The Grand Alliance (167 page)

of State for India

Certainly let an invitation be sent, provided that in
general you see U Saw.
23

Prime Minister to First Sea

25.VIII.41.

Lord

Will you please let me have on one sheet of paper a
list of the effective Japanese Fleet and flotillas, with
dates of construction, and the ships which are ready
now.

(Action this day.)Prime

26.VIII.41.

Minister to Minister of

Agriculture

I hear bad tales about the harvest. What is the
position today? We are clear of Saint Swithin’s forty
days now. If we get fine weather what sort of estimate
can you make? Alas, we spoke too soon!

Prime Minister to

26.VIII.41.

Production Executive

I am concerned at the great amount of man-power
and raw materials which are still being directed to
constructional work. The works and building programme is using two and one-fourth million tons of
imported materials a year (iron, steel, and timber) and
three-quarters of a million men.

Has not the time come to disallow all new projects of
factory construction, save in very exceptional cases?

Can we justify further expenditure when so much
existing plant is only half-employed? Could not building
resources be better used in providing hostels and
amenities for the labour needed to man extra shifts in
the existing plant?

The utmost economy should also be sought in
Service requirements, which are apt to be on a more
lavish scale than the needs of the moment or the
available resources justify.

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I trust that there is some machinery for preventing
designs being accepted which are wasteful of imported
material.

Please inform me what safeguards you have to
ensure: (a) That new factories or building undertakings
are really essential, (b) That the plans and designs for
such undertakings are of the most economical
character (c) That building labour is used to the best
advantage.

Prime Minister to C.A.S.

27.VIII.41.

I have certainly sustained the impression that the Air
Ministry in the past has been most hard and unhelpful
both to the Army and to the Navy in meeting their
special requirements. The Navy succeeded in breaking
away before the war, but the Army lies under a sense
of having been denied its proper air assistance. To
some extent this can be excused by the plea that the
need of increasing the R.A.F. was paramount. Now that
that need is no longer so overwhelming I trust the
Army’s grievances and complaints will be met.

There is a widespread belief that we have not
developed dive-bombers because of the fear of the Air
Ministry that a weapon of this kind specially associated
with the Army might lead to a formation of a separate
Army wing.

All these things happened before your time, but their
consequences are with us today.

Prime Minister to Foreign

27.VIII.41.

Office

Give me in a few lines the reasons which led to
Siam calling itself Thailand. What are the historic merits
of these two names?

Prime Minister to General

27.VIII.41.

Ismay, for C.O.S.

Committee

In several quarters there are indications of a
German move against Murmansk. It appears that,
though there were no transports found when we made
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our abortive attack, considerable numbers are on the
move now. What are we going to do about it now? Is it
settled that we can do nothing more in the North?

When do our two squadrons reach Murmansk? Can
nothing naval be done to obstruct the movement of
German transports?

Prime Minister to

28.VIII.41.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

How much gold have we actually got left in this
island or under our control in South Africa? Don’t be
alarmed: I am not going to ask you for anything.

Prime Minister to Sir E.

28.VIII.41.

Bridges

Mr. Harcourt Johnstone will preside over an interde-partmental committee containing representatives of the
offices concerned for the purpose of devising the best
possible plan for relaxation of the black-out restrictions
during the present comparative lull in the enemy’s air
attack: (a) on vehicles required for vital war services;
and (b) for factories and ports. The object is to secure
the maximum of production for war purposes.

2. The committee should consider, inter alia: (a) the
categories of vehicles permitted to relax; (b) the subdued character of the lighting enabling them to proceed
at a reasonable speed; (c) the particular routes over
which and areas in which these relaxations may be
especially required by the Ministry of Supply, Ministry of
Aircraft Production, and the Admiralty; and, finally, (d)
the means of speedy return to present style if and when
this is rendered necessary by enemy action in any
district or throughout the country.

3. The committee is to report in one week to the
Prime Minister. All departments are expected to cooperate in the public interest to the utmost. The preparation of the best possible plan must be considered a
technical study, and does not necessarily commit the
Ministerial heads of the departments concerned to its
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adoption. This may be remitted to a committee of War
Cabinet Ministers on grounds of general policy.

(Action this day.) Prime

29.VIII.41.

Minister to Secretary of

Slate for War

I must draw your attention to the state of the cruiser
tanks [in Britain]. This week, out of four hundred and
eight, there are actually more unfit for service than fit.

This figure and the system on which it rests require
evidently strong handling. The proportion of unfit is
getting worse each week.

Let me know who is responsible, and what you are
going to do about it.

(Action this day.) Prime

29.VIII.41.

Minister to C.A.S.

