§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, I ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any statement to make on the war situation.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SIMON)My Lords, many of your Lordships will know that less than an hour ago the Prime Minister in the House of Commons finished his speech—an incomparable exposition delivered with all his unique authority—on the present war situation, and gave an account of the meeting at Casablanca and of other recent visits and decisions of which it may be said quorum pars magna fuit. It is entirely right that your Lordships' House should receive on the same day some account of these matters from a member of the Government who has the honour to have a seat in your Lordships' House, and in the absence of our Leader I am called upon to undertake the task. I hope I shall have from those who hear me the indulgence and sympathy which a rather difficult occasion requires.
The method which we have adopted of periodic statements about the war situation made in each of the two Houses at appropriate intervals is, I think, a very useful way of forming a judgment and getting a balanced view as to the progress of this world-war in its many theatres. As in so many cases, it is often more important to know the way in which things are moving than to know the exact position at the moment of speaking. In your Lordships' House, and indeed in both Houses, we have, as I have just said, followed that practice. For example, it was on November 11 last year, Armistice Day, that the noble Viscount, Lord Cranborne, made to us a very full statement. At that moment the Eighth Army had just won a crushing victory at El Alamein. At that moment the Anglo-American Forces had been safely borne across the seas and had landed in French Colonial Africa. They were at 1048 that very moment establishing themselves in Algiers, Oran and Casablanca. Then again we had the last of these summarized statements from Viscount Cranborne as recently as January 19, little more than three weeks ago, in this House.
As your Lordships know now, though it was not known then, the Casablanca Conference had by that time already begun. It began on January 14. Dr. Goebbels and the purveyors of information from German quarters were suggesting that the absence from this country of the Prime Minister must be because he had crossed the Atlantic to throw himself in petition at the feet of President Roosevelt in Washington. It is not without humour to note that since that ridiculous miscalculation has been exposed, there are some at any rate of the propagandists in Germany who explain that that anticipation was not so far out, because, after all, President Roosevelt lives at the White House and the Spanish for White House is Casa Blanca. That, therefore, is the taking off point, the datum line as far as I am concerned to-day. I will endeavour in the plainest and most summary-way I can, to put before your Lordships on a number of heads the recent information and the latest situation, premising that a great deal of this is really governed by the decisions at Casablanca.
I heard the Prime Minister just now say in another place that the dominating purpose of the Casablanca meeting was to work out this principle—that our main aim, all of us in the United Nations, was to engage the enemy forces on land, sea and air on the largest possible scale at the earliest possible moment. There were many other much more definite decisions reached at this great Conference which I will put together and communicate to your Lordships a little later. Following the method which has been followed before, we have to take a rapid survey of the different main theatres of war. First take then—as indeed in duty bound we ought to take—Soviet Russia. When Viscount Cranborne made his statement on January 19 he summarized the position as it was then in Russia. Three months before, of course, when he spoke in November, the Germans were still on the offensive. Three weeks ago it was already possible to say that the Germans were in retreat over practically the whole of their Southern Front in Russia. Hitler's 1049 troops, as it appeared three weeks ago, the troops before Stalingrad, were already entirely cut off from the main German Armies, and though it would have been rash for any commentator to say so then, the view held in professional quarters and by our advisers in this country was that, while they were being precariously maintained by air, even three weeks ago their fate was absolutely sealed. In mid-December the Russians had struck at the Don salient, and three weeks ago a fresh Russian offensive had just begun in the Upper Don sector.
Now allow me briefly to review what are the immense and crucial developments which have occurred in the Russian theatre of war in this brief space of three weeks. The German Army of the Caucasus, or what remains of it, appears to be completely cut off except for a precarious line of retreat across the Kerch Straits into the Crimea. The main exit, the exit that they have always marked down for use in case of necessity, is the exit at Rostov. That exit is; closed to these retreating troops absolutely. The Russian Armies, at this moment, hold, and are the masters of, the whole of the left bank of the Don right down to the Sea of Azov, and Rostov is on the right bank of the Don. Then again, we can now say with assurance that the Maikop oil-fields have been recovered, and that the whole of Hitler's plans for getting oil fuel from the Caucasus are in ruins. Equally important is the recently developed threat to recover the Donetz Basin. At some points, indeed, the Russian troops have already crossed the Donetz. Both north and south of Kharkov the threat is developing, and with Kursk already recovered the fate of Kharkov is in the balance. These are stupendous events. They indicate a power of drive and recovery which puts these Russians soldiers among the most heroic that history has ever seen.
