America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

6870

Report by an Ad Hoc Committee of the Combined Chiefs of Staff 

Québec, 22 August 1943.

Secret
Enclosure to CCS 222/3

Future Convoy Arrangements in the Atlantic

a. CCS 222/2 indicates that convoy UGS 16, sailing 26 August, has 91 firm presenters as against a convoy limit of 80 ships.

b. The Combined Chiefs of Staff have been requested by the Combined Military Transportation Committee to give a decision on one of two alternatives:
(i) To raise the limit of UGS convoys.
(ii) To indicate the priority which should be assigned the presenters involved so that 80 ships can be selected.

a. With regard to alternative (1), the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet, has established the limit on the number of ships in UGS convoys at 80 for security reasons.

b. The immediate problem in priorities has been solved in large part by the withdrawal of 6 U.S. Army vessels and 2 BMWT vessels from the list of presenters. The convoy limitation of 80 ships now is exceeded by 3.

c. It is quite possible that, of the remaining 83 vessels, at least 3 may fail to meet the convoy sailing date.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that:

a. Three vessels be nominated for withdrawal from the convoy, if necessary, in the following priority:

  • First withdrawal – 1 BMWT vessel
  • Second withdrawal – 1 WSA vessel
  • Third withdrawal – 1 BMWT vessel
  • Vessel or vessels to be selected by the agency concerned.

b. All vessels should be prepared to sail.

  1. In view of the fact that indications point to a recurrence of this problem in subsequent months, it is recommended that the U.S. Navy fix the earliest practical date when a program of four UGS convoys per month will be established.

  2. It is further recommended that the Combined Chiefs of Staff delegate to the Combined Military Transportation Committee the executive authority to act on similar problems in the future with regard to UGS convoys in accordance with the following priority:
    a. U.S. and British ships destined for forces commanded by the Allied Commander-in-Chief in Mediterranean.
    b. U.S. and British ships destined for India.
    c. U.S. and British ships destined for Allied forces in Middle East.
    d. U.S. and British ships carrying civil supplies for occupied territories in Mediterranean.
    e. Ships destined for Persian Gulf.
    f. Lend lease to Turkey.
    g. Miscellaneous.

6871

Note by the Secretaries of the Combined Chiefs of Staff 

Québec, 22 August 1943.

Secret
CCS 317/2

Equipping Allies, Liberated Forces and Friendly Neutrals

Action on CCS 317 has been deferred pending further study of the subject by the British Chiefs of Staff.

The United States Chiefs of Staff, however, recommend that immediate decision be rendered on the recommendations contained in paragraph 10a and b of that paper. These paragraphs pertain to the equipment of French forces in North Africa. A decision at this time is necessary because of certain administrative arrangements which should be carried out at once in the event that the recommendations are to be approved.

H. REDMAN
J. K. DEANE
Combined Secretariat

6872 
740.0011 EW/8–2243

Mr. J. Wesley Jones, of the Division of European Affairs, to the Adviser on Political Relations 

Washington, August 22, 1943.

Secret

PA/D – Mr. Dunn The attached message was left with me yesterday by an officer of the OSS. It is of interest as another “feeler” and channel from the Badoglio Govt.… the author of the message is Dulles. I told the OSS to make no reply to the question raised by the latter.

J WESLEY JONES

[Attachment]

Bern, August 20, 1943.

A reliable cutout has transmitted to me a report from … which states that Italy, according to Foreign Minister Guariglia, remains prepared to cease resistance on condition that we can guarantee plane protection against the Nazis, and they are willing to open the airports, and so forth. It would seem that … is anxious to be in touch with me directly. It is very possible that Guariglia and Rosso are making use of him here. Until I receive instructions, I am continuing to handle … with care, as an intelligence source only, and by means of cutouts.

6873

Draft of Statement to Be Issued by the U.S. Government 

Québec, August 22, 1943.

