Churchill's Plan - Europe 1942

The "scowling" portrait by Jousuf Karsh in Ottawa after Churchill's speech to the Canadian Parliament 12/30/1941
(photo from ILN 2/28/1942) - 1 2 3

Jan. 14 - ARCADIA in Washington ended - the third wartime conference

Churchill and FDR at ARCADIA
from ILN 1942/01/24

Churchill in siren suit
from ILN 1942/01/24

Churchill addresses joint session
(behind: Speaker William Cole, VP Henry Wallace)
at left: Senate Majority Leader Barkeley
from ILN 1941/12/26

V-sign after Argentia
from ILN 1941/08/30

Churchill had been meeting with FDR since Dec. 22, lived in White House
FDR-Churchill correspondence since 1939 - 1941/12/10
Churchill PM since May 10, 1940 - Cabinet War Rooms
Churchill's request for aid 1940/12/7 and for escort vessels was an origin of the Victory program
"Pearl Harbor wasn't enough. We had to have Churchill too." (Steve Early) - 1
Churchill man of the past, Victorian imperialist, thought regionally, WWI lessons
Churchill shaped strategy of war's first year in Europe
Declaration of the United Nations January 1, 1942, by 26 nations to cooperate and follow principles of the Atlantic Charter

Donald Nelson
from ILN 1942/01/24

Jan. 16 - Donald Nelson appointed to head the new centralized War Production Board to meet the goals established in FDR's Jan. 6 speech

"I have just sent a letter of directive to the appropriate departments and agencies of our Government, ordering that immediate steps be taken:

1. To increase our production rate of airplanes so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 60,000 planes, 10,000 more than the goal set a year and a half ago. This includes 45,000 combat planes-bombers, dive bombers, pursuit planes. The rate of increase will be continued, so that next year, 1943 we shall produce 125,000 planes, including 100,000 combat planes.

2. To increase our production rate of tanks so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 45,000 tanks; and to continue that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall produce 75,000 tanks.

3. To increase our production rate of anti-aircraft guns so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 20,000 of them; and to continue that increase, so that next year, 1943, we shall produce 35,000 anti-aircraft guns.

4. To increase our production rate of merchant ships so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall build 8,000,000 deadweight tons as compared with a 1941 production of 1,100,000. We shall continue that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall build 10,000,000 tons."

Mobilization of the American economy produced theJeep by Willys Overland and Ford, 2.5-ton truck by Yellow and GM, DUKW by GM, FM radio from Edwin Armstrong and RCA, M1 rifle from John Garand in 1936, M1 carbine from David "Carbine" Williams, Liberty ships of Henry Kaiser, prefabricated and welded Destroyer Escorts, walkie-talkie by Al Gross

Autobiography of a Jeep

Priest 105mm tankbuster Jan. '42

Little Ships That Could

Studebaker truck from
1943 found in Russia 1998.

Jan. 23 - 1st of weekly Friday meetings of the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) - began planning for GYMNAST = peripheral strategy in North Africa

British Defense Committee 1941/10 photo from Time - id

CCS from U.S. (Wm. Leahy) and Britain (Alan Brooke)

Joint Chiefs of Staff Arnold, Marshall, Leahy (Chief in July), King (replaced Stark in March) 1942/09 photo from FDRL - 2

Feb. 19 - Eisenhower appointed head of War Plans Division

urged BOLERO (buildup) and SLEDGEHAMMER (cross-channel invasion)
FDR sent Hopkins to London in April to persuade Churchill, but the peripheral strategy remained the highest priority
CCS agreed by June 18 on the ACROBAT plan for a joint landing in North Africa