Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) (145 page)

3. It must of course be remembered that if Doenitz is
a useful tool to us that will have to be written off against
his war atrocities for being in command of submarines.

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Do you want to have a handle with which to manipulate
this conquered people, or just to have to thrust your
hands into an agitated ant-heap?

Prime Minister to First Lord

15 May 45

and First Sea Lord

Let me have your proposals forthwith for returning to
the fishermen the largest number of the trawlers which
are in your possession, and also for doing your utmost
to repair and help them to get to sea at the earliest
moment.

We need another three or four hundred thousand
tons of fish, which are all there waiting, to help us
through the hard years which are coming.

Prime Minister to Minister

16 May 45

of Agriculture

If all the Germans are put to work to grow food on
the land, what are the crops that can be started if they
begin to dig on June 1?

Have you any reports on the state of their tilth?

Prime Minister to General

20 May 45

Ismay

What is known about the number of Russians taken
prisoners by the Germans and liberated by us? Can
you discriminate between those who Were merely
workers and those who actually fought against us?

Could I have a further report on the 45,000

Cossacks of whom General Eisenhower speaks in his
telegram? How did they come into their present plight?

Did they fight against us?
6

Prime Minister to Minister

20 May 45

of Labour, First Lord, and

Minister of War Transport

I am glad you are releasing the maximum number of
trawlers at the highest possible rate. It is above all
important to get the largest and most modern ones to
sea at once. But releasing them is not enough. They
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must be converted for immediate service on the long-distance fishing grounds. This conversion should be
given every kind of priority over warship repairing and
warship building. If more labour is required I hope the
Minister of Labour will be able to supply it.

It is also essential that transport be arranged to get
the catches of fish away from the landing ports. The
Minister of War Transport should make sure that no
hauls of fish are wasted. With the threatened shortage
of meat no effort should be spared to make the
maximum quantity of fish available for consumption.

Prime Minister to Minister

21 May 45

of Labour and others

concerned

It has not been possible as yet to set out my
proposals for the release of doctors in relation to the
demobilisation. But the standard of medical attention
available to civilians is so low that as a first step 1600

doctors should be returned to civilian life forthwith from
the Services.

Prime Minister to General

27 May 45

Ismay, for C.O.S.

Committee

Redeployment and demobilisation. This is about the
most important thing the Chiefs of Staff Committee
have to watch now. They must keep in close touch with
me. On the one hand people are looking for release; on
the other we must not be found lacking in the number
of divisions which we have, or be unable to build them
up again if necessary. Pains must be taken to preserve
divisional formations. The Russian divisions are only
about six or seven thousand strong. I should be
prepared to keep more overheads and have more
divisions and relax as far as individuals are concerned,
thus reducing the strength of the division while still
preserving the power of remobilisation.

2. You cannot at this moment throw yourselves
heartily into the business of demobilisation. I had hoped
that this would be so, but I am sure that we had better
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get some solution in the main field of international
relations. Field-Marshal Montgomery told me that he
had six divisions which were to be kept for a while and
six were to be made occupational. It would be prudent
to keep these six occupational divisions on a mobile
basis. Let me know what you think about this. Is it
being done, and if not how can it be done? I do not
wish to be left alone with no troops at all and great
Russian masses free to do whatever they choose in
Europe.

3. The above applies still more to the Air Forces,
which would be our method of striking at the communications of the Russian armies should they decide to
advance farther than is agreed. The Chiefs of Staff
should occupy their minds with these matters, which
may conceivably become of the gravest consequence.

We shall know more after the next Big Three meeting.

Prime Minister to Minister

28 May 45

of Aircraft Production

Thank you for your minute of March 27 about jet-propelled aircraft.

I note that instead of the sixty Meteor Ills promised
by the end of March only thirty-five have been
produced, and that we shall only make fifty Vampires
this year, although some 150 of the Goblin engines for
these will be available. Can we not get enough jet
aircraft to equip a few squadrons to obtain operational
experience in the war against Japan?

I hope that the performance of the Rolls-Royce
Nene will be equal to its promise. If it is it will be a
remarkable engine.

Prime Minister to Lord

30 May 45

President of the Council

I regard it as most important to increase supplies of
fish, particularly during the coming months, when
supplies of meat will be reduced. Accordingly I shall be
glad if you will convene a committee consisting of the
Ministers to whom this minute is sent and see that
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speedy continuous action is taken to ensure the
following objects:

(a) Quickest possible release, repair, and conversion
of trawlers, especially modern trawlers, for fishing; also
mine-sweepers where necessary.

