THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1951.
¡CONTINUING THE SECOND WORLD WAR MEMOIRS OF BRI- TAIN'S WARTIME PRIME MINISTER. THIS IS THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF THE FIFTH BOOK, "CLOSING THE RING"
THE PAINFUL EPISODES OF RHODES AND LEROS
Mr Churchill hoped use British forces still under the command of Gen. Mail- land-Wilson in the Middle Fant for the capture of the Egean islands — especially Rhodes and Cos, with Litele valuable alrfelds. This almı had been approved by the Quebec conference.
A parachute BHİSSİON 20 Rhodes led by Major Lord Jellicoe was unsuccessful in to persuading the tallans resist
6,000 the
Germans there. Leros was occupied, but a British battalion land ed at Cos was overwhelmed.
The assault shipping re quired to support more am- bitious operations In the Egean was diverted by the Chiefs of Staff in Washing! Lan to viher Theatres 145 prranged at Quebec.
O
N Sept. 22 Wilson re- ported his minimum and
for
on
modest needs attack All Rhodes aboul Oct. 20. 1'sing the 10th Indian Division and
of part an armoured bri gade. he required only naval escorts and bombarding forces, three L.S.T.: [lam!- ing ships. tunks]. a few М.Т. I motor transport] ships, a hospital ship, an enough transport aireraft 10 lift ne parachute bat.
talion.
I was greatly troubled at our Inability to support the Agan operations. Ara
Sept 25 1
cabled to Gen. Eisenhower!
You will have seen the tele
grams from the Commander - in-Chief Middle East about Rhodes. Rhodes is the key both to the Eastern Mediter- ranean and the
Mgean.
disaster if are able {u there.
The quirements which the Middle East ask for are small.
will be a great the Germans .consolidate
-
The small aids needed seemed very little to ask from our American friends in order to gain the prize of Rhodes and thus retain Lerts and retake COE.
concessions The
which they had made to my unceasing pressure during the last three months had been rewarded by astounding success. Surely I was entitled to the very small aid which I required to supplement the British forces which available for action
In
were the
Egean, or had, with the ap-
By Winston Churchill
I bebeve it will be found that the Hahne und Ballon penin- eulas are militarily and poli- tically united, and that realty at is the theatre with which we have to deal. It may - deed not be possible to con- duct a successful Hallan cam- paign ignoring what happens The Germans the Agean. evadenty attach the
utmest inportance to this Eastern sphore, and have no hesitated li d-vert a large part of their
straitened air force to main tan themselves there.
diversion of forces or equipment smal reinforcement required for should prejudice 'Overlord' 2.9 planned."
our
the attack on Rhodes. Akhough I To pretend that the
could understand how, in the delay of six weeks in the return of nine landing craft for "Over- altered situation, the opinion of lord" out of over 500 involved, the generals engaged in which would in any case have had Italian campaign had been six mouths in hand, would come affected, I remained and remain premiss the main operation of in my heart unconvinced that May, 1944, was to reject all sense the capture of Rhodes could not of proportion.
have been fitted in. Nevertheless, with one of the sharpest pangs I suffered in the war, I submited with, the best gracz possible.
Nothing was gained by all the The capture of over-caution. Rome proved to be eight months distant. Twenty times the quantity fort-
Roosevelt not
in sympathy
Don't forget that we probably drowned the best part of 2,000 Germans on the way which, together with those killed in action, at any rate an offset to our 3,000 prisoners. It
may well be that the Germans have paid much more than life for
pri- life, including soners, in this struggle. None the less it is just to say that it is our first really grievous reverse since Tobruk, 1942... Grieved at resistance
in Italy.
CHIC?
Well, I'd hardly say they're going MAĎ about British utility,
L
Miss Herbison.
PARIS. EARNING from Miss Margaret Herbison, Joint Under-Secretary for Scotland, that British utility dresses are "selling like mad" in Paris, I went along to the Printemps store investigate.
to
There was no crush. A large sign over the dress department read: "Britain's best collection of woollen dress on show Fifteen
all at a. un1L-
here.
models
PARIS
price Newsletter 10,000
francs (210). from
dress SAM
The British woollen -suits πιοετ
figure."
even the
dimeult WHITE
The manageress of the depart- ment told me there was nothing novel in the store showing British woollen dresses: they sold them before the war with
THE painful episodes of Rhodes and Leros constitute, hep- pily on a small scale, the most OOKING back upon the far-
acute difference I ever had with Gen. Eisenhower. For many They have to apprehend deser- reaching favourable results
months, in the face of endless my tion by Hungary and Rumania which had, followed from
resistances, I had cleared the success. and a violent schism in Bul- journey with Gen. Marshal to
euk shipping tha would have way for his successful campaign Of the 1,000 dresses the store garia At ally
moment Tur- Algiers in June, from which the key
Instead of only gain-imported at the beginning of had helped to take Rhodes in a lean may
her weight whole cf our good fortune We can all see sprung. I thought I might ask for light were employed throughout ing Sardinia, we had established September, they have so far sold against them.
