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CHURCHILL, Winston S.] Typed document, unsigned, Minutes of Marrakech Conference, 7-8 January 1944.~ 17 pages, folio and 4to . [ With :] 10 January 1944 typed memorandum signed from L. C. Hollis to the Lord Privy Seal (Robert Gascoyne-Cecil).
CHURCHILL, Winston S.] Typed document, unsigned, Minutes of Marrakech Conference, 7-8 January 1944.~ 17 pages, folio and 4to . [ With :] 10 January 1944 typed memorandum signed from L. C. Hollis to the Lord Privy Seal (Robert Gascoyne-Cecil). "THERE WAS EVERYTHING TO BE SAID FOR THE TWO ALLIES SHARING THE DANGERS, THE SUFFERINGS AND...THE GLORY, TOGETHER" CHURCHILL BEEFS UP THE ALLIED ATTACK ON ANZIO AT THE EXPENSE OF OPERATION OVERLORD. A fascinating series of conference minutes (prepared for circulation to the Combined Chiefs of Staff) that show Churchill pushing his chiefs--and American Walter Bedell Smith--to keep vital landing craft in the Italian theater for Operation Shingle, and not divert them for the approaching Operation Overlord in France. The P.M. met with General Alexander, Admiral Cunningham, Henry Maitland-Wilson, "Beetle" Smith and other top planners, on 7 and 8 January, at the Villa Taylor in Marrakech, where he was recuperating from pneumonia. He makes an impassioned case for aggressively pressing the Italian campaign: "Affairs in the Aegean had gone against us and it would be nothing short of a tragedy if now the campaign in Italy were to drag on to an inconclusive end. Our prestige would suffer..." The conference takes up the timing of the Anzio landing, with Churchill pressing for the earlier of the two proposed dates (22 January): "the Germans," he comments, "must either annihilate the SHINGLE force, perish themselves or retreat." He then argues on 8 January against diverting 15 L.S.T.s to England for Overlord and "emphasised the vital importance of throwing everything into the battle. Wars were won by a series of successful battle from which the victor advanced and the vanquished retired." He is pleased that an American division will join the British attack force, and tells Smith, "There was everything to be said for the two Allies sharing the dangers, the sufferings and, it was hoped, the glory together." Very little glory emerged from Anzio. The Allied forces were bogged down against heavier than expected German resistance, and did not break out of their bridgehead until late May 1944.