“But we won’t be hitting them hard enough,” said Churchill. “Five Brigades? That might make a nice raid, but it will not establish a secure lodgment on the continent.”
“Well Our General Marshall would beg to differ sir, with all due respect.”
“Marshall? He has no grasp of the real realities of war. The man has never had command of troops on the ground—not so much as a single platoon! He’s an administrator, not a strategist.”
“He making this same argument to your General Brooke even as we speak,” said Hopkins.
“Is he?” Churchill shook his head. “Then Brooke will report that to me, whereupon I will reject it outright, and with extreme prejudice. You see? Your General should be here, with me, not speaking to Brooke in London.”
Hopkins was entirely correct in what he said, for miles away, Marshall was indeed meeting with Brooke, and when he got immediate resistance to the Sledgehammer plan again, he shifted the ball, leaned to one side and made his dodge.
“Why not make it a raid?” he suggested.
“What good would that do us?” said Brooke. “Yes, it might deny the Germans the use of a port for some time, but it would be of little strategic value. All it would do is prompt the Germans to improve their defenses, and eliminate the value of surprise for future operations aimed at establishing a real lodgment on the continent.”
“Well isn’t that the general idea, to get the Germans to send troops from Russia to the West? Things are very uncertain in Russia. Consider what would happen if we lost the Soviets.”
“Believe me, we’ve taken a full appreciation of that, yet it cannot result in our putting forward operations that are doomed to fail. No. If we do land, then we must do so with the intention of staying, and carrying the fight deeper into Europe. The Prime Minister is in full agreement with that.”
That was the real British deal killer. They would insist the landings be permanent, and then argue that the existing American plans were inadequate, premature, and doomed to fail. The Second plan, code named ROUNDUP, was to delay the attack until the spring or summer of 1943. To this Brooke conceded that they would take a harder look if that were to be the case, but SLEDGEHAMMER in 1942 could not be supported.
“The Germans will have the advantage,” he said. “They could reinforce against such a landing three times faster than we could get troops ashore, and bottle us up without transferring a single division from the East Front. This plan isn’t a sledgehammer, General Marshall, it’s barely a tack hammer.”
Frustrated with all of this, Marshall tried to then advocate a Japan First strategy. If the British would not cooperate, he’d take his football and go elsewhere. He boldly proposed that the BOLERO troop buildup be diverted to the Pacific, all but two divisions, and of 53 air squadrons of various stripes, he would allocate 40 against the Japanese as well. His foil there was not Brooke or the British, but President Roosevelt himself. The President flatly stated that he wanted a Germany First strategy, and that some accommodation had to be reached with the British to get US forces in action in 1942. Period.
Brooke was aware of all of this, and so when Marshall continued to argue, he hit him right on the chin with it. “My good General Marshall, are you taking upon yourself the mantle of command? It is our understanding that your President Roosevelt lays down strategy, and his Generals carry out his wishes. That is how things are here, and Our Prime Minister has a firm understanding with your Mister Roosevelt as to the necessity of Germany First strategy in this war—please don’t forget that.”
“Well hells bells, General. What are we going to do then? The Japanese hit us last December, and we wasted half the year with nothing to show for it. We’re fighting in the Pacific, that’s for sure, but over here all you’ve done is take back a few hundred kilometers of useless desert. We’ve got to do something this year. You can’t win this war on the defensive.”
“We agree entirely, and we have a plan—this year, and to do some very great things.”
Those great things would be dreamt up in an operation that frustrated planners turned to for lack of anything else to do—then called Operation GYMNAST. It would involve an American landing at Casablanca, with the intention of denying that port to the Franco-German navy and cutting off their forward support base for their operation in the Canaries. In Fedorov’s history, the British wanted to expand this with further landings at Oran and other Algerian ports, but that would be impossible now. That was “SUPER-GYMNAST” in the original history. This time it would take a new face, and get back an old name.
“We’ve got to get back Gibraltar,” said Brooke. “The Germans are sitting there with warships, Stukas and fighters on the airfield, shore batteries, minefields, and a warren of U-boats. They’ve completely sealed off the straits, and closed all access to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic. The problem is that Gibraltar is simply not assailable from the sea, at least not directly. It will have to be taken from the landward side, possibly with the cooperation of airborne forces, just as the Germans did when they stole the place from us.”
“That means a landing on the Spanish coast,” said Marshall, “and that opens a very smelly can of political worms.”
“That it does, but considering that Franco has already given aid and comfort to the enemy, we mustn’t be squeamish. He’s already quite perturbed with our position in the Canary Islands. The Prime Minister has authorized us to look at the Spanish coast as a hostile shore, and treat it accordingly.”
“Then where would we land?”
“There are excellent beaches north and south of Cadiz, but they would be too close to German airfields at Gibraltar and Tangier. So we’re looking farther north.”
Marshall squinted at the map. “How far north? You can’t mean the northern coast of Spain.”
“No, that would be out of the question. But this area here seems promising.” He handed Marshall a map.
“What? Lisbon? Portugal is a neutral state.”
“At the moment….”
Marshall could easily read British intentions there. “You mean to say they might join us?”
“That, or be forced to fight alongside Spain and France, and pay the consequences. Now, we’ve looked at the matter over and over, and Lisbon is the only landing site suitable for our armor. So here’s the plan. There’s limited shipping, so we’ll go first and move into Portugal. The transports will race back to England, and then your boys mount an operation at Casablanca. We’ll land 6th Armored at Lisbon, hopefully unopposed. The infantry can come in there or at Lagos further south. We’ll rally the Portuguese to our banners as we swing down through Seville, Cadiz, and come at Gibraltar from the north. You storm ashore at Casablanca, cut off the German supply center at Marrakesh, swing up and take Fez, and then drive right up to take Tangier. This will clear both sides of the straits at the same time, and kick the door to the Med right open. Once that is accomplished, your boys will be in a very good position to drive east to Oran, and we can assist by mounting a seaborne assault on that place from Gibraltar—again, a two pronged attack.”
“East to Oran? General, look at your map! Those are the Atlas Mountains. The terrain in northern Morocco is some of the worst ground in North Africa. There’s one road on the coast and the rest is probably all goat trails in that highland.”
“You can go right around those mountains, right through Fez, up to Taza, and then the ground opens up considerably?”
“But it looks to be nearly 500 miles from Fez to Oran by that route.”
“More like 450.”
“That’s a hell of a long supply line for our troops. It could take months for us to get to Oran if we meet stiff opposition.”