Bibliography Note and
Guide to Footnotes
This volume was written from several groups of records kept by the
War Department during World War II, interpreted with the help of a
number of other sources, principally armed forces' histories and
published memoirs. From these sources may be established long and
fairly complete series of official transactions in 1943-44
dealing with strategic planning. Most of the material on which the
account is based may be found in the massive collections of World War
II records that are in process of transfer to the National Archives
and Records Service of the General Services Administration.
Primary Sources
Documents of several kinds were used in preparing this volume: (i)
studies, plans, memoranda, reports, and other papers drawn up for use
within the War Department; (2) correspondence of the War Department
with the Navy and State Departments, with other U.S. Government
agencies, and with the British Staff Mission; (3) messages to and from
Army commanders in the field; (4) minutes of meetings of the Joint and
Combined Chiefs of Staff and their subcommittees, and papers
circulated for consideration at these meetings, including the bound
volumes containing the papers and minutes of the plenary conferences-from Casablanca through OCTAGON-presided over by
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill; and (5) various
records pertaining to the President-meetings at the White House, War
Department correspondence with the President, and the President's own
correspondence on military affairs with other heads of government.
Each of the several groups of records in which these documents were
found and consulted will be kept intact and in due course will be
transferred to the National Archives of the United States. These
records are described in detail in Federal Records of World
War II, Volume II, Military Agencies, prepared by the
General Services Administration, National Archives and Records
Service, The National Archives (Washington, Government Printing
Office, 1951) (hereafter cited as Federal Rcds).
While research ranged into every major category of the official
records of the Department of the Army pertaining to strategic
planning, most of the documents cited in this volume are in the
records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (WDCSA) and of the
Operations Division, War Department General Staff (OPD). Other records
used include: (1) Office of the Secretary oŁ War (SW) and the
Assistant Secretary of War (ASW) (Federal Rcds, pp. 68-77); (2)
G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4 of the War De-
[556]
partment General Staff (Federal Rcds, pp. 96-121); (3)
Headquarters, Army Air Forces (AAF) (Federal Rcds, pp.
151-234); (4) Headquarters, Army Service Forces (ASF) (Federal Rcds,
pp. 253-302); and (5) Office of The Adjutant General (TAGO)
(Federal Rcds, pp. 63-67)
The files of the Office of the Chief of Staff covering the 1943-44
period are arranged according to the Army decimal system. Although the
files are not large in comparison with those of other Army agencies,
the collection contains many important documents that cannot be found
elsewhere in Army files.
The records of the Operations Division in 1943-44 fall into four
main categories:
(1) The official central correspondence file (OPD) is arranged
according to the Army decimal system. In the field of strategy and
matters of high policy, it is the most complete single collection of
documents in the custody of the Army.
(2) The message center file is arranged chronologically in
binders. This file is the most comprehensive collection of wartime
radio messages outside the permanent file of the Staff Communications
Office, Office of the Chief of Staff.
(3) In matters of joint and combined strategic planning, one of
the most important collections. of World War II records is the
Strategy and Policy Group (S&P Gp) file. It is arranged according to
the Army decimal system and identified by the letters "ABC"
(American-British Conversations). The file contains a virtually
complete set of papers issued by the joint and Combined Chiefs of
Staff and their subcommittees, with OPD drafts, comments,
and related papers. In addition to the Combined Chiefs of Staff
(CCS) and Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) papers, those of the joint
Strategic Survey Committee (JSSC), the Combined Staff Planners (CPS),
the Joint Staff Planners (JPS), the Joint War Plans Committee (JWPC),
and the Joint Logistic Plans Committee (JLPC) are the most valuable
for the story of strategic planning in 194344. The ABC collection also
contains the important studies on plans and strategy worked up by the
Strategy Section of the Strategy and Policy Group.
(4) The Executive Office file (Exec) is an informal collection of
papers on policy and planning compiled in the Executive Office of OPD,
primarily for the use of the Assistant Chief of Staff, OPD. Since many
of the documents in this file were considered of vital significance
during the World War II period, their circulation was strictly limited
and they cannot be found elsewhere in Department of the Army files.
This file was informally arranged after the war into groups and
assigned item numbers to permit easier identification.
The records of the Chief of Staff and of the Operations Division
(with the exception of the Executive Office file) covering the 1943-44
period are located The Adjutant General's Office (DRB, in the
Departmental Records Branch, TAGO), Federal Records Center,
Alexandria, Virginia. The Executive Office file is at present located
in the Office of the Chief of Military History.
