The Steel Wave - Jeff Shaara [20]
Eisenhower closed his eyes for a brief moment. He knew exactly what Harris was referring to. “What President Roosevelt said was that we should accept only unconditional surrender from the enemy. I believe now, as I believed then, that the president’s choice of words was an unfortunate error. It is not my place to correct anything the president says, but now we must all live with the consequences of that…um…policy.”
“A good policy, I assure you. In fact, the only policy we should aspire to.”
“No, Marshal Harris, it is not. What we have done is unite the German people behind the fanatical ravings of their oppressive leaders. Their propaganda ministry has made great play of this, you know. The German people are being told that our only goal is to wipe their nation off the map. Instead of taking away their will to fight, we have given them a cause to fight us even harder. Destroying their cities will only convince the German people that what the president said is accurate. That plays directly into the ranting of Hitler and his goons.” He stopped. Griping about the president was a bad idea, especially to a senior British commander. Harris wore the smirk of a man who has failed to enlighten the uneducated, but Eisenhower had endured all he could. “I must ask you to excuse us, Marshal Harris. I have many appointments still to attend to. I’m sure a man in your position understands.”
Harris seemed to ponder the message. “Yes, of course. But be assured, despite all this enthusiasm for your land invasion, if allowed the opportunity, the Allied air forces can end this war. End it absolutely, with minimal casualties. Is that not our common goal?”
“Certainly. Thank you for your reminder.”
Harris was up now, a short bow toward Eisenhower. He seemed to ignore Smith, spun around, and was quickly out the door. Eisenhower felt the air flow out of the room, a great deflating balloon. Smith put both hands on his head, smoothed back his hair.
“Good God, Ike. That man’s insufferable.”
“Yep.” Eisenhower thought a moment. “You ever do a jigsaw puzzle?”
Smith seemed caught off guard by the question. “Uh, no.”
“Pain in the ass. Ten thousand pieces, all of them the same, supposed to fit neatly together. But then, you find out they’re not cut the same: little differences, no matching parts. You spend a damned hour finding two pieces that work, and you’re no better off than you were before. That’s what this is, a big damned jigsaw puzzle. Ten thousand generals, plus a few civilians thrown in just to make it interesting. No, check that. Just to make it impossible. FDR makes one damned statement without asking anybody if it’s a good idea and changes this whole war. Unconditional surrender. Can you believe that? Dammit, Beetle, not one of these people who are belly-aching about Overlord have any idea what the German soldier is like. I guarantee you, every damned Kraut private has been told about Unconditional Surrender. Every damned one of them now thinks we’re out to destroy his country. And these air people, like this jackass Harris, keep insisting that if we destroy their cities, the Germans will just quit. All we’re doing is making them fight harder.”
Smith seemed to measure Eisenhower’s mood. He chose his words carefully. “They’re right about one thing, Ike. We’re blasting their factories. That’s already making a difference. We keep targeting them—”
“The Brits bomb at night, Beetle. Almost no chance of precision. Sure, they might wipe out a few factories, but the worst job is ours. The damned B-17s make their runs in the daylight, and we’re getting our asses chewed up by the Kraut fighters. For every target we eliminate, we lose too many of our own pilots. We can’t ask the air boys to do all the damned work while the rest of us sit back and watch. And, it won’t work anyway, no matter what that blowhard Harris says. End the war by April, for God’s sake. April.”
Eisenhower saw the blue uniform at the door, the one smiling face in the entire