Le domande

L’aviazione del Deserto occidentale, agli ordini del maresciallo dell’Aria Arthur Conyngham (o Coningham*) aveva allora raggiunto una forza da combattimento pari a 550 apparecchi. C’erano poi due altri gruppi, oltre all’aviazione con base a Malta, dotati complessivamente di 650 aeroplani, il cui compito consisteva nell’attaccare i porti e le vie di rifornimento del nemico, tanto attraverso il Mediterraneo quanto attraverso il Deserto. Tenendo conto anche d’un centinaio di caccia e di bombardieri  medi americani, la nostra forza totale ammontava cosi a circa 1200 aerei atti all’impiego. Mentre tutti questi preparativi procedevano era necessario ch’io venissi informato al più presto possibile delle intenzioni di Alexander; il 17 settembre gl’inviai pertanto il seguente dispaccio:

*Da non confondersi coi Cunningham Alan e Andrew rispettivamente Generale di terra e Ammiraglio. da Wikipedia: Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Mary" Coningham KCB, KBE, DSO, MC, DFC, AFC, RAF (19 January 1895 – presumably 30 January 1948) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War, he was at Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, where he became a flying ace. Conningham was later a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief 2nd Tactical Air Force and subsequently the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Flying Training Command. Coningham is chiefly remembered as the person most responsible for the development of forward air control parties directing close air support, which he developed as commander of the Western Desert Air Force between 1941 and 1943, and as commander of the tactical air forces in the Normandy campaign in 1944. On 30 January 1948, he disappeared along with all the other passengers and crew of the airliner G-AHNP Star Tiger when it vanished without a trace somewhere off the Eastern coast of the United States in the Bermuda Triangle.

Il Primo Ministro al Comandante in capo del Medio Oriente Generale Harold Alexander     17 settembre 1942

Attendo con ansia qualche ragguaglio sulle vostre intenzioni. Eravamo d’accordo che l’attacco avesse inizio nella quarta settimana di settembre. Dopo di allora voi avete affermato che il recente scontro, che ha grandemente indebolito il nemico, ha provocato anche qualche ritardo nel concentramento delle vostre forze, ecc. Io non voglio conoscere né il vostro piano né la data esatta, ma devo sapere in quale settimana l’attacco avrà inizio, altrimenti non potrò farmi un’idea, come è necessario, dell’andamento generale della guerra. Alexander ci riferì in diversi telegrammi che la data scelta per l’inizio del “Lightfoot”, così l’operazione doveva venir chiamata convenzionalmente, si aggirava intorno al 24 ottobre. «Dato che non vi è alcun fianco scoperto, la battaglia » egli diceva «dovrà essere condotta in modo da aprire un varco nel fronte nemico. » Attraverso questo avrebbe lanciato durante il giorno il corpo d’armata, comprendente il grosso dei mezzi corazzati, che doveva pertanto costituire la punta del nostro attacco. Ora, tale corpo d’armata non avrebbe ricevuto tutte le armi e l’equipaggiamento previsti prima del 1° ottobre; ci sarebbe poi voluto quasi un mese per prepararlo e addestrarlo. 

«A mio giudizio è indispensabile che l’attacco iniziale di rottura sia lanciato durante il periodo di luna piena. Si tratterà d’un’operazione imponente, che richiederà qualche tempo, e si dovrà aprire nelle linee nemiche un varco piuttosto ampio se si vuole che le nostre unità corazzate possano disporre d’un’intera giornata per imprimere alla operazione un carattere decisivo. La luna piena è in realtà indispensabile per tutto il mio piano; ho scelto attentamente il momento dell’attacco in relazione all’operazione “Torch” e sono giunto alla conclusione che la data migliore per attaccare sia tredici giorni prima dell’inizio dell’operazione “Torch” » (Sbarco americano in Nordafrica allora fissato per il 4 novembre).

Il Primo Ministro al Comandante in capo del Medio Oriente - 23 settembre 1942

Noi siamo nelle vostre mani; naturalmente, se la battaglia sarà coronata da successo, il lungo ritardo sarà giustificato. Qualunque cosa accada, vi appoggeremo e vi accompagneremo con i nostri pensieri.

