Cairo Conferences (SEXTANT)

Memorandum by the U.S. Chiefs of Staff

Cairo, 7 December 1943

Secret
CCS 411/5

Operations in the Southeast Asia Command

In order to settle the question of tonnage lift to China versus availability of aircraft from ATC India-China Wing, it is recommended that the Combined Chiefs of Staff accept the following in lieu of the solution recommended in CCS 411/4, SEXTANT, 5 December 1943:

a. The Combined Chiefs of Staff recognize the principle that the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia Command must have control over resources allocated to him for the accomplishment of the assigned objectives.

b. The Combined Chiefs of Staff also recognize the necessity of firm commitments of tonnage over the “hump” into China during the next six months. The Combined Chiefs of Staff direct:

  1. That the tonnage over the “hump” be maintained on the following basis of transport plane allotments:
C-87s C-46s Tons delivered
December 40 97 8,858
January 40 107 9,535
February 48 120 11,066
March 55 25 5,614
April 52 46 6,716
May 50 96 9,686
  1. They further direct that transport plane allotments to the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia Command, for TARZAN, be on the following basis:
  • 15 Dec to 31 Jan – 18 C-47s or 12 C-46s
  • 1 Feb to 28 Feb – 11 C-47s or 8 C-46s
  • 1 Mar to 31 Mar – 188 C-47s or 126 C-46s
  • 1 Apr to 15 Apr – 183 C-47s or 122 C-46s
  • 16 Apr to 15 May – 114 C-47s or 76 C-46s
  • 16 May to 30 Jun – 43 C-47s or 29 C-46s

NOTE: The above subparagraph is based on the assumption that 35 additional C-47s will be available in the theater by 1 February. (Now allotted to the 10th Air Force)

c. The Combined Chiefs of Staff direct that any shortages in delivery of transport aircraft into the theater on present allotment bases be prorated in proportion to the allotments outlined in b (1) and (2) above. Excess in numbers of ATC aircraft over the expectations outlined in (1) and (2) above will be allocated by direction of the Commanding General, USAAF, India, during the above period.

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Churchill-Combined Chiefs of Staff dinner meeting, evening

Present
United States United Kingdom Union of South Africa
General Marshall Prime Minister Churchill Field Marshal Smuts
Admiral King Foreign Secretary Eden
General Arnold Lord Leathers
Mr. Casey
General Brooke
Air Chief Marshal Portal
Field Marshal Dill
Admiral of the Fleet Cunningham

The topics discussed included the estimated date of the end of the war with Germany, unconditional surrender, and Churchill’s views on Russia.

The Pittsburgh Press (December 7, 1943)

Cairo parley may presage Balkans push

Meeting with President of Turkey may mean push north from Thrace
By Robert Dowson, United Press staff writer

London, England –
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill were reported conferring with President İsmet İnönü of Turkey in Cairo today in what may be a prelude to an Allied offensive in the Balkans, possibly in part through the Turkish “backdoor.”

The German Transocean News Agency broadcast a report attributed to Ankara that İnönü was returning from Cairo and a special session of the Turkish Cabinet would be held immediately.

The authoritative British Press Association, in what amounted to tacit confirmation of Axis reports of the conference, said it was expected the deliberations would “have almost as important an effect on the course of the war as the first Cairo and the Tehran Conferences.”

Promise offensive

The Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin declaration in Tehran significantly promised that new operations would be undertaken against Europe “from the south” and there was every indication that the “Big Three” discussed the possibility of bypassing the Aegean, Crete and Rhodes by striking directly into southeastern Europe from Turkish Thrace.

The Press Association said it was presumed that Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and the Turkish leaders were discussing the Anglo-Turkish Pact of 1939 which bound Turkey to help Britain in the event that aggression by a European power led to war in the Mediterranean.

The Press Association’s diplomatic correspondent said:

Ankara observers state the possibilities Turkey will enter the war are increasing and Russia, whose relations with Turkey markedly improved recently, is known to have stressed the importance of Turkish intervention.

