“But, isn’t there some substance to the theory that our green troops need a period of seasoning, supported by British veterans?” Stimson asked. “After all, except for some of our most senior officers, virtually no one in the American Armed Forces has seen combat on land, and no one has seen it in over twenty years … with the exception of you, General Doolittle, of course,” he hastily added.
“There is some truth in what you say, what the British certainly have argued,” Doolittle went on, “but every army ultimately has to stand on its own. And I would have to add,” he scratched his neck nervously, “there’s some question whether we necessarily, well, want to learn the British way of doing business. I mean, they’ve been chased off the continent three times, in France, Norway, and Greece, and now we’ve got the surrender at Singapore and Tobruk, while our boys, in spite of having been dealt a losing hand, only just now finally gave up the ghost on Corregidor.” Heads around the circle bowed briefly in an impromptu moment of silence in memory of the defenders of the little island.
Doolittle cut himself off brusquely, awaiting an explosion from the president, who was known as an ardent Anglophile, but the explosion did not come. He did catch a stern look from Marshall, who had only recently dismissed his own deputy chief of staff, General Embrick, for waxing too eloquent on the prowess of the Germans and the ineptitude of the British.
“Not to suggest, sir,” Patton quickly interjected, “that the British haven’t done some amazing things. They’ve been fighting on their own for over a year and haven’t cracked. It’s more to the point that there’s an old maxim in the military that no army ever learns much from another army’s mistakes. Sure, our men our rookies, and we’re going to trip over ourselves, more than once at first, but we’re going to have to learn on our own hook sooner or later.”
“Besides that,” Admiral King growled loudly, “if the British can’t find employment for American forces in Europe this year or even next, we certainly can in the Pacific. We went along with their insistence on getting at Hitler first, but that didn’t include just warehousing our troops and equipment in England indefinitely.” King was famous, or infamous, for his outspoken opposition to the “Europe first” school. “That would have the added benefit of the Pacific being almost exclusively American turf, and we wouldn’t have to say ‘Mother, may I?’ to anyone.”
Roosevelt frowned, and Harry Hopkins offered an opinion, as if it had just occurred to him. “Even though you gentlemen are fighting men, not politicians, at your rank, I’m sure you realize that the president has expended a considerable amount of political capital in bringing the American people around to the idea of taking on Germany first. To change policy now is not going to be as easy as all that.”
“It goes beyond just tactical considerations, Mr. President, political or military,” Marshall said in a level tone. “Over the past months I’ve gotten a clear idea that you have some views of what the world should look like after the war, and those views are not necessarily shared by Mr. Churchill and his people. The only way we’re ever going to be in a position to realize those views is if we take the lead, if we make use of the power this nation can bring to bear in our own name, not as a surrogate for the British.”
Harry Hopkins smiled broadly as Roosevelt tilted his head back and took a long pull on his cigarette. He knew that Marshall had just pushed the right button. If there was one element of foreign policy that Roosevelt had inherited from his predecessor, Wilson, it was a firm belief in popular sovereignty, to include the people of the European colonial empires.
“But what can we do about all this?” Roosevelt asked. “I’m certain that you gentlemen have not come here without having given this considerable thought and weighed all of the mysterious military considerations that we civilians can only guess at. I’m sure you know that our troop presence anywhere near the fighting front is miniscule and that our bomber command is only due to conduct its first combat mission, in borrowed British planes I might add, in about two weeks. It’s going to sound pretty hollow if we march into this meeting demanding decisive action when we’re not in a position to bring anything to the table.”
“We’re not talking about launching a cross-Channel invasion this week, Mr. President,” Marshall noted, wagging his finger. “But by the end of this year, we are confident that we will have two armored, one airborne, and about eight infantry divisions either in Europe or deployable directly from the States in addition to several thousand warplanes in the theater. This total will go up rapidly over the following months, and that’s not counting the substantial British army in England, which we’ve helped arm, besides the Canadians, Poles, Free French, etc. The question is how these forces will be used. The British proposal would leave most of them sitting in England, dribbled into the Western Desert in penny packets, or diverted to a sideshow on the Barbary Coast. We have something a little different in mind.”
Roosevelt blew out a luxurious cloud of smoke and gestured with his open palm. “You’ll never have a more receptive audience, General.”
Marshall nodded to Eisenhower, who pulled a map out of his somewhat battered leather briefcase and unfolded it on the coffee table. The map showed all of France and the western Mediterranean along with Spain and the North African coast and parts of southern England and Italy. It was covered in clear plastic on which had been marked the position of military units in red, black, and blue grease pencil.
