The congregation of the Joint Congress will not deny the important strategic value of Azores and the Falkland Islands, and they all believe that they should strive to win, but because the logical starting points of both sides are completely different, the conclusions drawn are naturally very different. The only consensus is that they cannot divide their troops to fight again - America has suffered enough of the division of troops. Even for a small island like Falkland, which looks insignificant and seemingly insignificant, everyone attaches great importance to it.

Roosevelt listened to the debate for a long time but couldn't make up his mind because the words said by both factions were very reasonable. This time the two completely different opinions were not differences between the Army and Navy's own position and military attributes - some Army generals supported Falkland priority, such as General Arnold; some Navy generals supported Azore priority, such as General Li.

This is a difference between two strategic concepts: whether to first Europe or first Asia in the next stage? However, no one said this publicly, and everyone tacitly avoided this topic - before the president himself expressed his opinion, no one wanted to embarrass the president.

As we talked, the focus of the debate on the meeting shifted to the losses of the Battle of Azore: Will Operation Overlord be as heavy as Turner described, or is it within a bearable range? If it were the former, the navy that suffered an astonishing loss after the Battle of Azore would lose its offensive spirit and would probably not have the chance to fight Falkland; if it could be ensured that it was the latter, no one would mind letting the Germans jump around in Falkland for a few days first. Anyway, the Atlantic Fleet cannot draw warships to support the Pacific, so that the Germans can taste the taste of long-distance supply first - they believed that all the German arms and equipment must be transported from the local area 20,000 kilometers away.

The debate was so fierce that even lunch was resolved in the venue. After rushing to swallow a few sips of sandwiches and bitter coffee, the generals and important members re-discussed various topics, from politics, economy, society, culture, history, military, geography, climate to morale, pattern, equipment, technology, combat effectiveness, etc.

The Falklander advocate was Turner. He not only quoted a large number of facts and war history. A man who fiercely opposed the current campaign of Azores presided over the revision of the battle plan - it sounded like a satirical drama; the Azores advocate was Clark. Although Eisenhower explained the entire set of ideas, all the information received by Crank came from the venue, his eloquence made Eisenhower, who was a little dull, unable to match it, and could not even catch up with the fraction of the time.

Clark kept quoting classics and constantly replaced the simple and simple words in Eisenhower's words with a high-end academic system - he learned and used Mahan, Clausewitz, Duhei, and Napoleon's military theory first and for the top. If Marshall hadn't known that Ike had never communicated with Clark, he would have doubted whether Ike had plagiarized the latter's idea.

However, General Jin scoffed at Clark's performance. In his private words, the general Clark was good at everything, with outstanding demeanor, temperament, leadership, diplomacy, and planning, but he had one shortcoming - "I can't fight at all!" This evaluation of first promoting and then suppressing once made a dozen generals laugh.

In Shi Tinson's opinion, the only good news is that Patton did not attend the meeting, otherwise he would probably have been beaten up now with his violent temper. Recently, many people complained to the Army Department, and Lieutenant General Patton repeatedly spoke ill of malice during training, which damaged the image of the chief. His catchphrase was "Gambling, see clearly, this should be the case. According to your method just now, he had died a hundred times under the Tiger tank!"

However, veterans who returned from Africa with Patton, especially middle and low-level officers, supported Patton very much. The latter was simply the god in their minds. They thought Patton was right at all - the real battlefield was a hundred times worse than the training scene! They still insisted that if the Australian and New Zealand troops had not been allowed to retreat first, the African war situation would not have been greatly defeated. They could have persisted for a long time. If there were enough supplies, "We can keep it until the end of the day!"

You know this is bragging at the first time, but when you argue with them, they will have no result. As long as they quarrel, they will stumble on their necks and say in a tough tone: "What do you know? Are you fighting with the Germans or have we fought with them? When we fought with the Germans, you were still hiding in the country and walking in a queue..."

The US Army that fought and returned alive had these thousands of people (the US military believed that Panama was fighting them with the German Marines, and the fire between the two sides was not very fierce). Most of the unsick soldiers remained in South Africa, and only the wounded and officers were withdrawn back to the country - the Army Department believed that they had the combat experience that domestic troops needed. Facts also proved that the feeling of fighting with the German army was different. Although these remnants and defeated soldiers were not qualified to say how to defeat the Germans, at least the German army's combat methods, armor tactics and equipment characteristics were very familiar.

