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The staffs got right to business and conferred all day.
參謀人員立即開始工作，全天開會。
Victor Henry worked with the planners, on the level below the chiefs of staff and their deputies where Burne-Wilke operated, and of course far below the summit of the President, the Prime Minister, and their advisers.
維克多.亨利與作戰計劃人員一起開會，勃納·沃克就參加這一層的會議，級別上低于參謀282長們及其副手們，當然比總統、首相及其顧問的最高級會議低得多。
Familiar problems came up at once: excessive and contradictory requests from the British services, unreal plans, unfilled contacts, jumbled priorities, fouled communications.
一開始就碰到了熟悉的老問題：來自英國軍方的要求太過分，又互相矛盾，計劃不現實，合同沒兌現須優先照顧的順序一團糟，通訊聯絡混亂不清。
One cardinal point the planners hammer ed out fast. Building new ships to replace U-boat sinkings came first.
計劃人員很快就確定了重點，那就是首先要制造新船以補充被德國潛艇擊沉的船只。
No war materiel could be used against Hitler until it had crossed the ocean.
戰爭物資如不運到大洋彼岸，就無法用來跟希特勒作戰。
This plain truth, so simple once agreed on, ran a red line across every request, every program, every projection.
這是明擺著的事實，一旦意見一致，所有其他的要求、方案和計劃就得一筆勾銷。
Steel, aluminum, rubber, valves, motors, machine tools copper wire, all the thousand things of war, would go first to ships.
鋼鐵、鋁材、橡膠、閥門、馬達、機床、銅線，所有這成千種戰爭物資要首先用于造船。
This simple yardstick rapidly disclosed the poverty of the "arsenal of democracy," and dictated-as a matter of frightening urgency-a gigantic job of building new steel mills, and plants to turn the steel into combat machines and tools.
這個簡單的衡量標尺很快就暴露出"民主(陣營)兵工廠"的貧困并提出必須著手進行一項巨大的、迫在眉睫的工作：建造新的鋼廠和將鋼材制成作戰車輛和武器的工廠。
Through all the talk of grand hypothetical plans-hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of airplanes and tanks, millions of men-one pathetic item kept recurring: an immediate need for a hundred fifty thousand rifles.
各種各樣設想中的宏偉計劃涉及數以百計的艦船，成千上萬的飛機和坦克，成百萬的兵員。在討論所有這一切的過程中，一個憂郁的話題反復出現：急需十五萬支步槍。
If Russia collapsed, Hitler might try to wrap up the war with a Crete-like invasion of England from the air.
假如俄國崩潰，希特勒很可能會像入侵克里特島一樣對英國發動一場大規模空中入侵以結束戰爭，
Rifles for defending British airfields were lacking.
而用來保衛英國機場的步槍卻不夠數。
The stupendous materiel figures for future joint invasions of North Africa or the French coast contrasted sadly with this plea for a hundred fifty thousand rifles now.
與將來聯軍對北非或者法國海岸發起聯合進攻所需的龐大數量的戰爭物資相比，眼下這十五萬支步槍的需求實在少得可憐。
