Commander in Chief
Page 51
5. On the island of Cephalonia, for example, more than five thousand Italian troops were massacred by invading German forces, who were told to take no prisoners: Alexander Mikaberidze, ed., Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 326 and 750.
6. See Hamilton, Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 404; and Atkinson, The Day of Battle, 190.
7. General Mark Clark to author, interview of October 26, 1981, in Hamilton, Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 414.
8. Ibid.
9. Atkinson, The Day of Battle, 199.
10. Ibid., 203.
11. Ibid., 205.
12. “Fireside Chat Opening Third War Loan Drive, September 8, 1943,” The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 377–80.
13. See Hamilton, Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 405–6 and footnote 403.
14. Entry of Monday, September 13, 1943, Ward, Closest Companion, 237.
15. Soames, A Daughter’s Tale, 278.
16. Entry of September 7, Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966), 118.
17. Ibid., entry of September 12, 1943, 119.
18. Ibid.
19. Entry of September 16, 1943, Diary of Harry C. Butcher, Eisenhower Library.
20. Entry of September 13, 1943, Moran, Winston Churchill, 119–20.
21. Ibid., 120.
22. Entry of Friday, August 27, 1943, in Alan Lascelles, King’s Counsellor: Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles, ed. Duff Hart-Davis (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), 156.
23. Cable of September 11, 1943, in Susan Butler, ed., My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 164.
24. Entry of 11.9.1943, Goebbels, Die Tagebücher 9, 479.
25. Rede des Führers über den Zusammenbruch Italiens am 10. September 1943, http://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Quelle/Rede_vom_10._September_1943_(Adolf_Hitler). Translated by the author.
26. Ibid.
27. Entry of 12.9.1943, Goebbels, Die Tagebücher 9, 492.
28. Ibid., entry of 10.9.1943, 463.
29. Ibid., 464.
30. Ibid., 460.
31. Ibid., 464.
32. Ibid., entry of 7.9.1943, 438.
33. Ibid., entry of 12.9.1943, 486–87.
34. Ibid.
53. A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
1. Atkinson, The Day of Battle, 212.
2. Hamilton, Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 1942–1944, 413.
3. Mark Clark to author, interview of October 10, 1981, in Hamilton, Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 405.
4. Atkinson, The Day of Battle, 207.
5. “Message to the Congress on the Progress of the War, September 17, 1943,” in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, comp. Samuel I. Rosenman, vol. 12, 388–406.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
54. ACHIEVING WONDERS
1. Entry of 19.9.43, in Goebbels, Die Tagebücher 9, 533.
2. “Message to the Congress on the Progress of the War, September 17, 1943.”
3. Entry of August 31, 1943, Mackenzie King Diary.
4. Ibid.
5. George Elsey, interview with the author, September 12, 2011.
6. Ibid.
7. Andrew Roberts, Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945 (New York: Harper, 2009), 412–13.
8. Brooke was equally to blame, plotting with Churchill to postpone Overlord yet again beyond its planned spring 1944 target date, and to demand “another full-scale Combined Chiefs of Staff conference in early November,” 1943, “to try to sell” the alternative Mediterranean-exploitation strategy to Roosevelt and Marshall: Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 418. “We should have been in a position to force the Dardanelles by the capture of Crete and Rhodes, we should have the whole Balkans ablaze by now, and the war might have been finished in 1943!!” Brooke lamented in one of his wildest diary entries of the war: November 1, 1943, in War Diaries, 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, ed. Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 465. Even Roberts, who admired Brooke, was moved to harsh judgment regarding Overlord. “It had probably been the correct decision not to appoint him as its supreme commander after all,” he considered—Roberts, Masters and Commanders, 419.
