Edited by Gerald Boerner
Commentary:
Today marks the anniversary of the first trip of a U.S. President being transported in an airplane while in office. What was the occasion? FDR was travelling to North Africa to meet with Winston Churchill at the Casablanca Conference in 1943. This conference would make several decisions related to the conduct by the Allies of World War II. Probably the most important of these was the decision to invade Sicily and Italy before landing troops in the north of France.
The Invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was planned for July, 1943. This was to be a joint effort by British and American troops under the leadership of Montgomery and Patton, respectively. The antagonism between these two generals would foreshadow the conflict between the two during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy during the D-Day landings. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Commander-in-Chief during both operations. It is to Eisenhower’s credit that he was able to get these two “head-strong” leaders to work in basic harmony.
Not discussed at the Casablanca Conference, but important to the success of Operation Husky. This was the deception scheme incorporated into Operation Mincemeat. This involved using a dead body carrying fictitious letters to North African leaders. This body, a “Major William Martin,” was a man with a carefully created life who was to wash up on the Spanish shore with the intent that the German spy machine flourishing in Spain during 1943. If the Germans believed the deception, which they did, would save lives during the invasion of Sicily.
Now is the time to proceed with our exploration of this Allied conference… GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved[ 3813 Words ]
Quotations Related to STRATEGY:
“A country’s strategy is always based on a fundamental philosophical outlook.”
— Marc Forne Molne
“Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy.”
— Anita Brookner
“Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.”
— Rudy Giuliani
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
— Sun Tzu
“And we want to develop our strategy to partnership and friendship with the United States, which is connected with a very rich history but what is very important for our future.”
— Aleksander Kwasniewski
“Bush is going in the wrong way. And I dare say, that is what the strategy of his administration is, is just to wipe out government’s purpose for any social and economic justice… And I’m going to take the country in an opposite direction than he’s taking it.”
— Dennis Kucinich
“Churchill knew the importance of peace, and he also knew the price of it. Churchill finally got his voice, of course. He stressed strategy, but it was his voice that armed England at last with the old-fashioned moral concepts of honor and duty, justice and mercy.”
— Suzanne Fields
“During my time, there might have been one pitcher or two that were top pitchers on a team. Teams that won maybe had three, but today they have a lot of depth. They have a lot of long relievers, short relievers, and the strategy is different.”
— Ernie Banks
Presidential Firsts — FDR Flies to Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then a French protectorate, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II. Present were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had also been invited but declined to attend in light of the ongoing conflict at Stalingrad. General Charles de Gaulle had initially refused to come but changed his mind when Churchill threatened to recognize Henri Giraud as head of the Free French Forces in his place. Giraud was also present at Casablanca, and there was notable tension between the two men during the talks.
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.
Husky began on the night of 9–10 July 1943, and ended 17 August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. The Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island; the Mediterranean’s sea lanes were opened and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was toppled from power. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy.
The Primary Participants in the Casablanca Conference
For the British
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 – 1965) was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War (WWII). He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He served as prime minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. To date, he is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he was the first person created an honorary citizen of the United States. (…)
Out of office and politically "in the wilderness" during the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in warning about the danger from Hitler and in campaigning for rearmament. On the outbreak of WWII, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender or a compromise peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to Hitler. Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the British people and the embattled Allied forces. He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory had been secured over Nazi Germany.
After the Conservative Party lost the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition. In 1951, he again became Prime Minister, before retiring in 1955. Upon his death, the Queen granted him the honor of a state funeral, which saw one of the largest assemblies of world statesmen ever.
