Editorial Note
The document referred to as the President’s Log is a booklet entitled “Log of the Trip of the President to the Casablanca Conference—9–31 January, 1943” consisting of the following parts: (1) foreword; (2) list of the President’s party; (3) summary of the President’s itinerary; (4) narrative of the President’s trip, amounting to 51 pages; and (5) photographs taken during the trip. Reproduced below is the narrative portion of the Log, exclusive of those passages having no bearing whatever on the proceedings of the Conference.
The account of the President’s trip to Casablanca, which comprises the first 11 pages of the narrative portion of the Log, is not reproduced. The President and his party departed by special train from Washington on the evening of January 9, 1943. Arriving in the Miami area early in the morning of January 11, the Presidential party immediately motored to the Pan-American Airways base at Miami where it boarded two chartered Boeing Clippers for the 10–hour flight to the Naval Air Station at Trinidad. The President, Mr. Hopkins, Admiral Leahy, Rear Admiral McIntire and Captain McCrea flew in the first plane, and members of the Presidential staff flew in the second plane. After resting at the Naval Air Station for the night, the Presidential party took off early on the morning of January 12 for the 94½-hour flight to Belem, Brazil. Admiral Leahy was obliged because of illness to remain at Trinidad. While the Clippers were being refuelled at Belem, the President went ashore and was entertained at the South Atlantic Wing Station of the Air Transport Command. The Presidential party re-embarked at 7 p.m. for the 19-hour flight to Bathurst, Gambia, where the cruiser U.S.S. Memphis was waiting. Before boarding the Memphis, the President and some of his party made a brief inspection trip of some points of interest along the Bathurst waterfront. On the morning of January 14, after resting the night aboard the Memphis, the President went ashore and motored to Yun-dum Field outside Bathurst where he and his party boarded two C–54 transport aircraft for the 9½-hour flight to Medouina Airport outside Casablanca.