Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 - 1965) The Second World War

Volume IV The Hinge Of Fate (1950) How The Power Of The Grand Alliance Became Preponderant Book II Africa redeemed
CHAPTER XXV
DECISION FOR “TORCH”
...I replied that I fully shared the ardent desire of the President and his Service advisers “to engage the enemy in the greatest possible strength at the earliest possible moment”, but that I felt sure that, with the limited forces at our disposal, we should not be justified in attempting “Sledgehammer” in 1942. I pointed to the number of ugly possibilities looming in front of us. There might, for example, be a collapse in Russia, or the Germans might move into the Caucasus, or they might beat General Auchinleck and occupy the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal, or again they might establish themselves in North Africa and West Africa and thereby put an almost prohibitive strain on our shipping. Nevertheless, disagreement between Great Britain and America would have far greater consequences than all the above possibilities. It was therefore agreed that the American Chiefs of Staff should report to the President that the British were not prepared to go ahead with “Sledgehammer” and ask for instructions.
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