For the Americans
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945, also known by his initials, FDR) was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. The only American president elected to more than two terms, he forged a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the depths of the Great Depression. FDR’s combination of optimism and activism contributed to reviving the national spirit. Working closely with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Germany and Japan in World War II, he died just as victory was in sight. (…)
As World War II loomed after 1938, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggressions of Nazi Germany, FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" which would supply munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with Great Britain. He secured a near-unanimous declaration of war against Japan after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". He supervised the mobilization of the US economy to support the Allied war effort. Unemployment dropped to 2%, relief programs largely ended, and the industrial economy grew rapidly to new heights as millions of people moved to new jobs in war centers, and 16 million men (and 300,000 women) were drafted or volunteered for military service.
Roosevelt dominated the American political scene, not only during the twelve years of his presidency, but for decades afterward. He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party System. FDR’s New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt’s diplomatic impact also resonated on the world stage long after his death, with the United Nations and Bretton Woods as examples of his administration’s wide-ranging impact. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.
The Free French
The Free French Forces (French: Forces Françaises Libres, FFL) were French fighters in World War II who decided to continue fighting against Axis forces after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.
Definition
In many sources, Free French describes any French individual or unit that fought against Axis forces after the June 1940 armistice. The reality is more complex as the French forces of the Army of Africa under General Henri Giraud did take part in the fight against the Axis, for example in Tunisia in early 1943, without any relationship with Charles de Gaulle’s organization.
Historically, an individual became Free French after he enlisted in de Gaulle’s Free French organization located in London. Free French units were units formed by these people. De Gaulle’s organization stopped accepting members in mid-1943 as Free French forces were merging with the French forces in North Africa, and the Comité français de libération nationale (CFLN) was set up in Algiers.
Postwar, to settle disputes over the Free French heritage, the French government issued an official definition of the term. Under this "ministerial instruction of July 1953" (instruction ministérielle du 29 juillet 1953), only those who served with the Allies after the Franco-German armistice in 1940 and before 1 August 1943 may correctly be called "Free French".
French forces after July 1943 are therefore correctly designated as the "forces of Liberation".
Notable Remarks
During the Conference, Roosevelt also spoke with the French resident general at Rabat, Morocco, about postwar independence and Jewish immigrants in North America. Roosevelt proposed that:
"[t]he number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc.) should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population…. [T]his plan would further eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany, namely, that while they represented a small part of the population, over 50 percent of the lawyers, doctors, schoolteachers, college professors, etc., in Germany were Jews."
This remark was made in response to an early move of the National Socialist Party of Germany (the Nazi Party), which on April 25, 1933 passed the Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning. This stated that "in admissions, care is to be taken that the number of Reich Germans…of non-Aryan descent [i.e. Jews], out of the total attending each school and each faculty, does not exceed the proportion of the non-Aryans [Jews] within the Reich population." The ratio for admissions was set at 1.5%, and a quota of 5% was imposed on Jewish attendance at any single university or school.
The Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of April 27, 1933 described the rationale behind the act as follows: "Allowing the presence of too high a percentage of people of foreign origin [Jews] in relation to their percentage of the population could be interpreted as an acceptance of the superiority of other races, something decidedly to be rejected."
Casablanca Conference 1943
Feb 12, 1943
The decisions reached and the actual plans made at Casablanca were not confined to any one theater of war or to any one continent or ocean or sea. Before this year is out, it will be made known to the world-in actions rather than words-that the Casablanca Conference produced plenty of news; and it will be bad news for the Germans and Italians-and the Japanese.
We have lately concluded a long, hard battle in the Southwest Pacific and we have made notable gains. That battle started in the Solomons and New Guinea last summer. It has demonstrated our superior power in planes and, most importantly, in the fighting qualities of our individual soldiers and sailors.
American armed forces in the Southwest Pacific are receiving powerful aid from Australia and New Zealand and also directly from the British themselves.
We do not expect to spend the time it would take to bring Japan to final defeat merely by inching our way forward from island to island across the vast expanse of the Pacific.
Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will be taken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Important actions will be taken in the skies over China-and over Japan itself.
The discussions at Casablanca have been continued in Chungking with the Generalissimo by General Arnold and have resulted in definite plans for offensive operations.
