The Grand Alliance (162 page)

8. It will be impossible for us to maintain from Great
Britain any large addition to our Army in the Middle
East, because we have to go round the Cape. The
main accretion of this Army must come from India,
Australasia, and South Africa, with later on munitions
from the United States. Three or four more British
divisions is the most we can hope to send and keep
there. One must consider that General Weygand’s
silence has released us from any offer of helping him
up to six divisions, although of course we might act on
our own volition. An amphibious striking force of eight
or ten divisions, mostly armoured, is the utmost that
need be envisaged in the West. There can be no
question of an advance in force against the German
armies on the mainland of Europe.

9. The above considerations and the situation as a
whole make it impossible for the Army, except in
resisting invasion, to play a primary rôle in the defeat of
the enemy. That task can only be done by the staying
power of the Navy, and above all by the effect of Air
predominance. Very valuable and important services
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may be rendered overseas by the Army in operations of
a secondary order, and it is for these special operations
that its organisation and character should be adapted.

10. The reactions of the foregoing directive on manpower accommodation, ammunition, stores, etc.,
should be worked out.

Prime Minister to General

4.VI.41.

Wavell

I have for some time been considering means by
which I could lighten the burden of administration which
falls on your shoulders while you have four different
campaigns to conduct and so much quasi-political and
diplomatic business.

2. During the last nine months we have sent you
close on 50 per cent of our whole output here,
excepting tanks and less India’s sub-share. You have
at the present moment 530,000 soldiers on your ration
strength, 500 field guns, 350 A.A. guns, 450 heavy
tanks, and 350 anti-tank guns. In the months of
January to May upward of 7000 mechanical vehicles
have reached you. In drafts alone, apart from units, we
have sent since the beginning of the year 13,000. The
fighting in the South has for two months past enabled a
northward movement to begin, yet you are evidently
hard put to find a brigade, or even a battalion, and in
continual telegrams you complain of your shortage of
transport, which you declare limits all your operations.

3. In order to help you to produce the best results, I
wish to relieve you as much as possible of administration, and thus leave you free to give your fullest thought
to policy and operations. Here at home General Brooke
has a very large army to handle and train, but he has
behind him the departments of the War Office and of
the Ministry of Supply. Something like this separation of
functions must be established in the Middle East,
although in this case your ultimate authority as Commander-in-Chief will reign over the whole theatre.

4. What has been said above applies also, mutatis
mutandis, to the air force and Fleet air arm.

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5. The shipping stringency has prevented the
reinforcement of the Middle East to the scale which I
had hoped for some months ago, and the undoubted
threat of invasion in the late summer and autumn had
made the General Staff and the Home Forces Command most close-fisted. Nevertheless, it is hoped,
depending on the situation, to send you in the next four
months – that is to say, June, July, August, and
September – an additional infantry division, besides the
50th, as well as a full supply of drafts, details, and
equipment of all kinds. Thus it should be possible to
organise for the autumn and winter campaigns, which
may well be very severe, the following mobile field
forces: Four Australian divisions, one New Zealand
division, two British Indian divisions (4th and 5th), two
South African divisions, the 6th British Infantry Division

– to be organised on the spot, the 50th British Infantry
Division, and the new division (total British divisions
three).

You have now ready or in process of construction
the 7th and the 2d Armoured Divisions, and you have
got to make the best you can of the trained Cavalry
Division, which is being reconstituted as an armoured
force. Total, fifteen divisions. This represents about
600,000 men, from which, without prejudice to the
mobile divisions, internal security forces and rearward
services must also be provided.

6. All future British Indian divisions will go in at
Basra, and I hope that Eritrea, Abyssinia, Kenya, and
the Somalilands can be left to native African forces
(less one West African brigade to be returned to West
Africa) and armed white police.