Secret

The Government of the United States desires again to make clear its purpose of cooperating with all patriotic Frenchmen, looking to the liberation of the French people and French territories from the oppressions of the enemy.

The Government of the United States, accordingly, welcomes the establishment of the French Committee of National Liberation. It is the understanding of the Government of the United States our expectation that the Committee has been conceived and will function on the principle of collective responsibility of all its members for the active prosecution of the war. It will be for the French people themselves to establish their own government after they have had an opportunity to express themselves freely.

In view of the paramount importance of the common war effort, the relationship with the French Committee of National Liberation must continue to be subject to the military requirements of the Allied Commanders.

On these understandings the Government of the United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation as administering those French overseas territories which acknowledge its authority. This statement does not constitute recognition of a government of France or of the French Empire by the Government of the United States. It does constitutes recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation as functioning within specific limitations until during the war. Later on the people of France, in a free and untrammeled manner, will proceed in due course to select their own form of government and their own officials to administer it.

The Government of the United States takes note, with sympathy, of the desire of the Committee to be regarded as the body qualified to insure the administration and defense of all French interests. The extent to which it may be possible to give effect to this desire in respect of the different categories of such interests must however be reserved for consideration in each case as it arises.

The Government of the United States welcomes the Committee’s expressed determination to continue the common struggle in close cooperation with all the allies until the French and Allied authorities are completely liberated soil is freed from its invaders and until victory is complete over all the enemy powers.

May the restoration of France come with the utmost speed.

Draft of Statement to Be Issued by the U.S. Government 

Québec, August 22(?), 1943.

Secret

The Government of the United States desires again to make clear its purpose of cooperating with all patriotic Frenchmen looking to the liberation of French people and French territories from the oppression of the enemy.

The Government of the United States accordingly welcomes the establishment of the French Committee of National Liberation. It is the understanding of the United States that the Committee has been conceived and will function on the principle of collective responsibility of all its members for the prosecution of the war within the framework of inter-Allied cooperation.

In view of the paramount importance of the common war effort, the relationship of the Government of the United States with the French Committee of National Liberation must continue to be subject to the military requirements of the Allied Commanders.

This statement does not constitute recognition of a government of France or of the French Empire by the Government of the United States. It constitutes recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation for the purpose of functioning within specific limitations until the people of France, in a free and untrammeled manner, proceed to select their own form of government and their own officials to administer it.

On these understandings, the Government of the United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation as administering those French overseas territories which acknowledge the authority of the Committee.

The Government of the United States notes the desire of the Committee to be regarded as the body qualified to insure the administration and defense of all French interests. The question of the extent to which it may be possible to give effect to this desire in respect of the different categories of such interests must, however, be reserved for consideration [in] each case as it arises.

The Government of the United States welcomes the Committee’s expressed determination to continue the common struggle, in cooperation with all the Allies, until the French and Allied territories are completely liberated and until victory is complete over all the enemy powers.

May the restoration of France come with the utmost speed.

6874

Prime Minister Mackenzie King to the Secretary of State 

Québec City, August 22, 1943.

Most secret

Dear Mr. Secretary: I am sending you, herewith, a copy of our draft letter to the Delegate in Canada of the French Committee of National Liberation, about which I think I spoke to you yesterday. I have given a copy to Mr. Churchill and am sending one to the President.

Yours very sincerely,
W. L. MACKENZIE KING

[Enclosure]

Draft Note

Ottawa, August 6, 1943.

Most secret

Draft Note to the French Delegate in Ottawa

Sir, I have the honour to refer to your note of June 11 with which you transmitted the text of the Declaration adopted at Algiers on June 3 by which the French Committee of National Liberation was established.

[Here follows, with minor editorial differences and one difference in phrasing, the text of the Canadian statement on this subject released on August 26, 1943.]

Accept [etc.]