“Now,” Eisenhower began, “we have to be realistic enough to recognize that the idea of putting a ground army ashore on the Channel coast of France within the next six months is highly optimistic, maybe suicidal. Even with full British support and with our mobilization and transportation of troops going perfectly. The German defenses are considerable now and will only be stronger by then. And even if the Russians have some success on their front, the Germans can still skim a large number of divisions from the rest of Europe to concentrate against us. Still, if we could get ashore and consolidate a lodgment area, we could almost certainly pump enough troops into that area to ensure that we couldn’t be thrown back into the sea. It would be that first week that would be crucial. After that we would absolutely win the race for building up our forces, if we could be sure of gaining control of a major port in working order, although the Germans would obviously fight to the death to prevent that and sabotage any port we even threatened.”
He had been talking to the map, using his hands to describe a pocket along the Normandy coast. He paused and looked up. Roosevelt shrugged and he continued. “That’s the problem. But suppose, just suppose,” he emphasized, wagging his finger in the air, “that we could put, say 50,000 airborne troops in a ring around the lodgment area, lightly armed, but occupying all approaches, before the main force even hits the beach. And suppose we could destroy bridges in a broad arc around that area. Then imagine if we could somehow neutralize the beach defenses so that the landing troops could just walk ashore and have a day, maybe even several days, before the German combat units could even get at them, and have the use of a major port and half a dozen smaller ones, with even a crew of stevedores to help. And then, just for the exercise, suppose that I could wave my magic wand and add a quarter million trained soldiers to our resource pool, already transported for us to Europe, and over 100,000 tons of merchant shipping as well. That would significantly improve the odds, wouldn’t it?” Hull sighed. “And you expect us to pitch that idea to the British, to commit resources to a pipe dream?’’
“Well, Mr. Secretary,” Eisenhower admitted, “that can’t be done in northern France, but it might be done elsewhere.”
“And where might that be?”
“Right here,” he jabbed his finger at the southern coast of France.
“Vichy territory?” Roosevelt asked incredulously. “I rather had the idea that they were pretty much on the other side. They certainly didn’t welcome the Allies with open arms in Dakar or Syria. In fact, they fought with some energy.”
“Exactly, sir,”
Admiral Leahy said. “The problem for the French has been that half of their country is occupied by the Germans and a good million of their men are being held as prisoners of war, read hostages. It’s my belief after nearly two years living cheek by jowl with them that they hate the Germans now even more than before; but they’re not in a position to move over to our side unless they get a clear message that we’re in this business for real, that we’re going to make a real commitment and have a chance of winning.”
“That’s just what our plan is designed to give them,” Eisenhower said. “If we waltz ashore in North Africa, they’ll fight us tooth and nail so the Germans won’t be so hard on mainland France. They may eventually let us win, but they’ll make us pay for it just to show the Nazis that it was force majeur. Of course, if we take North Africa, the Germans will certainly move in and take the rest of France and fortify the whole place.” “Well, I’m still not convinced, and I’m sure the British won’t be,” Roosevelt said, shaking his head. “But just for the sake of argument, let’s hear your thinking on this through.”
Eisenhower bent over the map again. “The French have about 50,000 men in their army in Metropolitan France. The Germans left them with obsolete weapons and almost no artillery or armor or air force, but they’re trained troops, and, what’s more important, they’re on the spot.”
“Your mythical paratroopers,” Roosevelt interjected.
“Precisely. They’ve got about 200,000 more in North Africa, along with a couple hundred aircraft, and they’re better armed, since those troops are no threat to the Germans, and their purpose is to defend the empire against us, just as in Dakar and Syria. With, say, one well-equipped Allied division and some new gear and ammunition, that would slam the back door right on Rommel’s behind.”
“They also still have a first rate navy,” Admiral King added. “Maybe a hundred ships including some modem battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. With them in our comer, we’d have total control over the Mediterranean and could even shift some British and American naval units elsewhere.”
“Now, getting back to the ground war on the continent,” Eisenhower went on. “About two thirds of Vichy territory is within this strong ring of mountains, the Alps in the east and the Massif Central in the north. Between the French troops and airborne units we could put into the Rhone River Valley and along the coast, they should be able to hold off the Germans for days, while we’d have the full use of France’s largest port, Marseille, the naval base at Toulon, and a whole string of smaller ports along the coast. We’d never get that kind of harbor capacity along the Channel until after the capture of everything from Brest to Antwerp, and you know that the Germans aren’t going to let those fall into our hands in any usable condition.”
“The lack of viable ports has been the main limiting factor in our planning for a build-up on the continent,” Marshall, who had been silent thus far, volunteered. “We’re assuming that we’d have to supply our armies across the beaches for weeks, if not months if we have to do a conventional amphibious invasion. If that’s the case, we’ll have thousands of troops sitting around in England that we won’t be able to put into the firing line simply because we won’t be able to keep them supplied.”
“There is also the consideration of weather,” Admiral King offered. “In the Channel we’d be looking at very narrow windows of acceptable weather for transporting and landing troops, especially if we’re going in over the beach. The Germans would know this, of course, and could concentrate their forces during those periods. In the Mediterranean they don’t have anything like the stuff blowing in off the North Sea, ever, and we’d be coming into regular ports, so we can pick our date at our convenience, not based on weather, tides, or anything else.”
