The Grand Alliance (145 page)

F
ELIX: German plan for seizure of Gibraltar.

G
YMNAST: British occupation of French North Africa.

I
NFLUX: Occupation of Sicily.

J
AGUAR: Reinforcements to Malta, 1941.

L
USTRE: Aid to Greece.

M
AGNET: Movement of American troops to Northern Ireland.

M
ANDIBLES: Operations against Dodecanese.

M
ARIE: Operation against Jibouti.

M
ARITA: German plan for invasion of Greece.

M
ULBERRY: Artificial harbour.

O
RIENT: German plan to overthrow British positions in Middle East.

O
VERLORD: Liberation of France, 1944.

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P
ILGRIM: Occupation of Canary Islands.

P
UNISHMENT: German bombing of Belgrade.

R
OUND-UP: Liberation of France, 1943 (subsequently changed to
O
VER LORD).

S
CORCHER: Defence of Crete.

S
EA LION: German plan for invasion of Britain.

S
UPERCHARGE: Relief of Australians in Tobruk.

S
UPER-GYMNAST: Anglo-American occupation of French North Africa.

T
IGER: Passage of part of convoy W.S.8 through the Mediterranean.

T
ORCH: Anglo-American operations against French North Africa.

T
RUNCHEON: Combined raid on Leghorn.

W
HIPCORD: Plan for invasion of Sicily.

W
ORKSHOP: Capture of Pantelleria.

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Appendix C, Book One

Prime Minister’s Personal Minutes And Telegrams
January – June
, 1941

J
ANUARY

Prime Minister to Sir Edward

1.I.41.

Bridges, General Ismay, and

Mr. Seal.

With the beginning of the New Year a new intense
drive must be made to secure greater secrecy in all
matters relating to the conduct of the war, and the
following points should have your attention. You should
consider them together and report to me.

Renewal of the cautions issued a year ago against
gossip and talk about Service matters. Probably a new
set of posters is required to attract attention.

2. Renewal of the orders which were then issued to
all departments.

3. Severe further restrictions on the circulation of
secret papers, especially those relating to operations,
strength of the armed forces, foreign policy, etc. Every
department should be asked to submit proposals for
restricting the circulation of papers. This is all the more
important on account of the ever-increasing elaboration
of Government departments and the Whitehall population.

4. The use of boxes with snap locks is to be
enforced for all documents of a secret character.

Ministers and their private secretaries should have
snap-lock boxes on their desks, and should never leave
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confidential documents in trays when they are out of
the room.

5. Boxes should always be snapped to when not
immediately in use. Access to rooms in which confidential secretaries and Ministers are working should be
restricted wherever possible, and anterooms provided
into which visitors can be shown.

6. A small red star label should be devised to be
placed on most secret papers – i.e., those dealing with
operations and the strength of the armed forces. It is
not necessary for all the private secretaries in the office
to read these starred documents. They should always
be circulated in locked boxes, and transferred immediately to other locked boxes for my use and for the use
of Ministers.

7. A restriction of telegrams relating to future operations is to be made. Sometimes lately I have received
an account of future operations where the name of the
place is mentioned as well as its future code word. This
happened in the case of “Influx” yesterday. All such
documents which contain the name of the place and
the code word should be collected and either destroyed
by fire or put in a safe.

8. Ministers should be requested to restrict as far as
possible the circle within which it is necessary to
discuss secret matters. It is not necessary for Parliamentary Private Secretaries (unless Privy Councillors)
to be informed more than is necessary for the
discharge of their Parliamentary and political duties.

9. We are having trouble through the activities of
foreign correspondents of both sexes. The disclosures
of Engel published in today’s papers are a capital
example. Proposals should be made for restricting the
facilities accorded to them in obtaining confidential
information. It must be remembered that everything
said to the American press is instantly communicated to
Germany, and that we have no redress.

10. The wide circulation of Intelligence Reports and
the general tendency to multiply reports of all kinds
must be curtailed. Each department connected with the
war should be asked to submit a report showing what
further restrictions and curtailments they propose to
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introduce in the New Year. Some time ago the late
Cabinet decided that Ministers not in the War Cabinet
should submit beforehand speeches on the war, or
references in speeches to the war, to the Minister of
Information. This has apparently fallen into disuse. Let
me have a report as to what is happening. A more
convenient method might be that Ministers wishing to
refer to these subjects should consult General Ismay,
as representing the Minister of Defence, beforehand.

