The Grand Alliance (152 page)

“asking for it” than to have a battleship escort waddling
along with a six-and-a-half-knot convoy without any
effective anti-submarine escort (other than the three
corvettes). The Sierra Leone convoys will have to have
destroyers with them. Ships sunk in these waters are
just as great a loss to us, and just as much a part of the
Battle of the Atlantic, as if they are on the northwestern
approaches. I am told that destroyers cannot go the
distance. Why can they not be refuelled at sea, as has
now been done, under pressure of events, for the
corvettes? I am glad to hear about the air reinforcements. But destroyers are needed too. They must go all
the way and be refuelled by the escort.

3. The whole question of the Cape Verde Islands
being used as a German U-boat fuelling base must now
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be reviewed with a view to action being taken. I shall be
glad to hear from you on all these points.

Prime Minister to First Lord

21.III.41.

of the Admiralty and

Secretary of State for Air

The use of aeroplanes, not only to attack our ships,
but also to direct the U-boats onto them, is largely
responsible for our losses in the northwestern approaches. No effort to destroy the Focke-Wulfs should
be spared. If we could employ radar methods to find
their positions and to direct long-range fighters or
shipborne aircraft to the attack we ought to be able to
inflict serious casualties. Might it not be feasible to
place a radar station on Rockall? However inconvenient
and unpleasant, the geographical position appears to
be so good that it would be worth making a great effort
to maintain a station there, at any rate during the
summer months. The hills south of Lough Erne would
also offer a valuable site. It might be even better if we
could find ways and means of establishing stations on
Tory Island or on one of the islands off the Kerry coast.

These islands might be leased privately by some
wealthy American friends. Please let me have a report
from the technical point of view on the military results
which could be expected if any of these things could be
done, and upon any other possibilities that have been,
or might be, examined.

We should also study methods of disturbing the
aircraft’s communications with U-boats. I understand
that the system is that the Focke-Wulf signals to Brest,
whence directions are sent to the U-boat, the process
taking about an hour and a half. Is it not practicable
either to jam these communications or to confuse all
concerned by a series of spurious messages? Presumably apparatus of the usual type for interfering with the
Focke-Wulf’s radio methods of navigation, which must
be vital over the sea in bad weather, has not been
neglected.

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I assume that we D.F.
7
the signals he uses. If he
uses A.S.V.
8
it should be practicable to locate and
home on him with suitable apparatus.

(Action this day.) Prime

22.III.41.

Minister to First Lord and

First Sea Lord

If the presence of the enemy battle-cruisers in a
Biscayan port is confirmed, every effort by the Navy
and the Air Force should be made to destroy them
there, and for this purpose serious risks and sacrifices
must be faced. If however unhappily they escape and
resume their depredations, then action on the following
lines would seem to be necessary, and should be
considered even now:

In order to regain the initiative in the Atlantic, three
hunting groups should be formed at earliest, namely:
Renown and Ark Royal, Hood and Furious, Repulse
and Argus. Each of these groups must have one or two
tankers, and every device is to be used to enable them
to refuel at sea. The tankers need not necessarily
accompany the groups, but should be in positions
where the groups could rendezvous with them.

2. The sea-front from Iceland to Cape Verde will be
roughly divided into three sectors, in each of which one
hunting group will normally be working. Although
working independently of the convoys, they will give an
additional measure of protection to convoys passing in
their neighbourhood. These dispositions should be
completed by the end of April, and will come into
operation in instalments at earliest.

3. A plan will be made to replace Furious at earliest,
by converting one or more ships as aircraft transports.

At the same time the Air Ministry will arrange for increased crating to Takoradi.

4. Considering how far we have carried the dispersal
of the Fleet on escort duty, no objection could be taken
to using Nelson in place of Hood.

5. A flotilla must be found for the Freetown convoys.

This can be achieved out of the remaining twenty-five
American destroyers which will have to work up in this
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Southern area. Arrangements must be made to fuel the
destroyers from the escort cruiser or battleships.

6. The evidences of German infiltration into the
Cape Verde Islands, and the probability that they are
being used to refuel U-boats, make it necessary to
carry out Operation “Brisk” at the earliest date. Once
we have got possession we must make a good refuelling base there, and expel the enemy’s U-boat
tenders from these islands. I will discuss separately the
political pros and cons of this.

As many flying-boats as can be spared, up to six,
should be employed in the Freetown area, and will also
work from the islands when captured.

