War may mean misfortune for some soldiers. But for others, it is the best stage for them to show themselves. For example, the names Montgomery, Eisenhower, and Zhukov who shine in this world war. Of course, there are also Patton among them.

"Barton is that kind of natural soldier!"

This was the evaluation given by Patton's friend, but in March 1944, this "naturally born" soldier did not have a good life. Because of the "slapping incident", the full militant was in a "unemployed state" at this time and could only serve as a mascot to confuse the German army.

Such days are naturally not what Patton, who is determined to go to the battlefield, had to write letters to his old friend (Eisenhower) and his old superior (Marshall) again and again, and strongly demanded to go to war.

However, his request was unfulfilled for a while, because the superior was very worried about this unruly and very trouble-provoking thorn. Of course, this does not mean that the superior had completely given up Patton, but it just felt that it didn't matter whether there was such a person or not.

During the preparation stage of the Overlord Operation, both Britain and the United States were full of confidence, at least they said that. As for whether they were really so confident, it was really a matter of opinion. However, one thing is certain, that is, both Roosevelt and Churchill believed that Overlord Operation was imperative, and the faster the better. The reason was very simple: the Germans suffered another crushing defeat at the junction of Romania and Hungary, four of the seven armored divisions were annihilated, and more than 300,000 soldiers of the Axis powers were either killed or captured, the Soviet Red Army liberated Hungary with great strides, and Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were already unstoppable. What was even more terrifying was that at the same time, Rokosovsky and Zhukov began a new round of rushing forward, and their troops were aimed directly at Warsaw!

In other words, the Russians are getting closer and closer to Germany. If they do not want to give the entire Western Europe to the Russians, then Britain and the United States must speed up their pace. So even if they have doubts about organizing an unprecedented amphibious landing operation, the two heads of state agreed that they can never wait any longer!

As the highest commander of the Allied Army on the battlefield in Western Europe, Eisenhower is undoubtedly under great pressure. Time is tight and the task is urgent, and the German army opposite is not a vegetarian. He still needs to coordinate various interest relations within the Allied Army. This task is really hard to do.

But according to his old friend Patton, "Ike is not like a soldier, but more like a politician."

This statement makes sense. To be honest, Eisenhower's military ability can only be considered a normal person. His stronger ability is to organize and coordinate various relationships, that is, the ability that politicians are better at. As early as the 1930s, Eisenhower showed this ability and attracted Marshall's attention and recorded it in his small notebook (this notebook also includes famous generals such as Patton and Bradley).

During the organizational stage of Operation Overlords, Eisenhower exerted this ability to the extreme and allowed the Operation Overlords to proceed smoothly. Of course, this chapter does not mean Eisenhower's story. This chapter belongs to Patton. In order to win the qualification to return to the battlefield, Patton had to write a shameless letter to this old friend, begging the old friend to give him another chance.

Speaking of the friendship between these two people, it is true that they met in 1919. The relationship between the two sides was as vague as glue in the 1930s. After the United States joined the war, Eisenhower left a good impression on Eisenhower in North Africa and Sicily. However, all of this has been completely changed because of the slap incident. Eisenhower believes that Patton is becoming more and more like a messenger.

So he completely threw the requests of his old friend aside. In his opinion, it was the same whether there were Pattons or not. Anyway, the Allied forces did not lack excellent generals, and Montgomery and Bradley could completely replace Patton's role.

This time Eisenhower was misunderstood. The first stage of Operation Overlord is the landing stage. It is indeed the same with Patton or not. With the support of strong sea and air advantages, it is indeed not difficult to successfully land. The difficult part is that when the second stage, when advancing towards the front line of Caen, the Allies encountered great trouble and were once suppressed in the coastal area and could not move. After Patton took over the Third Army, they started to advance on the front line. Let's put it this way. Every time Eisenhower encountered trouble, the person who rescued the overlord was always the same as the Patton Operation Overlord. The same was true for the later Ardennes counterattack (the Battle of the Outreach).

Eisenhower ignored Patton's role, but Li Xiaofeng would not ignore Patton's ability. Even if he was not very interested in this so-called blood-cowarded veteran, he could not ignore this ability in using armored soldiers.

Let me put it this way, the British and American Allies with Patton and the British and American Allies without Patton are completely different in the use of armored troops. Patton is better at taking risks and advocating attacks, while Montgomery and Bradley are honestly more conservative in the use of armored troops, lacking the imagination of rushing forward.

A stride forward Patton is not the Patton that Li Xiaofeng likes to see. It is related to the division of the political chassis of Western Europe after the war. He absolutely does not allow Patton to disturb his good things.

"Is it clear? Britain and the United States are preparing to launch Operation Overlord in May?"

