Their Finest Hour Part 38

Prime Minister to Sir Edward Bridges.

8.XI.40.

Many of the executive departments naturally have set up and developed their own statistical branches, but there appears to be a separate statistical branch attached to the Ministerial Committee on Production, and naturally the Ministry of Supply's statistical branch covers a very wide field. I have my own statistical branch under Professor Lindemann.It is essential to consolidate and make sure that agreed figures only are used. The utmost confusion is caused when people argue on different statistical data. I wish all statistics to be concentrated in my own branch as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, from which alone the final authoritative working statistics will issue. The various departmental statistical branches will, of course, continue as at present, but agreement must be reached between them and the Central Statistical Office.Pray look into this, and advise me how my wish can be most speedily and effectively achieved.

Prime Minister to Minister of Transport.

8.XI.40.

Let me know what progress has been made in breaking up the queues, and in bringing vehicles into service. With the earlier black-out it must be very hard on many.

Prime Minister to First Sea Lord.

9.XI.40.

Please let me have a report on the improvements of the Asdic and hydrophone technique which have been made in the last year.

Prime Minister to Minister of Transport.

9.XI.40.

Preliminary inspection seems to indicate that the time of turn round in ports has increased in recent months rather than the reverse. This is probably due to the concentration of traffic on a few west coast ports. Are the delays caused by inadequate port facilities or by difficulties in clearing the goods from the docks? Have you a scheme to exploit to the full our large resources of road transport if the railways prove inadequate to deal with these special problems?

Prime Minister to C.A.S.

10.XI.40.

Altogether, broadly speaking, one thousand aircraft and seventeen thousand air personnel in the Middle East provide thirty and one-half squadrons, with a total initial equipment of three hundred and ninety-five operational types, of which it is presumed three hundred are ready for action on any date. Unhappily, out of sixty-five Hurricanes, only two squadrons (apart from Malta) are available. These are the only modern aircraft, unless you count the Blenheim IV's. All the rest of this enormous force is armed with obsolete or feeble machines. The process of replacement should, therefore, be pressed to the utmost, and surely it should be possible to utilise all this skilled personnel of pilots and ground staff to handle the new machines. Therefore "remounting" the Eastern Air Force ought not in principle to require more personnel, except where new types are more complicated. However, as part of the reinforcements now being sent i.e., four Wellington and four Hurricane squadrons we are sending over three thousand additional personnel.In the disparity between the great ma.s.s of men and numbers of aircraft on charge, and the fighting product constantly available, which is painfully marked both here and at home, lies the waste of R.A.F. resources. What is the use of the six hundred machines which are not even included in the initial equipment of the thirty squadrons? No doubt some can be explained as training, communication, and transport. But how is it that out of seven hundred and thirty-two operational types only three hundred and ninety-five play any part in the fighting?I hope that a most earnest effort will be made to get full value for men, material, and money out of this very large force, first, by remounting, second, by making more squadrons out of the large surplus of machines not formed in squadrons, third, by developing local O.T.U.'s or other training establishments.

Prime Minister to Minister of Health.

10.XI.40.

I see your total of homeless is down by one thousand five hundred this week to about ten thousand. Please let me know how many new you had in, and how many former went out. With such a small number as ten thousand, you ought to be able to clean this up if you have another light week.What is the average time that a homeless person remains at a rest centre?

Prime Minister to Secretary of State for Air.17 10.XI.40.

There is a shelter at Chequers which gives good protection from lateral damage. There is the household to consider. Perhaps you will have the accommodation inspected.The carriage drive is being turfed.I cannot bear to divert Bofors from the fighting positions. What about trying a few rockets, which are at present only in an experimental stage?I am trying to vary my movements a little during the moonlight intervals. It is very good of you and your Ministry to concern yourselves with my safety.

Prime Minister to Secretary of State for War.

10.XI.40.

I hope you will look into this yourself. We had the greatest difficulty in carrying these sticky bombs through, and there was every evidence they would not have received fair play had I not gone down myself to see the experiment. Now is the chance to let the Greeks try this method out, and it would seem that it might be very helpful to them.What is this tale that they are dangerous to pack and handle? They are, of course, despatched without their detonators, and therefore cannot explode.

Prime Minister to Air C.-in-C., Middle East.

12.XI.40.

