Masters and Commanders Read online

  Masters and Commanders

  How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945

  Andrew Roberts

  For my wife, Susan

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  Introduction

  Part I

  Enchantment

  1 First Encounters: 1880–June 1940

  2 Collecting Allies: June 1940–December 1941

  3 Egos in Arcadia: December 1941–February 1942

  4 Brooke and Marshall Establish Dominance: February–March 1942

  5 Gymnast Falls, Bolero Retuned: February–April 1942

  Part II

  Engagement

  6 Marshall’s Mission to London: April 1942

  7 The Commanders at Argonaut: April–June 1942

  Photographic Insert

  8 The Masters at Argonaut: June 1942

  9 Torch Reignited: July 1942

  10 The Most Perilous Moment of the War: July–November 1942

  11 The Mediterranean Garden Path: November 1942–January 1943

  12 The Casablanca Conference: January 1943

  13 The Hard Underbelly of Europe: January–June 1943

  14 The Overlordship of Overlord: June–August 1943

  Part III

  Estrangement

  15 From the St Lawrence to the Pyramids: August–November 1943

  16 Eureka! at Teheran: November–December 1943

  17 Anzio, Anvil and Culverin: December 1943–May 1944

  18 D-Day and Dragoon: May–August 1944

  19 Octagon and Tolstoy: August–December 1944

  20 Autumn Mist: December 1944–February 1945

  21 Yalta Requiem: February–May 1945

  Conclusion: The Riddles of the War

  Appendix A: The Major Wartime Conferences

  Appendix B: Glossary of Codenames

  Appendix C: The Selection of Codenames

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Searchable Terms

  About the Author

  Other Books by Andrew Roberts

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Sketch of Churchill by General Brooke on No. 10 writing paper, made during a War Cabinet meeting in March 1942

  List of Illustrations

  Frontispiece: A sketch of Churchill by Alan Brooke (Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London–Ref: Alanbrooke 6/4/1–5. Reproduced by kind permission of The Viscount Alanbrooke)

  Preface: A page from Lawrence Burgis’ account of the War Cabinet meeting of 10 December 1941 (Churchill Archives Centre, Papers of Laurence Burgis, BRGS 2/10, 10 December 1941)

  1. The Masters and Commanders at the Casablanca Conference, January 1943 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Joan Bright Astley)

  2. Pershing and Marshall, 1919 (courtesy of the George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia)

  3. Alan Brooke in the uniform of the Royal Horse Artillery, 1910 (Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London–Ref: Alanbrooke 13/1)

  4. Churchill arriving at Downing Street, 15 May 1940 (Getty Images)

  5. Roosevelt addressing Congress, 8 December 1941 (Getty Images)

  6. Churchill and Roosevelt on board USS Augusta, 9 August 1941 (Topfoto)

  7. Churchill and Roosevelt on board HMS Prince of Wales, 14 August 1941 (AP/PA Photos)

  8. Marshall, Churchill and Henry L. Stimson, 24 June 1942 (Getty Images)

  9. Alan Brooke’s lunch for Marshall at the Savoy Hotel, July 1942 (David E. Scherman/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  10. Harry Hopkins, Mark Clark, Roosevelt and Eisenhower in North Africa, 31 January 1943 (Bettmann/Corbis)

  11. Eisenhower and Marshall in Algiers, 3 June 1943 (Corbis)

  12. Churchill recuperating in Carthage, Christmas Day 1943 (Bettmann/Corbis)

  13. Patton, Bradley and Montgomery in France (Corbis)

  14. The Combined Chiefs of Staff at Casablanca, January 1943 (US Army Military History Institute)

  15. Churchill, Eden and others at Allied HQ in North Africa, 8 June 1943 (Getty Images)

  16. Combined Chiefs of Staff meeting at the First Quebec Conference, August 1943 (US Army Military History Institute)

  17. Second Quebec Conference, September 1944 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Joan Bright Astley)

  18. Churchill and Roosevelt at the Second Quebec Conference, September 1944 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Joan Bright Astley)

  19. John Dill, Andrew Cunningham, Alan Brooke, Charles Portal and Hastings Ismay at Quebec, 1944 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Joan Bright Astley)

  20. British Joint Planning Staff, Second Quebec Conference, September 1944 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Joan Bright Astley)

  21. Allen Tupper Brown (courtesy of George Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia)

  22. Alan Brooke and Barney Charlesworth, October 1941 (Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London–Ref: Alanbrooke 13/3)

  23. Churchill and Jan Smuts in Cairo, August 1942 (Bettmann/Corbis)

  24. Hastings Ismay, 1942 (George Karger/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  25. Albert C. Wedemeyer with Marshall (George Lacks/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  26. Archibald Wavell and Joseph W. Stilwell, New Delhi (William Vandivert/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

  27. The British Chiefs of Staff, April 1945 (Jack Esten/Getty Images)

  28. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (Getty Images)

