Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, Volume II

J. C. S. Files

No. 1195
Memorandum by the British Chiefs of Staff¹

top secret
C. C. S. 679/8

[Babelsberg,] 22 July 1945.

Employment of Captured Enemy Ocean-Going Passenger Shipping and British Troopship Employment in U. S. Trans-Atlantic Programs in the First Half of 1946

1. The British Chiefs of Staff have considered the proposals put forward by the United States Chiefs of Staff in C. C. S. 679/6 and 679/7,² and consider that these proposals, the arguments in support of them and the possible effect on combined requirements for movement of personnel are so closely linked that they should be taken together.

2. The British Chiefs of Staff have taken note of the steps taken by the United States to meet revised schedules for redeployment, build-up of strategic reserve and repatriation, and of the net effect of these on Pacific movements, viz., a backlog of between 250,000 and 300,000 at the end of 1945.

3. The British Chiefs of Staff will, of course, do everything possible to assist in the movement of United States forces, particularly those destined for the Pacific, but they wish to make it clear that the personnel shipping resources allotted to them in C. C. S. 679/1³ fell far short of meeting British requirements for redeployment and repatriation, which had to be severely cut.

4. Further, they wish to point out that a preliminary examination of the estimated British requirements for the first half of 1946 indicates that the total British trooplift will suffice to lift only about two men out of every three, even if the current programme is achieved without a backlog at the end of the year.

5. In view of the serious position of United States movement to the Pacific, the British Chiefs of Staff are prepared to agree that the Combined Chiefs of Staff should allocate the total lift of the seven ships listed in C. C. S. 679/6 for United States employment up to 31st December 1945. In return, they ask that the United States Chiefs of Staff allocate to them a lift of 16,000 during the rest of 1945 for movement of the Canadians, many of whom have been absent from their homes for a very long time. The Canadian Government are pressing us very strongly in this matter.

6. The British Chiefs of Staff further suggest that a combined study on the lines of C. C. S. 679/1 of the combined requirements and combined resources (including captured enemy trooplift) for the first half of 1946 should be completed by mid-September if possible. The study would cover the recommendation in C. C. S. 679/7 and also the employment during the first half of 1946 of the seven ships to which reference is made in C. C. S. 679/6.

1. Considered by the Combined Chiefs of Staff at their 199th Meeting, July 23. See ante, p. 293.
2. Documents Nos. 1190 and 1191, respectively.
3. Not printed.