Chapter 26
6-18-42 23:59 hrs British 8th army and Middle East HQ Suez Egypt Reporting back to American President Roosevelt and Joint Chiefs of Staff; Brig General Bonner Fellers and Lt Colonel Oswald, American military attache to MEGHQ (Oswald)and Chief of Staff GSO1 (Fellers) to American Expeditionary Corps of Egypt
Report sent via US ARMY CIPHER SYSTEM (UNBREAKABLE)
Urgent report and personal observations
AECE staff is largely stood up and activated and is taking responsibility for all USA ground and air troops in Egypt under General Fredendal
Office space has been located and AECE cartopgraphy, signals and inteligence officers are on day 1 of getting the lay of the land in Egypt
General Fredendall and General Auchinlek agreed to run some soup kitchens/ration distribution stations both inside the Suez security perimeter and at it's outer edge for displaced (unarmed) civilians to try and disperse and cool off the angry crowds that keep forming
General Fredendall hope that tempers can cooled with quality American beef and bread instead of bullets with the Egyptians
Our staff feels there could be some chance in the medium term, since General Fredendall and all USA personel are new to Egypt that we might reset relations with the Egyptians over time
Amabassador Lampson was recalled by London by late last night, this should make our efforts for the above a great deal easier, our staff has repeatedly reported that Ambassador Lampson had violent and oppressive attitudes towards the Egyptians and his relationship with Farouk could never possibly be repaired
Randolph Churchill will be traveling back to London with Lampson, as his back is finally well enough to travel home, great efforts had to be made in the GHQ evacuation to not lose him to the Egyptian mobs, because of his limited mobility
We were pleased (as was GHQ)that additional USA government and civil affairs personel have been approved and that a military officer will be placed in direct authorized control of relations with the Egyptians in stead of Kirk; Kirk's lifestyle is offensive to Farouk and to his court and he has much of the same history of bad blood that Lampson shared
Our staff highly recommends that additional USA infantry units (even if not front line capable) take similar combination of ship and flight to reach Suez or Port Sudan as soon as possible to boost AECE presence and security abilities
Oswald and I have made arrangements with Navy GHQ staffers for priority and rapid unloading of the 1st armored division when they arrive
British laborers and soldiers are constructing additional barracks and garages in the perimeter expressly for the 1st armored division
British laborers and soldiers are constructing dedicated workshop spaces for the 1st armored division to prepare their equipment for the desert
British laborers and soldiers are preparing a training ground for the 1st armored division on the southwest edge of the perimeter in the open flat desert scape
Smith and Auchinlek know they are due to be relieved very shortly but have busied themselves organizing the port for the fastest possible deployment of reinforcements
Additionally Smith has been putting a plan to pen for the reorganizing British 7th armored division and the 1st USA armored to advance along both sides of the Suez canal and to reestablish allied security control of it's entire length before regaining control of Port Said
His general idea is that this would allow the British fleet to return to the Eastern Med at some point and establish at least it's lighter units in Cyprus, and Haifa
Long term closure of the canal is considered completely unacceptable to all GHQ staffers and I am advised by other attaches and Navy staff that it has dire effects on strategic transportation for the war against Japan
There are also good airfields around Port Said that where evacuated inside of the Egyptian uprising and establishment of the Suez Perimeter that are important to regain to establish air dominance against Rommel in Egypt
Desert Airforce technicians have built their first 12 examples of sandstorm trucks with aircraft engines in the bed and are testing them in the South West Open Desert, Oswald found them to be similarly effective to the ones deployed by Rommel in Libya
Desert Airforce staffers have promised a company of 16 converted vehicles to be gifted to the 1st armored on it's arrival in Egypt
A dedicated area for a USA long range bombers has finally been arranged in the eastern part of the perimeter, stockpiling of supplies started this morning and British laborers are preparing 3 long hard metal runways
Given the geography of our current position, USA fighter aircraft will face many of the same issues the desert air force encountered in Libya, regarding fighting at the extreme ends of their range, every shipment of long range fuel drop tanks is as vital as the arrival of the fighters and their pilots to Egypt
Baxter advises that the airfield should be prepared on a primitive basis within a week and that bombing sorties should be able to start at a slow place against Rommel's supply lines and columns
