Chapter 886: British-American Cooperation
Saarburg in Lorraine is a town located on the Saar River.
When the Germans ruled here, they left behind a military camp with complete facilities in the southern suburbs. When the British Expeditionary Force arrived at this time, they took the lead in designating it as their headquarters.
In his bright office on the third floor, Haig enjoyed a cup of bergamot plum tower with a glass of local bergamot plum brandy, and felt that he had fallen in love with this place.
(The picture above shows the Saarburg specialty food, Huang Xiang Li Ta)
Outside the window, two cars passed the checkpoint and slowly drove into the military camp.
Haig pretended not to see it, he knew it was General Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, and his staff.
At the beginning, they looked down on Britain and resolutely threw themselves into the arms of Charles. Now, aren’t they coming here to seek cooperation?
Haig saw no need to go downstairs to greet them, even though the U.S. Secretary of War was among them.
After thinking about it, Hegge threw the half-eaten Huang Xiang Li Ta into the trash can, sat down at his desk and opened the documents to review them.
He did not want to appear to the Americans as if they were doing nothing, even though the British troops were.
After a while, Baker and several people including Pershing appeared at the door of the office.
"General Haig," Baker greeted warmly as he entered the room.
Haig pretended to be surprised as he stood up to greet him: "Minister, it's an honor to meet you."
Seeing Pershing, who looked reluctant behind Baker, Haig smiled and said, "Hello, Brigadier General, you seem dissatisfied with my command?"
Pershing was an old fox, and he understood Haig's words, which were an allusion to Pershing's previous contempt for the British Army.
I still look down on it now, Pershing thought.
But he didn't say that. Instead, he replied coldly: "No, Lieutenant General, I have never had high demands on the command. As a soldier, I only look at the results."
Haig's face darkened instantly.
Pershing implied that what he was dissatisfied with was not the command but the British army's performance.
The office was filled with tension as Pershing and Haig confronted each other.
In Pershing's view, you, an incompetent guy, were beaten by the Germans on the battlefield and had to flee everywhere, and now you are putting on such a condescending attitude and looking down on the American army?
Haig thought, now you are asking me for something, is this your attitude when asking for help?
Baker quickly stepped forward to act as a peacemaker: "Lieutenant General, let's discuss your battle plan."
Then he winked at Pershing, as if to warn him: "We are here to discuss cooperation!"
Pershing nodded slightly and followed Haig to the map.
There was still disdain in his eyes, and he didn't believe that Haig had any "battle plan" worthy of praise.
Sure enough, Haig pointed to the map and analyzed:
"As we can see, the best place to attack is at Freiman."
"We can divide the war zone into two parts with Freeman as the center. The western part will be under the charge of the American Expeditionary Force, and the eastern part will be under the charge of the British Expeditionary Force."
"When the battle begins, we will concentrate our main forces on its left and right wings and launch attacks simultaneously."
(The red circle in the above picture is the location of Saarburg, and the blue line on the right wing is the Rhine River, which becomes a natural barrier and is suitable for defending against unfavorable attacks.)
Pershing frowned: "Excuse me, Lieutenant General, how can we ensure air superiority?"
Haig replied nonchalantly: "We have the Camel, General."
"But the Germans are equipped with more advanced triplanes." Pershing looked directly at Haig: "You will not forget the disastrous defeat at Lambeville Airport, will you?"
Haig gritted his teeth in anger:
"What can the planes do? Just use those machine guns to stop our tanks and troops from advancing?"
"I hope you understand, Commodore, that they are equipment from different dimensions."
"As long as we win on the ground, the planes can only watch from the air!"
Pershing opened his mouth halfway. He was surprised to find that the commander of the British Expeditionary Force in front of him had such thoughts. In his eyes, air supremacy was not worth mentioning. He believed that fighter planes were just a few insignificant machine guns.
Reconnaissance, attacking transportation lines, and deploying artillery, etc., were all things of "different dimensions" in his eyes.
This is completely different from Ciel's tactics. This is the root cause of their failure. I can't...
Pershing turned his gaze to Baker, feeling that he could not stand it.
But Baker gave a deadpan order: "Do what you have to do, Brigadier General."
Haig moved closer and continued to speak to Pershing:
"I don't know what you learned from Ciel, Commodore."
"But Britain has British tactics and we are our own."
"If the American army hopes to cooperate with us and defeat the Germans once and for all, it should learn and adapt to our tactics instead of clinging to Charles's ideas."
Haig turned his gaze to Baker and said, "Do you think I am right, Minister?"
"Of course." Baker supported: "It has to be this way. This is the basis for unity. Otherwise, we can only fight on our own."
Pershing was speechless.
He was disgusted that these two idiots were forcing him to use backward, low-level and unreasonable tactics under the pretext of "unity"!
"Don't worry, Brigadier General." Baker felt the need to steady Pershing. "This isn't difficult. Remember? We have multiple countries coordinating the attack."
However.
The signalman reported to Haig at an inopportune time: "Lieutenant General, HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German submarine, and the Marshal's life or death is unknown."
"What?" Haig, who had originally looked proud, turned pale in an instant.
Baker asked cautiously, "Yes, Marshal Kitchener?"
Haig nodded slightly: "He went to Russia to persuade Russia to attack with us."
Baker's eyes showed a trace of worry: "Then the Russian side..."
"No, we will send others." Haig replied confidently: "It will be no problem."
At this time, the staff officer came forward with another telegram: "General, Romania replied that they think now is not the right time to counterattack."
Haig was stunned: "Didn't Ferdinand I say that before?"
The staff officer shook his head regretfully: "According to the ambassador's reply, it was the result of Queen Marie's insistence. She believed that the attack would have no hope of success without Charles' participation."
Haig almost didn't recover, it was Charles again.
Baker comforted: "It doesn't matter, we still have Italy and Belgium."
Haig didn't say anything, and his expression was a little strange.
"What's wrong?" Baker asked.
The staff officer whispered, "Mr. Minister, Belgium refused to participate in this plan yesterday. The reason is similar to Romania. They will not participate in a plan without Charles."
Baker was stunned. Then only Italy was left.
Pershing felt relieved.
Although the US military had to cooperate with the British Army for political reasons, for some reason, they felt inexplicably happy when they heard the news.
"To be honest." Pershing couldn't help but add, "I think the same as them. I don't want to participate in a plan without Charles!"
(End of this chapter)
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