6875

Harriman-Bracken meeting, early evening

Present
United States United Kingdom
Mr. Harriman Minister of Information Bracken

From an informal memorandum by Harriman:

Before dinner sold Bracken a bill of goods for Steve Early – that the President and Prime Minister should have a joint Press conference, which Bracken had evidently been opposing with a view to substituting a cocktail party in which newspaper men could mingle with all the Chiefs of Staff.

6876

Roosevelt-Churchill dinner meeting, 8 p.m.

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill
Mrs. Churchill
Subaltern Mary Churchill

Roosevelt dined with the Churchill family from 8 to 10 p.m.

6877 
740.00116 European War 1939/1136

The Dutch Ambassador to President Roosevelt 

Washington, August 22, 1943.

My Dear Mr. President, In the course of Her latest visit to Hyde Park the Queen discussed with you the opportunity of issuing a declaration with a view to preventing as much as possible destruction by the Germans upon their leaving the occupied countries. The Queen discussed this idea also with the British Prime Minister and the British Foreign Secretary, who were in favour of it and asked for a draft declaration. Such a draft has now been prepared and approved by Her Majesty.

Acting upon instructions I have just received, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of the draft which has also been handed to the British Foreign Office.

Dr. van Kleffens instructs me moreover to submit to you the request that this draft be discussed with the British Prime Minister, if this would be agreeable to you.

I beg to add that the Queen would have no objection against a shorter and more strongly worded text.

Dr. van Kleffens would highly appreciate if further consultations could take place for the final drafting of this declaration and its subsequent handling, especially with regard to the opportune moment of its publication. In this connection Dr. van Kleffens ventures the suggestion whether it would be desirable to ask the Soviet Union to participate.

With my highest esteem [etc.]
A. LOUDON

[Enclosure]

Draft Declaration

In the regions of Europe which Germany has occupied, the German authorities and their subordinates have shown a measure of harshness and cruelty which not only violates clear and binding rules of international law but runs counter to the most elementary feelings of common decency. Confinement in concentration camps of evil and sinister repute, seizure of hostages (a practice expressly forbidden in a solemn treaty of 1907, to which Germany has expressly adhered) and large-scale deportation of men and even of women, are common German practice and these are far from being the worst offences committed in the name of Germany. In many cases, especially in Eastern Europe and with regard to the Jews, German action assumed proportions of bestiality. Wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people will be forever a blot on the German name. In the economic field the Germans have taken measures indicating that far from their showing any regard for the occupied countries and their population, they are bent upon crippling the resources of those territories. The German nation as a whole may not as yet have a full knowledge of all the savagery and brutality committed in its name. But that nation cannot be presumed to be ignorant of what has been and still is being done. Remembering further what the German authorities did towards the end of the last war in territory then under their occupation, the Governments of . . . . . . . issue the following warning to the German Government, civil and military authorities and people:

When the hour of liberation strikes for the occupied regions, those Germans who are stationed there may receive orders, or feel inclined to do their utmost not to leave the territory they hold before having wrought havoc, not only by an attempt to destroy objects of value to the wellbeing of the country concerned but also by murdering or deporting a still larger part of the population. All Germans should bear in mind that those guilty of such acts will be held responsible for their misdeeds, not only the leaders and authorities who plan crimes of this kind or give orders to commit them, but also the actual perpetrators. Moreover, from now on any further action against the population of the occupied regions including that part of the population that has been deported to Germany – In complete disregard of international law – either as prisoners or as hostages, as workers in war-industries or otherwise, any act of destruction calculated to obstruct the resumption of the economic or social life of the occupied countries to impoverish them or to impede their recovery, exposes Germany and the Germans to retaliation of the severest kind.

6878

Marshal Stalin to President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill 

Moscow, August 22, 1943.

[Translation]
Secret

Personal and secret message from Premier I. V. Stalin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to Premier Minister Winston Churchill.

  1. I have received your message[s] concerning the negotiations with the Italians and the new terms of armistice with Italy. Thank you for the information.

