Their Finest Hour (72 page)

* * * * *

One evening in December I held a meeting in the downstairs War Room with only the Admiralty and the sailors present. All the perils and difficulties, about which the company was well informed, had taken a sharper turn. My mind reverted to February and March, 1917, when the curve of U-boat sinkings had mounted so steadily against us that one wondered how many months’ more fighting the Allies had in them, in spite of all the Royal Navy could do. One cannot give a more convincing proof of the danger than the project which the Admirals put forward. We must at all costs and with overriding priorities break out to the ocean. For this purpose it was proposed to lay an underwater carpet of dynamite from the seaward end of the North Channel, which gives access to the Mersey and the Clyde, to the hundred-fathom line northwest of Ireland. A submerged mine-field must be laid three miles broad and sixty miles long from these coastal waters to the open ocean. Even if all the available explosives were monopolised for this task, without much regard to field operations or the proper rearmament of our troops, it seemed vital to make this carpet – assuming there was no other way.

Let me explain the process. Many thousands of contact mines would have to be anchored to the bottom of the sea, reaching up to within thirty-five feet of its surface. Over this pathway all the ships which fed Britain, or carried on our warfare abroad, could pass and repass without their keels striking the mines. A U-boat, however, venturing into this minefield, would soon be blown up; and after a while they would find it
not good enough
to come. Here was the defensive
in excelsis.
Anyhow, it was better than nothing. It was the last resort. Provisional approval and directions for detailed proposals to be presented were given on this night. Such a policy meant that the diver would in future be thinking about nothing but his air-pipe. But he had other work to do.

At the same time, however, we gave orders to the R.A.F. Coastal Command to dominate the outlets from the Mersey and Clyde and around Northern Ireland. Nothing must be spared from this task. It had supreme priority. The bombing of Germany took second place. All suitable machines, pilots, and material must be concentrated upon our counter-offensive, by fighters against the enemy bombers, and surface craft assisted by bombers against the U-boats in these narrow vital waters. Many other important projects were brushed aside, delayed, or mauled. At all costs one must breathe.

We shall see the extent to which this counter-offensive by the Navy and by Coastal Command succeeded during the next few months; how we became the masters of the outlets; how the Heinkel 111’s were shot down by our fighters, and the U-boats choked in the very seas in which they sought to choke us. Suffice it here to say that the success of Coastal Command overtook the preparations for the dynamite carpet. Before this ever made any appreciable inroad upon our war economy the morbid defensive thoughts and projects faded away, and once again with shining weapons we swept the approaches to the isle.

Suspense and Preparation — The Forward Leap, December 7/8 — Complete Success — Pleasure in Parliament — My Messages to Mr. Menzies and General Wavell — “Frappez la Masse” — The Gospel of St. Matthew — Bardia, January 3 — Tobruk, January 21 — One Hundred and Thirteen Thousand Prisoners and Over Seven Hundred Guns Taken — Ciano’s Diaries — Mussolini’s Reactions — My Warnings to the House About the Future — The U-Boat Menace — My Broadcast to the Italian People — “One Man, and One Man Only, Guilty” — The Revolt in Abyssinia — Return of the Emperor — Attempts to Redeem Vichy — My Message to Marshal Pétain and to General Weygand — Plans for Liberating Jibouti; “Operation Marie” — Airfields in Greece and Turkey — A Wealth of Alternatives — The End of the Year — I Receive a Letter from the King — My Reply, January 5 — Glory of the British Nation and Empire — The Flag of Freedom Flies — Mortal Peril Impends.

B
EFORE
a great enterprise is launched the days pass slowly. The remedy is other urgent business, of which there was at this time certainly no lack. I was myself so pleased that our generals would take the offensive that I did not worry unduly about the result. I grudged the troops wasted in Kenya and Palestine and on internal security in Egypt; but I trusted in the quality and ascendancy of the famous regiments and long-trained professional officers and soldiers to whom this important matter was confided. Eden also was confident, especially in General Wilson, who was to command the battle; but then they were both “Greenjackets,”
¹
and had fought as such in the previous war. Meanwhile, outside the small group who knew what was going to be attempted, there was plenty to talk about and do.