I am trying every day to speed up the arrivals in your command of Hurricanes, etc. This is especially important in the next three weeks, Pray report daily what you actually receive, and how many you are able to put into action.I was astonished to find that you have nearly one thousand aircraft and one thousand pilots and sixteen thousand air personnel in the Middle East, excluding Kenya. I am most anxious to re-equip you with modern machines at the earliest moment; but surely out of all this establishment you ought to be able, if the machines are forthcoming, to produce a substantially larger number of modern aircraft operationally fit? Pray report through the Air Ministry any steps you may be able to take to obtain more fighting value from the immense ma.s.s of material and men under your command.I am grieved that the imperative demands of the Greek situation and its vital importance to the Middle East should have disturbed your arrangements at this exceptionally critical time. All good wishes.

Prime Minister to Sir Edward Bridges and General Ismay.

12.XI.40.

The Prime Minister has noticed that the habit of private secretaries and others addressing each other by their Christian names about matters of an official character is increasing, and ought to be stopped. The use of Christian names in inter-departmental correspondence should be confined only to brief explanatory covering notes or to purely personal and private explanations.It is hard enough to follow people by their surnames.

Prime Minister to Home Secretary.

12.XI.40.

How are you getting on with the comfort of the shelters in the winter flooring, drainage, and the like? What is being done to bring them inside the houses? I attach the greatest importance to gramophones and wireless in the shelters. How is that going forward? Would not this per haps be a very good subject for the Lord Mayor's Fund? I should not be surprised if the improved lighting comes up again before many weeks are out, and I hope that the preparations for it will go forward.

Prime Minister to Foreign Secretary.

12.XI.40.

We shall certainly have to obtain control of Syria by one means or another in the next few months. The best way would be by a Weygand or a de Gaullist movement, but this cannot be counted on, and until we have dealt with the Italians in Libya we have no troops to spare for a northern venture. On no acount must Italian or Caitiff-Vichy influences become or remain paramount in Syria.

Prime Minister to Lord Beaverbrook.

12.XI.40.

I do not think this could be said without the approval of the Air Ministry, and indeed of the C.O.S. Committee. My own feeling would be against giving these actual figures.18 They tell the enemy too much. It is like getting one of the tail bones of the ichthyosaurus from which a naturalist can reconstruct the entire animal. The more I think about it, the more I am against it. They tell the enemy too much. It is like getting one of the tail bones of the ichthyosaurus from which a naturalist can reconstruct the entire animal. The more I think about it, the more I am against it.

Prime Minister to Secretary of State for Air and C.A.S.

15.XI.40.

This amounts to a loss of eleven of our bombers in one night. I said the other day by Minute that the operations were not to be pressed unduly during these very adverse weather conditions. We cannot afford to have losses of this kind in view of your very slow replacements. If you go on like this, you will break the bomber force down to below a minimum for grave emergencies. No results have been achieved which would in any way justify or compensate for these losses. I consider the loss of eleven aircraft out of one hundred and thirty-nine i.e., about eight per cent a very grievous disaster at this stage of our bomber development.Let me have the losses during the first half of November.

Prime Minister to C.A.S.

17.XI.40.

I watch these figures every day with much concern. My diagrams show that we are now not even keeping level, and there is a marked downward turn this week, especially in the Bomber Command. Painful as it is not to be able to strike heavy blows after an event like Coventry, yet I feel we should for the present nurse nurse the Bomber Command a little more. This can be done (1) by not sending so many to each of the necessary objectives, (2) by not coming down too low in the face of heavy prepared batteries and being content with somewhat less accuracy, and (3) by picking out soft spots where there is not too much organised protection, so as to keep up our deliveries of bomb content. There must be unexpecting towns in Germany where very little has been done in air raid precautions and yet where there are military objectives of a minor order. Some of these could be struck at in the meanwhile. the Bomber Command a little more. This can be done (1) by not sending so many to each of the necessary objectives, (2) by not coming down too low in the face of heavy prepared batteries and being content with somewhat less accuracy, and (3) by picking out soft spots where there is not too much organised protection, so as to keep up our deliveries of bomb content. There must be unexpecting towns in Germany where very little has been done in air raid precautions and yet where there are military objectives of a minor order. Some of these could be struck at in the meanwhile.2. I should feel differently about this if our bomber force were above five hundred, and if it were expanding. But, having regard to the uncertainties of war, we must be very careful not to let routine bombing and our own high standards proceed without constant attention to our resources. These remarks do not apply, of course, to Italy, against which the full-scale risk should be run. The wounded Littorio Littorio is a fine target. is a fine target.

(Action this day.) Prime Minister to First Lord and First Sea Lord.

18.XI.40.

