It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 274 | Five-Week Operation, Three-Week Training

Zhang Anyuan's words actually served as a reminder to Shang.

He believed he had a very clear understanding of the situation—from his perspective, the British and Ivanrod allied forces always faced the dilemma of deploying large armies across the ocean for combat, and if they could not defeat America in a short period of time, they would inevitably be defeated.

But this was ultimately his opinion, not the soldiers' thoughts.

Many officers and soldiers had a simple idea: battle reports can be deceiving, but the front lines won't.

Ivanos's army has been invincible since the outbreak of the war, sweeping across half the world, which shows that they are truly capable.

How exactly should we defeat such an opponent?
Many officers and soldiers were somewhat worried, unsure of what actual combat would be like, and had no idea what to expect.

Despite the high morale of the troops, a solemn and stern atmosphere enveloped everyone, as if they were about to fight some indescribable monster.

Shank realized that Russian phobia was spreading silently, and the other side was essentially waging psychological warfare against them without them even realizing it.

To facilitate operations, the American General Command sent a sizable liaison team, including an infantry captain and an artillery captain, as well as more than twenty volunteer Chinese-American translators to accompany the troops.

The 8th Mechanized Infantry Division also convened an officers' meeting, a question-and-answer session where officers of all ranks asked the two American captains about matters related to the operation in great detail.

What are the arrangements for coordinating the supply of our military?

"What's the load-bearing capacity of Michigan's bridges? Damn it! Bridge and highway standards aren't even in metric units?"

"Is the friend or foe identification function working properly? Quickly bring over the light signal reference manual."

In fact, although the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division had strict discipline, its internal environment was relatively open, and Mr. Shang had long been a strong advocate for military democracy.

He personally visited and walked around several times, and could clearly feel the tension and unease of all the officers and soldiers, as if they were facing a formidable enemy!

He knew he couldn't fight large-scale mobile warfare in this condition, so he decided to be cautious and try to fight one or two small-scale battles first, aiming to annihilate the enemy quickly and decisively.

Building self-confidence and eliminating fear among the troops will allow them to get back on track and form a virtuous cycle, becoming more courageous in battle.

The 8th Mechanized Infantry Division's assembly point was located in the southern suburbs of Oakland, opposite San Francisco, and it would take several more days to take stock of the personnel and equipment.

At the same time, everyone received a batch of hastily printed operational guides. These booklets were only six or seven pages long and mainly introduced some precautions for fighting in the Americas.

For example, the administrative divisions of America are very different from those of the United States, and some place names are repeated, so be very careful.

In addition, Shang Keqian repeatedly emphasized the importance of paying attention to the conversion of weights and measures, and always checking the imperial and metric units.

Countless cases of accidents caused by neglecting unit conversions are well-known, the most famous being the Air Canada Flight 143 incident. Ground staff confused fuel weight units, mistaking pounds for kilograms, mistakenly believing they had loaded 20400 kilograms of fuel when they had only loaded 9144 kilograms. When the warning lights went off, the crew was stunned. Fortunately, the captain miraculously managed to glide the fuel-depleted Flight 143 50 kilometers without power and land successfully. Since then, Air Canada has been nicknamed the "Glider Club" and "Sky Gym."

Shank didn't want his troops to confuse miles and kilometers, or feet and meters; that would be too abstract.

Thorough preparation is the cornerstone of victory. While the entire division was making intensive preparations, Shang Ke was not idle either.

Since the outbreak of the Third War of Independence, the combat effectiveness of the U.S. military has been truly worrying and shocking, almost forcing—or rather, has already forced—the controlling government to take the most ruthless emergency measures.

However, from another perspective, it might not be a bad thing that this potential ally across the ocean is so incompetent.

For a long time, the upper echelons of the Great Unified Federation have regarded America as a temporary neighbor, but a future ultimate adversary.

After the collapse of the colonial system, the two countries were bound to part ways and compete. In the war to liberate Europe, the ruling government was also worried that America would steal the limelight, conquer cities and territories, and seize more influence, after all, they shared the same roots.

Now the core power structure is finally at ease.

The fighting capacity of the American army is so poor that it is not even worth mentioning. It can hardly even defend itself. If it were to go on an expedition to Europe, wouldn't it be beaten bloody?
After careful consideration, the President issued a specific instruction to Mr. Shang:
"...to establish one accelerated officer training school and several branch schools to alleviate the shortage of junior officers in the U.S. Army and enhance the fighting capacity for defending the territory."

To put it bluntly, this instruction is to find a way to help, and for the time being, focus only on strengthening defensive skills, like a master teaching an apprentice, without having to teach everything.

Shang Ke immediately grasped this spirit and set about implementing it.

In the two days leading up to his departure, he drafted the charter for establishing an accelerated officer training school at top speed.

In short, it involves establishing a wartime infantry officer school in Auckland, offering accelerated intensive courses. Class A students are suitable non-commissioned officers or elite veterans, Class B students have at least a high school education or are university students, and Class C students are already officers.

The Class A and Class B classes were only for increasing the number of officers, while the Class C class was the real purpose of establishing this school—to improve officers' tactical skills quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

During peacetime, the American military has two main sources of officers: the well-known West Point Military Academy and the Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC). However, the number of qualified officers provided by these two programs is far from meeting the demand, with several newly formed infantry divisions having an officer shortage of more than 60%.

Therefore, the General Headquarters urgently established a reserve officer school at Fort Benning, Georgia, with a course of eight to ten weeks, to recruit outstanding (not stupid) soldiers and sergeants and train them into officers quickly.

The combination of officers trained in two months and soldiers trained in three weeks seems somewhat ridiculous.

Shank felt that the Federal Army's infantry manual and the US Army's manual were quite different and not easy to apply directly, so he turned his attention to the Varland exile forces.

He suggested selecting some Varlanders to serve as instructors and compiling a concise intensive training manual. He even had a name for the manual in mind: "Five Weeks of Combat, Three Weeks of Training!"
The draft charter he prepared was eventually submitted to Major General McNair's desk.

When Major General McNair signed the approval, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division had already received orders to move out, and Shank hurriedly led his troops by train to the distant Great Lakes industrial region.

Target: Cleveland!
(End of this chapter)