A special group of records, invaluable for the story of high
policy and strategy, is that contained in the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Library. In January 1942 there was established in the White House a
communications center that came to
[557]
be known as the Map Room. Here were filed most of the messages
sent or received by the President and his immediate staff concerning
the conduct of the war and relations with Allies. The so-called Map
Room papers are one portion (though an extremely important portion) of
the papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt that are now in the Roosevelt
Library. Also in that library are the papers of Harry Hopkins. The
Roosevelt Library is administered by the National Archives and Records
Service of the General Services Administration. Since permanent
locational symbols are not yet available for use in citing individual
documents contained therein, such documents are cited as being in the
Roosevelt Papers or the Hopkins Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
Microfilm copies of some of the Roosevelt and Hopkins documents cited
are in the possession of the Office of the Chief of Military History.
In the annotation of these sources, the type of communication is
always indicated. Normally four other kinds of descriptive information
are presented: originator, addressee, date, and subject. A file
reference is not given for documentation that may be readily located
and positively identified without one AG letters, messages in the
Classified Message Center series, and minutes and paper of the JCS and
CCS and their subordinate committees. AG letters can best be located
by the decimal file classification and basic date; the classified
messages can be located by the date and CM-IN or CM-OUT number in
several file series; and the JCS and CCS papers and minutes can be
found by the numbers assigned them by the TCS and CCS. The
official files of the JCS and CCS are still under the control of the JCS (Federal Rcds, pp. 2-14).
Secondary Sources
There are few secondary sources that treat in great detail the
topics covered in this volume, with the exception of the service
histories and the memoirs written by the various participants in the
events described. For this reason, no full formal bibliography of
secondary works is presented. When such sources supplement or give
evidence missing in official files, confirm or expand points of
special significance, or provide background material of more than
passing interest, they are cited in the footnotes.
I
Among the most valuable of the secondary sources consulted are the
multivolume officially sponsored historical series dealing with the
United States armed forces in World War II. These include published
and unpublished works.
Army
The author has often used the work of his colleagues who are
writing the history of the U.S. ARMY IN WORLD WAR II. Among the most
useful volumes, insofar as the history of strategic planning in 1943-44
is concerned, are the following, either published or in
preparation:
- Cline, Ray S., Washington Command Post: The Operations Division
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1951)
-
Conn, Stetson, and Byron Fairchild,
[558]
- The Framework of Hemisphere Defense (Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1959)
- Greenfield, Kent Roberts, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley,
The Organization of Ground Combat Troops (Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1947)
- Harrison, Gordon A., Cross-Channel Attack (Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1951)
- Howe, George F., Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in
the West (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1957)
- Leighton, Richard M., and Robert W. Coakley, Global Logistics
and Strategy, 1940-x943 (Washington, Government Printing Office,
1956)
- Leighton, Richard M., and Robert W. Coakley, Global Logistics and
Strategy, 1943-1945
- Mathews, Sidney T., Drive on Rome Matloff, Maurice, and Edwin M.
Snell, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941-1942
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1953)
- Miller, John, jr., CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1958)
- Miller, John, jr., Guadalcanal: The First Offensive
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949)
- Motter, T. H. Vail, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1952)
- Palmer, Robert R., Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast, The
Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops (Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1048)
- Pogue, Forrest C., The Supreme Command (Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1954)
- Romanus, Charles F., and Riley Sunderland, Stilwell's Command
Problems (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1956)
- Romanus, Charles F., and Riley Sunderland, Stilwell's Mission
to China (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1953)
- Ruppenthal, Roland G., Logistical Support of the Armies, Vol. I
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1953)
- Smith, Robert Ross, Triumph in the Philippines
- Smyth, Howard M., and Maj. Albert N. Garland, Sicily: The
Surrender of Italy
- Vigneras, Marcel, Rearming the French (Washington,
Government Printing Office, 1957)
In addition the author made use of the following manuscripts, now
in the files of the Office of the Chief of Military History:
- Bykofsky, Joseph, Transportation Service in China, Burma and India
in World War II
- Hamilton, James D. T., Southern France and Alsace
- Lepawsky, Albert, History of Eastern Command, U.S. Strategic Air
Forces in Europe
- Watson, Mark S., The Beginnings of Service Unification
- Winnacker, Rudolph A., The Mediterranean Versus the Channel, 1943
Navy
The U.S. Navy has not undertaken comparable research into
