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J.C.S. Files

Report by an Ad Hoc Committee of the Combined Chiefs of Staff1

secret
Enclosure to C.C.S. 305/1
[Quebec,] 18 August 1943.

Interim Report by the Committee Appointed To Examine C.C.S. 3052

1.
In accordance with the instructions of the Combined Chiefs of Staff we have examined the telegram from the Commander in Chief India contained in paper C.C.S. 305, and submit this interim report.
2.
From the information at our disposal, which is confined to the telegrams received from the Commander in Chief India, there is a short-fail of 600 tons per day foreshadowed on the Assam line of communications out of the estimated capacity of 3,400 tons per day. This short-fall is expected to continue up to 1st March 1944.
3.
In respect of priority for allotment of capacity on this line of communication we consider that the air transport service to China should retain its present overriding priority.
4.
We have examined the detailed allocation of tonnage as planned by the Commander in Chief India on the basis of 3,400 tons per day, and agree that this allows no margin if the operations are to take place as planned.
5.
We assess that a saving of approximately 500 tons per day might be made by calling a halt to one of the offensives as planned either at Ledo or at Imphal.
6.
It would therefore appear from the figures available that one of these projects should be cancelled if the other is to be carried out.
7.
We have, however, addressed a cable to the Commander in Chief India offering him certain assistance which should begin to have an effect in improving capacity by late November or December 1943.3 This assistance, coupled with the postponement of the date of active [Page 973] operations till 15th February, 1944, may permit of both projects being continued though with some loss of preparedness.
8.
Having regard to the above factors, we do not consider that the abandonment of either project should be definitely decided upon. The importance of continuing work on the Ledo road is manifest, and with a lower target of road construction in the Imphal area, due to the later date of operations, the continuance of the Ledo road may well be possible with little delay.
9.
We make this forecast with some reserve, and we cannot definitely state what will be practicable until we receive a reply from the Commander in Chief India, to the cable which we have dispatched.
  1. Circulated under cover of a note by the Secretaries of the Combined Chiefs of Staff (C.C.S. 305/1), August 18, 1943.↩
  2. See ante, p. 435, for the enclosure to C.C.S. 305. Concerning the appointment and membership of this ad hoc committee, see ante, p. 862.↩
  3. Not printed.↩