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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
It is requested that special care may be taken to ensure the secrecy of this document.
сс
144
MOST SECRET.
C.0.S.(40) 471
(ls W.P. (40) 2 13).
19TH JUNE, 1940.
WAR CABINET.
CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.
COPY NO
34
URGENT MEASURES TO MEET ATTACK.
Report.
We recently reported upon the means whereby we could continue to fight single-handed if French resistance were to collapse completely. In that paper we stated that there were three ways in which Germany might break down the resistance of the United Kingdom unrestricted air attack aimed at breaking public morale; by attack on shipping and ports;
2.
starvation of the country and occupation by invasion.
Now that organised French resistance is at an end, we are confronted with the very situation envisaged in that report.
3.
We cannot say for certain that Germany will attempt invasion. She is free to do so if she chooses, and, if
Moreover, Germany successful, the result would be final. may consider that invasion offers her by far the quickest mechod of achieving a decision, and that it would succeed or fail before American assistance could take effect.
Experience of the campaign in Flanders and France indicates that we can expect no period of respite before the
We must, Germans may begin a new phase of the war. therefore, regard the threat of invasion as immediate.
4.
Prior to the Gorman break through in France air attack had been regarded as the chief danger to this country, and a full-scale invasion as an unlikely contingency In now emphasising the imminent threat of invasion we must not overlook the fact that a major air offensive against this country will almost certainly take place as well, and will tax our air defences and the morale of our people to the full.
出
W.P.(40) 168.
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471
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