  29. Lawrence Burgis and Leslie Hollis in the Cabinet War Rooms (from War at the Top by James Leasor)

  30. John Kennedy (photograph by Walter Stoneman. National Portrait Gallery, London)

  31. Thomas Handy (Getty Images)

  List of Maps

  1. The North African Littoral

  2. The Eastern Front

  3. France and Germany

  4. The Mediterranean Theatre

  5. The Far East: Approaches to Japan

  6. The Far East: The Pacific Route

  7. The Far East: The Bay of Bengal Strategy

  The North African Littoral

  The Eastern Front

  France and Germany

  The Mediterranean Theatre

  The Far East: Approaches to Japan

  The Far East: The Pacific Route

  The Far East: The Bay of Bengal Strategy

  Acknowledgements

  In the three years that it has taken me to research and write this book, there have been a large number of people who have been tremendously generous to me, especially with their time, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

  Michael Crawford allowed me to quote from his father Sir Stewart Crawford’s unpublished diary of the Yalta Conference, Joan Bright Astley gave me free rein in her fascinating archive, and Conrad Black permitted me to view his collection of President Roosevelt’s private correspondence. Other people who have been immensely helpful for this book include Hugh Lunghi for his memories of translating for Churchill and Lord Alanbrooke at the Teheran, Moscow, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences; the indefatigable Colonel Patrick Mercer MP who very kindly showed me around the battlefields of Monte Cassino, Salerno and Anzio, and accompanied me to the grave of General Marshall’s stepson at the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery at Nettuno; Professor Sir Michael Howard for his unrivalled knowledge of the grand strategy of the war; Lord Alanbrooke’s biographer General Sir David Fraser and Lady Fraser for memories of the field marshal; Geneviève Parent for opening up the Salon Rose at the Château Fronten
ac in Quebec for me;

  Professor Alex Danchev, the acknowledged expert on Anglo-American Staff relations and the co-editor of the Alanbrooke diaries, for many insights; Philip Reed for private tours of the Cabinet War Rooms; Laurence Rees for videotapes of Alanbrooke’s BBC television programmes; my aunt and uncle Susan and David Rowlands for letting me stay at their farmhouse in the Dordogne while I was writing this book; Victoria Hubner for showing me around FDR’s home at Hyde Park, New York; James, Lisa and Helen-Anne Gable for making me feel so welcome in Virginia; the always exuberant Governors of the Other Other Club of Madison, Wisconsin; and Sam Newton for showing me around General Marshall’s house, Dodona Manor. Paul B. Barron of the George C. Marshall Library very generously invited me to Thanksgiving Dinner with his charming family, for which very many thanks. I should also like to thank profusely Campbell Gordon, who found my word processor–with the only copy of this book on it–after I moronically left it in the back of a taxi coming home from the London Library. Three years of research would have been wasted had it been lost. If Mr Gordon will please get in touch, I would like to give him lunch.

  A large number of people have kindly discussed one or more of the four Masters and Commanders with me, often from their personal knowledge of them, and I should like to thank Joan Bright Astley, the Countess of Avon, Antony Beevor, Lord Black, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Professor Donald Cameron Watt, Lord Carrington, Winston S. Churchill Jr, Lady de Zulueta, Colonel Carlo D’Este, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor Sir Martin Gilbert, Field Marshal Lord Inge, Professor Warren Kimball, Paul Johnson, Sir John Keegan, Richard Langworth, Dr Anthony Malcolmson, Jon Meacham, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, Professor Richard Overy, Kenneth Rose, Celia Sandys, Lady Soames, Anne Sharp Wells and Lady Williams of Elvel.

  I have encountered much friendliness and help in the archives and libraries I have visited in the course of researching this book, and would particularly like to thank Paul B. Barron, Peggy L. Dillard and the late, greatly lamented Dr Larry I. Bland at the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia; Mark Renovitch at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York; Katherine Higgon at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London; Allan Packwood, Andrew Riley and the staff of the Churchill Archives in Churchill College, Cambridge; Dr Richard Sommers, Bob Mages, David Keough and Paul Lynch at the USA Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Natalie Milne at the Heslop Room of Birmingham University; Janet McMullin at Christ Church Library, Oxford; Simon Gough at the Parliamentary Archives in the Palace of Westminster, Frederick Augustyn at the Library of Congress, Washington, as well as the staffs of the Bodleian Library, London Library, National Archives at Kew and the Manuscripts Room of the British Library.

  In Stuart Proffitt, Georgina Capel and Peter James, I know that I’m very fortunate to have a fantastically talented team for my publisher, literary agent and copy-editor; my profound thanks go to them. Various other friends, family and experts have read my manuscript, and although all errors in it are of course mine alone, I would like to thank for their advice and invaluable suggestions John Barnes; Paul Courtenay, the new chairman of the International Churchill Society (UK); Jeremy Elston; my wife Susan Gilchrist; Roger Jenkin; Hugh Lunghi; John McCormack; Sir Anthony Montague Browne, Sir Winston Churchill’s former private secretary; Stephen Parker; Eric Petersen; my father Simon Roberts; Antony Selwyn and Allan Taylor-Smith.