And while we should be wise to abstain from all speculation as to what may be the future outcome and the ultimate success of these immense achievements of the Russian Armies, inspired by their unquenchable determination to drive the hated invader from Russian villages and towns, which have been so brutally laid waste and despoiled, and directed by the military genius of Stalin, this much at least is quite clearly established: the initiative has passed entirely to the Soviet 1050 Armies. The Germans are nowhere advancing. Both in the north and in the south they are in actual retreat. Hitler's intuition has led the Axis Armies into defeats so serious and into threats so dangerous that his propagandists are searching everywhere for some palliation or excuse. Notice what it is. Goebbels and his collaborators have to whip up German sentiment, if they can, and extract the last ounce out of German resource by picturing in the most sombre terms the consequences that would follow if they cannot make the tide of Soviet victory turn. One wonders—I think many of us must have wondered—whether this German attempt to evoke fresh efforts on their side by warning Europe of the Bolshevist flood does not sound strange, even to German ears, as it is to be remembered that just before the war broke out Hitler was proclaiming that he had, by agreement with this very Soviet, settled Soviet-German relations by a Pact which would "last for a thousand years."
While these splendid Soviet successes are so heartening, we must still keep the main proportions of the map of war in our minds. There are immense stretches of Soviet territory still in German hands. Broadly speaking, the line—if indeed you can call the division between the opposing forces a line—which existed last summer and from which the German offensive last summer proceeded, is the line which the Russian Armies have now re-established. They are still thrusting forward in their advance; working out this vast strategic plan which is gaining them constant new successes. The fact remains that the Armies of our Allies have a long way to go; the German retreat must go back much further before the enemy is expelled from Russia, and before German territory itself comes within the danger zone. Nevertheless the achievements of these heroic men are stupendous, and full of consequence for more reasons than one. Their main success lies not so much in the recovery of vast stretches of territory as in the destruction of German Armies, in the annihilation of whole divisions, in the capture of incredible quantities of material, and in the refutation of the myth that even with the help of Hitler's intuition the German soldier is invincible.
Let me in the same way, but more briefly, turn to Africa. All of us know this story, because recent news and an 1051 undying pride in what our own men have done, write it indelibly on the tablets of the memory. But let me recount one or two dates. The victory at El Alamein was won early in November and Rommel was in full retreat. When my noble friend Lord Cranborne spoke on January 19, General Montgomery was half way across Tripolitania and the Germans were endeavouring to hold him at Buerat. In the three weeks since the last statement was made in this House there is not a school boy or a school girl in the land who does not know that the Eighth Army has swept on until the whole of the coast of Tripolitania is ours, and Italian Africa is no more. I heard the Prime Minister just now, in one of the most entertaining passages I ever remember in a Parliamentary pronouncement, describe his impression of the great modern town of Tripoli. He said that he was naturally received with great enthusiasm by the Italian population because this was the first large Italian town which had been redeemed from the Huns. To all of this—to the loss of Italian Africa, now absolutely complete—Mussolini has no answer except the vicarious sacrifice of his son-in-law, Count Ciano, and of Signor Grandi.
The Eighth Army has now come into French North-West Africa, and so it passes under the general orders and supreme command of General Eisenhower, while General Alexander becomes Deputy Commander-in-Chief, with the special duty of co-ordinating the action of the First and Eighth Armies. I have had put together in a separate short statement the decisions about new Commands decided on at Casablanca, and will refer to that in a moment. Your Lordships will observe that there have been and are in Tunisia on the side of the Allies three elements: British, American and French. From the concrete decisions under this head taken at Casablanca, of which I have been told and of which the House of Commons has now heard, it would certainly appear that effective co-operation between these different elements has been most ingeniously and most successfully secured.