strategic planning, but valuable work has been done on Navy plans in
the classified monographs prepared in the Historical Section
[559]
of the joint Chiefs of Staff. The manuscript by Lt. Grace Persons
Hayes, USN, on the war against Japan has been especially helpful. The
following narratives of naval operations written by the skilled hand
of Samuel Eliot Morison in the semiofficial series History of
United States Naval Operations in World War II have also been
consulted:
- Morison, Samuel Eliot, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June
1942-April 1944, VII (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1951)
- Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Battle of the Atlantic, September
1939-May 1943, I (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1947)
- Morison, Samuel Eliot, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, 22 July
1942-1 May 1944, VI (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1950)
- Morison, Samuel Eliot, Operations in North African Waters,
October 1942June 1943, II (Boston, Little, Brown and Company,
1950)
- Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August
1942-February 1943, V (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1950)
Army Air Forces
For the operations of the Army Air Forces, the indispensable
secondary source is the series published by the Air Force, The Army
Air Forces in World War II. The following, which contain concise
summaries of the strategic planning back of the operations described,
have been used to advantage:
- Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate (ed.), Europe-TORCH TO
POINTBLANK: August 1942 to December 1943, II (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press,
1949)
- Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate (ed.), Europe-ARGUMENT
TO V-E Day: January 1944 to May 1945, III (Chicago, The University
of Chicago Press, 1951)
- Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate (ed.), The
Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan: August 1942 to July 1944, IV
(Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1950)
- Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate (ed.), The Pacific-MATTERHORN
to Nagasaki: June 1944 to August 1945, V (Chicago, The University
of Chicago Press, 1953)
- Craven, Wesley Frank, and James Lea Cate (ed.), Plans and Early
Operations: January 1939 to August 1942, I (Chicago, The
University of Chicago Press, 1948)
British
On the British side, special mention should be made of the
well-written and illuminating work by John Ehrman on grand strategy,
August 1943-August 1945, to which the author had access in manuscript
form. This work has been published in the official British History
Series of the Second World War as Grand Strategy, Vol. V
(August 1943September 1944) and Volume VI (October 1944-August 1945)
(London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1956).
II
The volume could hardly have been written without the help of
published works drawing on the recollections of prominent participants
and official rec-
[560]
ords to which the author did not have access, notably:
- Arnold, Henry H., Global Mission (New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1949) Bradley, Omar N., A Soldier's Story (New York,
Henry Holt and Company, 1951)
- Butcher, Harry C., Capt., USNR, My Three Years With Eisenhower
(New York, Simon and Schuster, 1946)
- Chennault, Claire L., Ways o f a Fighter (New York, G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1949)
- Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War: Closing the Ring
(Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1951)
- Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War: The Grand Alliance
(Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950)
- Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War: The Hinge of Fate
(Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950)
- Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War: Triumph and
Tragedy (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953)
- Clark, Mark W., Calculated Risk (New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1g5o) Deane, John R., The Strange Alliance (New York,
The Viking Press, 1947) Eisenhower, Dwight D., Crusade in Europe
(New York, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1948)
- Halsey, William Frederick, Admiral of the Fleet, and J. Bryan,
III, Lt. Comdr., USN, Admiral Halsey's Story (New York,
Whittlesey House, 1947)
- Hull, Cordell, The Memoirs o f Cordell Hull, 2 vols., (New
York, The Macmillan Company, 1948)
- Kenney, George C., General Kenney Reports (New York, Duell,
Sloan and Pearce, 1949)
- King, Ernest J., and Walter M. Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, A
Naval Record (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1952)
- Leahy, William D., I Was There (New York, Whittlesey House,
1950) Montgomery, Field Marshal Viscount of Alamein, Normandy to
the Baltic (London, Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., 1947)
- Morgan, Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick, Overture to Overlord (New
York, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1950)
- Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History
(rev. ed., New York, Harper & Brothers, 1950)
- Standley, William H., and Arthur A. Ageton, Admiral Ambassador
to Russia (Chicago, H. Regnery Co., 1955)
- Stilwell, Joseph W., The Stilwell Papers (New York, William
Sloane Associates, Inc., 1948)
- Stimson, Henry L., and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in
Peace and War (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1948)
- Vandenberg, Arthur H., Jr., The Private Papers of Senator
Vandenberg (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952)
For the purposes of this volume, the most useful of these memoirs
and biographies are those dealing with grand strategy and high policy.