For a month or more all the troops to be used in the offensive practised the special parts they had to play in the extremely complicated attack. The details of the plan were worked out by Lieutenant-General Wilson and Major-General O’Connor, and General Wavell paid frequent visits of inspection. Only a small circle of officers knew the full scope of the plan, and practically nothing was put on paper. To secure surprise, attempts were made to give the enemy the impression that our forces had been seriously weakened by the sending of reinforcements to Greece and that further withdrawals were contemplated. On December 6 our lean, bronzed, desert-hardened, and completely mechanised army of about twenty-five thousand men leaped forward more than forty miles, and all next day lay motionless on the desert sand unseen by the Italian Air Force. They swept forward again on December 8, and that evening, for the first time, the troops were told that this was no desert exercise, but the “real thing.” At dawn on the 9th the battle of Sidi Barrani began.

It is not my purpose to describe the complicated and dispersed fighting which occupied the next four days over a region as large as Yorkshire. Everything went smoothly; Nibeiwa was attacked by one brigade at 7
A.M
., and in little more than an hour was completely in our hands. At 1.30
P.M
. the attack on the Tummar camps opened, and by nightfall practically the whole area and most of its defenders were captured. Meanwhile, the 7th Armoured Division had isolated Sidi Barrani by cutting the coast road to the west. Simultaneously the garrison of Mersa Matruh, which included the Coldstream Guards, had also prepared their blow. At first light on the 10th, they assaulted the Italian positions on their front, supported by heavy fire from the sea. Fighting continued all day, and by ten o’clock the Coldstream Battalion Headquarters signalled that it was impossible to count the prisoners on account of their numbers, but that “there were about five acres of officers and two hundred acres of other ranks.”

At home in Downing Street they brought me hour-to-hour signals from the battlefield. It was difficult to understand exactly what was happening, but the general impression was favourable, and I remember being struck by a message from a young officer in a tank of the 7th Armoured Division, “Have arrived at the second B in Buq Buq.” I was able to inform the House of Commons on the 10th that active fighting was in progress in the desert; that five hundred prisoners had been taken and an Italian general killed; and also that our troops had reached the coast. “It is too soon to attempt to forecast either the scope or the result of the considerable operations which are in progress. But we can at any rate say that the preliminary phase has been successful.” That afternoon Sidi Barrani was captured.

From December 11 onward the action consisted of a pursuit of the Italian fugitives by the 7th Armoured Division, followed by the 16th British Infantry Brigade (motorized) and the 6th Australian Division, which had relieved the 4th Indian Division. On December 12, I could tell the House of Commons that the whole coastal region around Buq Buq and Sidi Barrani was in the hands of British and Imperial troops and that seven thousand prisoners had already reached Mersa Matruh.

We do not yet know how many Italians were caught in the encirclement, but it would not be surprising if at least the best part of three Italian divisions, including numerous Blackshirt formations, have been either destroyed or captured. The pursuit to the westward continues with the greatest vigour. The Air Force are now bombing, the Navy are shelling the principal road open to the retreating enemy, and considerable additional captures have already been reported.

While it is still too soon to measure the scale of these operations, it is clear that they constitute a victory which, in this African theatre of war, is of the first order, and reflects the highest credit upon Sir Archibald Wavell, Sir Henry Maitland-Wilson, the Staff officers who planned this exceedingly complicated operation, and the troops who performed the remarkable feats of endurance and daring which accomplished it. The whole episode must be judged upon the background of the fact that it is only three or four months ago that our anxieties for the defence of Egypt were acute. Those anxieties are now removed, and the British guarantee and pledge that Egypt would be effectually defended against all comers has been in every way made good.

The moment the victory of Sidi Barrani was assured – indeed, on December 12 – General Wavell took on his own direct initiative a wise and daring decision. Instead of holding back in general reserve on the battlefield the 4th British Indian Division, which had just been relieved, he moved it at once to Eritrea to join the 5th British Indian Division for the Abyssinian campaign under General Platt. The division went partly by sea to Port Sudan, and partly by rail and boat up the Nile. Some of them moved practically straight from the front at Sidi Barrani to their ships, and were in action again in a theatre seven hundred miles away very soon after their arrival. The earliest units arrived at Port Sudan at the end of December, and the movement was completed by January 21. The division joined in the pursuit of the Italians from Kassala, which they had evacuated on January 19, to Keren, where the main Italian resistance was encountered. General Platt had, as we shall see, a hard task at Keren, even with his two British Indian Divisions, the 4th and 5th. Without this farseeing decision of General Wavell’s the victory at Keren could not have been achieved and the liberation of Abyssinia would have been subject to indefinite delays. The immediate course of events both on the North African shore and in Abyssinia proved how very justly the Commander-in-Chief had measured the values and circumstances of the situations.

