Office of the Historian

J.C.S. Files

Memorandum by the British Chiefs of Staff1

top secret
C.C.S. 452/28 (Octagon)
[Quebec,] 13 September 1944.

Directive to SACSEA

We recommend that the Combined Chiefs of Staff should now despatch the following directive to Admiral Mountbatten.

directive to supreme allied commander, south east asia command

1.
Your primary2 object is the recapture of all Burma at the earliest date. Operations to achieve this object must not, however, prejudice the security of the existing air supply route to China, including the air [Page 448] staging post at Myitkyina, adequate protection of which is essential throughout.3
2.
The following are approved operations:—
(a)
The stages of Operation Capital necessary to the security of the air route;4
(b)
Operation Dracula.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff attach the greatest importance to the vigorous prosecution of Operation Capital and to the execution of Operation Dracula before the monsoon in 1945, with a target date of 15th March.
3.
If Dracula has to be postponed until after the monsoon of 1945, you will continue to exploit Operation Capital as far as may be possible without prejudice to preparations for the execution of Operation Dracula in November 1945.
  1. The draft directive contained in this paper was discussed and amended by the Combined Chiefs of Staff during their 174th Meeting, September 14, 1944 (see ante, p. 335). The amendments made during that meeting are described in fns. 2-4, below, and the directive, as changed, was circulated as the enclosure to C.C.S. 425/30 (Octagon), “Directive to Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia Command”, September 14, 1944 (not printed). The directive was further amended during the meeting of the Combined Chiefs of Staff with Roosevelt and Churchill on September 16, 1944 (see ante, p. 381), and the text finally approved was included as an annex to C.C.S. 680/2 (post, p. 476) and was also circulated separately as the enclosure to C.C.S. 452/31, “Directive to Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia Command”, September 22, 1944 (not printed in this form).↩
  2. The word “primary” was deleted in C.C.S. 452/30.↩
  3. In C.C.S. 452/30 the words “and the opening of overland communications” were substituted for the last seven words of this paragraph.↩
  4. The words “and the attainment of overland communications with China” were added to this subparagraph in C.C.S. 452/30.↩