Mr. Eden told Mr. Sobolev that Moscow was fully informed about the negotiations with Italy. I have, however, to say that Mr. Eden’s statement does not correspond with reality, as I have received your message in which long passages are omitted and which has no concluding paragraphs. In view of this, it is necessary to state that the Soviet Government is not informed about the negotiations of the British and the Americans with the Italians. Mr. Kerr gives assurance that within a short time he will receive the complete text of your message; although the three days have passed, and Ambassador Kerr has not yet given me the complete text of the message. I cannot understand how such delay could have occurred during the transmission of the information on such important matter.

  1. I believe that the time is ripe to organize the military-political Commission of the representatives of the three countries: The United States, Great Britain and the USSR with the purpose of considering the questions concerning the negotiations with the different Governments dissociating themselves from Germany. Until now the matter stood as follows: The United States and Great Britain made agreements but the Soviet Union received information about the results of the agreements between the two countries just as a passive third observer. I have to tell you that it is impossible to tolerate such situation any longer. I propose to establish this Commission and to assign Sicily at the beginning as the place of residence of the Commission.

  2. I am waiting for the complete text of your message concerning the negotiations with Italy.

6879

Roosevelt-Churchill meeting, 11 p.m.

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill

Roosevelt and Churchill conferred from 11 p.m. until midnight.

6880

Völkischer Beobachter (May 17, 1943)

Kiska unbemerkt geräumt – Yankees beschießen leere Stellungen
USA.-General: ‚Wir unterschätzen Japan’

…

6881

Die anrüchige ‚Amgot‘ macht böses Blut –
Der Streit um die Beute beginnt schon

Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“

rd. Stockholm, 22. August –
Der Skandal um die „Amgot,“ die von Engländern und Amerikanern gemeinsam aufgezogene Organisation zur Ausbeutung Siziliens, die einwandfrei durch die Londoner und Neuyorker Großfinanz beherrscht wird, beginnt sich in der anglo-amerikanischen Außen- und Innenpolitik auszuwirken. Die „Amgot“ hat es fertiggebracht, die wirklich nicht sehr weißen Westen der Plutokratien rasch derart zu beflecken und ihrem Ansehen sogar bei den eigenen Mitläufern einen solchen Stoß zu versetzen, daß eine Fortführung dieses Experiments gegenwärtig als zweifelhaft erscheint. Daß Großbanken ihre Direktoren in die maßgebenden Posten geschoben haben, spielt dabei noch die geringere Rolle. Das gehört natürlich mit zum System. Aber die allzu unverblümte Art, wie England und die USA. wiederum die eigenen imperialistischen Tendenzen in den Vordergrund geschoben und die kleineren Schakale zähnefletschend zurückgescheucht haben, wie sie sich weder um die Versprechungsphrasen der Atlantik-Charta noch um die Mitbestimmungsansprüche ihrer kleineren Verbündeten scheren, hat böses Blut gemacht.

Ein Vorstoß aus Kanada

Jetzt kommt bezeichnenderweise von französisch-kanadischer Seite ein Vorstoß, der sich zugleich gegen die Schiebungen der „Amgot“ und das Narrenspiel wendet, das mit der sogenannten Anerkennung des französischen Algierausschusses betrieben wird, wobei ja die Überläufergenerale nun von den eigenen Auftraggebern betrogen und hinters Licht geführt werden sollen. Ursprünglich war in Aussicht gestellt worden, daß dieser Verräter- und Überläuferausschuß eine Art „Regierungs“-Autorität erhalten solle. Jetzt heißt es auf einmal von englisch-amerikanischer Seite, die verheißene „Anerkennung“ bedeute lediglich die Akzeptierung des Ausschusses als einer Art „temporärer Behörde“ für die von de Gaulle und Giraud verratenen Kolonialgebiete, aber nicht einmal als eines vorbereitenden Werkzeuges für eine provisorische Regierung.