On the British side, the volumes written by the masterful hand of
Churchill are of enormous value to the student of war strategy and
statesmanship. Not the least of their contributions are the primary
material, especially on the British side, not readily available
elsewhere. On the American side, Sherwood's book on Roosevelt and
Hopkins, a vivid, often firsthand account, remains one of the best of
the
[561]
published volumes on wartime strategy and policy. Equally
meritorious, but less extensive, is the treatment of American strategy
and policy in the midwar years, as viewed by the Secretary of War,
contained in the account by Stimson and Bundy. Deane's volume, The
Strange Alliance, is an accurate, interesting, and the most
informative of the eyewitness accounts of Anglo-American and Soviet
wartime collaboration that has yet appeared. Volume II of Secretary of
State Hull's Memoirs is especially useful for topics of which
the Secretary had firsthand knowledge, for example, the Moscow
Conference of October 1943- Unfortunately, it is often not as full as
the student would wish on war diplomacy in the midwar period,
doubtless because President Roosevelt often functioned in these years
as his own Secretary of State.
Useful, related accounts by the wartime members of the joint
Chiefs of Staff are the memoirs of Arnold, Leahy, and King-the first
especially informative on the Air side, and the latter two on the Navy
side. Unfortunately, the memoirs of the fourth member, General
Marshall, have yet to be written. Of the memoirs of the theater
commanders, the most useful bearing on the European theater of
operations is that of Eisenhower. The personal accounts by Bradley,
Butcher, Clark, Montgomery, and Morgan are also helpful for phases of
European and Mediterranean planning. For the war against Japan, the
vivid accounts of Chennault and Stilwell proved valuable, as did, to a
lesser extent, those of Kenney and Halsey.
III
Other useful secondary sources include published unofficial
histories, official reports of the Chief of Staff and of the theater commanders,
documentary reports, statistical reports, and special monographic
studies. Some of the more valuable of these miscellaneous sources
include:
- Army Air Forces, Statistical Digest 1945 (Washington, 1945)
- Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army,
July 1, 1943 to June 30, 1945 to the Secretary of War (Washington, 1945)
- Bureau of the Budget, The United States at War, Development and
Administration of the War Program by the Federal Government
(Washington, Government Printing Office, 1946)
- Department of Defense Report, The Entry of the Soviet Union
into the War against Japan: Military Plans, 19411945 (Washington
1955)
- Feis, Herbert, The China Tangle (Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1953)
- McNeill, William Hardy, America; Britain, and Russia, Their
Cooperation and Conflict, 1941-1946 (London, Oxford University
Press, 1953)
- Mountbatten, Vice-Admiral the Earl, Report to the Combined
Chiefs of Staff by the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia, 1943-1945
(London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1951)
- STM-30, Strength of the Army, 1 January 1948 (Washington,
1948)
- U.S. Air Force, Statistical Digest, 1947 (Washington, 1957)
- Wilmot, Chester, The Struggle for Europe (London, Collins,
1952)
Among the growing list of unofficial published histories useful as
background studies of special phases of the general
[562]
subject of strategy, policy, and international relations are the
volumes by Feis, Wilmot, and McNeill. Feis's work is a
straightforward, balanced effort to unravel the China tangle. Wilmot's
account of European strategy and diplomacy, presenting a postwar
version of the British wartime strategic case, is highly readable and
provocative, though its use of evidence and its interpretations are
sometimes questionable. McNeill's work represents an interpretative
approach to the wartime relations of the United States, Great Britain,
and the Soviet Union-in their political, military, and economic
aspects. The resultant synthesis is somewhat uneven-brilliant use of
secondary materials and challenging interpretations at some points,
but suffering from an obvious lack of access to primary materials at
others.
A useful review of the War Department's activities in the later
war years is contained in the Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff for 1943-45, with its helpful supplementary atlas.
Mountbatten's Report is a postwar account by the Supreme Allied
Commander in Southeast Asia in the later war years, shedding light on
British plans and operations in that area. The Department of Defense
Report is an informative, documentary survey of the problem of
Soviet entry into the war against Japan in military planning from
Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Japan in August 1945. The United
States at War is a valuable survey of the administration of U.S.
war programs, particularly in the various phases of economic
mobilization. Indispensable tools for the study of wartime military
manpower and aircraft and troop deployment are the USAF statistical
digests and the strength of the Army reports-particularly the Air
Force Digest of 1947 and STM-30, 1 January 1948, both of which contain
corrected series of statistics of the war years.
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