Nazi mass troops

The diplomatic correspondent doubted, however, that Turkey would officially enter the war in the immediate future. Other sources suggested that if Turkey did decide to throw in her lot with the Allies, she would hardly announce it until Allied forces have taken up dispositions that would protect her from any sudden Axis attack.

Hungarian sources in Stockholm said yesterday that German troops were moving through Bulgaria toward the Turkish frontier zone.

The Press Association said “reliable overseas reports” indicated that British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Turkish Foreign Secretary Numan Menemencioğlu and Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s special assistant, were also participating in Anglo-American-Turkish conferences.

Would push from Italy

Cairo reports have implied that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, and Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, British commander in the Levant, both of whom would presumably be involved in any Balkan operation, were also in Cairo, recently if not presently.

Any Allied drive through Turkey into the Balkans would probably be accompanied by a thrust across the Adriatic from newly-won bases in southern Italy into Yugoslavia for a pincer offensive.

A United Press dispatch from Cairo, which passed the strict British censorship there, said the Arabic press was speculating broadly on Turkey’s future role, though Allied authorities refused to comment on the situation.

Among the principal questions discussed by the newspapers, the dispatch said, were:

  1. Opening of the Dardanelles to Allied ships supplying Russia.
  2. Russian influence in the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia.
  3. Possible German reprisals against Istanbul in the event Turkey entered the war.
  4. Possible further Russian influence through the Middle East toward Iran.

MacArthur aide attends parley

Cairo, Egypt (UP) –
The staff officer from Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters participated in the Cairo Conference and is now on his way back to report, it can be revealed today.

This officer, whose name cannot be published, told the United Press he had presented a detailed picture of Gen. MacArthur’s strategy and operations to Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

Turning to the status of the Pacific Theater on the second anniversary of Pearl Harbor, this staff officer from the Southwest Pacific commented:

We are no nearer the Japanese mainland than we were a year ago, but this has not been our chief aim.

What we’ve been trying to do is cut off the Japanese lifeline, especially to the Dutch East Indies. Rather than made a head-on attack on the Japanese mainland against well-defended shores which the Japanese would prefer, we have been hitting his four weak points – oil, air strength, merchant shipping, and naval shipping.

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U.S. State Department (December 7, 1943)

President Roosevelt’s log of the trip

Tuesday, December 7 (at Cairo and en route Tunis)

7:30 a.m. The President and members of his party left his villa for the airport.
8:05 a.m. The President arrived Cairo West Airport. He bade goodbye to the Prime Minister, Ambassadors Steinhardt and Kirk, General Royce and a number of other officers from our Middle East Command who had accompanied him to the airport.
8:20 a.m. The President embarked and his plane departed Cairo for Tunis. In the President’s plane were: The President, Mr. Hopkins, Admiral Leahy, Admiral Brown, Admiral McIntire, General Watson, Major Boettiger, Lt-Commander Fox, Lieutenant (jg.) Rigdon, Sergeant Robert Hopkins, Secret Service Agents Spaman, Haman and Fredericks and Steward Prettyman.
. . . . . . .

The Pittsburgh Press (December 8, 1943)

TURKEY SPEEDS TOWARD WAR ON AXIS
Defense ring placed about Dardanelles

Balkans flareup nears; Ankara becomes Allied nonbelligerent
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

turkeymap
New bases for Allies from which to raid the Balkans and Nazi-held Russia would be available should Turkey join the war against the Axis. The opening of the Dardanelles would speed shipments of arms to Russia. German troops were reported massed in southeastern Bulgaria, in the vicinity of the border of Turkey in Europe.

Cairo, Egypt –
Turkey has militarized the entire Dardanelles zone in an intensified program of warlike moves climaxed by a shift into the Allied camp as a benevolent nonbelligerent, reports presaging an explosion in the tense Balkan situation said today.

A United Press dispatch filed from Ankara last Thursday said Turkey was calling up one million more men to double the country’s armed strength this month.

