A Tough Assignment-D-Day in 1943 Opportunity or Torture??

Heres a little exercise for your amusement. Place yourself as a up and coming British corps or army commander shut up in Brtiian up to January 1943. Abruptly you are summoned to meet Marshall Brooke as he returns from the Casablanca confrence. He is agray as hell, but meeting the situation with a stiff upperr lip. It seems the yanks came to Casablanca well prepared and managed to ram through their idea for a 1943 invasion of NW Europe. Churchill & others bought off on it and it is a done deal.

The directives from the confrence are in simple terms: The goal is to establish the maximum number of Allied Armys in NWEurope by the end of 1943, with a intial invasion to occur NLT 1 July 1943. Enabling objectives are the capture of the ports necessary to support the forces on the continent, the capture of Paris and Antwerp & necessary secondary communications hubs, and the establisment of the tactical airforces across the channel. Secondary objectives are the elimination of the submarine bases on the Franch Atlantic coast, and advance as far as possible into the interior of France. The final goal is to lay the ground for the defeat of the German army in the winter/spring of 1944 and a crossing of the Rhine in the summer of 1944.

To meet these goals further reinfocement of the Med is set aside with absolute priority for Bolero. Eisenhower is to contain the German in Tunisia, harrass the Axis with the air and naval power at hand, extablish largescale deception operations aimed at Italy and the Balkans. He will be left enough amphibious assets to run some small corps size ops againt the Axis preiphery.

Heres the kicker. As a final concession the Americans have agreed the overall commander for the invasion is to be British. (Some Yank named Krueger has been named for Deputy) and YOU have been selected by Brooke & Churchill. Brooke relates that you will be imeadiatlly taking over the COSSAC organization as part of your new HQ plus anything you want from anything in Britian, or anything that can be brought there. He warns that you must wlak a narrow line between avoid disaster from such a insane effort, but must purse it aggressivelly lest the Yanks become impatient an take over the enterprise.

So, outline your intial thoughts and directives for your new command. i’ll check back in afew days to see how is willing to “take fate by the foreskin” and who chickens out.

 

First i would go on a weekend kicker and drink myself into oblivion, then with after that with a clear mind get on with the task.

 

I start by taking a large map of the relevant portion of Europe to the local officer's mess where I sit down in a quiet corner with a pint and a scotch and water to think things over.....

 

Eh? I never tried the 'start with alcohol' techniques of battle planning.