I cannot detain your Lordships for more than a moment or two on the Far East, but even the most summary account of the war situation at the moment could 1052 not possibly leave out some events in the Far East and the Pacific during recent weeks. First, as to China, that much-tried and essentially peaceful nation, which has been fighting for six long years in a ceaseless struggle to protect herself against the assaults of Japan. Your Lordships will hear with particular pleasure that General Arnold, who is the head of the United States Army Air Force, and Field-Marshal Sir John Dill, who of course is the head of the British Military Mission at Washington, have quite recently been to Chungking to concert with the Generalissimo there plans for positive co-operative action. I believe only to-day the message has reached this country that this all-important charge committed to their care has been carried out successfully, and that there is the fullest agreement between the Generalissimo and the representatives of the other Allies as to the action to be taken.
The other reference to the Far East which I really must make is as to two striking events which have occurred in the Pacific since we last considered the war situation. One is the driving of the Japanese out of Papua by General MacArthur's Australian and American Forces, a perfectly definite achievement which leaves no ragged edges behind it. The other is the resounding and significant success of Admiral Halsey in the Solomon Islands, where American Forces have cleared Guadalcanal of the Japanese. These operations, as everyone who has had occasion to study the elements of military and naval affairs will well understand, are all the more remarkable because action has to be taken at such immense distances from the home country from which these Forces come. As the Prime Minister, in an illustrative phrase, said in my hearing—it is like the difficulty which you have in holding a heavy dumb-bell indefinitely with your arm outstretched.
I will now, if I may, fulfil my promise and tell your Lordships quite specifically some of the decisions which were reached at Casablanca. First—and this is fundamental—it must of course be understood that in the area of French North-West Africa the enterprise is under American supreme command. That was arranged with President Roosevelt long ago. It is an arrangement which our own authorities and our own Government have freely 1053 accepted, and all that need be said about it here is that of course it will be loyally and faithfully carried out. Therefore, General Anderson and the First Army are acting, as they have been ever since the landing, under General Eisenhower's orders. As we know well, the First Army very nearly succeeded in clearing the German Forces out of Tunisia at a blow; and, although that effort failed, I believe that it is the universal opinion of all who are competent to judge that that was an effort that ought to have been made, and that it was absolutely right to try it. But it failed, and, as a result, the Germans have made good their bridgeheads; and indeed, if you include Rommel's Forces—what is left of them—I believe that the estimate is made that there may be not far short of a quarter of a million of the enemy still in some part or other of the Tunisian theatre. We therefore must expect operations for the expulsion of the enemy from Tunisia to be severe. They may be prolonged, and the only safe thing to say here and now is that it is idle to prophesy and foolish to speculate
But there are one or two other matters on which a definite statement can be made. Our desert Army which is now crossing the frontier into Tunisia, as I have pointed out, comes thereby into the American sphere and comes under General Eisenhower as supreme commander. Under the allotment of parts which was most carefully worked out at Casablanca, General Alexander becomes the Deputy Commander-in-Chief under General Eisenhower.
Let me say a word or two about the other arms, the Air and the Navy. Air Chief Marshal Tedder becomes Air Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, and within what I may call the Eisenhower theatre is responsible to General Eisenhower, but the Air Chief Marshal necessarily also controls all the Air Forces throughout the whole of the Middle East for, from whatever aerodromes these machines of ours may come—Malta, Egypt, wherever it may be—they are to a very large extent engaged in attacking the same targets and of course they are co-operating very closely with one another according to type and occasion. Under Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Air Vice-Marshal Coningham, who has hitherto been working with the Eighth Army, will concert air operations in support of the 1054 First and Eighth British Armies and other troops on the Tunisian Front. So much for the air. Now take the Navy. The arrangements made at Casablanca resulted in this, that Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, who already commands all the British and American naval forces in the French African theatre, extends his command eastwards so as to comprise corresponding operations inside the Mediterranean, and the present Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, with headquarters in Egypt, will become Commander-in-Chief of the Levant and will deal also with the Red Sea and its approaches.
One more important piece of information which arises out of the decisions at Casablanca under the head of Staff appointments, I can give to your Lordships. As you will have noticed, the appointment of General Alexander to be Vice-Commander-in-Chief under General Eisenhower leaves a vacancy in the Command of the Middle East, the post he formerly held, and that post is being filled by General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson I have done my best, in extracting these matters from far more voluminous records, to give to the House as well as I can a picture of the Staff situation as it exists to-day.