Desidererei richiamare la vostra attenzione sulla possibilità che il nemico approfitti di questo periodo per approntare fortificazioni campali. Invece d’un sottile velo di copertura attraverso il quale ci si potrebbe aprire un varco in una notte, non può essere che vi troviate di fronte a un sistema fortificato d’una quarantina di chilometri di profondità, con ostruzioni, postazioni d’artiglieria e nidi di mitragliatrici? Il carro armato fu ideato originariamente per aprire la strada alla fanteria sotto il fuoco delle mitragliatrici; ora è la fanteria che dovrà aprire la strada ai carri armati e a me sembra che il suo compito sarà difficilissimo dato che la potenza di fuoco è tanto aumentata. Certamente voi avete pensato a tutto ciò e al modo di estendere il vostro fronte d’attacco cosi da far pesare la vostra superiorità numerica.

TORNA ALL'INDICE DEL 1942

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- WAR SITUATION Official Report September 8, 1942 .... The striking feature in this theatre is, of course, the outstanding strength and resiliency of our Air Force. Three-quarters of the Air Force is British, but there are also some most gallant and-efficient Australian and South African squadrons and powerful United States air groups working with the Royal Air Force. Cooperation between the Air and the Army had been brought to the very highest degree in the days of General Auchinleck, and it is now renewed between Air Chief Marshal Tedder and General Alexander and Air Vice-Marshal Conyngham and General Montgomery. The Army and Air commanders in the field live and camp together in the same moving headquarters, and the Air Force rather than being divided among the troops is used as a whole in characteristic fashion for their benefit and, as far as I could see, not only for their benefit but to their very great satisfaction. The Air Force has played a decisive part throughout this campaign. Without its superior power, no one can say whether we should have got thus far. But the story is only half told and it would be inartistic to attempt to anticipate the further chapters which remain to be written.

Three times when I asked the question, "What do you think of the dive bombers?"-because I asked all sorts of questions of all sorts of people-I got the answer, "Which dive bombers?" from officers of different ranks. There is no doubt at all that our ground strafing aircraft and fighter bombers are achieving results at least equal to those of the Stukas without being vulnerable as the Stukas are when caught unprotected by their fighter escort. The most intense exertions have been made by all the air squadrons not only during the action but in the preparatory stages. I should not have thought it possible that such a high percentage of sorties could be maintained without detriment to health and efficiency. Nothing could exceed however the efficiency and ardour of all the airmen whom I saw, and nothing could exceed the admiration and good will in which the Air Force is held by their comrades in the Army. I took pains while I was there to visit and inspect almost every large formation, not only those at the front but others which were preparing in the rear. I spent five days in this way and was most kindly received by the troops, to whom I explained the extraordinary importance and significance of their task and its bearing upon the issues of the whole war. Their life in the fierce light of the desert, with its cool strong breezes, is hard but healthy. I have never seen an Army which deserved victory more, and I await with confident hope the further unfolding of the scroll of fate.

Apart from the changes in the High Command, I reached the conclusion that the Middle East Command was too extensive in itself, and that General Auchinleck had been unduly burdened by having to consider the problems of Persia and Iraq, some 600 or 700 miles away, at the same time that he had Rommel on his hands within 50 miles of Alexandria. I therefore obtained permission from my colleagues for the detaching of Persia and Iraq from the Middle Eastern Command and the making of a new and separate Command round the Tenth Army based on Basra and Baghdad. This sphere is given to Sir Henry Maitland-Wilson, who, from his command of the Ninth Army in Syria and Palestine, has already had opportunities of being thoroughly acquainted with the situation. The Tenth Army is being rapidly strengthened and, with the substantial Air Force which it will require, may eventually give support to the Russian left flank, and will in any case defend the soil of Persia.