Yakov replied: "The news is quite certain. Although the specific time has not been decided yet, it is certainly around mid-May. The location is Normandy and Calais."

Li Xiaofeng sneered: "Crossing out Calais is a fake target, and it can only be used to deceive the Germans."

This surprised Yakov because as far as he knew, the unanimous reaction of the inside line inserted in Britain and the United States was relatively controversial on this issue. In his opinion, Calais, which is shorter and closer to Germany, is more likely to be closer to Calais.

"Then let's make a bet, it must be Normandy!" Li Xiaofeng said confidently.

Yakov would not make this bet with someone, because someone has never lost such a bet. Given the past "blood and tears history", it would be better to pretend that he didn't hear it.

"Where is Patton? What is that guy doing?"

In this historical time and space, the incident of Patton's slapping was exposed earlier and the bad impact was greater. After all this, Li Xiaofeng was naturally adding fuel to the fire. He would definitely not let this good way to kill Patton.

"He is still acting as the commander of the so-called First Army landing in the Balkans. However, he has frequently written letters to Marshall and Eisenhower recently, strongly demanding to return to the frontline."

Li Xiaofeng tsk, pondered for a moment, and ordered: "Implement the lion slaughter plan."

The so-called lion killing plan is actually the plan to assassinate Patton. This plan took shape after the success of the Torch Operation. The actual layout can be traced back to the 1930s. It can be said that kgb spent a lot of effort on this plan.

Yakov couldn't understand: "Do you want this? Judging from Eisenhower's attitude, he did not use Patton's idea in a short period of time. And from the situation in Britain and the United States, is Patton able to kill the second-rate troops deployed by the Germans on the Western Front, right?"

"They will soon find it's not that easy," Li Xiaofeng sneered and said decisively: "So I have to deal with Patton in advance. Now that he is dead at this time, the impact will be small!"

Yakov could only reluctantly execute the orders of a certain immortal. It was not that he had a good impression of Patton, but that he thought there was no need for this at all. What is the terrible thing about a veteran? Just for a mere Patton. Is it necessary to make such a big fight?

Yes, in order to solve Patton, kgb is really a big fight. The foreshadowing of the Lion Slaying Plan was actually built in 1932, and it was just for a Patton for 12 years. This can be said to be a super big deal.

To make this big deal clear, you have to go back to July 28, 1932, which was a pity not Friday, but Thursday. Washington D. Pennsylvania Avenue, when there were no National Gallery and Federal Trade Commission buildings and the SAR tennis courts. In 1932, there were also a row of ugly old-fashioned red brick buildings, including warehouses, cheap hotels, car showrooms, and a Chinese restaurant and funeral home.

Most of the walls of this ugly red brick complex have been pushed down and should have been razed to the ground a few weeks ago. However, late at night on June 17, the "compensation army" sneaked in and occupied the place.

The police chief in charge of the SAR police at that time was a retired Army Brigadier General named Pelham Glasford. This sympathetic veteran (please note that this sympathy is really extraordinary!) was unwilling to drive the Expeditionary Force out of this place, especially when he saw so many people still carrying his wife and children, he couldn't bear it.

If you let it go, some comrades may not know what the so-called "compensation army" is, and explain it a little bit. What is the so-called compensation? In fact, during World War I, the Americans who participated in the war also added 25 points as overseas living allowances in addition to the salary of $1 per person per day. However, during the war, this salary was not distributed to the Americans who participated in the war. After the war, since the US government could not afford the cost, it was formulated and passed the (service certificate amendment law) in 1924. In the bill, the US government first issued a subsidy certificate to veterans in World War I, promising to pay the wages owed in cash at a rate of $1 per day in the number of days of military service.

But comrades all know that the Great Depression in the United States occurred in 1929. In 1932, nearly one-third of the employed people in the United States could not find jobs and urgently needed relief. So these veterans asked the U.S. government to pay immediately the arrears that should be paid in 1945. The American Overseas Veterans Association even believes that it is unreasonable to promise a hungry person that will only pay for food after twenty years.

At that time, about 25,000 penniless veterans in the World War, flocked to Washington with their wives and children, camped in neighborhood parks, garbage dumps and abandoned warehouses, and asked the government for the compensation. At that time, the newspaper writers dominated by Wall Street called these people the "compensation army" and "compensation parade team", while these veterans called themselves "compensation expeditionary forces."

At that time, the US economy was in a very sluggish manner, with about 15 million people unemployed (you can check how scary the United States had at that time, and you will know how scary this number was). President Hoover never acknowledged that the United States had an economic crisis, nor did he think that the US economy was on the verge of collapse. He invented a word, which is what we are now familiar with.

This weird president believes that the Great Depression is a public relations issue rather than an economic issue. He believes that as long as the image of American companies is improved, the nightmare will end immediately. So he chose to use the Great Depression to describe this disaster because the word does not sound as terrible as "panic" and "crisis".

