Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) (51 page)

10 Dec. 44

Prime Minister

I communicated to General de Gaulle your opinion
about your preference for an Anglo-French-Soviet Pact
of Mutual Assistance, and spoke in favour of accepting
your proposal. However, General de Gaulle insisted on
concluding a Franco-Soviet Pact, saying that a three-party pact should be concluded at the next stage, as
that question demanded preparation. At the same time
a message came from the President, who informed me
that he had no objection to a Franco-Soviet Pact. In the
result we reached agreement about concluding a pact
and it was signed today. The pact will be published
after General de Gaulle’s arrival in Paris.

I think that General de Gaulle’s visit has had positive
results, and will assist not only in strengthening Franco-Triumph and Tragedy

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Soviet relations, but will also be a contribution to the
common work of the Allies.

It was now for the French to make a similar agreement with us, if they felt so inclined. I informed Stalin of this possibility in a jocular way.

Prime Minister to

19 Dec. 44

Marshal Stalin

I saw last night for the second time the film which
you have given me called Kutuzov. The first time I
greatly admired it, but as it was all in Russian I could
not understand the exact meaning of each situation.

Last night I saw it with the English captions, which
made exactly intelligible the whole thing, and I must tell
you that in my view this is one of the most masterly film
productions I have ever witnessed. Never has the
conflict of two willpowers been more clearly displayed.

Never has the importance of fidelity in commanders and
men been more effectively inculcated by the film
pictures. Never have the Russian soldiers and the
Russian nation been presented by this medium so
gloriously to the British nation. Never have I seen the
art of the camera better used.

2. If you thought it fit privately to communicate my
admiration and thanks to those who have laboured in
producing this work of art and high morale I should
thank you. Meanwhile I congratulate you.

3. I like to think we were together in that deadly
struggle, as in this Thirty Years War. I do not suppose
you showed the film to de Gaulle, any more than I shall
show him Lady Hamilton when he comes over here to
make a similar treaty to that which you have made with
him, and we have made together.

Salutations.

On December 25 he replied that he would “of course welcome the conclusion of an Anglo-French treaty.” I felt that there was no hurry about this and that we should await Triumph and Tragedy

314

a move from the French. On December 31 I minuted to Mr.

Eden:

Prime Minister to

31 Dec. 44

Foreign Secretary

You may feel inclined to see how the proposals
which have come on the tapis meanwhile for a bilateral
treaty between Britain and France shape themselves.

You said to me that if de Gaulle attempted to say that
there could be no Anglo-French Treaty until we had
settled everything about Syria you would let him wait. It
is for him to make the proposal, not us.

Meantime we are losing nothing from the point of
view of security, because the French have practically
no Army and all the other nations concerned are
prostrate or still enslaved. We must be careful not to
involve ourselves in liabilities which we cannot
discharge and in engagements to others for which there
is no corresponding return. I do not know what our
financial position will be after the War, but I am sure we
shall not be able to maintain armed forces sufficient to
protect all these helpless nations even if they make
some show of recreating their armies. Anyhow, the first
thing to do is to set up the World Organisation, on
which all depends.

Triumph and Tragedy

315

17

Counter-Stroke in the Ardennes

Death of Field-Marshal Dill
—
American Tributes
—

The Advance to the Rhine
—
The United States
First Army Attempts to Seize the Dams on the
River Roer
—
Patton is Halted on the Siegfried Line

—
The Liberation of Strasbourg, November
23
— II
Report to Smuts, December
3
— A Strategic
Reverse on the Western Front
—
My Telegram to
the President of December
6
— His Optimistic
Reply, December
10
— Crisis in the Ardennes,
December
16
— The German Break-Through
—

Eisenhower Acts with Speed
—
General Bradley’s
Front is Severed and Field-Marshal Montgomery
is Given Command in the North
—
My Telegram to
Smuts of December
22
— Bitter Fighting at
Marche
—
The Weather Improves, December
23
—

The Struggle for Bastogne — Our Counter-Offensive from the North Begins, January
33
—

My Telegram to the President of January
6
—

American Gallantry
—
I Make a Personal Appeal to
Stalin, January
6
— His Thrilling Reply, January
7

—
The Allies Capture Houffalize, January
16
—

The Threat to Strasbourg — Montgomery’s
Tribute to the American Soldiers
—
My Speech in
the Commons, January
18
.