No officials who have, for instance, been on missions
abroad should make public statements concerning their
work without previous Ministerial approval.

11. I have already dealt with the circulation of secret
information to friendly attaches, and we have restricted
the character of the information. This process should
continue – the bulk of the documents circulated being
made up by interesting padding such as might well
appear in the newspapers.

12. The newspapers repeatedly publish – mostly
with innocent intentions – facts about the war and
policy which are detrimental. Where these have not
been censored beforehand a complaint should be
made afterwards in every case. The Ministry of Information should report what they are doing.

Pray consider all these matters and let me know of
any others that occur to you, and advise me on how
these points are to be made, and through what channels, to the various authorities affected.

Prime Minister to Colonel Jacob
3.I.41

I presume that this [German] corps will be most
carefully scrubbed and rescrubbed to make sure no
Nazi cells develop in it. I am very much in favour of
recruiting friendly Germans and keeping them under
strict discipline, instead of remaining useless in concentration camps, but we must be doubly careful we do not
get any of the wrong breed.

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Prime Minister to First Lord and
3.I.41.

First Sea Lord (Copies sent to
Minister of Supply and Minister
of Shipping.)

I was greatly distressed at the loss of the cargo of
the City of Bedford. It is the heaviest munition loss we
have sustained. Seven and a half million cartridges is a
grievous blow. It would be better to disperse these
cargoes among more ships.

2. I presume you have inquired into the causes of
this collision, and of the two incoming, outgoing
convoys being routed so close together. I must again
emphasise the gravity of the loss.

Prime Minister to Sir Edward

4.I.41.

Bridges

Let me have a list of all committees of a Ministerial
character forming part of the Central Government, with
any offshoots there may be.

2. Ask each department to furnish a list of all the
committees of a departmental nature which exist at the
present time.

3. This information is the prelude to a New Year’s
effort to cut down the number of such committees.

Prime Minister to Sir Edward

4.I.41.

Bridges

The Committee on War Aims has largely completed
its work in the draft statement which it has drawn up,
and which should now be circulated to the Cabinet. In
any case, war aims is quite a different matter from the
reconstruction of this country, which is entrusted to the
Minister without portfolio…. We must be very careful
not to allow these remote post-war problems to absorb
energy which is required, maybe for several years, for
the prosecution of the war.

(Action this day.) Prime Minister
4.I.41.

to General Ismay, for General

Loch and others concerned

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In the Photo-Electric [P.E.
1
] fuze the greatest
interest attaches to high-altitude work against machines
flying over ten thousand feet which are not dive-bombing but trying to hit H.M. ships or land targets,
perhaps with improved bomb-sights. It is desired to be
able to burst salvoes of eight or more in close proximity
to the enemy aircraft with fatal results. Even if this could
be achieved only in clear, good weather, it would be of
the highest advantage, as important operations would
be arranged to seek that weather.

2. Is this high-altitude work being pressed to the full,
both in the manufacture and in the Research-Training
sphere? Are the officers concerned fully apprised?

Defence against dive-bombing was the original
purpose, and this may well be achieved both by P.E.

and A.D.,
2
but the emphasis must now be placed upon
high-altitude work.

3. This also applies to the A.D. fuze firing and aerial
mines at the highest altitudes of all. It is in this direction
that the highest tactical and operational results will be
achieved.

Prime Minister to Home

4.I.41.

Secretary and Minister of Health
What happens in the case where a shelter is not
safe, but is nevertheless occupied, as many are? The
ruling should be, I think, that every shelter that is
occupied, whether safe or not, must be under the
responsibility of the Minister of Health for its internal
arrangements, and that there should be no distinction
between approved and unapproved shelters. The
Minister of Health must act wherever the shelter is
used. On the other hand, as shelter accommodation
increases and improves, the Minister of Home Security
would naturally be closing down the most unsafe ones.

Pray let me know that this view is correct.

Prime Minister to S. of S. for
5.I.41.