World War II (Part 62): The Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference was held in early January 1943, in the French Moroccan city of Casablanca. Roosevelt chose the site. He flew from Florida to The Gambia (West Africa), and thence to Casablanca in a converted transport aircraft. Churchill flew there in a converted bomber, which almost caught fire during the flight. Stalin declined to attend: his presence was needed in Moscow to oversee the Battle of Stalingrad, he said. However, he also hated flying and was paranoid about security.
Differences of opinion on strategy had been discussed throughout 1942. The Americans wanted to get their troops into combat as soon as possible in Europe, but they were under pressure to divert troops to the Pacific Theatre. General George Marshall, the US army chief of staff, was against a Mediterranean strategy. Operation Roundup had been agreed upon for 1943 (a cross-Channel invasion), but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Roosevelt or Stalin, who wanted a second front in 1942. Operation Torch had given the US troops experience, but it was involved in the Mediterranean, and made Operation Roundup unlikely for 1943.
At the conference, the British argued for an invasion of Italy, despite the Americans’ protests: it would divert German troops & knock Italy out of the war. It would also make an invasion of France in 1943/4 more likely to succeed. The Americans eventually agreed to an invasion of Sicily, although with some reluctance, and accepted the fact that an invasion of France would have to wait until 1944.
Air force commanders of both countries (Ira Eaker & Henry Arnold) wanted to step up the bombing, in lieu of a second front. They managed to persuade the others, and the Combined Bomber Offensive was agreed upon. The Americans would bomb at day, the British by night: it would be round-the-clock.
It was at the Casablanca Conference that the policy of “unconditional surrender” was settled upon. It had been discussed beforehand, and Churchill didn’t like it: he wanted to persuade Italy to join the the Allies. But, although it has sometimes been criticized, it was an important statement for morale, and bound them to absolute military victory as the bare minimum.