Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) (25 page)

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3. The plan is that the Eighth Army of ten divisions,
very heavily weighted in depth, will endeavour to pierce
the Gothic Line and turn the whole enemy’s position,
entering the Po valley on the level of Rimini; but at the
right moment, depending on the reactions of the
enemy, Mark Clark will strike with his eight divisions
and elements of both armies should converge to
Bologna. If all goes well I hope that the advance will be
much more rapid after that and that the continued
heavy fighting will prevent further harm being done to
Eisenhower by the withdrawal of divisions from Italy.

4. I have never forgotten your talks to me at Teheran
about Istria, and I am sure that the arrival of a powerful
army in Trieste and Istria in four or five weeks would
have an effect far outside purely military values. Tito’s
people will be awaiting us in Istria. What the condition
of Hungary will be then I cannot imagine, but we shall
at any rate be in a position to take full advantage of any
great new situation.

I did not send this message off till I reached Naples,
whither I flew on the 28th, nor did I receive the answer
till three days after I got home.

President Roosevelt

31 Aug. 44

to Prime Minister

I was very glad to receive your account of the way in
which General Wilson has concentrated his forces in
Italy and has now renewed the offensive. My Chiefs of
Staff feel that a vigorous attack, using all the forces
available, should force the enemy into the Po valley.

The enemy may then choose to withdraw entirely from
Northern Italy. Since such action on his part might
enable the enemy to release divisions for other fronts,
we must do our best to destroy his forces while we
have them in our grasp. I am confident that General
Wilson has this as his objective. With an offensive
under way and being pressed full strength in Italy, I am
sure that General Eisenhower will be satisfied that
everything possible is being done in the Mediterranean
to assist him by mauling German divisions which might
otherwise be moved against his forces in the near
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future. I understand all available British resources in the
Mediterranean are being put into Italy. We are pressing
into France all reinforcements and resources we can in
order to guarantee that General Eisenhower will be
able to maintain the impetus of the joint victories our
forces have already won. With the smashing success of
our invasion of Southern France and the Russians now
crumbling the enemy flank in the Balkans, I have great
hopes that complete and final victory will not be long
delayed.

It is my thought that we should press the German
Army in Italy vigorously with every facility we have
available, and suspend decision of the future use of
General Wilson’s armies until the results of his
campaign are better known and we have better
information as to what the Germans may do.

We can renew our Teheran talk about Trieste and
Istria at “Octagon” [Quebec].

I was struck by the emphasis which this message laid upon General Wilson.

Prime Minister to

31 Aug. 44

President Roosevelt

All operations in Italy are conceived and executed
by General Alexander in accordance with his general
directives from the Supreme Commander. You will see
that he is now in contact for twenty miles on the Adriatic
flank with the Gothic Line, and a severe battle will be
fought by the Eighth Army. Also General Clark with the
Fifth Army has made an advance from the direction of
Florence. I have impressed most strongly upon General
Alexander the importance of pressing with his utmost
strength to destroy the enemy’s armed forces as well
as turn his line. It will not be easy for the Germans to
effect a general retreat from the Gothic Line over the
Alps, especially if we can arrive in the neighbourhood of
Bologna. The western passes and tunnels into France
are already blocked by your advance into the Rhone
valley. Only the direct route to Germany is open. We
shall do our utmost to engage, harry, and destroy the
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155

enemy. The decisive battle has yet however to be
fought.

2. In view of the fact that the enemy on the Italian
front has been weakened by four of his best divisions,
we no longer ask for further American reinforcements
beyond the 92d Division, which I understand will shortly
reach us. On the other hand, I take it for granted that
no more will be withdrawn from Italy — i.e., that the four
divisions of Clark’s army and the elements remaining
with them will continue there, and that General
Alexander should make his plans on that basis. So
much for the present.

3. As to the future, continuous employment against
the enemy will have to be found for the Eighth and Fifth
Armies once the German armies in Italy have been
destroyed or unluckily have made their escape. This
employment can only take the form of a movement first
to Istria and Trieste and ultimately upon Vienna. Should
the war come to an end in a few months, as may well
be possible, none of these questions will arise.

Anyhow, we can talk this over fully at Quebec.

4. I congratulate you upon the brilliant success of
the landings in Southern France. I earnestly hope the
retreating Germans may be nipped at Valence or Lyons
and rounded up. Another mob of about 90,000 is
apparently streaming back from the South via Poitiers.

Roosevelt sent me another telegram on September 4.