The loss of seven Blenheims out of seventeen in the
daylight attack on merchant shipping and docks at
Rotterdam is most severe. Such losses might be
accepted in attacking Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, or
Tirpitz, or a south-bound Tripoli convoy, because, apart
from the damage done, a first-class strategic object is
served. But they seem disproportionate to an attack on
merchant shipping not engaged in vital supply work.

The losses in our bombers have been very heavy this
month, and Bomber Command is not expanding as was
hoped. While I greatly admire the bravery of the pilots, I
do not want them pressed too hard. Easier targets
giving a high damage return compared with casualties
may more often be selected.

Let me have a return showing all bombers written off
in August for any cause, including crashes on landing,
and also the number of bombers received from M.A.P.,
and the number manufactured and imported.

(Action this day.) Prime

30.VIII.41.

Minister to C.A.S.

What is being done about increasing the night-fighter defence in the Middle East? I gather they are by
no means up to date with our devices, yet Alexandria,
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Suez, and the Suez Canal are places of the highest
consequence.

Pray let me have a short report. General Pile might
be helpful in drawing up a list of an advanced echelon
of night-fighting devices, organization, and supplies. All
this is very important. Speed is vital.

Prime Minister to C.A.S.

30.VIII.4I.

This estimate of seventeen hundred German aircraft
knocked out in the Russian fighting should now be
brought into relation to the results of the second Singleton survey of the relative British and German air
strength in all theatres.

Let me know the result at your convenience.

Prime Minister to V.C.A.S.

30.VIII.41.

Good.

“The devotion and gallantry of the attacks on Rotterdam and other objectives are beyond all praise. The
charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in
brightness by these almost daily deeds of fame.”

Tell the squadrons and publish if you think well.
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Prime Minister to General

30.VIII.41.

Ismay, for C.O.S.

Committee

Although personally I am quite content with the
existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path
of improvement, and I therefore think that action should
be taken in the sense proposed by Lord Cherwell, and
that the Cabinet Minister responsible should be Sir
John Anderson.
25

I shall be glad to know what the Chiefs of Staff
Committee think.

Prime Minister to First Sea

31.VIII.41.

Lord

If you think fit, and the ships are safely in port,
please convey to the Admiralty War Staff, Trade Divi-The Grand Alliance

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sion, C.-in-C: Western Approaches, Coastal Command,
and others concerned my compliments upon the
vigilance, ingenuity, and flexible organisation which has
in the last week enabled so great a number of ships to
pass through the exceptionally heavy U-boat concentration.

Prime Minister to Minister of

31.VII.41.

Information

How is our big broadcasting station, which is to
override foreign broadcasts, getting on? There was a
long delay in setting about it, but I understand the
fullest priorities have been given. Please give me a
short report – half a page.

2. I think it very important that the German films of
the invasion of Russia should be shown in England,
and also that they should be sent to the United States.

Mr. Winant fully concurs with this last. I sent you a
message last week that I thought ten minutes of these
German atrocities would be the best possible prelude to
the Atlantic meeting and Iceland films. What has been
done about this?

3. Have the Icelanders got a copy of the film about
themselves?

SEPTEMBER

Prime Minister to C.I.G.S.

8.IX.41.

Please let me have a short report on the present
position of delayed-action fuzes.

At the end of the last war the Germans used these
on a great scale for rendering impossible the use of
railway lines, and also for booby-traps, when they
retreated in France.

The periods of delay should be varied from a few
days to several months, so that uncertainty is never
absent and breakdowns on the lines are continual. I
understand the method was a small metal box, not
much bigger than a cigar-case, in which an acid gradually ate through a metal wire, thus establishing a contact
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or opening an orifice. No doubt many improvements
have taken place.

The whole aspect of our layout in the East leads me
to think that provision of these devices on a very
considerable scale should be undertaken. We are
making airfields in Anatolia, Syria, Persia, Cyprus, etc.,
and railways and roads are being improved and pushed
forward. We ought to have the means of making them
unusable by the enemy for a considerable time should
we have to fall back. The best way of doing this would
be to build in the mines beforehand, leaving a small
sealed passage through which the appropriate fuze
could be passed, should it become necessary to arm
these mines. Every airfield should have twenty or thirty
mines built into it. Should it be necessary to evacuate,
the fuzes could be put in and the surface smoothed
over. The danger period must certainly last at least six
months, and railroads (at any rate in their forward
sections) should have at least three or four mines to the
mile, and all bridges and tunnels should be mined. The
uncertainty of when a line or road would be out of order
is more baffling than even widespread destruction,
which is over once and for all. Pray let me have your
thought on this.