Index
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
air power: in anti-U-boat campaign, 189–90, 197, 256
FDR on, 42–43
against Germany, 209, 216, 247, 272, 296, 304, 306, 320–21, 324–25, 355, 388
against Italy, 84, 214, 269, 273, 320, 360, 372
against Japan, 29, 42, 179
Kenney on, 179–80
Marshall on, 214
in Mediterranean strategy, 196–97, 207, 214–15
Portal and, 256
Yamamoto’s use of, 182–83
Aleutians: Allied landings in, 293
Japan attacks, 337
Alexander, Sir Harold (general), 148
in Italian campaign, 375, 376, 377, 380, 384–85, 391
Allied coalition: Badoglio promises assistance to, 376–77, 384
balance of power shifts in, 343–44
bombs Romanian oil fields, 214–15, 227–28, 330
bombs Rome, 269, 320, 360, 366, 372
Churchill threatens unity of, xiv, 222, 231
distrusts new Italian government, 380, 384
FDR controls war planning and prosecution for, xi, xv, 15, 25, 28–29, 37, 43–44, 100–102, 129, 131, 160, 164, 170, 207, 209, 236, 250, 276, 284, 308, 314–15, 325, 353, 392, 393–94, 398
FDR promotes unity among, 93, 106–7, 115, 125–27, 129, 207, 258, 279, 292–93, 312, 334–35, 337, 344, 353, 358–59, 368, 385–86, 396–97
gives Normandy invasion strategic priority, 326–27, 329, 331, 375, 386
gives Second Front strategic priority, 234
Hitler hopes to split, 356–57, 361
lack of combat experience, 36–38, 40, 50, 51–52, 57–59, 82–83, 84, 86, 93, 98–99, 111, 139–41, 143, 145–46, 148, 169
lack of command experience among, 89–90, 143–44, 210
landings in Aleutians, 293
losses in Italian campaign, 320, 328–29, 358, 384
losses in North Africa, 52–53, 58, 140–42, 144–45, 169
on offensive against Germany, 295–96
and race against Soviet western advance, 154–56, 159, 237, 279, 327, 361
Stalin threatens unity of, 343–44, 346–47, 348, 357, 386, 396
tactical errors in North Africa, 375
troop buildup in Great Britain, 59
Turkey urged to join, 157, 159, 201, 208, 237, 327, 374
Arnim, Hans-Jürgen von (general): in North Africa, 140–41, 197
surrenders, 213, 236
Arnold, Henry (general), 59, 146
at Casablanca Conference, 78–79, 99
heart attack, 206, 209
at Quebec Conference, 331
at Washington strategic conference (1943), 204
Atlantic Charter (1941), 12, 26, 79, 109, 118, 151, 309, 339, 386
Atlantic Wall. See Germany: Atlantic Wall defenses in France
atomic bomb, development of, xiv, 29, 34
Churchill and, 274, 313, 319
as FDR’s political trump card, 313, 319
and postwar security, 335
Soviet Union and, 313
Stimson and, 313
Axis powers. See Germany; Italy; Japan; Romania
B
Badoglio, Pietro (marshal): defeatist attitude, 377–78, 382
flees Rome, 379–80
heads new Italian government, 269, 302, 305, 308, 319, 320, 324, 333, 358, 374, 375, 393
promises assistance to Allies, 376–77, 384
Balkans, proposed
invasion of, 210, 212, 232, 236, 256, 274, 296–97, 331
Bullitt presses for, 155–56, 159, 222–23, 279
Churchill and, 155, 156, 201, 208–9, 218, 219, 237, 239–40, 244, 246, 251, 253, 256, 272–73, 297, 301, 307, 310, 311, 327, 334, 344, 385
Eden and, 273, 297, 307, 310
FDR opposes, 221, 223, 295, 296, 298, 301, 344
Giraud and, 155–56, 201
Hitler hopes for, 305–6, 307
Leahy on, 202
Marshall opposes, 295–96
supposed effect on Eastern Front, 239, 244
as unrealistic fantasy, 301–2, 311–12, 344
Beaverbrook, Lord: and Second Front strategy, 207, 218–19
at Washington strategic conference (1943), 206–7
Benes, Edvard, 217
Berbers: FDR’s interest in, 65
Beveridge Report (1943): Churchill dismisses, 26–27, 31
U.S. reaction to, 31–32
Big Three summit. See Tehran Conference (1943)
Bismarck Sea, Battle of (1943), 160, 179–80
Bolshevization. See Soviet Union: as threat to Europe
bombing. See air power; atomic bomb
Bradley, Omar (general): and invasion of Sicily, 263, 267
British Eighth Army, 42, 140, 374, 385
flees from Rommel, 36, 220, 365
British Empire. See imperialism
Brooke, Alan (field marshal), 158
accepts necessity of Normandy invasion (1944), 232–33, 240
calls for Big Three summit, 308
at Casablanca Conference, 78–79, 86, 92
on Churchill, 250–51, 253, 256
confesses weakness of British manpower, 216
considered as Normandy invasion supreme commander, 258, 299, 314, 326, 329, 330
dissents from Churchill’s war strategy, 234, 235–36, 249, 250–51, 253, 333
on Eisenhower, 89–90
on FDR, 258
and Italian campaign, 295–96, 328–30
and limits of Mediterranean strategy, 100, 256, 308
on Marshall, 98, 256, 328, 329
military background, 212–13
opposes Normandy invasion (1944), 213, 214–16, 232, 310, 330
opposes proposed cross-Channel landing (1943), 98, 212