7. Pray let me have your thought on the above,
together with all possible means of carrying it out.

Prime Minister to Professor

22.III.41.

Lindemann

On the assumption that an [import] programme of
thirty-five million tons is maintained, you should
consider transferring in the least harmful manner 2

million tons from Ministry of Supply to Ministry of Food.

If the thirty-five million tons is not realised, this transference must be reduced pro rata, but in any case the
existing minimum requirements of food should be met.

Make a sketch plan for me to discuss with Sir Andrew
Duncan tomorrow night.

(Action this day.) Prime

23.III.41.

Minister to General Ismay

War Office and Middle East should be called upon
for an exact account of all refrigerated meat ships they
have requisitioned, and where and how these are at
present employed. I have been told that some are used
in the Middle East as depots for stores. Let me have a
full list, distinguishing between vessels which have
been heavily converted to troop carriers and those
which could easily return to their normal duties.

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Prime Minister to General

23.III.41.

Ismay, for C.O.S. Committee

and Admiralty

Is it true that the War Office demand provision for
eight gallons of water a day per man on a troopship,
and that this has become a factor greatly reducing the
numbers which can be taken? Has there been any
impartial investigation of the War Office standards? I
was much surprised to learn that only about three
thousand five hundred men were taken in the Queen
Elizabeth and the Queen Mary each. This is hardly
more than the numbers they carry when engaged in
luxury passenger service. If I remember rightly, over
eight thousand men were sent in the Aquitania or
Mauretania to the Dardanelles in May, 1915.

2. Could any saving in shipping be effected by
transshipping personnel from the transports into the
giant liners at Capetown? Now that the Red Sea will
soon be clear of enemy submarines and aircraft, it
would seem attractive to organise a fast service from
Capetown. The matter should at any rate be examined.

Prime Minister to General

23.III.41.

Ismay

Most of this is mere talk. What is the use, for instance, of saying that no demand has been made for
cranes at the smaller ports when these smaller ports
have not been used and so do not feel the pinch?

Surely we ought to have facilities prepared both for
unloading into lighters and coasters and for removing
traffic from the small ports by improved land communications by road or rail. Let me have a list of the ports
which could so be used, and let me have proposals for
a minute, which I will thereafter draft, to procure effective action as a vital insurance. We have far too much
at stake in the Clyde and Mersey.

For the purposes of this use any help you may
require.

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Prime Minister to the

24.III.41.

Maharaja Jam Sahib of

Nawanagar

My colleagues and I are moved by the terms of the
resolution passed by the Chamber of Princes of March
17, and I am specially touched by the generous reference to myself. His Majesty’s Government in the United
Kingdom gratefully recognise the valiant contribution
which Indian troops have made to the Imperial victories
in North Africa, and they well know that this contribution
will increase still further in size and in scope as the
months roll on. On behalf of my colleagues I ask Your
Highness to express to the Chamber of Princes our
appreciation of the resolute spirit with which the Princes
and the peoples of India have shown themselves to be
inspired.

Prime Minister to Dominions

25.III.41.

Secretary

What is the point of worrying the Dominions with all
this questionable stuff [about the likelihood of
invasion]? Have they asked for such an appreciation?

Surely the other side should be stated too, namely:
(1) That even if they make their original landings the
communications to these lodgments will be interrupted
by the Fleet inside a week.

(2) That we have every reason to believe that we
can maintain the superiority in the British daylight air,
and that our bomber force will therefore “Namsos” all
the landings by day as well as by night.

(3) That, apart from the beaches, we have the
equivalent of nearly thirty divisions with one thousand
tanks at April 1, held in reserve to be hurled at the
different invasion points.

(4) That we have 1,600,000 men in the Home
Guard, of whom a million possess rifles or machine
guns to deal with sporadic descents of parachutists, etc.

Frankly however I do not see the object of spouting
all this stuff out – some of it injurious if it leaked –

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unless it is thought the Dominions require to be frightened into doing their duty.

Prime Minister to Foreign

28.III.41.

Office

Monsieur Stoyadinovitch should be treated with
formal courtesy, but kept under constant surveillance.

The Governor should be informed that he is a bad man,
and was at this juncture undoubtedly a potential
Serbian Quisling. It is not desirable that relations other
than formal should spring up between him and the
Governor or his household, or between him and people
in Mauritius. Food and comfort should be appropriate to
the scale of a colonel.

Prime Minister to General

30 III 41

Ismay, for C.O.S. Committee