I was a.s.sured that sixty-four destroyers would be available for the northwestern approaches by November 15. This return of Asdic-fitted s.h.i.+ps, which goes to November 16, shows sixty. But what is disconcerting is that out of one hundred and fifty-one destroyers only eighty-four are available for service, and out of sixty for the northwestern approaches only thirty-three are available for service. When we held our conference more than a month ago, the Admiral was found with only twenty-four destroyers available, and all that has happened in the month that has pa.s.sed is that another nine have been added to his available strength. But meanwhile you have had the American destroyers streaming into service, and I was a.s.sured that there was a steady output from our own yards. I cannot understand why there has been this serious frustration of decisions so unitedly arrived at, nor why such an immense proportion of destroyers are laid up for one cause or another. Are the repairs falling behind? What has happened to the American destroyers? Are we failing in repairs and new construction?I should be glad to have a special conference at 10 A.M. A.M. on Tuesday at the Admiralty War Room. on Tuesday at the Admiralty War Room.

Prime Minister to General Ismay, for Chiefs of Staff.

18.XI.40.

I am informed that on the night of November 6/7 one of the German K.G. 100 Squadron 19 19 came down in the sea near Bridport. This squadron is the one known to be fitted with the special apparatus with which the Germans hope to do accurate night-bombing, using their very fine beams. Vital time was lost during which this aircraft or its equipment might have been salvaged because the Army claimed that it came under their jurisdiction, made no attempt to secure it, and refused to permit the naval authorities to do so. came down in the sea near Bridport. This squadron is the one known to be fitted with the special apparatus with which the Germans hope to do accurate night-bombing, using their very fine beams. Vital time was lost during which this aircraft or its equipment might have been salvaged because the Army claimed that it came under their jurisdiction, made no attempt to secure it, and refused to permit the naval authorities to do so.Pray make proposals to ensure that in future immediate steps are taken to secure all possible information and equipment from German aircraft which come down in this country or near our coasts, and that these rare opportunities are not squandered through departmental differences.

Prime Minister to Prime Minister of New Zealand.

18.XI.40.

Your telegram is being dealt with departmentally. We dwell under a drizzle of carping criticism from a few Members and from writers in certain organs of the press. This has an irritating effect, and would not be tolerated in any other country exposed to our present stresses. On the other hand, it is a good thing that any Government should be kept keen and made aware of any shortcomings in time to remedy them. You must not suppose everything is perfect, but we are all trying our best, and the war effort is enormous and morale admirable. All good wishes.

Prime Minister to Prime Minister of Canada.

20.XI.40.

1. I am most grateful to you for your message and for your very generous offer to afford facilities for a further expansion of the Joint Air Training Plan. 1 am confident that we shall be able to make excellent use of it.2. A review of the air training requirements in the light of the latest developments is at present in progress, and it is of the utmost value to the War Cabinet in this connection to know that in such further measures as prove to be necessary they can rely on the continuance of the whole-hearted a.s.sistance of the Canadian Government, which has already made such a notable contribution to our common effort.3. As soon as our review is completed, I will let you know, for your consideration, what we think would be the best direction for our further joint efforts.4. As you mention in your message, any measures for the extension of the Joint Training Plan must form the subject of discussion and agreement between all the Governments concerned. Would you agree to my repeating to the Prime Ministers of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand the text of your message and of this reply, or would you prefer to take this action yourself?5. Subject to your agreement, we should like to offer a cordial invitation to Air Vice-Marshal Breadner to pay a short visit to this country. Such a visit would be most valuable for the purpose of consultation on many training questions, and would give Air Vice-Marshal Breadner the fullest and most up-to-date information on our plans for the future development of the Air Force.

Prime Minister to Secretary of State for the Dominions.

22.XI.40.

I think it would be better to let de Valera stew in his own juice for a while. Nothing could be more harmless or more just than the remarks in the Economist. Economist. The claim now put forward on behalf of de Valera is that we are not only to be strangled by them, but to suffer our fate without making any complaint. The claim now put forward on behalf of de Valera is that we are not only to be strangled by them, but to suffer our fate without making any complaint.Sir John Maffey should be made aware of the rising anger in England and Scotland, and especially among the merchant seamen, and he should not be encouraged to think that his only task is to mollify de Valera and make everything, including our ruin, pa.s.s off pleasantly. Apart from this, the less we say to de Valera at this juncture the better, and certainly nothing must be said to rea.s.sure him.Let me see the Parliamentary Questions as they come in.