In Neuyork verlautet zu diesem sauberen Plan – der freilich de Gaulle und Giraud verdientermaßen jenen Tritt versetzt, auf den sie längst von seiten ihrer Auftraggeber gefaßt sein mußten – man sei sich darüber klar, daß diese Regelung beim Algierausschuß, der ja auf Anerkennung seiner „totalen“ Ansprüche auf Gleichberechtigung im Rate der Alliierten hoffe, keine besondere Befriedigung erwecken werde. Aber mehr als eine begrenzte. Anerkennung könne aus praktischen Gründen nicht in Frage kommen.

Der Vertreter des Algierausschusses in Kanada, Kommandant Bonneau, veröffentlichte daraufhin in der französisch-kanadischen Presse einen recht bösartigen Artikel. Er hält darin den Anglo-Amerikanern vor, daß sie ohne Zusammenarbeit mit den Europäern über Europa entscheiden wollen. Es wäre, so meint er, verhängnisvoll, wenn sie etwa mit Hilfe der „Amgot“ zu regieren versuchten, zumal ja keiner der Alliierten, weder die USA. noch England noch Tschungking-China oder die Sowjetunion „im eigentlichen Sinne europäische Länder“ darstellten.

Von englisch-amerikanischer Seite werde es gegenwärtig für ratsam gehalten, von der „Amgot“ nicht mehr soviel zu reden. Ein hoher Beamter der Nahostabteilung des Washingtoner Außenministeriums hielt es sogar für angebracht, bezüglich der italienischen Kolonien eine „internationale“ Verwaltung in Aussicht zu stellen. Auf keinen Fall dürfe etwa „eine einzelne Macht uneingeschränktes Eigentumsrecht erhalten,“ wobei er beteuerte, daß die Vereinigten Staaten überhaupt keine Absichten hegten, sich Kolonialgebiete anderer Länder anzueignen.

Diese mit grotesker Heuchelei vorgeschobene Uneigennützigkeit, der freilich die Praxis in Nord- und Westafrika, auf Martinique usw. entgegensteht, sowie die These, daß überhaupt keine einzelne Macht italienischen Kolonialbesitz übernehmen dürfe, haben freilich ihren guten Grund: die fraglichen italienischen Kolonialgebiete befinden sich fast ausnahmslos zur Zeit in englischer Hand. Der USA.-„Idealismus“ läuft auf einen Erpressungsversuch an England hinaus, die amerikanische Mitausbeutung der italienischen Kolonien zu gestatten.

6882

Aufruhr im mittleren Atlas –
Amerikanisch-marokkanische Kämpfe

…

6883

The Pittsburgh Press (August 23, 1943)

31 in one battle –
Allies down 114 planes in raids on Italy

Rail center near Naples battered; landing on mainland denied
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

…

6884

Yanks, Canadians occupy isle 20 miles from Kiska

Three damaged midget submarines discovered at captured enemy base in Aleutians

…

6885

Québec puzzle –
Russia only major ally now absent

Australia and China join in war conferences now nearing an end
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer

Québec, Canada –
Announcement that Australian representation was being added to the Québec Conference today focused new attention on the absence of Russia, now the only one of the big Allied fighting powers without some representative in the war talks led by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Sir William Glasgow, High Commissioner for Australia in Canada, was due from Ottawa. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox arrived by plane from Washington. And there was some indication that Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, absent from Washington, might have been called into the conference.

Deny connection

Represented now by top men in the Québec war conferences approaching a conclusion were the United States, Great Britain, Canada, China and Australia.

Official sources still denied any connection between the Québec Conference and the Russian withdrawal of Ambassador Maxim Litvinov from Washington. But they admitted that the timing of the announcement raised a multitude of questions as to the impression the Soviet was trying to convey to the world.

Virtually every important war figure in the higher echelons of the British, American and Canadian governments was on hand. Mr. Roosevelt scheduled a series of continuous conferences during the day and it was definitely known that the meetings are at a point of final approval of a master plan for destructive operations against the Axis the remainder of this year.

