The Grand Alliance (163 page)

Prime Minister to General

1.VII.41.

Ismay

The Germans are making a good deal of use of
flame-throwers. How does this matter stand?

(Action this day.) Prime

1.VII.41.

Minister to First Lord and

First Sea Lord

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I presume that effective arangements have been
made to prevent reinforcement of the Vichy forces in
Syria by sea. How does this stand?

Prime Minister to Secretary of
1.VII.41.

State for Air

I note that your actual expenditure of bombs in May,
2920 tons, was less than half the monthly estimated
expenditure for the second quarter of this year, and that
at this rate of expenditure your stock represents thirty
months’ supply.

The last thing we wish of course is to have any
shortage of bombs if and when you are ready to drop
them in quantity. But in the light of these figures you
might perhaps wish to review your requirements, which
seem to be largely attributable to your desire for a six
months’ reserve.

Unless you are really assured that you will be in a
position to make full use of these great quantities, we
should consider whether some filling capacity should be
transferred to other uses.

Prime Minister to Minister of

2.VII.41.

Food

I am glad that the egg scheme attributed to you was
not actually the scheme you had in mind. It is always
difficult to hold the balance between the need for
increasing total food supplies and the need to maintain
a fair distribution. We should not be too hard on the
private individual who increases his supplies by his own

[productive] efforts.

It is satisfactory that the meat prospects are improving, and I hope that pressure on the United States to
increase her pork output will soon enable us to raise
the ration without risk of having subsequently to reduce
it. We do not wish to create a grievance amongst
farmers by compelling them to slaughter beasts which
they can fatten without imported feeding stuffs; on the
other hand, of course the country cannot go hungry
because farmers do not choose to bring their beasts to
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market. It will no doubt be possible to arrange with the
Minister of Agriculture, perhaps by a carefully worked-out price policy, a scheme which will keep the meat
supply as constant as possible having regard to seasonal factors.

As to wheat, the point I had in mind was not so
much our stock as the danger of getting into a vicious
circle: people eat more bread owing to a shortage of
meat, and thereby compel you to import more wheat,
thus reducing the shipping space available for bringing
in other foods. I do not believe there is great danger of
the harvest being destroyed by the enemy this year.

We have found it very hard to burn crops, and if you will
ask the Air Ministry they will explain to you why the dew
conditions in this country make it even harder here than
on the Continent.

Prime Minister to Secretary of
3.VII.41.

State for War and C.I.G.S.

In forming a very large armoured force such as we
contemplate, while at the same time carrying on the
war, a large element of improvisation is necessary, and
this applies especially to the more backward formations. It is highly questionable whether the divisional
organisation is right for armoured troops. A system of
self-contained brigade groups forming part of the Royal
Tank Corps would be operationally and administratively
better. One can see how ill-adapted the divisional
system is when the 7th Armoured Division, one of our
most highly trained and armoured units, goes into
action “less one brigade,” it having in fact only two, with
certain additional elements. However, where divisional
formations have grown up and have been clothed with
armed reality, the conditions of war do not permit the
disturbance of a change. With the more backward
formations the case is different. They should be brought
into coherent existence as brigade groups, armed with
the best weapons available at the moment, and worked
up gradually by increasing the proportion of the latest
armoured vehicles. Care should be taken that in every
phase of their working-up they should have a definite
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fighting value. It may not be possible to give all the
armoured brigade groups the same equipment at the
same time. They must take what is going, and make
the best of it. For instance, in forming a new or backward armoured brigade group in this country, it should
first of all receive a full complement of armoured cars or
Bren gun carriers, and should immediately become

“brigade conscious.” They should be trained in regimental and brigade exercises just as if they were a fully
equipped armoured formation. This is specially true in
all wireless telegraphy services. In an emergency they
would act as a motor machine-gun unit. As proper
tanks become available, these should be infused into
the regiments as a growing core, until finally the men
are well used to looking after motor vehicles and well-trained in the manoeuvres of an armoured brigade
formation. They would then eventually receive their full
equipment of whatever tanks are available, these tanks
themselves being replaced by later models as they
come to hand or are transferred to them from the more
fully equipped formations. Thus, at every stage there
would be weeded out the non-tank-minded personnel,
there would be an expansion of instruction in tank
tactics, and a practical value in the event of emergency
would be maintained.

