Office of the Historian

Department of Defense Files: Telegram

The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Truman

[London,] 24 April 1945.

13.1.I thank you for your number 9 in answer to my number 7. I agree with the preamble, but paragraphs 1 and 2 would simply allow [Page 241] the Russians to order us back to the occupational zones at any point they might decide, and not necessarily with regard to the position of the fronts as a whole. It is your troops who would suffer most by this, being pushed back about 120 miles in the centre and yielding up to the unchecked Russian advance an enormous territory. And this while all questions of our spheres in Vienna or arrangements for triple occupation of Berlin remain unsettled. I suggest the following alternative version of your proposed message to Marshal Stalin.

  • “1. Our immediate task is the final defeat of the German Army. During this period the boundaries between the forces of the three Allies must be decided by Commanders in the field, and will be governed by operational considerations and requirements. It is inevitable that our armies will in this phase find themselves in occupation of territory outside the boundaries of the ultimate occupational zones.
  • “2. When the fighting is finished, the next task is for the Allied Control Commissions to be set up in Berlin and Vienna, and for the forces of the Allies to be redisposed and to take over their respective occupational zones. The demarcation of the zones in Germany has already been decided upon and it is hoped that we shall very soon reach an agreement on the zones to be occupied in Austria at the forthcoming meeting proposed by you in Vienna.
  • “3. The occupation of the zones would normally follow immediately upon the signature of the instrument of surrender. It may well be, however, that no such signature will be forthcoming. In this event governments may well decide to set up at once the Allied Control Commissions, and to entrust to them the task of arranging for the withdrawal of the forces to their agreed occupational zones.
  • “4. In order to meet the requirements of the situation referred to paragraph 1 above, namely the emergency and temporary arrangements for the tactical zones, instructions have been sent to General Eisenhower. These are as follows:
    • “(a) To avoid confusion between the two armies and to prevent either of them from expanding into areas already occupied by the other, both sides should halt as and where they meet, subject to such adjustments to the rear or to the flanks as are required, in the opinion of the local commanders on either side, to deal with any remaining opposition.
    • (b) As to adjustments of forces after cessation of hostilities in an area, your troops should be disposed in accordance with military requirements regardless of zonal boundaries. You will, in so far as permitted by the urgency of the situation, obtain the approval of the British and American Governments prior to any major adjustment in contrast to local adjustments for operational and administrative reasons.
  • “5. It is requested that you will issue similar instructions to your commanders in the field.”