Closing the Ring (92 page)

Prime Minister to Minister of Aircraft Production
    31 July 43

I am concerned that you hold out such slender hopes of our getting jet-propelled
aircraft soon. I have heard that there is considerable diffusion of effort, and that even the air-frames, which should not present any difficulty, are apt to be behindhand.

Would it not be a good thing to examine the numerous engines which it seems are under development and to concentrate our efforts on the two or three [types] which we may hope to get into production quickly? There are numerous reports of German jet-propelled aircraft, and we cannot afford to be left behind.

A
UGUST

Prime Minister to President of the Board of Trade
    1 Aug. 43

Thank you for your note about shortages of playing cards.
⁴
What happened to the 1,950,000 produced over and above the 1,300,000 issued in the last twelve months?

2. As to the future twelve months, the demands appear to be well under 2,000,000 packs, against which you propose to make 2,250,000 packs. I should be very willing to support you in getting the twenty more workers and hundred tons of paper necessary to make an additional million, but first I must know what has happened to the 1,950,000 surplus in the last twelve months, and, secondly, what is the reserve you consider necessary to have “in hand for emergency.” The important thing is to have the cards freely forthcoming when called for, and although the soldiers should have priority civilian workers need them too.

Prime Minister to First Sea Lord
    1 Aug. 43

I have suggested to the President that we issue from Hyde Park during our conference at Quebec our monthly statement about the anti-U-boat warfare. This will mean it will come out on the 13th or 14th, instead of on the 10th.

2. I am anxious to strike a strong and heavy blow this time on German hopes, and I should like to press the President to agree to the following items: (
a
) In the first half of 1942, 1.6 ships. In the second half of 1942, .8 of a ship. In the first half of 1943 .4 of a ship. (
b
) In the ninety-two days of May, June, and July, eighty-seven, or whatever is the figure, U-boats are known to have been destroyed in addition to the many which have been damaged. (
c
) The losses of Allied merchant shipping all over the world were greater in July than in June, which was a record month, but they are substantially less than the average of, say, the period January 1942 to June 1943, inclusive, or January 1943 to June 1943, inclusive, whichever you like. The operational losses in the capture of Sicily do not exceed, say, seventy thousand tons. (
d
) During the present year—that is, to the end of July—the new ships completed by the United States, Great Britain, and Canada exceeded all sinkings in the shipping
of the United Nations by upwards of, say, three million tons—i.e., the nearest million under the true figure.

Pray let these points be considered before we leave, so that I can discuss the whole matter with the President.

P.S.—How many of them were sunk by the British?

Prime Minister to General Ismay
    2 Aug. 43

Make sure that no code-names are approved without my seeing them first.

Prime Minister to C.I.G.S.
    2 Aug. 43

Eisenhower’s telegram about relief of the 1st Armoured Division from garrison duties.

Please let me know what can be done, consulting Lord Leathers about shipping, to meet the further requirements of guards for prisoners of war.
⁵

2. I do not understand why it was necessary to strip all other armoured units in the Middle East in order to provide the very limited armoured forces taking part in “Husky.” Let me have a report showing the exact number of tanks held by each of the various units in Africa, and also the last tank report, which showed, I think, nearly three thousand tanks in possession of Middle East Command.

3. We should not hesitate to take Shermans from a British armoured division in this country to send out at once by special ships in order to get the 1st Armoured Division rapidly re-equipped.

4. Let me also have a return showing the number of tanks available in Great Britain, and the number expected from America and from supply in the next three months.

Prime Minister to C.I.G.S.
    2 Aug. 43

I am counting on you to make sure that these prime units of our Army which we have had so much trouble and delay in making are not melted down into slush by uncomprehending hands.
⁶

We are getting a mass of tanks of all kinds in the Middle East, and also at the same time a litter of bits and pieces of personnel, where once stood perfectly organised veteran armoured divisions and brigades.

Nothing must stand in the way of rehabilitation.

Prime Minister to Lord President of the Council
    2 Aug. 43

I am much obliged to you for all the trouble you have taken, and I welcome the further inquiries you are to make into the Army Bureau of Current Affairs.

Every effort should be used to prevent extra time, money, and military personnel being absorbed in these activities, which, although admirable in themselves, must not be allowed unduly to cumber the military machine and
increase the heavy disproportion of non-combatant services. Above all, no man fit to fight should be drawn into this organisation, and the utmost vigilance must be used to correct the tendency of all such bodies to magnify themselves and their numbers.

Prime Minister to Minister of Aircraft Production
    3 Aug. 43

The fall in engine production is very painful. I quite realise that it is the holiday season, but the fall in new production seems to have been much greater this year than last.

Prime Minister to Deputy Prime Minister
    6 Aug. 43

Your committee on Air Force establishments should certainly probe the enormous surpluses of crews compared with serviceable aircraft in the fighter squadrons.
⁷
3038 crews are maintained to man 1725 aircraft. The reason given is that they have to be standing about waiting to take off at any moment, but this reason is good only over certain areas and under certain conditions. The fighter aircraft have not had heavy losses since the Battle of Britain, and it looks to me as if substantial economies could be made here. One wonders whether everything is on a similarly lavish scale. Bomber Command, although in far more continuous heavy action, work on a much smaller margin. Coastal Command are however remarkably well supplied with surplus crews. Here however the need to have as many aircraft as possible out on the long patrols is paramount, and may be only satisfiable by practical duplication of crews. This, I repeat, does not apply to fighter aircraft.