2. Different conditions present themselves in the
case of the cavalry division, which has so long been in
Palestine ineffective as a military factor. This cavalry
division should be reorganised, as fast as emergency
conditions of war permit, in two brigade groups, each of
which should consist of three tank regiments, twelve
motorised field guns, one motorised machine-gun
regiment, and ancillary services. The formation of these
two armoured brigade groups should have a high
priority, certainly one in advance of any more backward
British armoured units. It would be a great convenience
if these two brigades could in the first instance be
ripened from mere motor machine-gun units into tank
units by receiving the flow of light medium tanks from
the United States which has now begun. President
Roosevelt has informed me that he has allocated (apart
from the sixty already approaching and other orders)
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two hundred light cruiser tanks for shipment in
American vessels to Suez in the next few months.

Surely these additional two hundred should form the
main equipment of the two ex-cavalry armoured
brigade groups. The balance of the various regiments
would continue to use pro tem. the armoured cars or
Bren gun carriers which they had begun to work with.

The marrying of these good troops to the windfall of two
hundred extra American light cruiser tanks would bring
into being two effective armoured brigade units extremely well adapted for Palestinian, Syrian, and Iraqian
warfare at a far earlier date than any equal fighting
value could be [otherwise] achieved.

Prime Minister to Major

6.VII.41.

Morion

Please make sure that a list is kept of young
Frenchmen who are sentenced by the Vichy courts to
imprisonment for de Gaullist sympathies in France or in
Morocco, so that they may be looked after later on.

(Action this day.) Prime

6.VII.41.

Minister to C.I.G.S.

It is nearly six months since you and Mr. Eden went
to Cairo, charged inter alia, with the task of reporting on
the interior economy of the Army in the Middle East.

Yet today the condition is deplorable, and our detailed
knowledge most defective. The War Office ought to
have a full picture of the development of the fighting
formations, and I certainly cannot discharge my responsibilities without it.

2. It is not much to ask a division or brigade group to
send in a monthly return of their major items of equipment. I cannot imagine a competent divisional general
who would not know where he was in this matter from
week to week – indeed, almost from day to day.

3. We should have a monthly return, considering the
immense daily flow, including Air Force trivialities.

General Haining’s organisation ought to know the
whole position, and there ought to be no difficulty in
their telling us.

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You are wrong in supposing that this return is
needed for statistical purposes only. Without a clear up-to-date picture of the state of Middle East formations no
view or major decisions can be taken by the Defence
Committee or the War Cabinet. The alternative is to
continue in the state of ignorance and confusion which
is leading us towards disaster.

While I should be ready to agree to some small
simplification of details, if you will propose it to me, I
must insist upon knowing all the essential facts.
20

(Action this day.) Prime

6.VII.41.

Minister to Secretary of State
for War

Why have we not yet been told that the Blues, Life
Guards, and Essex Yeomanry took part in the capture
of Palmyra? These units have long ago been identified
by contact, and there cannot be any military reasons for
not disclosing this interesting piece of information to the
British public.

It is this kind of abuse of censorship, in the name of
operational secrecy, that rightly irritates the House as
well as the press, and makes the more important
positions more difficult to hold.

Prime Minister to Minister of

7.VII.41.

Food

I am glad that you are preparing for the American
authorities an estimate of our full requirements of pork
and dairy products, and that you have asked them for a
greatly increased programme for eggs. The total figure
of the food imports to be obtained from America will, I
trust, be much bigger than the one and a third million
tons at present envisaged. With due notice I feel sure
that the Americans, without rationing themselves, could
produce much more food for export to us. (Pork production in the United States frequently fluctuates by nearly
half a million tons from year to year.)
I trust that every effort is made to get our meat from
the nearest sources. With due warning and a guarantee
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perhaps the Argentine could also expand their meat
production.

Oil and oil-seeds are no doubt obtained so far as
possible from Africa and imported on ships returning
from the Middle East. We can ill afford to send ships to
India or the Pacific for this purpose now.

Prime Minister to Foreign

9.VII.41.

Secretary

Something like the following should be sent to the
Minister of State for his information:
Following from Prime Minister. Personal and secret.

Begins. An agent who we think is sure came a fortnight
ago to establish a liaison between us and Vichy. Our
talks with him were on the dead level. He now sends us
the following, dated July 5:

“(1) The French Government has given the following
general instructions to General Dentz: When Syria is
occupied by the British, the French civil servants must
remain at their posts and carry on with their duties in
collaboration with the Free French forces.