  I dedicate this book to my darling wife Susan, who in the course of my researches has accompanied me to many of the places that appear in the book, including Marrakesh, the Mena House in Giza, the Château Frontenac in Quebec, Bletchley Park, Stalingrad (now Volgograd), the Oval Office of the White House and the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the battlefields of Kursk, Moscow, Anzio, Rome and Monte Cassino, Mussolini’s execution spot above Lake Como, the Hadtörténeti Müzeum and the Holocaust museum in the Dohány Utca synagogue in Budapest, the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna and, on our honeymoon last year, the Kanchanaburi death camp on the River Kwai.

  She is the woman I have been seeking all my life.

  Andrew Roberts

  www.andrew-roberts.net

  May 2008

  Preface

  I put all this aside. I put it on the shelf, from which the historians, when they have time, will select their documents to tell their stories.

  Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 18 June 1940

  Type ‘strategy second world war’ into the Google search engine and you will get no fewer than 1.64 million hits, so why am I trying to add to that figure? One aspect that I hope will differentiate this book from the hundreds already published on the subject is the inclusion of some hitherto unpublished material, including an extensive set of verbatim reports of Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet meetings, previously quoted from only on the internet. In trying to reconstruct the intimacy of the often daily exchanges between my four principals, I was fortunate, through pure serendipity, also to chance upon the verbatim notes taken of the War Cabinet meetings by someone who was hitherto virtually unknown to history, Lawrence Burgis.

  Burgis (pronounced Burgess) was, according to the diarist James Lees-Milne, ‘the last serious attachment of Lord Esher’s private life’.1 When Esher and Burgis first met–it is not known how–Burgis was a seventeen-year-old schoolboy at King’s School, Worcester, and the fifty-seven-year-old Reginald, second Viscount Esher, was a former courtier to Queen Victoria, a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence and the man who had introduced the idea of a General Staff for the Army in 1904, as well as being perhaps the best socially connected man of Edwardian England.

  After leaving school, ‘Thrushy’ Burgis worked as Esher’s private secretary, even though Esher’s eldest son Oliver thought him ‘plain and lower middle-class with a cockney accent’. Esher’s relationship with Burgis was described by Lees-Milne as ‘the most satisfactory of his love affairs, because it is unlikely that it was ever more than Socratic’. (He presumably meant ‘Platonic’; Socrates was altogether more hands-on.)

  Thrushy was ‘alert, intelligent and eager to learn’, and took down dictation very fast in his own private shorthand. ‘It was wonderful [for Esher] to have once again a very young man to instruct,’ explained Lees-Milne, ‘to enrich with anecdotes of all the famous people he had known, to mould in his ways.’ Burgis was heterosexual and married at the age of twenty-two, although this proved no ‘impediment to their intimacy. There is no reason to suppose that Lorna Burgis resented Regy’s love for her husband.’2 Lawrence Burgis and Esher were due to lunch together at Brooks’s Club on the day that Esher died in January 1930.

  Esher was actuated by a strong desire to keep those he loved out of the fighting in the 1914–18 War, and by getting Burgis a post as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General John Charteris, Lord Haig’s intelligence chief in the Great War, saved him from service in the trenches. It was also down to Esher that Burgis secured a place on the staff of the Cabinet Office before the war ended. It is therefore due to this physically unconsummated love of Lord Esher for the lad he called ‘My Thrush’ that we today have verbatim reports of the War Cabinet meetings held during the Second World War, for by 1940 Burgis had risen to the post of assistant secretary to the Cabinet Office, and was thus one of the few people whose job it was to take down word for word whatever ministers said there.

  There were strict rules against officials keeping diaries, but Burgis’ practice of retaining the verbatim notes he made of War Cabinet meetings was far more serious. It was not simply a sackable offence; if he had been caught, he would have faced prosecution under the 1911 Official Secrets Act. That he knew he was breaking the law is evident from his unpublished autobiography, in which he explicitly stated that he kept his actions secret from the Cabinet secretary, Sir Edward Bridges, and his deputy Norman Brook. The Cabinet Office rules were unambiguous: all notes, after being used to draw up the official minutes, were to be burnt in the office g
rate in Whitehall. Instead, Burgis stashed them away. He had an eye for great events, and fully appreciated how fortunate he was to be present when history was being made. ‘To sit at the Cabinet table at No 10 with Churchill in the chair was something worth living for,’ he wrote. ‘Perhaps some would have paid a high price to occupy my seat, and I got paid for sitting in it!’3 He was proud to have been the only person besides Churchill and Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts to have been present at the War Cabinet meetings of both world wars.

  By the time of the Second World War, Lawrence Burgis was, according his friend Leslie ‘Jo’ Hollis, who also worked in the Cabinet secretariat, ‘a short, rotund and rubicund person, who loved a good story and a glass of wine’.4 In later life he became an authority on judging gymkhanas in Oxfordshire, where he retired. He hugely admired Churchill, and was certain that had the Germans invaded Britain in 1940 the Prime Minister ‘would have mustered his Cabinet and died with them in the pill-box disguised as a WH Smith bookstall in Parliament Square’. He recalled Churchill in the Cabinet Room: