Office of the Historian

Roosevelt Papers

The President and the Prime Minister to the Combined Chiefs of Staff 1

[Marrakech,] January 25, 1943.

In cordially approving the Report of the Combined Chiefs of Staff drawn up after thorough examination of the problems, the President and the Prime Minister wish to emphasise the following points which should be steadily pressed in all preparations:—

(1)
The desirability of finding means of running the W.J. [ JW?] Russian convoys even through the Husky period.
(2)
The urgency of sending the air reinforcements to General Chennault’s force in China and of finding means to make them fully operative.
(3)
The importance of achieving the favourable June moon for Husky and the grave detriment to our interests which will be incurred by an apparent suspension of activity during the summer months.
(4)
The need to build up more quickly the United States striking force in the United Kingdom so as to be able to profit by favourable August weather for some form of Sledgehammer. For this purpose not only the scales of initial equipment and monthly maintenance should be searchingly re-examined but the priorities of material and manpower shipments from the United States to Great Britain should be adjusted to the tactical situation likely to be presented at the target date.

F.D.R.
W.S.C.

25.1. 43.

  1. There is no record of when or where this letter was prepared, although the date of the document would seem to indicate that it was finished at the meeting which Roosevelt and Churchill held on the evening of January 24, 1943, in Marrakech; see the editorial note, ante, p. 732.↩