This the managerese de- to the enemy the same procedure, and I make the autumn and winter to move a large group of armies on the 350, huw adverse are the conditions in Greece all preparations to fly at once to the Anglo-American heavy bomb Italian mainland. Corsica was scribed as, "quite satisfactory." and Yugoslavia...
She went on: "Some of the models we find it impossible to sell. French women do not like all these pale blue and pale like models which are a com- green shades. And they do not bination of town and country clothes,"
Summing-up: the dresses are
ke red-hot cakes,
DELICATE TASK
I have never wished to send an army indo the Balkans. buf only by agents, supplies and commandes to stimulate the intense guera activity pre- valling there. This may yield results measureless in their consequence al very small cost to main operations
Car
أنت
What I ask for is the capture of Rhodes and the ther islands
the Dodecanese. The movement northward of Middle Eastern Air Ferces and their establish- ment
these in
islands and pussibly On the Turkish shore, which last might well be obtained, thus forcing a diversion on the enemy far greater than that required of It would also offer the us
eppertunity of engaging the enemy's waning વાઇ ન Bower and wearing if down in new region. This a power is all cne, and the mere con- tinmally it can be fought the better.
6
I
Rhodes is the key to all this.
do not feel the present plan * of taking it is good enough.
11 will require and is worth at least up to a first-class divi- slon, which can of course be replaced by static troops once the place is ours. Even i
and landing
assaul! craft ships on the scale of a divi- sion were withheld from the build-up of "Overlord" for a few weeks without altering the zero date, it would be worth while. I feel we may easily 'hrow away an immense bui fleeting opportunity....
proval of the Combined Chiefs The President's
of Staff, already been send to dangerous positions.
for
Allied
landing-craft The single division, a few days' as- sistance from the main Air Force, ani Rhodes would be ours.
telegram
WAS pained to receive from the President a legram which practically amounted to the refusal of all help and left me, already The Germans, who commited with
this and the had now regripped the situa- American
Chiefs cl Staff's tion, had moved many of their approval, to face the impending planes to the gean to frustrate blow. The negative forers which the very purpose which I had hitherto had been 50 narrowly in mind.
overcome had indeed resumed
Fighting.in
mountains
I
LAID the issue before the President in its full scope. Former Naval Person to Presl-
7 Oct., '48. I on much concerned about the situation developing in the Eastern Mediterranean
dent Roosevelt,
Cos has, already fallen except for some of our troops fight- ing in the mountains. Leros may well share its fate. Our enterprists
against Rhodes
have not yet succeeded.
their control. President Roosevelt to the Prime
Minister. 8 Oct., '43.
I do not want to force on Eisen- hower diversions which limit the early 'he prospects for successful development of the Itailan operations to a secure lize north of Rome....
It Is my opinion that no diversion of forces or equipment should pejudice "Overlord as plan- ned. The American Chiefs cf
Staff agree.
I noticed in particular the sen- dence, "It is my opinion that no
Tunis
President Roosevelt to the Prime
Minister. 9 Oct., '43.
I was in accord with obtaining whatever hold we could in the Dodecantas without heavy commitments, but the presen picture involves "well
organised, but operation. follow-through.
not only
determined
a necessary
er bases from Africa to Italy. Rhodes remained a thorn in our side. Turkey, witnessing the extra- ordinary
inertia of the Allies near her shores, became much less forthcoming, and denied us her airfields.
scale iz
хать
air
are
E bonus in our hands.
We had drawn an important part of the German reserves away from the decisive theatre. The Italian people and Govern ment had come over to our side. Their Fleet was
added to
our
own. Mussolini was selling like good rock buns not
The liberation of Rome
'THE French Academy
will
BOON elect a successor Marshal Petain,
tu
not far distant. Nineteen man divisions, abandoned by
Italian their
comrades, Lay scattered throughout the Balkans, in which we had not
officers used a thousand
and me. The date of "Overlord" had not been decisively affected. Two favourites are Generals 1 had been instrumental in Juin and de Lattre de Tassigny. British and For either, election will pose a finding from the
problem--making the Imperial forces in Egypt four celicate
over and aditional speech of eulogy of rst-class divisions above those which the North- s predcessor. west African Supreme Head- quarters had deemed possible.