2. Another point which requires searching is the accumulation of Hurricanes and Spitfires at Takoradi. In the latest return, dated July 30, there are 183, of which 43 are Spitfires. Considering that this route is falling into abeyance on account of a much better route becoming open through the Mediterranean, we should scrutinise narrowly the personnel employed on the route, as well as this habit of keeping a mass of invaluable aircraft additional to all Middle East reserves in the tank at Takoradi.

Prime Minister to Foreign Secretary
    6 Aug. 43

I do not think that the Russians have any anxieties about the rearmament of Turkey on its present scale. The Russians’ preponderance of strength is so great that the trifling improvements we are making in the Turkish forces need not, and I believe will not, disturb them.

2. No doubt they would be annoyed by Turkey complicating the situation in the Balkans without doing anything effective to help Russia defeat Germany.

3. Obviously however the Russians will not remain contented with the present state of the Straits, and I do not suppose they have forgotten that we offered them Constantinople in the earlier part of the late war. Turkey’s greatest safety lies in the active association with the United Nations. As you
know, the time may come very soon when we shall ask her to admit our air squadrons and certain other forces to protect them in order to bomb Ploesti and gradually secure the control of the Straits and the Black Sea. There is not much basis of real conversation with Russia about Turkey till we know what line Turkey takes.

Prime Minister to General Ismay
    8 Aug. 43

I have crossed out on the attached paper many unsuitable names. Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives ought not to be described by code-words which imply a boastful and overconfident sentiment, such as “Triumphant,” or, conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as “Woebetide,” “Massacre,” “Jumble,” “Trouble,” “Fidget,” “Flimsy,” “Pathetic,” and “Jaundice.” They ought not to be names of a frivolous character, such as “Bunnyhug,” “Billingsgate,” “Apéritif,” and “Ballyhoo.” They should not be ordinary words often used in other connections, such as “Flood,” “Smooth,” “Sudden,” “Supreme,” “Fullforce,” and “Fullspeed.” Names of living people—Ministers or Commanders—should be avoided; e.g., “Bracken.”

2. After all, the world is wide, and intelligent thought will readily supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names which do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called “Bunnyhug” or “Ballyhoo.”

3. Proper names are good in this field. The heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses, names of British and American war heroes, could be used, provided they fall within the rules above. There are no doubt many other themes that could be suggested.

4. Care should be taken in all this process. An efficient and a successful administration manifests itself equally in small as in great matters.

Prime Minister to General Ismay, for C.O.S. Committee
    10 Aug. 43

Please see this telegram.
⁸
There is no objection to the employment of Commandos, which are in fact regular troops of the highest order and the only ones we are likely to be able to spare for the Balkans this year. Fully accredited British military or diplomatic officers can of course accompany the Commandos to negotiate any surrender that may be asked for. The Middle East Commanders-in-Chief must not be encouraged to take conventional reactionary views.

Prime Minister to Minister of Production and Minister of Supply
    11 Aug. 43

I am shocked at the appallingly low output of thirty-nine tanks for the week
ending July 31. I do not feel that the explanation of summer holidays is sufficient, and I shall be glad if you will let me have a full report. How does this figure compare with forecasts, and are your forecasts being realised, especially in the modern type of tanks? I shall require to be fully convinced on this matter, which has an important bearing on our policy regarding acceptance of American tanks.

Prime Minister to Foreign Secretary
    14 Aug. 43

All this is quite true, but it might better have been left unsaid. The displacement of Ribbentrop by von Papen would be a milestone of importance, and would probably lead to further disintegration in the Nazi machine. There is no need for us to discourage this process by continually uttering the slogan “Unconditional Surrender.” As long as we do not have to commit ourselves to dealing with any particular new figure or new Government, our advantage is clear. We certainly do not want, if we can help it, to get them all fused together in a solid desperate block for whom there is no hope. I am sure you will agree with me that a gradual break-up in Germany must mean a weakening of their resistance, and consequently the saving of hundreds of thousands of British and American lives.

Prime Minister to First Sea Lord
    15 Aug. 43

I hope you will consider whether it is not possible to arrest the traffic in the Cape area by turning your ships into Simonstown and Kilindini until the anti-U-boat reinforcements now on the way have arrived. I have asked Lord Leathers to give me the proportion of ships sunk to the total sailed. Nineteen is, however, a very heavy loss on a small and severely rationed traffic.

S
EPTEMBER

Prime Minister
(
Washington
)
to Sir Ronald Campbell
    13 Sept. 43

I have drafted the following message, as you desire, for our Consuls in the Middle West.

Before sending it out, you should consult Mr. Harry Hopkins privately as to whether he thinks it would be a suitable intervention for me to make.

“British Consuls in the Middle West should let everyone there know how much we in Britain admire and value the tremendous war effort made by so many of these States, which, though a thousand miles from the sea, are making their weight tell on all the battle-fronts and hastening the triumph of the good cause.

“I wish indeed I could have come to some of these great cities to express myself our British thanks for the splendid exertions which are being made.”

C
IVIL
A
VIATION

Prime Minister to President Roosevelt
    13 Sept. 43

I have told our Government that you made no objection when I said that we intended to hold a preliminary Commonwealth meeting in London or Canada, and that this would be only to focus our own British Commonwealth ideas for subsequent discussion with the United States Government.

2. I said that, about the proposed International Conference, you thought it might wait till the matter had been discussed at the forthcoming tripartite Anglo-Soviet-American meetings.