The Sherman tank became the target of criticism again. The Army Department improved the M6 ​​heavy tank according to the opinions of these soldiers, removed the ridiculous 37mm tank gun sub-turret, and replaced the main gun with a tank gun improved from 90mm anti-aircraft gun. Starting from August, the initial production model of the M26 began to be offline at a speed of dozens of vehicles per month. The factory accelerated its production efforts while continuing to improve it. Marshall issued a dead order. On Christmas Eve, the new armored division must have at least one M6 heavy tank battalion.

In addition to the M6 ​​heavy tank, the US military also has many heavy tank research projects such as T1, T26, T28, and T30. Together with the Meteor Jet, it was a project that Marshall personally took charge of. The latter progressed quite rapidly. With the efforts of scientific researchers from Britain and the United States and the paving of the road, it overcomes many inherent weaknesses and is expected to be mass-produced in early 1944. Due to the unveiling of German night war equipment, the envy of this black technology has also prompted the United States to accelerate research in this area, but the gap between the two sides is still very large.

Regarding the direction of the next stage of the battle, people from all walks of life quarreled from morning to afternoon, from afternoon to evening, and from evening to night, the relevant opinions were finally explained almost. Roosevelt stopped Clark, who was not sure how many long speeches he was making, turned his attention to Hull, signaling the Secretary of State who had not expressed his attitude very much. Although the latter usually has no say in military affairs, Roosevelt believed that it would be good to listen to different opinions more.

"I have heard the opinions that everyone is arguing. As for me, it is difficult for me to make this decision. Whether it is the European battlefield or the Pacific battlefield, it is an area that we cannot give up. I hope we can win in two aspects at the same time." Hull cleared his throat and said with difficulty, "But everyone's opinions are very clear. This time, I can only attack one battlefield first. I don't understand military affairs and cannot judge which direction is more favorable and which battlefield is easier to win, but I know which place has a more stake in us - I personally think it is Europe! Europe has been the center of the world since modern times. We can assume an extreme scenario. If this war fails, the United States is forced to stick to its homeland. On the one hand, Germany, which ruled Europe, and on the other hand, Japan, which poses a greater threat to us?"

Although Hull did not give a clear opinion, the answer was about to come out.

"My decision is as follows: unless a major situation occurs, the end of October is the start date of the overlord operation. We should put pressure on South American countries politically, military and economically to force them to keep a distance from Germany, and continue to strengthen South American military power." Roosevelt nodded and said quietly, "I agree with General Arnold's opinion and draw an air force to South America; I also agree with General Kim's opinion to further increase military aid to Brazil, and at the same time send 5-6 divisions to South America in advance to prevent various extreme situations; I also agree with General Eisenhower's opinion, let the enemy go first, and we cannot go wherever they go, but should force the enemy to maintain a supply line of more than 20,000 kilometers and consume their strength. At the same time, we can also calmly observe these governments in South America to judge who is our friend and who is our enemy."

"As for the Pacific Fleet, it is recommended that they rest in Pearl Harbor first, summarize their experience and accumulate strength." Roosevelt smiled bitterly, "There is one thing they did well. They tried their best to fight the enemy to the death - we can explain it whether it is against American taxpayers or allyners."

General Kim knew that the president had not yet decided to change his "Europe first, then Asia" strategy. He did not argue, but just asked unwillingly: "Falkland Islands itself?"

“Mr. Hull conducts diplomatic good offices, in exchange for the return of the islands as a condition for the neutrality of the Argentines, and if Argentina is willing to join the anti-Axis alliance, we promise to provide military and economic assistance – guarantee more than they have received from Germany; Director Donovan conducts a covert operation, and if necessary, extraordinary measures can be taken to ensure that Argentine politicians who tend to the United States have the power.”

"I hope you will be more prepared for the Battle of Azores. If it is too late October, we can postpone it for another half a month. I think Winston will understand." Roosevelt concluded at last, "I sympathize with their experiences about Russia. Whether Stalin will leave us alone or not, we cannot give up this ally, so the support I decided to give him remains the same, but the focus will be adjusted to maintaining supplies for protracted operations."

Everyone nodded in a heavy mood: America urgently needs the Soviet Union and is willing to do its best to provide assistance, but now they really have nothing that Stalin values, except for using materials to smash them.
Chapter completed!