Roosevelt smiled. “Is that acceptable to you?”
Hanover smiled. Historically, the US War Department hadn’t had a good plan for the beginnings of their involvement in the war; Churchill’s people had outmanoeuvred them with ease. Eisenhower must have been reading his own autobiography. His alternate self had been quite vocal on the subject.
“I dare say that it is,” Hanover said, concealing his thoughts with the ease of long practice.
Eisenhower slotted a CD into the projector unit. The War Department had rather taken to the PowerPoint slides and CDs; they were far simpler than paperwork. Once all of the maps had been transferred to computer, they could be used to illustrate any plan, no matter how complex.
“For the moment, we’re calling this Operation Thule,” Eisenhower said. “Unfortunately, landing in France or Germany itself would require more troops than we have available until next year, and we can’t just do nothing until 1942. The objective is to liberate Norway from the Nazi yoke, by direct invasion. I must warn you all that this is top secret.
“Reports from the British… ah, Special Air Service confirm that the Germans have nearly one hundred thousand men in the country, mainly skilled mountain infantry and a handful of armoured units. As Norway is not good tank country, we don’t see those as playing an important role within the battle, at least until we reach Oslo. The main German forces are deployed in four locations; Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo itself, along with a handful of smaller forces scattered about. Some parts of the country hardly ever see Germans; other parts have quite a large presence. Quisling’s government is in Oslo and is enthusiastically promoting Norwegian settlement in the remains of Poland. There are some Norwegian Korps units, mainly SS troops, but they are apparently undermanned.
“Air-wise, the Germans have several Luffwaffe squadrons at airfields throughout the country, and of course bases in Denmark and Germany itself. We lack proper estimates of their strength, but we believe that they have somewhere between five hundred to a thousand aircraft, as they’ve learnt that swarming your craft is the only way to win.
“Finally, they have a single destroyer, near Narvik, that won’t pose any problem at all since you sunk the rest of their fleet,” Eisenhower concluded. “That’s what we face, we believe.”
“Very concise,” Hanover said. “Can you land a force on Norway?”
“We believe that it is possible,” Eisenhower said. He displayed an overall chart of Norway; red arrows marched from the sea to Narvik and Bergen. “We have roughly 65’000 troops, armed with the new weapons you gave us, including some adaptations of our own weapons. We also have the capability to transport them to Norway, although I would prefer to avoid a long sea trip.”
“We are formally requesting that you provide a staging area for us,” Roosevelt said. “Launching the men directly from America would mean that they would be in no condition to fight afterwards.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Hanover promised.
Eisenhower coughed. “The first task force will land at Narvik,” he said. “Ideally, we should be in position to prevent the Soviets from attempting to pinch off part of Norway before Stalin starts getting ideas. That force won’t be particularly large; only 20’000 at most. The second task force will land at Bergen, which is a compromise; charging into Oslo Fjord would be a good way to get a lot of men killed for nothing. Hopefully, we will take Bergen fairly quickly, then advance overland to Oslo.”
Roosevelt spoke next. He’d been Secretary of the Navy and was still keenly interested in it. “We have gathered four carriers and five battleships,” he said, “along with a supporting force. However, our air cover is not going to be perfect… and, put bluntly, we need your help.”
Hanover steepled his fingers. It was time to bargain. “What exactly do you want from us?” He asked. “You do realise that we have commitments in the Middle East?”
“We are not asking for an entire army, not like Operation Torch,” Eisenhower said wryly. Hanover hoped that the future President had drawn the correct lessons from the Torch near-disaster. “We need three things from you; bases, air support, and some of your commandos in Norway.”
He tapped the map. “From history, one thing that we are certain of is that Hitler will pour in reinforcements into Norway, and his logistics will be far better than they were in the other future, regardless of his actions with the Soviets. We will also face problems in reinforcing; we can get all of the first wave in, but we don’t have many more in the line for a few more months, particularly given the…civil situation in America.
“We want – need – you to make their logistics as bad as possible,” he said. “You can place a submarine in the Skagerrak, you can track and shoot down any of their reinforcement planes… and you can use your wonder weapons to make German movement difficult in Norway. While the carriers are good ships, we need better air cover than they can give us.”
Hanover absently wondered how much praising the Navy had cost him. “We were stockpiling the weapons,” he said slowly. “Why should we use them to support you when we have our own people dying in the Middle East?”
What’s in it for us? He meant. It wasn’t something that could be said aloud. “We would be willing to take a more… favourable view on the purchase of American goods,” Roosevelt said. “At the moment, you’re paying for them directly, trading your technology for what you need. We would be prepared to loan you…”
“No loans,” Hanover snapped. “We had enough trouble the last time around with loans.”
“Gifts, then,” Roosevelt said, unflappably. “We would give you a lot of products you need, such as weapons and ships, and we would detail an American division for service in the Middle East. This might lead to conflict with Russia, but we are certain that Comrade Stalin would not object.”
Hanover’s mind raced rapidly. Did Roosevelt hope that the Soviets would engage the Americans and start a war? He understood that Stalin would have to be fought eventually, didn’t he? Stalin was the long-term threat; Hitler and Tojo were minor nuisances compared to him.
“With certain caveats, we accept,” Hanover said finally. General Flynn would be glad of the help, if nothing else. “We insist on informing your people of our full capabilities in advance, so we don’t get asked to do the impossible. The force in the Middle East must be under our command.”
“Agreed,” Roosevelt said shortly. Neither other American reacted; Hanover guessed that it had been planned out in advance. “What do you intend to do in the Middle East?”
“Launch a pre-emptive attack,” Hanover said shortly. “The plan is to crush the German force and then move on to the Soviet force, using our advantages to prevent them from coordinating their response. We have enough problems with both of them encamped in the Middle East; evicting one or both of them would make our life a lot simpler.”
“A well thought out plan,” Roosevelt commented. “And what will you do after lunch?”
Hanover smiled. “I’m joking with FDR,” he said, half-wonderingly. “Sorry, there are times when it still hits me.”
“I’m afraid that this is not a dream,” Roosevelt said. “Anything else?”
“For this year, our objectives are to evict the invasion forces in the Middle East and knock Turkey out of the war,” Hanover said. “We’ll stand on the defensive in the Pacific until after we’ve secured the Middle East and built up our forces of SSK submarines. Once that’s done and there are enough of them, you can say goodbye to the Empire of the Rising Sun.”