THEY SAID IT
Q General
We have almost all the facts now at our disposal on which to Judge the commitments prob- ably involved in the Rhodes The American Staff bad en- As I see it, it is not forced their view; the price had operation. merely the capture of Rhodes. now to be paid by the British. but must mean of necessity: Gen. Wilson to Prime Minister. and must be apparent to the
17 Nov., 43 Germans, that we intend to go further. Otherwise Rhodes will
Leros has fallen, after a very be under the guns of both Cos
gallant struggle against over- and Crete.
whelming
1 altack. was a near
between thing success and failure. Very little was needed to turn the our favour and to bring off a limph. Instead we have suffered a reverse of which the consequences only too easy to foresee.... This in turn
QUOTES of the week: German involves the necessity of draw-
Prime Minister to General Wil-
Not only had we aided Gen.
SPEIDEL (here ing for ine means, langely
Anglo American for talks on 18 Nov., 43. Elsenhower's
European Army), shipping and air, not ground
staff
their upon
victorious on whether he should be referred troops, from some other source,
we had furnished to as. General Speidel or your messages career, but which inevitably must be Italy. Thank you for
about Leros. I approve your thern with unexpected resources, General Speidel: "Overlord,"
-"Call 1," or possibly Mouni-
disaster might doctor." conduct of the operation there. without which batten's amphibious operation.
Like you, I feel this s
well have occurred. I was
ALY KHAN at the serious loes and reverse, and grieved that the small requests Paris
Molor Show: **My like you I feel I have been
had made for strategic our favourite car is a jeep, but I fighting with my hands
poses. almost as high as those can't afford it. It uses too much behind my back.
achieved should have I hope to already have better
been arrangements
obdurately resisted and Petrol." rejected. made as a result of our next Conference.
Of course when you are win- ning a war almost everything GEST dress order of the that happens can be claimed to year-estimated a £9,000. be right and wise. It would, has been placed by musical-hall however, have been easy, but star Josephine Baker with Pierre for pedantic denials in the Balmain, It includes all her WITH the loss of Leros all
minor sphere, to have
"added stage costumes for an eight-week at New York's our hopes in the Egean the control of the gean, and engagement
the accession of Roxy Theatre. were for the time being ended. very likely
Woolworth helress Barbara We tried at once to evacuate the Turkey, to all the fruits of the small
Hutton, "tired of being stared garrisons in Samos and Italian campaign.
{ at,"
dress asked
designer cther islands, and to rescue sur- vivors from Letos. Over
Jacques Fath to show his collec- thousand British and Greck
tion to her privately at her Ritz World Copyright reserved. Repro- troops were brought off,
Eight well
mannequins duction, even partially, in as many friendly Italians and language, strictly prohibited.
paraded In Miss Hutton's drawing-room. Present to view it-only Barbara Hutton,
The problem then is, are we to enter inlo a Balkan campaign. starting with the southern up. or is there more to be gained, and with security, by pushing
the rapidly to
agreed upon position north of Rome?
a greater appears to me that
threat against the Balkans Greek Navy's Allied
Is implied in this than by મ necessarily precarious amphi- part bious
operation against Rhodes,
With
a lack evident to the enemy of the necessary means for the follow-through.
as
tied
а
Six
Strategically, if we get the Agean islands, I ask myself where do we go from there? and, vio- versa, where would the Ger- mans 80 if for some time they retain possession of the islands As to the meeting you proposed German prisoners, but our navai for Sunday [10th in Africa, losses were again severe. this would be in effec: another destroyers and two submarines meeting of the Combined Chiefs were sunk by aircraft or mine{ of Staff necessarily involving and four cruisers and four de only a partial representation stroyers damaged. These trials and in which I cannot partici- were shared by the Greek Navy, pate. Frankly, I am not in which played a gallant part sympathy with this procedure throughout, under the circumstances.... Hitler's sudden decision
MR Roosevelt's reply quenched
row
my last hopes. All I could do was to ask that the President's original negative message should not prevent a free discussion of the issue at the conference of Commanders-in- Chief. This was accorded for what it was worth..
Was
At the critical moment of the
information conference received that Hitler bad decided to reinforce his army in Italy, and fight a main battle south of Home This tipped the scales against the
To Anthony Eden, who had now returned home from Mos- cow, I telegraphed:
et
Leros is a bitter blow to me. Should it be raised in Parlia- ment...no attempts should be made to minimise the poignancy of the loss of the Dodecanese, which we had a chance of getting so easily and so little cost and which we have
now lost after heavy lex- penditure. Yas
should also stress the tremendous effort made by the Germans, their withdrawal
almost half nf their air forces from Italy, where they were already out- matched, and the assistance given to our troops thereby.
If it's a case of QUALITY...
then it's a case
of
Carlsberg
Prince
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