N
OVEMBER brought the Allied cause the loss of Field-Marshal Sir John Dill, the head of our Inter-Service Mission in Washington. After forty years of a full Army life, which Triumph and Tragedy

316

began in the South African war, he was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff in May, 1940. In that great position his balanced judgment and steadfast temperament were a great stand-by in our days of peril. After Pearl Harbour he was transferred to Washington, where he interpreted our views to the United States Chiefs of Staff.

He soon endeared himself there and formed a firm personal friendship with General Marshall which proved invaluable in overcoming the frets and frictions that inevitably arise between Allies. This was the climax of his career. He would surely have lived far beyond his sixty-three years but for his selfless devotion to duty; but even when a very sick man he would not give in. As a last tribute to him and to all he stood for, he was accorded the signal distinction of burial in the National Cemetery at Arlington, where America’s great men lie. An equestrian statue was erected to his memory by the American Army.

The President sent me a message saying: “America joins with Great Britain in sorrow at the loss of your distinguished soldier whose personal admirers here are legion.” I thanked him and to General Marshall I said, “I read with emotion the message which the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff have addressed to their British colleagues about the death of our friend Sir John Dill. Let me express my own thanks for all your kind thoughts. He did all he could to make things go well, and they went well.”

To fill the gap required important changes in our commands.

Prime Minister to

21 Nov. 44

General

Wilson

(Italy)

It is of great importance that Field-Marshal Dill’s
position should be filled by someone who would have
access to the President from time to time and a status
which would enable him to be in very close touch with

Triumph and Tragedy

317

General Marshall. It goes without saying that the officer
selected must be one who works well with Americans
and be in full possession of the general outlook upon
the war as a whole. I can find only one officer with the
necessary credentials and qualities, namely yourself. I
have therefore proposed to the President that you
should succeed Dill as Head of the British Military
Mission, and my official representative in military
matters at Washington. The President has cordially
agreed and you are assured of a warm welcome in
Washington. I hope therefore that you will feel able to
let me know at once that you accept this extremely
important appointment.

2. I also proposed to the President that General
Alexander should become Allied Supreme Commander
in the Mediterranean in succession to you with General
McNarney as his deputy, and that General Mark Clark
should take over the Group of armies on the Italian
Front.

3. The President has replied that these proposals
are entirely agreeable to the United States Chiefs of
Staff and to himself.

4. I should like you to come home this next week for
a day or two for a preliminary discussion. I hope that
you can manage this. My “York” will come out at once. I
hope you will bring Macmillan with you.

“I appreciate the compliment,” the President had cabled,

“you pay General Clark in suggesting that he take over the Army Group in Italy as General Alexander’s successor.”

There had meanwhile been much preparation on the Western Front for the advance to the Rhine. The November rains were the worst for many years, flooding the rivers and streams, and making quagmires through which the infantry had to struggle. In the British sector Dempsey’s Second Army drove the enemy from their large salient west of Triumph and Tragedy

318

Venlo back across the Meuse.
1
Farther south our XXXth Corps had come into the line between Maeseyck and Geilenkirchen, where they joined hands with the Ninth U.S.

Army. Together they took Geilenkirchen on November 19, after intensive artillery preparation, and then toiled over saturated country towards the river Roer. The right of the Ninth Army reached it near Jülich on December 3, while the First Army on their flank had a bitter struggle in the Hurtgen Forest. Seventeen Allied divisions were engaged. The enemy had almost as many and the fighting was severe.

It would have been rash as yet to cross the river, because its level was controlled by massive dams a score of miles to the south. These were still in enemy hands, and by opening the sluices he could have cut off our troops on the far bank.

Heavy bombers tried to burst the dams and release the water, but in spite of several direct hits no gap was made, and on December 13 the First U.S. Army had to renew their advance to capture them.