P L A N S , P O L I C I E S , A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N
warrant it, but if by 1 5 September an operation in the following
spring should appear impracticable, a decision should be made to
launch a combined attack against North and Northwest Africa at
the earliest possible date before I December. This recommendation
was accepted by the Combined Chiefs of Staff on the ~ 4 t h . ~ ‘Ap-
parently Roosevelt gave his tentative approval in a telephone conver-
sation on the following day.58 The provision to hold off until 1 5
September for a firm decision to mount TORCH, as the revived and
revised GYMNAST plan was called, was wisely scrapped. It is diffi-
cult to say just when the two governments made a formal commit-
ment. On 3 0 July, Admiral Leahy told the Combined Chiefs of Staff,
then back in Washington, that Roosevelt and Churchill “believed”
that T O R C H was on; and so it was.59 Intensive planning began
immediately in London. With an eye on French sensibilities, the CCS
had preferred an American commander for the operation, and on 7
August, Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who as commanding gen-
eral of the European Theater of Operations had participated in the
London conference, was informed of his appointment.“
Neither the new code name nor the choice of an American leader
could obscure the fact that the strategy which had long guided JCS
thought had been sharply wrenched if not broken. Planning for
ROUNDUP-and even for an emergency SLEDGEHAMMER-was
supposed to continue. But the Joint Chiefs in their memorandum of
24 July had realistically accepted the fact that T O R C H in 1942meant
no ROUNDUP in 1943.~‘For the Army Air Forces this might mean
a return to the time schedule suggested in AWPD/r, with its spring
1944 invasion, but the circumstances were to be importantly modified
by TORCH.
General Arnold had from March gone along with the War Depart-
ment General Staff in its preference for SLEDGEHAMMER, though
ROUNDUP would have fitted more aptly into AWPD’s concept of
the war. Arnold was not in London in late July, but with other mem-
bers of the JCS he had been opposed to TORCH. In July as in April
the British had proposed, in partial substitution for the second front,
an intensification of their bomber offensive over Germany, where
recent thousand-plane attacks on Cologne and Essen had already
given earnest of what was to come.62But T O R C H ruled out for the
time being any effective participation in this campaign by the AAF,
much as it was to their liking. Sir Charles Portal had raised the issue
573