“And reports from the French Resistance and overhead photography indicate that the Germans are kind of thin on the ground in France right now,” Patton said emphatically. “They’ve got troops there, and tanks, but the tanks are old Panzer IIIs and short-barreled IVs, even old Czech junk. That would change quickly enough once we mixed it up with them, but for the first few weeks, even months, we’d be going up against their second string. The Russians have been holding off the bulk of their army, and the British have been dealing with elite troops in North Africa. For a crucial time, we’d have the best deal going.”
“And think of the air war,” Hap Arnold said, sweeping his hand in an arc over northern France and the Low Countries. “The Germans are building a shield of radar stations integrated with flak and fighter wings to cover the shortest routes from England to the Ruhr and Berlin, and they’re extending it southwards to stretch from Switzerland to the North Sea. If, all of a sudden, we’ve got bombers based right in southern France, we’ll be doing an end run on them from the start. We’ll be able to hit all of Germany and the industrial heartland of Italy as well and spread their defenses so thin that they won’t know which way to turn. We’ll even be able to have fighter cover for our bombers right onto the target. Flying from England, the short-range fighters have to turn back halfway there, and the bombers go in alone. The Germans just hold their own fighters off until the bombers are alone and then let them have it. The British have tried fighter sweeps to try to sucker the Germans up to attrite their fighter forces, but they just ignore the fighters unless they can see that bombers are with them. If one of our missions is to bleed the Luftwaffe white, this is the only way to do it. Since the Germans gave up on blitzing England on a large scale, they’ve been able to play defense. We’ll make them come out and fight us on ground of our own choosing.”
Roosevelt held up his hands in mock surrender. “I get the impression, gentlemen, that you seem to think this idea has some merit. But aren’t you forgetting one thing? What about the French? Even I can see that a landing in southern France against Vichy would be easier than one against the Germans in the north, but your plan seems to count on having the active support of the French. We seem to be somewhat short of that goal at the moment.”
“That’s the beauty part of this whole thing, Mr. President,” Patton said, spreading his hands wide. “The British come here and shit all over our idea and say, ‘Go for North Africa,’ and we say, ‘Fine!’ We go ahead with our planning and training and build-up. Meanwhile, we start negotiations with the French on our own. If the French agree, all we have to do is tell the boat jockeys… . No offense,” he added hastily, turning toward King, who rolled his eyes. “We tell them our new destination, and we’re in business. If the talks fall through, well, we just go with Plan B and do North Africa after all. We’d hit North Africa with less troops and ships, and that’s always easy enough to arrange.”
“But what about security?” Roosevelt asked. “It would seem that, if the Germans got wind of this, all they would have to do would be to drive across the border and the game’s over. We’d never be in a position to get there fast enough to help the French.”
“We’ve got a couple of tricks up our sleeves, sir,” Marshall responded. “We, and the British, have been talking to the French right along, promising this, demanding that. The Germans hear about it, but they won’t do much unless and until there’s solid evidence in their hands, and we’ll be shoving false evidence at them so fast they’ll think twice about taking action. They’ve got a pretty full plate right now, and won’t make any new commitments until they have to. Vichy is a sweet deal for them, having almost all the benefit of a colony without the responsibility for running or defending it.”
“When you put it that way,” Roosevelt admitted, “I don’t see how we have much to lose. So we go ahead with planning and preparation, with or without British approval, and we don’t really have to make a final decision until D-Day.”
“Well,” Marshall cleared his throat and looked around the room. “We were of the opinion that it would be best not to tell the British the full extent of our plans.”
Roosevelt cocked his head and frowned. “I’m not very comfortable with lying to our one good ally.”
“Not lying, exactly,” Marshall continued, “just not being as forthcoming as all that. We should lay out our plan to them, just as we’ve done here, but I’ll bet a million bucks that they’ll shoot it down in flames. Then we go along. We let them have tanks if they want tanks, even if we have to strip our units being formed up. If they’re hungry for North Africa, we go along, although we still draw the line at committing individual American units under British command. They’ll groan, but they’ll accept that. We just do our planning for the big show, and we start talking to the French. After the British attack on the French Navy at Mers-el-Kébir after the armistice, it would probably be best not to have the British involved at this point anyway. If things look like they’re starting to fall into place, we raise this with the British again, with more evidence on our side. If not, no harm done.”
“And what if the British still refuse?” Roosevelt asked. Marshall took a deep breath. “Then we go it alone.”
Roosevelt paused for a moment, looking from face to face around the room. “I don’t think we can do that. When you are in an alliance, you are either in it or you are not.”
Second Front: The Allied Invasion of France, 1942–43 (An Alternative History) Page 7