Department of Defense Files
The Chief of Staff, United States Army ( Marshall ) to Prime Minister Churchill 1
Memorandum for the Prime Minister:
Subject: Prospective Movements of Planes to the Middle East.
General Brereton with all available heavy bombers in India (possibly 10) has been ordered to Cairo immediately.
One Pursuit Group (80 P–40 planes) will be loaded on the Carrier Ranger at Quonset, Rhode Island, about June 27 for immediate departure for Takoradi.
One provisional light bombardment squadron (Hudsons–27 planes)2 intended for China, now in Florida, leaves tomorrow, to receive final orders at Omdurman.
One group of medium bombardment (57 B–25s) now in California flies East tomorrow to pick up new equipment for immediate departure for Cairo. 36 new planes will be available on their arrival on the East Coast, the remaining 21 will be available at the rate of 5 a day. The group will depart by squadrons as rapidly as equipped.
Chief of Staff
- Marshall addressed a memorandum to Roosevelt on June 25, 1942, which was identical with the memorandum printed here except for the variation shown in the next footnote and the addition of the following paragraph: “One group of heavy bombardment (35 B–34–D’s), being equipped with new airplanes, will depart from Florida for Cairo by squadrons, one squadron leaving every 2 days beginning June 29.” (Department of Defense Files) The matter of sending air reinforcements to the Middle East appears to have been one of the subjects taken up at the White House meeting on the afternoon of June 23, 1942; see the editorial note, ante, p. 443.↩
- In the Marshall memorandum of June 25 to Roosevelt cited in the previous footnote, the parenthetical reference “Hudsons–27 planes” was altered to read “25 Hudsons”.↩