President Roosevelt

4 Sept. 44

to Prime Minister

I share your confidence that the Allied divisions we
have in Italy are sufficient to do the task before them
and that the battle commander will press the battle
unrelentingly with the objective of shattering the enemy
forces. After breaking the German forces on the Gothic
Line we must go on to use our divisions in the way
which best aids General Eisenhower’s decisive drive
into the enemy homeland.

As to the exact employment of our forces in Italy in
the future, this is a matter we can discuss at Quebec. It
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156

seems to me that American forces should be used to
the westward, but I am completely open-minded on
this, and in any event this depends on the progress of
the present battle in Italy, and also in France, where I
strongly feel that we must not stint in any way the
forces needed to break quickly through the western
defences of Germany.

The credit for the great Allied success in Southern
France must go impartially to the combined Allied force,
and the perfection of execution of the operation from its
beginning to the present belong to General Wilson and
his Allied staff and to Patch and his subordinate
commanders. With the present chaotic conditions of the
Germans in Southern France, I hope that a junction of
the north and south forces may be obtained at a much
earlier date than was first anticipated.

We shall see that both these hopes proved vain. The army which we had landed on the Riviera at such painful cost to our operations in Italy arrived too late to help Eisenhower’s first main struggle in the north, while Alexander’s offensive failed, by the barest of margins, to achieve the success it deserved and we so badly needed. Italy was not to be wholly free for another eight months; the right-handed drive to Vienna was denied to us; and, except in Greece, our military power to influence the liberation of Southeastern Europe was gone.

On August 28 I flew home from Naples. Before leaving Italy I set myself to composing a short message of encouragement and hope for the Italian people, for whom I have always had, except when we were actually fighting, a great regard. I had been deeply touched by the kindness with which I was welcomed in all the villages and small towns through which I had driven in traversing the entire front. In return I offered a few words of counsel.

28 Aug. 44

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… It has been said that the price of freedom is
eternal vigilance. The question arises, “What is
freedom?” There are one or two quite simple, practical
tests by which it can be known in the modern world in
peace conditions, namely:

Is there the right to free expression of opinion and of
opposition and criticism of the Government of the day?

Have the people the right to turn out a Government
of which they disapprove, and are constitutional means
provided by which they can make their will apparent?

Are their courts of justice free from violence by the
Executive and from threats of mob violence, and free of
all association with particular political parties?

Will these courts administer open and well-established laws which are associated in the human
mind with the broad principles of decency and justice?

Will there be fair play for poor as well as for rich, for
private persons as well as Government officials?

Will the rights of the individual, subject to his duties
to the State, be maintained and asserted and exalted?

Is the ordinary peasant or workman who is earning a
living by daily toil and striving to bring up a family free
from the fear that some grim police organisation under
the control of a single party, like the Gestapo, started
by the Nazi and Fascist parties, will tap him on the
shoulder and pack him off without fair or open trial to
bondage or ill-treatment?

These simple, practical tests are some of the title-deeds on which a new Italy could be founded….

This does not seem to require any alteration today.

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158

9

The Martyrdom of Warsaw

The Russians Cross the Vistula
—
Germany’s
Collapse on the Eastern Front
—
The Broadcast
from Moscow, July
29
, Calling for a General
Rising in Warsaw
—
The Insurrection Begins,
August
1 —
My Telegram to Stalin of August
4 —
A
Grim Reply — The German Counter-Attack
—
A
Distressing Message from Warsaw — My
Telegram to Eden, August
14
— Vyshinsky’s
Astonishing Statement, and Stalin’s Telegram
ofAugust
16
— The President and I Send a Joint
Appeal, August
20
— Stalin’s Answer — The
Agony of Warsaw Reaches its Height
—
Mr.

Roosevelt’s Message to Me ofAugust
24
— Our
Need ofSoviet Airfields
—
The President is Adverse

— Anger ofthe British War Cabinet
—
Their
Telegram to Moscow, September
4
— Mr.

Roosevelt’s Message of September
5
— Apparent
Change in Soviet Tactics
—
Our Heavy Bombers
Drop Supplies on Warsaw, September
18
— End
of the Tragedy.

T
HE RUSSIAN SUMMER OFFENSIVE brought their armies in late July to the river Vistula. All reports indicated that in the very near future Poland would be in Russian hands. The leaders of the Polish Underground Army, which owed allegiance to the London Government, had now to decide when to raise a general insurrection against the Germans, Triumph and Tragedy