In December 1929, Hoover announced that "the situation was basically better." Three months later, he said the worst would end in 60 days. At the end of May 1930, he predicted that the economy would return to normal in the fall, but the market collapsed in June, and how did he tell the representatives who petitioned for public works projects at that time?

Hoover said: "Gentlemen, you are here 60 days late, and the Great Depression is over!"

When Hoover was widely commented and scolded for ripping the eggs, the feeling-good president said in a State of the Union address submitted to Congress on December 2, 1930 that "the fundamental economic strength was not damaged."

Almost at the same time, the American International Apple Dealers Association faced the dilemma of Apple's unsalable sales, and the association decided to credit the unemployed at 5 cents each for their retail sales. Overnight, the United States was filled with frozen apple vendors.

When Hoover was asked about the financial situation, why this kind of embarrassing situation occurred, Hoover confidently replied: "Many people quit their original jobs and switch to more profitable careers, and selling apples is one of them."

President Hoover's indifference and weird policies were a shocking sight in later generations. It was precisely because of his policies in the economic crisis that a generation of Americans were affected. The most intuitive data was that eight years later, teenagers during the Great Depression began to enlist in the army. John Kelly, director of the National Physical Center, found that 40% of young men in the candidates were physically unqualified, most of them had teeth problems, and then they had poor vision, diseases of the heart and circulatory system, and deformities in arms and legs. The root of these problems is malnutrition during the development of puberty.

Obviously, the root cause of the malnutrition problem lies in President Hoover's weird policy of saving the rich but not the poor. The more difficult the moment, Hoover is the more friendly he is to the big capitalists. Charles Daws of Chicago Bank was appointed as the president of Revival Finance, who was in charge of the Great Depression problem. The first thing the banker did after he came to power was to borrow $90 million from Revival Finance to his own Chicago Bank.

In fact, this Revival Finance Company was used to save the banking industry from the beginning. In order to save the precarious livestock industry in the United States, Revival Finance Company agreed to Congress’ request to allocate $25 million to feed the livestock of troubled farmers, but the condition it agreed was that Congress had to shelve a $120,000 relief plan for hungry people (look at these two figures. Isn’t it ironic?).

The big capitalists of that era really liked Hoover. For example, when a large number of teenagers were malnourished due to the economic crisis, how did the famous Ford founder Henry Ford defend Hoover: "Ranging around is the best education in the world for these boys! Because they gained more experience in a few months than in school for a few years!"

And when ordinary people all over the country try their best to save money and overcome difficulties, what is the state of life of President Hoover? Every day, he walks into the restaurant in a suit and enjoys seven dishes alone. Please note that the dishes he enjoys are not seasonal dishes but off-season dishes (rare and more expensive). There must be flowers on the table, and the custom-made cigar box contains long and thick authentic Havana handmade cigars. Please note again that Hoover has to smoke twenty of these cigars a day. When the Hoover family eats, a butler and many male servants (they must be the same height!) stand firm in an attentive posture and remain absolutely silent, and do not act without orders.

And when Hoover enjoys a wonderful presidential life, what kind of days do the unemployed and his family do? At that time, people called the village of shacks built with tin cans, cardboard and sacks "Hoover Village", and the broken pockets of scrap collecting "Hoover Bags". In North Carolina, poor farmers saw off the front faces of discarded cheap cars and put them onto the skinny mule. They called it "Hoover Carriage". The "Hoover Blanket" is an old newspaper wrapped by wanderers on the park bench, and the "Hoover Pig" is a long-eared hare that hungry farmers catch to satisfy their hunger.

The people also seized every opportunity to mock the president: "What? Do you say business has improved? Do you mean Hoover is dead?" Some newspapers even openly mocked: "Hoover asked Treasury Secretary Mellon for 5 cents to call his friend. Mellon replied: 'The smallest one is 10 cents, just call two people!'".

Well, back to the point, back to the original topic "Compensation Expeditionary Force", these people's requirements are not high, and they just hope that the government will pay them the salary they originally owed them to make money to support their families. So how much is this money? On average, each person is about $500.

In other words, these 25,000 veterans only need $12.5 million (restored is what they deserve), is this money a lot? Think about the Revival Financial Company mentioned earlier, whose "relief" of Chicago Bank spent $90 million in one fell swoop. Isn't this a comparison explaining the problem?

And what attitude did Hoover or the American high-ranking officials and nobles of that era have? Let’s put it simply, four words to shout and shout and kill! (To be continued.)

ps: Bow to thank 2018, Cavalry King, Finished Knife King, First Guard Tank Brigade, Xuan Yufeng and Comrade Juventus!
Chapter completed!