There are many roads which lead right to Tokyo. We shall neglect none of them.
In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster, the Axis propagandist are trying all of their old tricks in order to divide the United Nations. They seek to create the idea that if we win this war, Russia, England, China, and the United States are going to get into a cat-and-dog fight.
This is their final effort to turn one nation against another, in the vain hope that they may settle with one or two at a time-that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be duped into making "deals" at the expense of our Allies.
To these panicky attempts to escape the consequences of their crimes we say-all the United Nations say-that the only terms on which we shall deal with an Axis government or any Axis factions are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca: "Unconditional Surrender." In our uncompromising policy we mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution in full upon their guilty, barbaric leaders…
In the years of the American and French revolutions the fundamental principle guiding our democracies was established. The cornerstone of our whole democratic edifice was the principle that from the people and the people alone flows the authority of government.
It is one of our war aims, as expressed in the Atlantic Charter, that the conquered populations of today be again the masters of their destiny. There must be no doubt anywhere that it is the unalterable purpose of the United Nations to restore to conquered peoples their sacred rights.
Casablanca Declaration
The conference’s Casablanca Declaration called for the Allies to seek the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. It also called for Allied aid to the Soviet Union, the invasion of Sicily and Italy, and the recognition of joint leadership of the Free French by de Gaulle and Giraud. The battle never happened. All the terms were agreed upon. Roosevelt presented the results of the conference to the American people in a radio address on February 12, 1943. Also decided during the Casablanca Conference was that there would be no "across channel invasion" in 1943. Instead of invading Europe across the English Channel, an invasion into Sicily and then Italy would take place.
Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky)
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.
Husky began on the night of 9–10 July 1943, and ended 17 August. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. The Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island; the Mediterranean’s sea lanes were opened and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was toppled from power. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy.
The plan for Operation Husky called for the amphibious assault of the island by two armies, one landing on the south eastern and one on the central southern coast. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by naval gunfire, and tactical bombing, interdiction and close air support by the combined air forces. As such, the operation required a complex command structure, incorporating land, naval and air forces. The overall commander was the American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces North Africa. The British General Sir Harold Alexander acted as his second in command and as the Land Forces / Army Group commander. The American Major General Walter Bedell Smith was appointed as Chief of Staff. The overall Naval Force Commander was the British Admiral Andrew Cunningham.
Deception
To distract the Axis, and if possible divert some of their forces to other areas, the Allies engaged in several deception operations. The most famous and successful of these was Operation Mincemeat. The British allowed a corpse disguised as a British officer to drift ashore in Spain, carrying a briefcase containing fake secret documents which supposedly revealed that the Allies were planning to invade Greece and Sardinia, and had no plans to invade Sicily. German intelligence accepted the authenticity of the documents with the result that the Germans diverted much of their defensive effort from Sicily to Greece. Still, there were a large number of German and Italian soldiers on Sicily when the invasion started. The Germans in particular had soldiers on Sicily that they had withdrawn from North Africa and had not yet reassigned to the Eastern Front.
The Deceptive Documents
While the cover identity was created by Montagu and his team, the false documents were also being created. Montagu and his team insisted that these must be at the very highest level, so that there would be no question of the supposed senders being misinformed. The main document was a personal letter from "Archie Nye" (Lt. Gen. Sir Archibald Nye, Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff) to "My dear Alex" (General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of 18th Army Group in Algeria and Tunisia). The letter covered several "sensitive" subjects, such as the (unwanted) award of Purple Heart medals by U.S. forces to British servicemen serving with them, and the appointment of a new commander of the Guards Brigade. This explained its being hand-carried rather than sent through regular channels. On the specific topic of Allied plans in the Mediterranean, the letter referred to Operation Husky as the invasion of Greece by troops from Egypt and Libya under General "Jumbo" Wilson. Two assault beaches and some of the assigned troops were named. (Husky was actually the invasion of Sicily.) The letter also mentioned a second planned attack, Operation Brimstone, for which the cover target was Sicily. This implied that Alexander’s forces in Tunisia would invade Sardinia, that being the only other plausible target. "Archie" added that "we stand a very good chance of making [the Germans] think we are going for Sicily." The letter was composed by Sir Archibald himself.