During my visit to Cairo the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and I had the advantage of long consultations with General Wavell about India, with Lord Gort about Malta, and with General Platt about East Africa. In Cairo I was received by King Farouk and in Teheran by the Shah of Persia. Both these young rulers, who are also brothers-in-law, affirmed their loyalty to the cause of the United Nations, and the Shah of Persia was good enough to enter upon a most able exposition of the solid reasons which make the interests of Persia identical with the victory of Britain and her Allies. The main purpose of my journey was, however, to visit Premier Stalin in Moscow. This was accomplished in two long flights with a break of Teheran. We flew across the two mountain systems, each about 300 miles wide, which lie South of the Caspian Sea and between which spreads the plain and plateau of Persia. Some of these peaks go up to 18,000 or 19,000 feet, but as we flew by day we had no need to go higher than 13,000 feet. We flew across long stretches of the Caspian Sea up the Ural River towards Kuibyshev (formerly Samara) and reached Moscow in the afternoon.... ..

…. It is a proof of the increased strength which Premier Stalin has given to Russia that this prodigious feat of the resistance of Russia alone to the equivalent of the whole of the Teutonic Army has been accomplished for so long and with so great a measure of success. It is difficult to make the Russians comprehend all the problems of the sea and of the ocean. We are sea animals and the United States are to a large extent ocean animals. The Russians are land animals. Happily, we are all three air animals. It is difficult to explain fully all the different characteristics of the war effort of various countries, but I am sure that we made their leaders feel confidence in our loyal and sincere resolve to come to their aid as quickly as possible and in the most effective manner without regard to the losses or sacrifices involved so long as the contribution was towards victory.

It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin. The main object of my visit was to establish the same relations of easy confidence and of perfect openness which I have built up with President Roosevelt. I think that, in spite of the accident of the Tower of Babel which persists as a very serious barrier in numerous spheres, I have succeeded to a considerable extent. It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war-but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.

One thing stands out in my mind above all others from this visit to Moscow-the inexorable, inflexible resolve of Soviet Russia to fight Hitlerism to the end until it is finally beaten down. Premier Stalin said to me that the Russian people are naturally a peaceful people, but the atrocious cruelties inflicted upon them by the Germans have roused them to such a fury of indignation that their whole nature is transformed.

As I flew back to Cairo across the vast spaces, back across the Caspian Sea and the mountain ranges and deserts, I bore with me the conviction that in the British Empire, the United States and the Soviet Union, Hitler has forged an alliance of partnership which is strong enough to beat him to the ground and steadfast enough to persevere not only until his wickedness has been punished, but until some at least of the ruin he has wrought has been repaired. We have recently been reminded that the third anniversary of the war has come and gone and that we are now entered upon the fourth year. We are indeed entitled, nay, bound, to be thankful for the inestimable and measureless improvements in our position which have marked the last two years. From being all alone, the sole champion left in arms against Nazi tyranny, we are now among the leaders of a majestic company of States and nations, including the greatest nations of the world, the United States and Russia, all moving forward together until absolute victory is won, and not only won but established upon unshakable foundations. In spite of all the disappointing episodes, disasters and sufferings through which we have passed, our strength has grown without halt or pause, and we can see each day that not only our own power but the weight of the United States becomes increasingly effective in the struggle.

Apart from the physical and mortal dangers of the war through which we have made our way so far without serious injury, there was a political danger which at one time seemed to me, at any rate, to be a formidable threat. After the collapse of France, when the German armies strode on irresistibly in triumph and conquest, there seemed to be a possibility that Hitler might establish himself as a kind of Charlemagne in Europe and would unite many countries under German sway while at the same time pointing to our island as the author of the blockade and the cause of all their woes. That danger, such as it was, and I certainly did not think it negligible, has rolled away. The German is now more hated in every country in Europe than any race has been since human records began. In a dozen countries Hitler's firing parties are at work every morning, and a dark stream of cold execution blood flows between the Germans and almost all their fellow men. The cruelties, the massacres of hostages, the brutal persecutions in which the Germans have indulged in every land into which their armies have broken have recently received an addition in the most bestial, the most squalid and the most senseless of all their offences, namely, the mass deportation of Jews from France, with the pitiful horrors attendant upon the calculated and final scattering of families. This tragedy fills one with astonishment as well as with indignation, and it illustrates as nothing else can the utter degradation of the Nazi nature and theme, and the degradation of all who lend themselves to its unnatural and perverted passions.