Advices reaching Cairo in the wake of the Anglo-American-Turkish conference here said the Turks had laid out zones three miles wide on both sides of the Dardanelles and put them under strict military rule.

Nazis mass troops

The historic Dardanelles gateway between the Mediterranean and Black Sea lies below the border of European Turkey, near which the Germans were reported massing considerable armed strength. Among the security measures taken by the Turks in recent weeks, according to reports here, was the arrest of many persons suspected of espionage for the Nazis, described as on the upsweep recently.

Turkish police were also keeping close watch over Italians with Fascist sympathies, especially in the Istanbul area where there are about 75,000 Italians. All of them were under close surveillance and their names were on police registers.

Build war positions

Since 1937, the Turks have built a dense network of positions suitable for both defense and attack along the Dardanelles. High Turkish Army officers have repeatedly expressed their confidence that any attack would fail.

While foreign experts believe the Turkish Army is short of modern equipment, they are unanimous in agreeing that the morale of Turkish troops is high and their discipline is excellent. The Turk is traditionally a first-class warrior.

President İsmet İnönü of Turkey, a communiqué revealed, conferred with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill here last Saturday, Sunday and Monday and joined them in expressing the “closest unity” of the three countries in their attitude toward the “world situation.”

May enter war soon

Though an immediate Turkish declaration of war against Germany was not anticipated, barring a possible German attack, such a declaration may be only weeks or months away. Turkish sources suggested that Turkey was ready to enter the way anytime that the Allies were prepared to protect her against a German attack from Bulgaria, the Aegean or the Black Sea.

The possible Anglo-American use of Turkish airfields and supply routes, as well as an Allied thrust through Turkey into Bulgaria or Greece, were believed to have been discussed at the Cairo Conference and it was assumed that the United Nations and Turkey now have fully coordinated plans for any eventuality, including the opening of the Dardanelles as a supply route for Russia.

Some sources expected Turkey’s declaration of war, if and when it comes would be announced simultaneously with military action.

Rush reinforcements

Apparently anticipating some such move, Germany was reported rushing land and air reinforcements into southeastern Bulgaria, especially in the Eastern Rumelia area facing Turkey, and along the Black Sea coast, according to unofficial reports reaching Cairo.

Large detachments of Elite Guard forces were also reported massing at Salonika and gradually embarking for the island of Lemnos, which commands the Aegean entrance to the Dardanelles.

The bulk of the German reinforcements on the Turkish frontier, most of which were motorized infantry, were said to be concentrating in the triangle formed by the Black Sea port of Burgas, the frontier town of Rakovski on the main Sofia-Istanbul railroad, and the inland town of Plovdiv.

Speed air bases

The Germans were also rushing to completion air bases in an inner triangle based on Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Malko Tarnovo on the frontier, it was said.

The same informants also said that German uneasiness over the attitude of the great mass of Bulgarians has been mounting steadily since the death of King Boris because of that country’s traditional sympathy for Russia. An incipient liberation movement in Bulgaria was reported to have contacted the new Partisan government of Dr. Ivan Ribar in Yugoslavia.

In a further effort to disturb the Balkans, the Allies were believed circulating through neutral channels the specific terms under which they will accept Germany’s surrender.

Repercussions expected

The stiffness of these terms was expected to touch off major repercussions among the German satellites, particularly in Hungary, which was believed ready to withdraw any time the Allies can extend any kind of assurances against Nazi retaliation.

There was every indication that the terms to Germany remained unconditional surrender with the Allies reserving the right of individual judgment over German Army officers accused of war atrocities, even if the German General Staff should instigate peace negotiations behind Hitler’s back.

Avoids direct answer

Selim Sarper, secretary general of the Turkish Press Bureau, avoided a direct answer when asked by correspondents whether the Turks had acted as the medium for any peace offers from Germany.

He said, “None were made through me.”

British and American staff officers were revealed to be engaged in a series of important conferences, at which they were believed to be drafting details of the new assaults promised by the Tehran Declaration against Axis Europe “from the south” and presumably including an invasion of the Balkans.