There was also a letter of introduction for Major Martin from "his" commanding officer, Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, to Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet and Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean. This letter included a clumsy joke about "sardines", which Montagu inserted in hopes the Germans would see it as a reference to a planned invasion of Sardinia.
The Germans (and their Spanish friends) had apparently missed the letter in Paymaster-Lt. Turner’s pocket, so Montagu’s team decided to put the documents in a briefcase which could not be overlooked. To justify carrying documents in a briefcase, "Major Martin" was given two copies of the official pamphlet on Combined Operations by Hilary Saunders, and a letter from Mountbatten to General Eisenhower, asking him to write a brief foreword for the pamphlet’s U.S. edition.
It was also necessary to ensure that the body and the briefcase with the documents would be recovered together. The team first thought of having the handle clutched in the corpse’s hand, held in place by rigor mortis. But the rigor would probably wear off and the briefcase would drift away. The team therefore equipped Major Martin with a leather-covered chain, such as was used by bank and jewelry couriers to secure their cases against snatching. The chain unobtrusively runs down a sleeve to the case. British officer couriers didn’t use such chains, but the Germans might not know that, nor be certain that a real "Major Martin" wouldn’t use one for this special job. It seemed unlikely that the Major would keep the bag at his wrist during the long flight from Britain, so the chain was looped around the belt of his trench coat.
Please take time to further explore more about CASABLANCA CONFERENCE,
OPERATION HUSKY, INVASION OF SICILY, OPERATION MINCEMEAT,
WINSTON CHURCHILL, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, and DECEPTION
by accessing the Wikipedia articles referenced below…
References
Other Events on this Day:
In 1639…
Three Connecticut towns adopt the Fundamental Orders, one of the earliest constitutions in the colonies.In 1784…
The Treaty of Paris is officially ratified by the Continental Congress at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, formally ending hostilities between Great Britain and the newly created sovereign United States.In 1914…
Henry Ford introduces a moving assembly line for cars, reducing production time from more than 12 hours to about 90 minutes.In 1943…
President Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president to travel by airplane on official business as a passenger aboard the "Dixie Clipper," a Pan American Boeing 314 Flying Boat. Roosevelt arrives in Morocco to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other Allied leaders to discuss strategy in World War II at the Casablanca Conference.In 1954…
New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio and movie star Marilyn Monroe are wed at San Francisco City Hall. Their marriage will end in divorce less than a year later.
Dates and events based on:
William J. Bennett and John Cribb, (2008) The American Patriot’s Almanac Daily Readings on America. (Kindle Edition)
Background information is from Wikipedia articles on:
Wikipedia: Casablanca Conference (1943)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference
Wikipedia: European Theatre of World War II…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Theatre_of_World_War_II
Wikipedia: Operation Husky (Allied Invasion of Sicily)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Husky
Wikipedia: Franklin D. Roosevelt…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
Wikipedia: Winston Churchill…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
Wikipedia: Free French Forces (World War II)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_French
Avalon Law: Casablanca Conference, 1943…
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/casablan.asp
Wikipedia: Operation Mincemeat…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
Damn Interesting: Mincemeat and the Imaginary Man…
http://www.damninteresting.com/mincemeat-and-the-imaginary-man
Wikipedia: List of World War II Conferences…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_conferences
Brainy Quote: STRATEGY Quotes…
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/strategy.html
Other Posts on related Topic:
Prof. Boerner’s Exploration: Tehran Conference, 1943 – Blueprint for Operation Overlord…
http://www.boerner.net/jboerner/?p=15520
Comments Closed
Comments