7. The development and maintenance of the Army of
the Nile, operating in Cyrenaica and in Syria, would
require organisation and workshops on a far larger
scale than you have yet enjoyed. Not only must the
Egyptian workshops be raised in strength and
efficiency, but further bases, with adequate port facilities, will have to be built up, say, at Port Sudan and
Massawa, using perhaps the town of Asmara, which
has fine buildings, and also Jibuti, when we get it. At
the same time developments on a great scale will be
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set on foot by the Government of India, with our active
aid, it being hoped that at least six or seven divisions,
with apparatus, may presently operate thence.

8. I therefore propose to set up under your general
authority an organisation under an officer of high rank,
who will be styled “Intendant-General of the Army of the
Middle East.” This officer will be equipped with an
ample staff, drawn largely from your existing administrative staff and with a powerful and growing civilian
element, to discharge for you, as mentioned above,
many of the services rendered by the War Office and
Ministry of Supply to General Brooke. His duties will
include the supervision and control of rearward administrative services, including the military man-power not
embodied in the tactical units or employed in the active
military zone.

9. President Roosevelt is now sending, in addition to
the thirty ships under the American flag, another forty-four vessels, which carry, among other things, two
hundred additional light tanks from the United States
Army Production, and many other important items, of
which I will furnish you a list. It seems to me probable,
and I am trying to arrange, that a great part of the
supply of your armies shall come direct from the United
States, both by the eastern and western routes.

10. Accordingly, we are sending out by air General
Haining and Mr. T. C. L. Westbrook, of the Ministry of
Aircraft Production. General Haining will be appointed
Intendant-General. The War Office are telegraphing to
you separately instructions which are being issued to
him. Under him Mr. Westbrook will take charge of the
development of ports and transportation facilities and
the reception, maintenance, and repair of the whole of
the armoured vehicles and mechanical transport. He
will be accompanied by a number of consultants on
specialised subjects, such as transportation, port
development, and workshops. He will collaborate with
Air Marshal Dawson, who is in charge of the cognate
activities of the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm, with
a view to pooling resources.

11. General Haining’s duties in the first place will be
to examine on the spot and to discuss with you the
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implementing and precise definition of the general
directive and policy set forth in the preceding paragraphs, which must be accepted as a decision of His
Majesty’s Government. After not more than a fortnight
from the date of his arrival the report must be telegraphed home. I hope it may be agreed, but any points
of difference will be settled promptly by me. Moreover, I
shall not allow the scheme to lose any of its force and
scope in the detailed application which must now be
given to it.

12. Because of the great mass and importance of
the American supplies, and the fact that the war in the
Middle East cannot be conducted at its needful scale
without them, I have asked President Roosevelt to
allow his envoy here, Mr. Harriman, to proceed
forthwith to the Middle East, with the other members of
the mission. Mr. Harriman enjoys my complete confidence, and is in the most intimate relations with the
President and with Mr. Harry Hopkins. No one can do
more for you. Mr. Harriman will be accompanied by one
or two of his own assistants, who have shown great
aptitude and ardour over here. It would be disastrous if
large accumulations of American supplies arrived
without efficient measures for their reception and
without large-scale planning for the future. Besides this
it will be necessary that considerable numbers of
American engineers and mechanics should come for
the servicing and repair of their own types of aircraft,
tanks, and M.T. I commend Mr. Harriman to your most
attentive consideration. He will report both to his own
Government and to me as Minister of Defence.

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Book Two

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Appendix A, Book Two

PRIME MINISTER’S PERSONAL MINUTES AND TELEGRAMS

July—December,
1941

J
ULY

Prime Minister to King of

1.VII.41.

Greece

I have been thinking a great deal about Your
Majesty in these months of stress, danger, and sorrow,
and I wish to tell you how much your bearing amid
these vicissitudes has been admired by your many
friends in England, as well as by the nation at large.

The warmest welcome awaits you here, where all are
resolved to conquer or to perish. It is my confident hope
that when the good days come the glory which Greece
has won will help to heal the memory of her present
suffering.