Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943

Hopkins Papers

Memorandum by the British Minister of Supply (Beaverbrook)¹

[ Washington ,] January 4, 1942.

Note on the U.S. Total Bomb Programme

In 1942 the U.S. will need to provide for 22,000 new bombers.

“ “ “ U.K. will have “ “ “ 9,000 “ “

A bigger proportion of the U.K. programme is in the heavier types. The bomb requirements for British built aircraft in 1942 are 360,000 long tons.

So the U.S. requirement on the British scale would be of the order of 7–800,000 tons in the year.

Average per month in 1942	U.K.	30,000 tons
	U.S.	60,000 tons
Present (Nov.) rate of filling	U.K.	12,000 tons
	U.S.	7,000 tons

Again a tremendous acceleration will be needed—and especially in the larger bombs.

1. The source text, marked “copy”, bears no signature, but was presumably by Beaverbrook.