affectionately called this carrier-based army fighter the P-40.

This modified army aircraft gave the U.S. Navy a fighting chance. New tactics and intelligence provided by the Germans also allowed the U.S. Navy to even the score. In the skies near Pearl Harbor, American fighters could finally go toe-to-toe with the Japanese Air Force’s fighter units.

“God bless America! We’ve finally turned the tide!” Roosevelt truly wanted to go to a church and kiss the feet of Jesus. At this moment, his heart seemed to see the dawn of victory and the moment America would become the world’s hegemon. As long as America won the battle for Oahu, it could hold on for at least a few more months. This period would be enough for America to catch its breath and fire up its superior industrial capacity. Once America’s warship production speed met its needs, defeating Japan would be an easy matter.

With this great weight lifted from his mind, Roosevelt regained his usual composure. He suddenly realized that the one he should be thanking was not the never-seen God, but the man on the other side of the Atlantic, the Führer of the German Third Reich who held the fate of the European continent in his hands: Akado Rudolph.

This Führer was orchestrating everything with an uncanny ability. It seemed that in recent times, both America and Japan were being manipulated by this god-like Führer; their every move seemed to follow Akado’s will.

America’s intelligence agencies had their own power within the country. After sorting through the intelligence from before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Americans discovered that Germany and Japan had actually cooperated deeply on fighter jet development. At the same time, however, Germany sold its export model super-fighter, the ME-109C, to China. This left American intelligence officers completely baffled.

Furthermore, China’s intelligence chief, Dai Li, had once hinted to his American allies that the Germans hoped the Chinese army would contract its forces on the battlefield, pointing out that this would draw Japan into the Pacific War and relieve the pressure on the Chinese front. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek had partially adopted this suggestion, and the Japanese had indeed followed the German script and launched a sneak attack on the United States.

Just a month ago, when the German expeditionary fleet was passing through Argentina, it had taken the initiative to contact local American interests. The result of this inexplicable contact was that America had “picked up” a piece of intelligence on the performance of Japanese fighter planes for a mere $2 million in cash. Judging by the current results, this intelligence was tantamount to a free gift from the Germans. In terms of its real value, it was worth well over two billion dollars, perhaps even more.

The Germans were using their influence to control the distant Pacific theater, or at least using all the resources at their disposal to determine the course of the Pacific War. Thinking of this, Roosevelt suddenly felt cold sweat break out on his forehead. If all of this was proceeding according to Germany’s needs, then by the time America finally achieved victory, wouldn’t Germany have already become the new hegemon of the world?

Just yesterday, only a few hours ago, the U.S. Congress was still not confident it could win the war. Some congressmen had privately discussed the war’s outcome, with many feeling that once Hawaii was fully occupied by Japan, America should sue for peace, using China’s interests as a bargaining chip in exchange for a truce with the Japanese.

The Americans were not ready for war! Our army has been in constant retreat, and in the foreseeable future, it will continue to be in retreat! These arguments caused the American high command to waver, and some even felt that sanctioning Japan in the first place had been a mistake. And at this very moment, when America was on the verge of quitting the war, the Germans sent a piece of intelligence sufficient to change its course. If this wasn’t premeditated, how could there be such a coincidence?

“The Germans want America and Japan to wear each other out!” Roosevelt muttered. From this perspective, many things suddenly became clear: Germany wanted Japan to declare war on the United States, but didn’t want it to happen too early, so in the beginning, Germany funded China to mire Japan in a quagmire; but later, Germany found that China’s fighting strength was a bit too much, so it had to step in and persuade China to drag America into the water; now that the Pacific War had broken out, Germany didn’t want America to be knocked out too early, so it started helping the United States.

What a shameless face, truly wishing for chaos under heaven. Roosevelt now really wished he could capture Akado and blast him with a 155mm cannon for twenty minutes to vent the resentment in his heart. The Germans wanted America and Japan to shed their last drop of blood; their intentions were truly vicious!

As he silently cursed Germany for its shamelessness, Roosevelt lacked any sense of self-awareness. It never occurred to him that the Americans had secretly helped the Soviet Union start the German-Soviet war, and the Eastern Front in Europe was still thundering with cannon fire. This was no different from Germany’s secret meddling in the Pacific. It was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Backstabbing and undermining each other were common in international relations. In peacetime, everyone was just more subtle and measured. The game was still the same now, only more naked and unrestrained.

“Call a meeting! Get all my advisors! We must think of a way to deal with the Germans. After all, we didn’t enter this war for world peace. America’s post-war interests must be guaranteed!” As President of the United States, Roosevelt was not the peace ambassador depicted in propaganda. He didn’t care about the suffering of the British people or the tribulations of the Asian people. He cared about America’s future, and whether America could emerge from this world war as the global hegemon.

If it weren’t for Germany’s thorough espionage activities in the Balkans, and if the air defenses Germany deployed in Romania weren’t so terrifyingly strong, the Americans would have long ago sent their B-17 bombers to blow the crucial Romanian oil fields to smithereens! The reason they hadn’t acted yet was that three unmarked B-17s had disappeared without a trace en route to Romania, not because America hadn’t declared war on Germany!

The day after German paratroopers captured Malta, forty American B-17 bombers, painted with the markings of the Royal Air Force, had bombed various facilities on the island. If it weren’t for the completion of the German radar station on Malta and the stationing of a formidable air force unit, the American bombing would likely have continued.

America was no saint, and of course, Germany was no saint either. But while loudly cursing others for being shameless, despicable, and sinister, everyone forgot that they were doing the exact same shameless, despicable, and sinister things. This is the nature of relations between nations; to put it bluntly, it is the most basic form of mutual deception.

The servant pushed Roosevelt into the conference room and then went to fetch his key advisors. Another emergency meeting was convened. For the past three months, such meetings had been held here almost every day. One order after another was issued after these meetings, deciding the life and death of thousands of Americans.

The phrase “We can fight” quickly spread from the White House. The peace faction in America temporarily lost its appeal. Everyone was waiting, patiently waiting for news of the battle in the Pacific. Once the result came in, the next phase of action would be launched.

However, even the peace faction was in a very good mood at this moment. The better America fought, the less it would have to concede in any future peace talks. This was a result that every high-level American official wanted to see. Everyone was waiting in anticipation, waiting for Nimitz to bring a miracle to America.

Published: 2025-09-11T01:46:21.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-23T16:33:31.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c614-waiting-138630018

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com