The desert air force is still setting up additional fields for their displaced and orphan aircraft from the evacuations and relocating/building fresh stock piles of fuel ammunitions and bombs for their machines; all priority had been given to restablishing their longer ranged fighters at the expense of everything else, but that will begin to change now that the front has stabilized; they too are in desperate need of drop tanks
Desert air force staffers are confident that within a month they will have significant air control above most of Egypt and feel that Rommel strung out so far from his primary bases of supply where his fuel, bombs and ammunitions come from will not be able to have his fighters and dive bombers generate such terrific numbers of missions like he did at Gazala
The Desert Air Force starting tomorrow will have standing patrols above the Suez Perimeter in all hours of daylight to try and prevent axis raids against the unloading ships
Axis bombers from Crete do not have the range to hit our positions here and the Axis has not established any permanent air bases in Egypt yet, they do have a big base under construction at El Dabba where the nuisance raids against Suez are being launched from
General Fredenall remarked to us today after inspecting the sand trucks along side Oswald that the terrain in Egypt is very different than the scrub forests and swamps of Louisiana that the army conducted it's training maneuvers in this year
He is drafting a memorandum to suggest that future training for any troops deployed to Egypt after the first 3 divisions include maneuvers in West Texas or a similar location that more closely resembles what they would see in Egypt
He is also drafting an additional memorandum that once a sufficient reserve of training tanks is on hand that USA tank crews should be combination shipped/flown to arrive faster because they need desert warfare courses which can be completed before their permanent equipment arrives, they can also serve as emergency replacements for existing divisions if there shipping delays in their equipment as well
General Fredendall is reviewing our previous assessment of needed infantry divisions to maintain internal security in Egypt as the army advances back on Rommel, he believes our previous estimate of 6 allied infantry divisions is too light and that it might take 10-11 divisions to maintain internal security and lines of communication.
That sort of additional force would congest Suez and even port Sudan far into the future; if that many men are truly needed it is vital that the canal be retaken, so that access to Port Said might be restored, and that we obtain more space to deploy our divisions and their tails
The staff as currently on hand and authorized is only sufficient to control 5 divisions with a firm hand, if additional USA troopers are authorized our headquarters will need additional manpower
General Fredendall is drawing up a formal request for additional bridging engineers and specialist infantry which the army will need for it's offensive
General Fredendall is drawing up a formal request for one additional water purification company for each division in Egypt and a battalion dedicated to fresh water as a corps asset
GHQ staffers are putting the final polish on a more substantial post mortem analysis of their failures in Libya and plan to introduce significant changes to combat training and doctrine once they receive their new commander
It largely expected that the new commander of the 8th army and the GHQ will make wholesale changes to the officer structure of the troops under their command looking for new people not burdened by the failure in Libya or the culture of excessively low morale that has beset the British army
Auchinlek has introduced significantly more drastic measures to track down stragglers and has active checkpoints throughout the Suez Perimeter
As much as a new 8th army commander will have the task of reorganizing and rebuilding the defeated army, their first and foremost task in our opinion will be their need to raise the chin of the 8th army and restore the morale and discipline of the army.
Lord Gort has begun negotiations with Italy to take over Malta which we are told are proceeding at a moderate pace using the Vatican as an intermediary. Auchinlek privately confided to me that if he were in Gort's shoes he would have made the same decisions knowing the quarter of a million civilians would see life and death starvation in a matter of weeks, he admits that Gort is doing the right thing to spare them such suffering and that there was nothing within the GHQ's power to head it off
Some GHQ staffers believe that most of the freed up axis aircraft from Malta's capitulation will be sent to Russia due to the lack of fuel in the theater
Our own staff is preparing several cases of what Rommel might do with a temporary heavy infusion of airpower
Attache staffs attached to the Russian army are preparing a similar study for their own theater
General Fredendall has asked general Smith about building more substantial air defense bunkers for the Suez perimeter, there has been no response on this yet
Made a fast passage then.
