Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to Premier Stalin 1

most secret

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to Premier Stalin

1.
We have been in conference with our military advisers and have decided the operations which are to be undertaken by American [Page 806] and British forces in the first nine months of 1943. We wish to inform you of our intentions at once. We believe these operations, together with your powerful offensive, may well bring Germany to her knees in 1943. Every effort must be made to accomplish this purpose.
2.
We are in no doubt that our correct strategy is to concentrate on the defeat of Germany, with a view to achieving early and decisive victory in the European theatre. At the same time, we must maintain sufficient pressure on Japan to retain the initiative in the Pacific and Far East, sustain China, and prevent the Japanese from extending their aggression to other theatres such as your Maritime Provinces.
3.
Our main desire has been to divert strong German land and air forces from the Russian front and to send to Russia the maximum flow of supplies. We shall spare no exertion to send you material assistance by every available route.
4.
Our immediate intention is to clear the Axis out of North Africa and set up the naval and air installations to open:—
(1)
An effective passage through the Mediterranean for military traffic; and
(2)
An intensive bombardment of important Axis targets in Southern Europe.
5.
We have made the decision to launch large-scale amphibious operations in the Mediterranean at the earliest possible moment. The preparation for these operations is now under way and will involve a considerable concentration of forces, including landing craft and shipping in Egyptian and North African ports.2 In addition we shall concentrate hi the United Kingdom a strong American land and air force. These, combined with the British forces in the United Kingdom, will prepare themselves to re-enter the Continent of Europe as soon as practicable. These concentrations will certainly be known to our enemies, but they will not know where or when, or on what scale we propose to strike. They will therefore be compelled to divert both land and air forces to all the shores of France, the Low Countries, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the heel of Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete and the Dodecanese.3
6.
In Europe we shall increase the Allied Bomber offensive from the U.K. against Germany at a rapid rate and, by midsummer, it should be more than double its present strength. Our experiences to date have shown that the day bombing attacks result in destruction and damage to large numbers of German Fighter Aircraft. We [Page 807] believe that an increased tempo and weight of daylight and night attacks will lead to greatly increased material and morale damage in Germany and rapidly deplete German fighter strength. As you are aware, we are already containing more than half the German Air Force in Western Europe and the Mediterranean. We have no doubt that our intensified and diversified bombing offensive, together with the other operations which we are undertaking, will compel further withdrawals of German air and other forces from the Russian front.
7.
In the Pacific it is our intention to eject the Japanese from Rabaul within the next few months and thereafter to exploit success in the general direction of Japan. We also intend to increase the scale of our operations in Burma in order to reopen our channel of supply to China. We intend to increase our air force in China at once. We shall not, however, allow our operations against Japan to jeopardize our capacity to take advantage of every opportunity that may present itself for the decisive defeat of Germany in 1943.
8.
Our ruling purpose is to bring to bear upon Germany and Italy the maximum forces by land, sea and air which can be physically applied.

25. 1. 43

  1. The text of this message appears to have been completed at the meeting of Roosevelt and Churchill and their advisers at Marrakech late on the evening of January 24, 1943; see the editorial note, ante, p. 732. For the earlier draft of the message to Stalin, see supra. The text of the joint message as presented here was transmitted in a telegram from the Prime Minister to Foreign Secretary Eden. At the same time, the British Foreign Office was informed that Roosevelt and Churchill wished the British and American Ambassadors in Moscow personally and jointly to present the message to Stalin. The British Foreign Office was directed to transmit the text to the American Embassy in London and to concert delivery of the message to Stalin. According to telegram 60, January 27, 1943, from Moscow to the Department of State, not printed, Ambassador Standley and British Chargé Baggallay delivered the joint message to Stalin at an interview on the night of January 26–27, 1943; Stalin read the message but made no comment on it at the time (740.0011 EW/27635). For an account of the delivery of the message, see William H. Standley and Arthur A. Ageton, Admiral Ambassador to Russia (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1955), pp. 327–328. For text of the message as delivered to Stalin, see Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. i, p. 86, and vol. ii, p. 51. Stalin replied to the joint message in identical messages to Roosevelt and Churchill dated January 30, 1943; for texts, see ibid., vol. ii, p. 52, and vol. i, p. 89.
  2. In the text of the message delivered to Stalin, the concluding phrase of this sentence reads as follows: “in Egypt and the North Africa ports.” See Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. i, p. 87, and vol. ii, p. 51.
  3. In the text of the message delivered to Stalin, the concluding phrase of this sentence reads as follows: “Sicily and the Levant, and Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, and the Dodecanese.” See ibid., vol. i, p. 87, and vol. ii, p. 52.