Post by Diarist on Feb 8, 2015 20:17:05 GMT 1
What a day! The news about Eva Braun's death is a surprise to everybody here. There are many rumours about it being a suicide but there is no way to confirm them. Then there was the new government in France - Laval is gone!
Back to business. I've invited Geoffrey de Havilland and some of his designers to be here on Friday morning. I've also arranged for Captain Wales to be at the meeting.
Finally, we had our first Abyssinian project meeting this morning. Yesterday evening, Commander Mountbatten and I selected the team members:
Rear-Admiral Émile Muselier - before being assigned to TRADOC he commanded French Naval Forces in Tunisia.
Commander Louis Mountbatten - Combined Operations Command, Alexandria, Egypt.
LTC Jean de Lattre de Tassigny - French cavalry officer.
LTC Charles de Gaulle - French armour officer.
LTC George Patton - U.S. armour officer.
CPT Guy Simonds - Canadian artillery officer.
Myself.
Our two "Canadians" were explained that this is an Anglo-French operation and that they were not to discuss this project with anyone outside of our team unless General Gort has given his consent and if they are not happy with this rule then now's the time to leave. They both stayed. Louis then told them about our project to formulate an Anglo-French military response to an Italian invasion of Abyssinia. Unconventional ideas are welcome.
We discussed the current strategy, a mixture of diplomacy and deterrence, which is showing no progress at all. Secondly we debated how much time we have to prepare, i.e. when are the Italians most likely to attack? We decided that we need to be ready to respond by the beginning of September. We adjourned until tomorrow morning, each of us will present our assessment of the current strategy and present proposals for a new strategy. There was a final reminder that this project is TOP SECRET and we do all necessary work ourselves.
So I have to come up with a few ideas for tomorrow's meeting. Ciao!
Back to business. I've invited Geoffrey de Havilland and some of his designers to be here on Friday morning. I've also arranged for Captain Wales to be at the meeting.
Finally, we had our first Abyssinian project meeting this morning. Yesterday evening, Commander Mountbatten and I selected the team members:
Rear-Admiral Émile Muselier - before being assigned to TRADOC he commanded French Naval Forces in Tunisia.
Commander Louis Mountbatten - Combined Operations Command, Alexandria, Egypt.
LTC Jean de Lattre de Tassigny - French cavalry officer.
LTC Charles de Gaulle - French armour officer.
LTC George Patton - U.S. armour officer.
CPT Guy Simonds - Canadian artillery officer.
Myself.
Our two "Canadians" were explained that this is an Anglo-French operation and that they were not to discuss this project with anyone outside of our team unless General Gort has given his consent and if they are not happy with this rule then now's the time to leave. They both stayed. Louis then told them about our project to formulate an Anglo-French military response to an Italian invasion of Abyssinia. Unconventional ideas are welcome.
We discussed the current strategy, a mixture of diplomacy and deterrence, which is showing no progress at all. Secondly we debated how much time we have to prepare, i.e. when are the Italians most likely to attack? We decided that we need to be ready to respond by the beginning of September. We adjourned until tomorrow morning, each of us will present our assessment of the current strategy and present proposals for a new strategy. There was a final reminder that this project is TOP SECRET and we do all necessary work ourselves.
So I have to come up with a few ideas for tomorrow's meeting. Ciao!