Smuts arrives

Marshal Jan C. Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa and one of Mr. Churchill’s closest military advisers, arrived here Monday, but did not participate immediately in any Allied staff talks. He consulted Mr. Churchill shortly after his arrival and dined with Mr. Roosevelt that night.

President İnönü and his Turkish delegation of 15, including Foreign Minister Numan Menemencioğlu and Marshal Fevzi Çakmak, Chief of the Turkish General Staff, flew here in British and U.S. planes from Turkey. However, it was stated officially that none of the Turkish military leaders had participated in staff talks with British and American commanders.

Soviet envoy present

The conference was held at the joint suggestion of the United States, Britain and Russia, the communiqué announcing the meeting said, and Sergei A. Vinogradov, Soviet Ambassador to Ankara, represented the Soviet Union.

The communiqué said that the participation of the Turkish leaders in the conference:

…bears striking testimony to the strength of the alliance which unites Great Britain and Turkey and to the firm friendship existing between the Turkish people and the United States of America and the Soviet Union.

Beside the principals, the conferees included British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, President Roosevelt’s special adviser Harry Hopkins and Mr. Menemencioğlu. The sessions were all held in Mena House, site of the Roosevelt-Churchill-Chiang Kai-shek meeting less than a fortnight earlier.

Parley story again told prematurely

London, England –
Information concerning the momentous Allied conferences in the Middle East was again released prematurely last night when the Berlin radio reported the Turkish news agency announced the news of the latest Cairo meeting at least two hours before the official deadline.

At 10:50 p.m. CET (5:50 p.m. ET), Berlin broadcast that the Turkish agency issued an official communiqué concerning the journey of President İsmet İnönü to Cairo to meet with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. Berlin then proceeded to broadcast the text of an official announcement concerning the meetings – which was not released in the United States and Britain until 7:30 p.m. ET.

Previously, the British news agency Reuters has given advance information of the Cairo Conferences in which Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek participated, and the Moscow radio broadcast the fact that the Tehran Conference had been held more than three days before the official release of information concerning that conference.

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Allied leaders may see Franco

Spanish move to forsake Nazis is hinted
By Leon Kay, United Press staff writer

Cairo, Egypt –
The possibility of a Roosevelt-Churchill meeting with Generalissimo Francisco Franco was speculated upon today as interest turned to the Western Mediterranean following the epic Allied conferences involving Russia, China and Turkey.

The Western Mediterranean bristles with problems just as thorny as those ironed out at Cairo and Tehran, but it was not known whether President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill propose to include Iberian, French and Italian affairs in their already-crowded scheduled.

A meeting among the two Allied chieftains and Franco at Tangier or Casablanca would afford Spain an opportunity to extricate herself further from the Axis web. Some sources suggested, however, that any such negotiations might be carried on by underlings rather than by the principals.

Though it must be emphasized that nothing definite can be revealed about the plans of Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill, their presence in Africa would obviously enable them to make on-the-spot inquiries into the troubled French and Italian situations as well as to meet Franco.

The French have felt left out in the cold by their exclusion from the Cairo and Tehran Conferences, but a courtesy call by Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill on Gen. Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Committee of National Liberation, might soothe their ruffled feelings.

May inspect front

It was not believed that the two leaders would concern themselves with the still-unsettled Italian political situation, though they might take advantage of their presence in Africa to inspect the Allies’ only active European land front.

In connection with the French and Italian situations, it might be significant that Robert Murphy and Harold MacMillan, American and British representatives respectively on the Italian Advisory Commission, twice journeyed to Cairo for consultations with Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill. Messrs. Murphy and MacMillan were formerly special ministers to North Africa and as such had close contact with the French Liberation Committee.

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Charles de Gaulle became the nationalist Frenchman who prefered Germans over Brits and Americans.

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Well… I see why he didn’t side with the brits… (a french and a british can never be friends) but why didn’t he prefer the americans?

