IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA MF 460-462
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: Microform: Wartime Conferences of the Combined Chiefs of Staff
Date(s): 1941-1945, 1982
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 3 reels
Name of creator(s): Combined Chiefs of Staff, 1941-1945
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The British Chiefs of Staff (COS) and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo-American military strategic and operational authority during World War Two. The committee advised the governments of Britain and the US on matters of strategy, and also implemented the strategic decisions taken by them. In its highest capacity, the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee controlled operational strategy in the Mediterranean and European theatres, and during the Battle of the Atlantic, and held jurisdiction over grand strategic policy in all other areas where operational strategy was controlled by the COS or the JCS. The Combined Chiefs of Staff committee issued directives to its supreme commanders by acting through the chiefs of staff of the country that provided the commander. The decision to form the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) came in Dec 1941 at the ARCADIA Conference in Washington, DC, where the British Joint Staff Mission headed by Gen (later FM) Sir John Greer Dill developed with American representatives a combined office, secretariat, and planning staff. Eventually, a number of sub-committees were constituted as the war progressed, the most important of which were the Combined Intelligence Committee and the Combined Planning Staff. With the emergence of the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, it became necessary in the United States to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff , Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Microfilm collection containing copies of meeting minutes of the major conferences of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, 1941-1945. Meeting minutes include those for the conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed ARCADIA, at which Anglo-American planners first formed a combined strategy for the prosecution of the war, 22 Dec 1941-14 Jan 1942; the conference at Casablanca, Morocco, codenamed SYMBOL, during which the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) first discussed the policies of German unconditional surrender, the Combined Bomber Offensive from Great Britain against Germany and the establishment of the French National Committee for Liberation, 14-24 Jan 1943; the Allied conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed TRIDENT, at which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister Rt Hon Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS)discussed the decision to delay the invasion of France until May 1944, the Italian surrender, and the Battle of the Atlantic, 11-25 May 1943; the Allied conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed QUADRANT, at which the Allies endorsed a plan for the invasion of the Normandy coast in France, formed a new theatre of war, South-East Asia Command, with Acting Adm Lord Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander, and regulated the procedures for co-operation between Great Britain and the US regarding the development and production of the atomic bomb, 12-24 Aug 1943; the Allied conferences at Cairo, Egypt, codenamed SEXTANT, at which the Allies discussed combined operations in South-East Asia with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces, 22-26 Nov and 2-7 Dec 1943; the Allied conference at Teheran, Iran, codenamed EUREKA, during which the Allies first co-ordinated future strategy with Soviet Prime Minister Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, including plans to coincide military operations against Germany in France and the Soviet Union in May 1944, 28-30 Nov 1943; the conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed OCTAGON, at which the Allies discussed the post-war division of Germany and a plan for its de-industrialisation, 12-16 Sep 1944; the conferences at Malta and Yalta, Soviet Union, codenamed ARGONAUT, at which the Allies discussed the division of post-war Germany, the occupation of Germany and Austria, Soviet involvement in the war against Japan, and the future government and frontiers of Poland, 30 Jan-9 Feb 1945; the conference at Potsdam, Germany, codenamed TERMINAL, during which surrender terms for Japan were discussed, the boundaries and peace terms for Europe were determined and Poland's government and frontiers were debated, 16 Jul-2 Aug 1945. Conference minutes include references to Allied production and assignment of war materials; British and US merchant vessel losses; US policy concerning assignments of Lend-Lease military aircraft, naval vessels and munitions to Great Britain; Allied petroleum supplies; propaganda and unconventional warfare; war crimes and prisoners of war; operational reports concerning the planning and conduct of Allied offensive operations in Europe, including the invasion of North Africa, codenamed Operation TORCH, Nov 1942; the invasion of Sicily, Italy, codenamed Operation HUSKY, Jul 1943; the US preparation for the invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation BOLERO; and the Allied invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation OVERLORD, Jun 1944; operational reports concerning the Japanese war economy; Japanese Imperial Army logistical capabilities; locations and strengths of Japanese forces in the Pacific; British participation in long range bombing of Japan; Allied operational efforts in Burma, India, Malaya, and the Philippines; Soviet claims on the Sakhalin and Kuril islands; the co-ordination of Allied strategic plans for the defeat and occupation of Japan, 1943-1944; Soviet military action to facilitate Operation OVERLORD; liaison between Allied theatre commanders and the Soviet Army; Soviet capabilities with reference to the Far East; US Lend-Lease requirements for the Soviet Union; and estimates of Soviet post-war capabilities and intentions, 1943-1945.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Enquiries concerning the copyright of the original material should be addressed to Scholarly Resources, Inc, Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Scholarly Resources, Inc
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: Date of compilation: Sep 1999