predicts defeat of Normandy invasion (1944), 215–16, 218, 232
at Quebec Conference, 308, 326, 328–30
rejects Casablanca strategic agreement, 215
strategic errors, 328
view of Eisenhower, 213
at Washington strategic conference (1943), 205, 208, 209, 210, 212–14, 232, 240–41, 246, 250–51, 253–54
Brown, Wilson (admiral): as FDR’s naval aide, 176, 261, 280, 285
Bullitt, William C., 167
attacks Welles, 279
on communism, 151–52, 223
military naiveté, 155–57
presses for invasion of Balkans, 155–56, 159, 222–23, 279
report on postwar Soviet Union, 150–59
on Stalin, 151–52, 222–23
Stimson and, 49
as U.S. ambassador to Soviet Union, 49, 364
Burma: proposed reconquest of, 76, 100–101, 210, 221, 243, 245, 333
Butcher, Harry (commander), 89
briefs FDR, 169–71
Byrnes, James, 262
C
Cadogan, Sir Alexander, 158
Canada: and Dieppe raid (1942), 35, 37–38, 51, 57, 85, 212–13, 237, 242, 246–47, 263, 294, 365, 379
in invasion of Sicily, 163, 261
and Normandy invasion (1944), 252
resentment against Churchill, 245
war production, 29, 34, 313
Casablanca Conference (1943), xiii–xiv, 3, 386
Allied strategic agreement at, 98–101, 127–29, 200, 209, 211–12, 215, 217, 220–21, 229–31, 237–38, 240, 243, 250–53, 254, 272, 382, 392
Arnold at, 78–79, 99
British chiefs of staff at, 83–84
Brooke at, 78–79, 86, 92
Churchill at, 5–6, 9, 40, 69–70, 71–72, 83, 100–101, 117–18, 122, 124–26, 128–29, 155, 160, 198, 201
Clark at, 74, 91, 102, 110, 385
Combined Chiefs of Staff at, 75, 77–78, 82, 88, 125, 127
De Gaulle at, 104, 112–17, 120, 121, 124
De Gaulle refuses to attend, 105–6
Elliott Roosevelt at, 66–68, 77, 78–81, 82, 91–93, 103–4, 108–10, 111, 117, 118–20, 124
FDR at, 4, 11–12, 40, 60, 71–72, 77–81, 82–88, 90–93, 100–104, 105–10, 112–23, 124–31, 139–40, 145, 160, 164, 170, 198
FDR’s journey to, xiv, 4–9, 11–14, 63–68, 165, 167
FDR’s quarters at, 67–69
German ignorance of, 65–66, 130–31
Giraud at, 121–23, 124–25, 155, 201
Goebbels reacts to, 130–34
Hopkins at, 9, 10, 12, 13, 68, 77, 78, 92, 110, 117, 122, 124
Jacob at, 67, 69, 73–75, 77, 84
Joint Chiefs of Staff at, 48, 53–54, 59–60, 66, 68, 82–85, 97–98
large British contingent at, 73–74, 83–84, 202
Leahy misses, 10–11, 13–14, 205
Macmillan at, 104, 117, 121
Marshall at, 74, 78, 83, 91, 145
McCrea at, 4–9, 68–69, 77, 87, 102, 105, 109–10, 114, 124–25, 128–29
Murphy at, 109–10, 117, 121
press conference at, 122–23, 124–29, 160
Reilly at, 66
security concerns at, 6–7, 66–68
Stalin declines to attend, 11, 22, 40, 93, 113, 126, 227
Stimson not invited to, 53, 202
as strategic turning point of war, 87–88, 93, 209, 211–12
Watson excluded from, 7–9
Wedemeyer at, 83–84, 146, 202
Casablanca (film), 66–67
Chiang Kai-shek, 60, 200, 210, 219, 333, 364, 395, 398
China: postwar weakness of, 154
U.S. military aid to, 100, 127, 210, 333–34
war with Japan, 19–20, 152, 239, 245, 399
Churchill, Clementine, 308, 359, 368, 383
on FDR’s Pacific war strategy, 211
Churchill, Mary, 308–9, 315, 368, 382
on FDR, 359–60, 367, 383
Churchill, Winston: accepts Joint Four-Power Declaration (1943), 335
addresses Congress, 233, 235, 239, 246
and atomic bomb development, 274, 313, 319
British chiefs of staff dissent from his proposed strategy, 231–35, 248–49, 250–51, 253, 333
Brooke on, 250–51, 253, 256
Canadian resentment against, 245
and capture of Rome, 274, 276, 277, 311, 327, 373
at Casablanca Conference, 5–6, 9, 40, 69–70, 71–72, 83, 100–101, 117–18, 122, 124–26, 128–29, 155, 160, 198, 201
character and personality, xi–xii, 70–71, 111, 220, 236, 245, 250, 253, 256–57, 277–78, 283, 310, 333–34, 359, 369
Charles Wilson as physician to, 219–21, 252–53, 383–85
claims undue credit, xiii, 71, 256
and communism, 356
confers with FDR at Hyde Park, xiv, 299, 300, 302, 308–12, 313–14, 319, 335, 381–83
confers with U.S. congressional leaders, 239–40, 244, 245
and Dardanelles campaign (1915), 155, 157, 201, 211, 223, 237, 384
and De Gaulle, 105, 111, 113, 122–23
dismisses Beveridge Report, 26–27, 31
drinking problem, 74, 79, 109, 238, 253, 257
excluded from proposed Alaska summit, 60, 247–48, 267, 282
expects rapid German collapse, 40, 59, 204, 208–9, 221, 239, 278, 283, 301, 353–54, 374
FDR demands his cooperation, 252, 253–54
FDR distrusts, 244
FDR on, xii, 79–80, 110
and Greece, 398
Harvard speech, 368, 370–72
health problems, 219–20, 253, 383
“Iron Curtain” spe
ech, 370
and Italian campaign, 208–9, 219, 237, 239, 246, 251–52, 274–75, 276, 277–78, 311, 314, 319–20, 346, 357, 358, 373–74, 384
Lascelles on, xiii
Mackenzie King confers with, 235–39, 248–49, 396–97