I hastened to offer my congratulations to all concerned, and to urge pursuit to the utmost limit of strength.

Former Naval Person to President Roosevelt.

13.XII.40.

I am sure you will be pleased about our victory in Libya. This, coupled with the Albanian reverses, may go hard with Mussolini if we make good use of our success. The full results of the battle are not yet to hand, but if Italy can be broken, our affairs will be more hopeful than they were four or five months ago.

Mr. Churchill to Mr. Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia.

13.XII.40.

I am sure you will be heartened by the fine victory the Imperial armies have gained in Libya. This, coupled with his Albanian disasters, may go hard with Mussolini. Remember that I could not guarantee a few months ago even a successful defence of the Delta and Canal. We ran sharp risks here at home in sending troops, tanks, and cannon all round the Cape while under the threat of imminent invasion, and now there is a reward. We are planning to gather a very large army representing the whole Empire and ample sea-power in the Middle East, which will face a German lurch that way, and at the same time give us a move eastward in your direction, if need be. Success always demands a greater effort. All good wishes.

Prime Minister to General Wavell.

13.XII.40.

I send you my heartfelt congratulations on your splendid victory, which fulfils our highest hopes. The House of Commons was stirred when I explained the skilful staff work required, and daring execution by the Army of its arduous task. The King will send you a message as soon as full results are apparent. Meanwhile, pray convey my thanks and compliments to Wilson and accept the same yourself.

The poet Walt Whitman says that from every fruition of success, however full, comes forth something to make a greater struggle necessary. Naturally, pursuit will hold the first place in your thoughts. It is at the moment when the victor is most exhausted that the greatest forfeit can be exacted from the vanquished. Nothing would shake Mussolini more than a disaster in Libya itself. No doubt you have considered taking some harbour in Italian territory to which the Fleet can bring all your stuff and which will give you a new jumping-off point to hunt them along the coast until you come up against real resistance. It looks as if these people were corn ripe for the sickle. I shall be glad to hear from you your thoughts and plans at earliest….

As soon as you come to a full stop along the African coast we can take a new view of our prospects and several attractive choices will be open.

By December 15 all enemy troops had been driven from Egypt. The greater part of the Italian forces remaining in Cyrenaica had withdrawn within the defences of Bardia, which was now isolated. This ended the first phase of the battle of Sidi Barrani, which resulted in the destruction of the greater part of five enemy divisions. Over 38,000 prisoners were taken. Our own casualties were 133 killed, 387 wounded, and 8 missing.

Prime Minister to General Wavell.

16.XII.40.

The Army of the Nile has rendered glorious service to the Empire and to our cause, and we are already reaping rewards in every quarter. We are deeply indebted to you, Wilson, and other commanders, whose fine professional skill and audacious leading have gained us the memorable victory of the Libyan Desert. Your first objective now must be to maul the Italian army and rip them off the African shore to the utmost possible extent. We were very glad to learn your intentions against Bardia and Tobruk, and now to hear of the latest captures of Sollum and Capuzzo. I feel convinced that it is only after you have made sure that you can get no farther that you will relinquish the main hope in favour of secondary action in the Soudan or Dodecanese. The Soudan is of prime importance, and eminently desirable, and it may be that the two Indian brigades [i.e., the 4th British Indian Division] can be spared without prejudice to the Libyan pursuit battle. The Dodecanese will not get harder for a little waiting. But neither of them ought to detract from the supreme task of inflicting further defeats upon the main Italian army. I cannot, of course, pretend to judge special conditions from here, but Napoleon’s maxim,
“Frappez la masse et tout le reste vient par surcroit,”
seems to ring in one’s ears. I must recur to the suggestion made in my previous telegram about amphibious operations and landings behind the enemy’s front to cut off hostile detachments and to carry forward supplies and troops by sea.

Pray convey my compliments and congratulations to Longmore on his magnificent handling of the R.A.F. and fine co-operation with the Army. I hope most of the new Hurricanes have reached him safely. Tell him we are filling up
Furious
again with another even larger packet of flyables from Takoradi. He will also get those that are being carried through in [Operation] “Excess.” Both these should arrive early in January.

Prime Minister to General Wavell.

18.XII.40.

St. Matthew, Chapter VII, verse 7.
²

General Wavell to Prime Minister.

St. James, Chapter I, verse 17.
³