RESTRICTED
THE WAR IN NORTH AFRICA
PART 2 - THE ALLIED INVASION
INTRODUCTION
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declara tion of war against the United States by Germany and Italy brought
this country into the world conflict.
Immediate action was necessary to coordinate with our allies, and
especially with Great Britain, the strategy that would.govern the
future conduct of the war and the control that should be exercised
over it. In a report to the Secretary of War, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, stated :
On December 23, 1941, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, accompanied by the British Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Washington to confer with the President and the American
Chiefs of Staff . Out of the series of discussions which then followed
resulted an agreement not only regarding the immediate strategy
for our combined conduct of the war, but also for the organization of a method for the strategical command and control of British and American military resources. Probably no other Allied action, in the field or otherwise, has exerted as powerful an effect on the con
duct of this war as the prompt establishment of a prescribed pro cedure for achieving unity of effort through the medium of the Com
bined Chiefs of Staff acting under the direction of the leaders of their respective governments.
At this first conference the President and the Prime Minister,
with the advice of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, made the decision
that Allied resources would be concentrated first to defeat Germany,
the greater and closer enemy, and then Japan.
In discussions following the conference a tentative target date
for an operation across the English Channel was set for the summer of 1943. Some consideration was given to the possibility of an emergency diversionary assault at a much earlier date if this became
necessary to save the situation on the Russian front. As further
studies were made, shortage of landing craft for launching a cross
Channel operation, and shortage of supplies for maintaining one,
militated against putting the plan into effect. At the same time,
the reverses suffered by the British in North Africa and the con
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