Mystery continues

As the arrivals of new officials here continued so did the air of mystery over the conference of the past seven days. Last night, some officials tacitly advised some of their contacts that today would bring a big announcement. A morning press conference produced the news that Mr. Churchill and Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King were to make an automobile tour of the city.

Chinese Foreign Minister T. V. Soong, lunched with President Roosevelt and was expected to remain for additional talks in the afternoon. Mr. Roosevelt was devoting some time in preparing his Ottawa speech.

May blitz cities

While official sources cautioned against excluding any war theater from speculation, there were increasing indications that an intensification of the aerial offensive against Italy was near. The plans, it was believed, called for such cities as Naples, Brindisi and Taranto to be “Hamburged” from the air, and then, if the Italian government still refused to capitulate, an invasion.

Dr. Soong’s arrival yesterday was followed by a statement from White House Press Secretary Stephen T. Early:

The President expected to confer as soon as possible with Dr. Soong. Mr. Churchill will participate in these discussions which have to do with the plans for the war on Japan, the emphasis being given to that and all points pertaining to the war on Japan.

Welcomes Stimson

Yesterday, the conference at the Citadel began right after breakfast. Mr. Roosevelt welcomed Mr. Stimson, then lunched with the Prime Minister and the War Secretary and a number of others.

After lunch, the President drove to the Isle d’Orleans with Mrs. Churchill and inspected several old churches. Lewis O. Douglas, American deputy war shipping administrator, who was once principal of McGill University and who has an intimate knowledge of Québec Province, acted as “guide.”

Hold long parley

After the drive, Mr. Roosevelt joined Mr. Churchill, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Sir Alexander Cadogan, the Permanent Under Secretary for External Affairs in the British government, and James C. Dunn, State Department political advisor.

The conference began about 5:30 p.m. and lasted far into the night. It obviously involved bigtime foreign policy from the political standpoint.

While the intensive conferences were going on in the Citadel, the armed staff chiefs and many of their aides, including some secretarial help and technical experts, cruised on the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay Rivers. Leaving Saturday night, they returned late yesterday.

6886

Québec sure Reds won’t make peace

Allied strategy based on belief that Russia will stay in war
By Henry J. Taylor

Québec, Canada –
The overwhelming fact which emerged from this conference cannot be told officially. The absolute conviction among the conferees in the Québec discussions is that Germany and Russia will not make an armistice or in any way arrive at a separate peace.

The reason this cannot be told officially is, of course, because this source of widespread anxiety and speculation throughout the United States and Great Britain cannot be recognized officially. But this correspondent has established the fact through direct contact and individual inquiry.

The directives emanating from this conference and every plan decided here are based on the conviction that there will be no diminution of fighting on Germany’s Eastern Front.

This possibility effects every fundamental in Allied strategy. In a military problem so large as this you cannot make alternate plans which include such an eventuality as this. It bears directly on the size of our forces needed for victory., the time and place of opening the so-called second front, the disposition of the British Navy from European waters to help us in the Pacific, the design of our Air Force equipment and organization, the type of it we are willing to supply Russian under Lend-Lease and, most of all, the length of the war and its cost in blood, sweat and tears.

The time comes when you have to make up your mind. The time has come. The minds are made up. Plans which would be disastrous if the Germans were in any way released from fighting on their Eastern Front have been agreed to here and the die is cast.

The news value of this dispatch – and it is vastly important news – is that anyone in our country or abroad who believes that there may be a reproachment between Russia and Germany differs with the final judgment of the conference of Québec.

6887

Roosevelt to broadcast

Washington (UP) –
The White House announced today that President Roosevelt’s address Wednesday in Ottawa will be delivered at noon and will be broadcast.

6888

‘Gertie from Berlin’ is a Pittsburgh girl

Nazi propagandist with intriguing voice moved from Mt. Oliver to Germany in 1938

…

6889

3-month draft quota 907,000

10 million to be under arms by Sept. 30

…