Europe 1943: A year of arguments, decisions, and victories

The year 1943 began with successes for the Western Allies. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had won a resounding victory for the Eighth Army at El Alamein towards the end of the previous year, and was in pursuit of Field Marshal Rommel’s Panzerarmee Afrika. Four days after victory at El Alamein, Anglo-American forces landed successfully in north-west Africa in the first major amphibious campaign of the war, Operation Torch. By early January, these troops were edging eastwards. And 3,000 miles away in southern Russia, the Germans faced complete annihilation in the titanic Battle of Stalingrad.

By January 1943, the once mighty VIth Army was completely surrounded on the banks of the Volga, its troops frozen, starving, and almost totally out of ammunition and medicine. Goering’s promised airlift to relieve the beleaguered German forces never materialised. Hitler ordered that no withdrawal was permitted and his army must stand and fight. On 30 January, he promoted General Friedrich Paulus, commander of VIth Army, to Field Marshal, knowing that no Field Marshal in German history had ever surrendered. But this did not stop Paulus from accepting the inevitable, and within hours he was signing the surrender document. About 130,000 Germans went into captivity. Only 6,000 ever made it back to Germany, many years after the war. Not only was it a military turning point, but film of the troops surrendering, some wrapped in blankets and rags, provided a stunning propaganda triumph for the Soviets. The myth of German invincibility was utterly crushed.

It was time to take stock and plan ahead. In January, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt met with their chiefs of staff just outside newly liberated Casablanca in a set of villas and hotels on the coast. US Marines provided a tight security ring around the conference. The warm weather, along with news of progress on the various fronts, helped generate a positive atmosphere. ‘Bright sunshine, oranges, eggs and razor blades,’ wrote Churchill’s private secretary, describing items in abundance in Casablanca, in contrast to wartime Britain. But the genial social atmosphere could not hide deep divisions between the two Allies.