The staffs got right to business and conferred all day.
参谋人员立即开始工作，全天开会。
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.
维克多.亨利与作战计划人员一起开会，勃纳·沃克就参加这一层的会议，级别上低于参谋282长们及其副手们，当然比总统、首相及其顾问的最高级会议低得多。
Familiar problems came up at once: excessive and contradictory requests from the British services, unreal plans, unfilled contacts, jumbled priorities, fouled communications.
一开始就碰到了熟悉的老问题：来自英国军方的要求太过分，又互相矛盾，计划不现实，合同没兑现须优先照顾的顺序一团糟，通讯联络混乱不清。
One cardinal point the planners hammer ed out fast. Building new ships to replace U-boat sinkings came first.
计划人员很快就确定了重点，那就是首先要制造新船以补充被德国潜艇击沉的船只。
No war materiel could be used against Hitler until it had crossed the ocean.
战争物资如不运到大洋彼岸，就无法用来跟希特勒作战。
This plain truth, so simple once agreed on, ran a red line across every request, every program, every projection.
这是明摆着的事实，一旦意见一致，所有其他的要求、方案和计划就得一笔勾销。
Steel, aluminum, rubber, valves, motors, machine tools copper wire, all the thousand things of war, would go first to ships.
钢铁、铝材、橡胶、阀门、马达、机床、铜线，所有这成千种战争物资要首先用于造船。
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.
这个简单的衡量标尺很快就暴露出"民主(阵营)兵工厂"的贫困并提出必须着手进行一项巨大的、迫在眉睫的工作：建造新的钢厂和将钢材制成作战车辆和武器的工厂。
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.
各种各样设想中的宏伟计划涉及数以百计的舰船，成千上万的飞机和坦克，成百万的兵员。在讨论所有这一切的过程中，一个忧郁的话题反复出现：急需十五万支步枪。
If Russia collapsed, Hitler might try to wrap up the war with a Crete-like invasion of England from the air.
假如俄国崩溃，希特勒很可能会像入侵克里特岛一样对英国发动一场大规模空中入侵以结束战争，
Rifles for defending British airfields were lacking.
而用来保卫英国机场的步枪却不够数。
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.
与将来联军对北非或者法国海岸发起联合进攻所需的庞大数量的战争物资相比，眼下这十五万支步枪的需求实在少得可怜。