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Because Americans had been the active people acting against the Free French and promoted former Vichy officers above Free France officers in Algeria.

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You have edited, so a new answer: Because the Germans have had no option to leave the French borders unprotected from the Soviets.

How exactly? The soviets were on the west germany’s border.

So… I don’t get this part.

Yep. My mind races faster than my fingers. And hence I end up eating words.

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Germany is east of France, so the Soviet could not invade France without fighting the Germans, but the Americans can be occupied in Korea or Vietnam or with “America first”

Early on, it was Churchill pleading de Gaulle’s case to FDR on a semi-regular basis, despite de Gaulle’s blatant dislike (edging toward open contempt) towards Churchill personally and the British generally. It’s clear from the record that the US government distrusted de Gaulle and would have preferred almost any other French leader to him.

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Yes, but why?..

U.S. State Department (December 9, 1943)

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt

Cairo, December 9, 1943

Secret
509

Prime Minister to President Roosevelt. Most secret and personal.

I gave the paper in my immediately following to Inönü. They have asked for 4 days in which to consult their Parliament but meanwhile will allow build up to begin and 250 specialists are starting forthwith. On the whole I am hopeful. Vyshinsky liked the layout.

… I am tidying up with the King of Greece and expect a solution and arrangement in harmony with your feelings. Every good wish to you and Harry.

740.0011 EW 1939/32275: Telegram

The Ambassador in Turkey to the Secretary of State

Ankara, December 9, 1943
1997

Foreign Minister Numan Menemencioğlu made following statement at press conference of Allied and Turkish correspondents last evening:

The Cairo conference was one of the most important events in this; phase of the war. We returned from [talks?] in [Cairo?] extremely pleased and extremely satisfied with our conversations. We talked about everything there. All aspects of international politics and of the war were passed in review.

You doubtless know that the invitation to this conference was addressed to the Turkish Government by England, United States and USSR who was to have been represented by M. Vichinsky [Vyshinsky]. But the latter who was at a distant place could not attend our meetings and did not reach Cairo until this morning. But I can tell you that even without M. Vichinsky [Vyshinsky] the Soviets were there.

As you have been able to see from the communiqué our alliance with England has been strengthened by this conference. Our conversations were so intimate and searching that we can likewise say that our relations with the United States and Soviet Union are almost as cordial and strong as those with England.

We studied all aspects of the problems with a frankness which was sometimes brutal but with understanding. We learned a great many things which we did not know. Our friends likewise learned many things of which they were ignorant. We drew closer to them and they drew closer to us for a better mutual understanding of our interests and our possibilities. It is because all our conversations were impregnated with this spirit that we could leave Cairo in an atmosphere of complete cordiality.

I can tell you without going into details that during our conversations we remained on the Axis [apparent omission] of the directives of the peoples party and that our foreign policy remains unchanged.

STEINHARDT

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870.01 AMG/21: Telegram

The Counselor of Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Secretary of State

London, December 9, 1943 — 5 p.m.
8552

We again took up the subject matter of the Department’s 7742, December 7, 8 p.m., with Nigel Ronald today. He told us that this was one of the matters which had been discussed at the highest level in North Africa but that the Foreign Office had not yet learned of the decision which had been reached. As soon as they did have this information they would be in a position to reply. Ronald stressed the fact that the Foreign Office was as anxious to settle the matter as was the Department.

BUCKNELL

I haven’t done enough reading on the US viewpoint to say, but de Gaulle certainly had sandpaper for a soul … as my family used to say about some of our relatives, he could start a fight in an empty house.

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U.S. State Department (December 10, 1943)

The Ambassador in Turkey to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union

Ankara, December 10, 1943

Personal and strictly confidential for the Ambassador:

The recent meeting at Cairo was most helpful in drawing Turkey much closer to the Allies; although nothing definite was agreed upon for the time being. I hope the foregoing gives you the present picture.

STEINHARDT

Wow… I don’t know how his wife handled him or whether he had any.

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