I would venture to close with this single reflection, which perhaps, in an image, represents justly the situation in the war, taken as a whole, at which we have arrived. Those of your Lordships who in your youth took any part in the pastime of serious mountain climbing will know very well how, as you struggle up some severe slope the crest of which seems to be clear against the sky, and as you push nearer to the top of this slope, you discover that so far from being at the top of the mountain there stretches before you, it may be vast rough territory, rocks or snow, which perhaps includes some very dangerous and anxious descents before you can really say that you are engaged in the final struggle and will very shortly stand on the peak. Now I conceive that the developments of the war up to the point that it has now reached is very much like that situation in mountain climbing. Instead of comforting ourselves with the thought that, after such successes as we can see, looking back, we were close to the summit, we must realize that there is an immense amount of dangerous and grievous terri- 1055 tory still to be covered. But none the less we are entitled to say that some difficulties which might have seemed overwhelming have been overcome, that the spirit and purpose of the United Nations were never more closely knit, and if the great company of those who share the inheritance of freedom persist in the course they have chosen, then the day will come when Hitlerism will be dead, and when sanity and peace will be restored to the world.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, I am sure we all appreciate the statement which the noble and learned Viscount has made to us, and would like to associate ourselves with him in his expression of regret that the Leader of the House is unfortunately not able to be present. Your Lordships will also, I know, wish to join with one accord with me in expressing our appreciation of this type of statement and of the practice of making a series of statements presenting to us in a compact form the sequence of events and the place or places which we have reached in the course of this war. There is not one of us but will welcome the appointments which the learned Lord Chancellor has announced and express the sincere hope that these distinguished soldiers, airmen and admirals will have the conspicuous success which their past histories warrant and lead us to expect. I was glad to note some omissions from the statement of the Lord Chancellor. I noted, for example, that he did not refer to the French political differences in North Africa; that was an act of good sense and diplomacy with which we all wish to associate ourselves. Let us leave that matter to those who have the management of this tangled business.
We welcome particularly the high and splendid appreciation which the Lord Chancellor has expressed of the exploits of the Russian Army. I do not know how, hereafter, these will be judged in perspective, but we are simply staggered in trying to imagine the difficulties and complexities of supply and organization of these massed Armies at this time of the year over this difficult country. However we may view them, these events are certain to have a resounding effect in history. We rejoice with the noble 1056 Viscount at what has happened so far in North Africa. I was a little surprised at the size of the German forces which he mentioned in Tunisia. It makes it all the more disappointing that the inclement weather has not given the First Army, through no fault of ours, the opportunity of making the fullest use of its good start. Still, the weather is not an element which we can successfully contend against. We have no doubt as to what the end will be, with patience and our usual perseverance.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I should like to be quite sure about the statement I made on this point. My noble friend seems to be under the impression that I actually spoke of nearly 250,000 Germans. I am greatly obliged to him for the opportunity of correcting that, and no doubt it will be corrected by the gentlemen who deal with the reports. What I meant to say was that there might be a little under a quarter of a million of the enemy there. How they are composed as between the different nations I am not in a position to state. It was probably the bringing in of the remnants I of Rommel's Army that induced me to depart from the more accurate phrase used by the War Office.
§ LORD ADDISONI am much obliged to the noble Viscount. I was about to say a word about Chungking. We all deplore the difficulties of geography and wish, I am sure every one of us, that geography could enable us somehow or other to get into closer contact, for consultation, with the high authorities both of our Russian and our Chinese Allies. I am quite sure that every effort will be made to progress towards that end, because we have felt a kind of helplessness, almost, as we contemplated the immense difficulties which present themselves in giving greater and more active help to the heroic Chinese. It only remains for me to express our thanks to the Lord Chancellor for his statement, and to express the hope that this splendid example of consultation between the high authorities of the Allied Nations will be extended as much as it can practicably be extended to the leaders of the other great Allied Nations, because we know that the closer o we are brought together in the war, the more easily shall we be able to work together in peace.