(b)Arrangements to ensure that they are manned
and then put to fishing as soon as possible,
(c) Arrangements to ensure that all catches of fish
are used, which involves guaranteed purchase of all
catches, and the necessary transport and distribution
arrangements from the ports. This should, if necessary,
be carried out as a military evolution; and the Admiralty
should arrange for men of the Royal Navy to assist in
the landing of fish at ports when the available civilian
labour is insufficient and cannot be supplemented from
other sources.

Will you please put this in hand as soon as possible,
and keep me informed by fortnightly reports.

Prime Minister to Foreign

31 May 45

Office and War Office

This gallant man [General Anders] has long fought
with us. I am not prepared to allow our distribution of
military honours to be overshadowed by Bolshevik
prejudices. I should propose that General Anders
should receive a decoration for his long fighting
services.

Prime Minister to Foreign

31 May 45

Secretary andSecretary of

State for War

My views are as follows:

The 128,000 Polish troops who have fought for us
and served under us should be formed into a Corps of
Occupation in some part of the British zone [in
Germany] which is not limitrophe with the Russian
zone. The question of their recruitment from time to
time requires further study. I should have thought it
would not present serious difficulties. We need these
men desperately, and I cannot see what the Russians
have to say to it, any more than we are consulted by
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them when they deport a few hundred thousand people
to Siberia. This is good work for the Poles, and brings
them into no political collision with Russia. The War
Office should not be diverted from sending over the
additional division to the Twenty-first Army Group. We
need every man we can get at the present time, in view
of the demands for demobilisation, to which we shall
have in great measure to succumb. No decision
reversing these ideas should be taken until after the
impending Conference of the Three.

Prime Minister to Secretary

31 May 45

of State for War, and to

General Ismay, for Chiefs

of Staff

The Minister of Agriculture tells me that there is no
hope of adequate food production next year in
Germany unless the present order from the Combined
Chiefs of Staff to General Eisenhower to arrest all
members of the Reich Food Estate is cancelled. This
order was framed before we entered Germany. It was
based on an assumption that all German officials
concerned were virulent Nazis. Individual officials
should be judged on their records, as in the case of
other German industries.

I wish you to go into this question as a matter of
urgency, consulting Mr. Hudson as necessary,
thereafter taking appropriate action with the Combined
Chiefs of Staff.

JUNE

Prime Minister to Foreign

2 June 45

Secretary

Atrocities in Bulgaria. What is this horror about
Petrov’s secretary being tortured? Ought we not to tell
the Russians through the Ambassador that we shall
publish all these facts as they have reached us, and
state the facts in their full hideousness?

2. If Dimitrov has been a British agent we should
defend him with the whole respectable power of the
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British flag. Wherever these Bolsheviks think you are
afraid of them they will do whatever suits their lust and
cruelty. But the Soviet Government has no wish to
come out into the world smeared with such tales. Let
them then behave, and obey the ordinary decencies of
civilisation.

Prime Minister to Field-

5 June 45

Marshal Montgomery

I see considerable signs of changes of opinion here
on the subject of non-fraternisation. The Russians
seem to be following the opposite plan, and gaining
thereby.

2. I am alarmed by the winter prospect in Germany. I
expect they will do everything you tell them, and hold
you responsible that they are fed. I wonder myself
whether anything but German responsibility can secure
the full German effort. It would not be thought a good
ending to the war if you had a Buchenwald in Germany
this winter, with millions instead of thousands dying.

3. I did not like to see the German admirals and
generals with whom we had recently made arrangements being made to stand with their hands above their
heads. Nor did I like to see the infantry component of
the 11th Armoured Division used in this particular task. I
understand the whole was ordered from S.H.A.E.F.

4. I only send you these as notes, and you are
welcome to ask for further information.

Prime Minister to Mr.

9 June 45

Bracken, Minister of

Information,Sir Edward

Bridges, and Private Office

The rules about Ministers writing for the Press arise
from a. decision taken in Mr. Baldwin’s Government
that Ministers may not write for newspapers on any
subject connected with their departments, whether for
payment or not, nor may they write for payment on any
Governmental or political matter. They may of course
take part in controversy in defence of Government
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