Daily Post - 12.02.1943, Blaðsíða 1

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Friday, Febr. 12, 1943
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Mr. Churchill On Allied Plans
Ctaanges Of Command In
Mediterranean and Near East
Plan Made For Coming Campaigns
London, Febr. llth.
Mr. Churchill today reviewed the war situation in the House of Commons, first giving
an account of the Casablanca Gonference, and tlien announcing various changes and new
appointments, which had been made in Middle East commands,
As the British Eighth Army;
the Prime Minister said, passes
into the Aríierican sphere of
operations in Tunis, it will come
under the command of General
Eisenhower, whose Deputy C.-
in-C. General Alexander will
become. Air Vice-Marshal Sir
Art.hur Tedder has been ap-
pointed A.O. C.-in-C. Central
Mediterranean, responsible to
General Eisenhower for all op-
erations in his theatre of war,
and with control of all the air
forces in the Middle East. The
vacancy created by General AI-
exander’s appointment will be
filled by General Sir Henry
Maitland Wilson, C.-in-C. Near
East. ít is, however, pröposed
to keep the army in Iran and
Irak a separate command. and
an announcement of who .'s
going to succeed Sir H. Mait-
land Wilson in this office is ex-
pected shortly. Admiral Sir
Andrew Cunningham, who com-
mands all the British and Uni-
ted States naval forces in the
western Mediterranean, will
have his command extended
eastwards to comprise all par-
allel operations in the Mediter-
ranean. Admiral Sir Iienry
Harwood, present C.-in-C. Cen-
tral Mediterranean will become
C.-in-C. Levant, and will deal
with the Red Sea and all ap-
proaches from that quarter.
General Giraud has agreed
to place all the French
forces under his command,
now operating with the United
States Army, under Gen-
eral Anderson, who w'll con-
tinue under General Eisen-
hower’s command.
Caeablanea
Conferenee
Of the Casablanca Confer-
ence the Prime Minister had
this to say: The dominating aim
of the United Nations is to en-
gage the enemy forces by land,
sea and air, on the largest pos-
sible scale at the earliest pos-
sible moment. We would have
to make the enemy burn and
bleed in every way physically
and reasonably possible, in the
same way as he has been made
to burn and bleed by our Rus-
s;an Allies on the Eastern front
from the White Sea to the Black
Sea.
Flan ©f A©tÉ©n For
l'ise MoEstfes
At the Casablanca Confer-
ence, Mr. Churchill said, agree-
ment had been reached on the
apportionment of the Allied
forces, as well as their direc-
tion, and on a plan of action,
which would be carried odt in
the next nine months. The
Prime Minister then gave warn-
ing that there would be dis-
appointment, failures and fru-
strations. We, and the United
States, had entered the war
with inadequate weapons and
ill prepared. Now, however, we
were warrior nations, with
powerful and ever-growing
forces. “But,” he said, “the pro-
1 blem confronting us is how to
bring our weapons and men
into action.”
U~Boat War
The U-boat menace, the
Prime Minister said, and the
task of overcoming it, had been
given first priority in the plans
discussed at Casablanca. Our
losses at sea were very heavy,
and they were hampering and
delaying us. But we were hold-
ing our own, and more than
that. Mr. Churchill then gave
this bit of encouraging news:
Thanks to the combined con-
struction of Britain, the United
States and Canada, we now
have one and a quarter million
tons of shipping more than we
had six months ago, and our
losses during the last two
months had been less than at
any time during the past year.
The number of U-boats was in-
creasing, but so were their
losses. To those who advocated
the building of faster ships he
would like to say that speed
was a costly luxury, and ex-
perience had proved that losses
could be kept down if only our
convoys had a sufficiently
strong naval and air support,
and mentioned especially in this
connection the value of Iong
range aircraft. Our heavily es-
corted military convoys, which
had carried three million troops
about the world, had done so
with a loss of less than 1400
men. “But,” the Prime Minister
said, “let the enemy nurse the
(Continued on Page 4).
Far East
London, Febr. llth.
| Allied War }
STalks In The'
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$ s
S that immediately after the ^
b Casablanca Conference, Field S
^ Marshal Sir John Dill, re- $
S presenting Mr. Churchill, and ^
S Lt.-General H. Arnold, re- ^
• presenting President Roose- S
s velt, went to the Far East *
S to acquaint Generalissimo
N Chiang Kai Shek and Field i
I TV/Tn L. „ 1 O i „ A 1, 1 J TTT — S
It was revealed here today i
^ Marshal Sir Archibald Wa- s
S vell with the plans made at s
S the conference regarding the S
• proseciition of the war •
s against Japan. s
S It was also announced that S
b complete accord between the i
s s
^ three powers as to the offen- s
S sive against the enemy was S
S reached. To ensure the fullest i
^ possible future co-orclination •
s of plans, future discussions S
S between General MacArthur S
í and Field Marshal Wavell)
; will follow in due course.
New fiBioea Aívaace
London, Febr. llth.
In New Guinea, 25-pounders,
flown from . Australia, have
been used to defeat the latest
Japanese attempt to throw the
Allied forces out of the Wau
area, south-west of the impor-
tant enemy base at Salamaua.
General MacArthur’s HQ an-
ounce that the enemy was
forced to retreat six miles, after
having suffered heavy losses in
men and materiel.
The battle began on Monday,
when the Australians attacked
the main Japanese position with
concentrated artillery fire. In
(Continued on page 4.)
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