Was Casablanca a "safe" place for the Allies to hold a global conference in January, 1943?
score:18
- Casablanca is further from Tunis than London is from Berlin. Would you have regarded London in January 1943 as safe enough?
- The Vichy French had switched sides easily enough a two months earlier, so there was no realistic sense of domestic trouble in Casablanca, or French NW Africa.
- The premise that that German attack at the Kasserine Pass might have thrown the Allies out of NW Africa falls under the realm of alternative history; wasn't happening no-how, no-way. It caught completely green American recruits, under trained and under poor leadership, by surprise, and succeeded to a much greater extent than it truly had any right to.
- Churchill regularly proved his bravery during the Blitz, wandering around London at all hours of the day or night; he might easily have engaged in a caper such as you suggest. My belief is that Stalin, and Roosevelt at least through the 1944 election, regarded themselves as indispensable, and would thus not have put themselves in personal jeopardy.
With the battle for Stalingrad still underway, one can easily imagine Stalin's potential difficulties in getting to Casablanca. Any further East might similarly be problematic for Churchill and Roosevelt at that point in time.
Also, the troops needed no rallying by January 1943. The writing is already on the wall with Paulus surrounded in Stalingrad, and Rommel/Kesselring for all intents and purposes already thrown out of North Africa. Midway has already broken the Japanese navy. (Only Hirohito's war council could lose the war in an afternoon, as they did by rolling the dice so emphatically with that battle.)
London to Berlin: 580 miles ( 932 km)
Casablanca to Tunis: 1027 miles (1653 km)
Alexandria to Tunis: 1194 miles (1922 km)
Update #2:
While the Henkel 111 had the range (1800 km) to fly a mission to Casablanca from Tunis, it's cruising speed of 310 km would have meant surviving 5 hours of attack by Allied fighters to arrive over the target. As a level bomber it would have had to flatten an area probably of a square mile or so in order to have a realistic chance of eliminating the assembled leaders, even assuming they failed to relocate within the city. That latter means getting one or two bombers through is most likely insufficient to achieve the goal, most of the wing would have to get through for a good probability of success.
Update - re safety of Stalin flying from Moscow to Casablanca and back
In Hinge of Fate, Churchill records his itinerary from Gibraltar to Moscow in August 1942 as:
Gibraltar -> Cairo (over the Spanish and Vichy territories for about the first 4 hours in daylight and with an armed escort, undisturbed though nerve-wracking!) -> Tehran -> Kuibyshev -> Moscow. However the planned stop-over at Kuibyshev was skipped (to WST's regret at missing an expected feast) as weather was favourable and time urgent.
FDR writes (ibid p 668) to Churchill:
My route [to Casablanca] would be either from here to Trinidad and thence to Dakar and thence north, or from here to Natal (Brazil) and across to Liberia or Freetown, and north from there.
More post
- 📝 Was there a German embassy open in 1941 Lisbon?
- 📝 Why did the USSR preserve the national republics?
- 📝 Major power shift in Gaul circa 350 B.C
- 📝 Why did Germany not join the United Nations until 1973?
- 📝 When did the Charismatic Movement start?
- 📝 How, where and when did Lily Pettigrew die?
- 📝 Why didn't the ancient Egyptians conquer an empire?
- 📝 How did the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have so much revenue when they only control small part of Indonesia?
- 📝 Why is Crispus Attucks the one who gets all the attention?
- 📝 Was Ulysses S Grant arrested while president or any other time?
- 📝 Stories from history of mercenaries who didn't get paid
- 📝 Does the ≈400,000 figure for US soldiers killed in WW2 include the ≈80,000 MIA?
- 📝 What was Singapore's population in 1290-1396, 1511-1699?
- 📝 Is this quotation authentic (88mm versus Sherman)?
- 📝 Before the advent of agriculture, was the whole world covered with forest?
- 📝 Did the Balkans campaign delay Operation Barbarossa for the Nazis and was it therefore an important reason why they lost against the Soviets in WWII?
- 📝 How many Reichsmarks would a piano lesson have cost in Germany during 1930 - 39?
- 📝 Who was Professor Henri Andre and what did he publish?
- 📝 Earliest story?
- 📝 Why do some painted portraits show the subject pointing?
- 📝 Monarchies with built-in rotation
- 📝 Why do Spaniards have their lunch and dinner so late?
- 📝 Weird weapons in medieval times
- 📝 Where can I find a world map from the Victorian period?
- 📝 In WW2, how long could a submarine stay submerged if it wasn't moving?
- 📝 Was there a Viking Exchange as well as a Columbian one?
- 📝 Why did Shock Therapy fail so badly?
- 📝 How is it known that Xenophon saw the ruins of Nineveh?
- 📝 How did Finland treat Jewish locals during WWII?
- 📝 How could a skilled battle commander like Napoleon Bonaparte lose to Prussians at Waterloo (Belgium) as such?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was Casablanca a "safe" place for the Allies to hold a global conference in January, 1943?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 If the Ch’in dynasty was so short-lived, why was China named for it?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the "war on drugs" was a cover for class warfare?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was the economic basis for West Berlin?
- 📝 Was there a tax in the fifties for British citizens traveling abroad?
- 📝 Was it ever possible to join the US military instead of going to prison for a crime?
- 📝 Were any German cities spared by the Allies for personal or idiosyncratic reasons?
- 📝 What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
- 📝 Was it possible for a young Japanese woman to end up enslaved in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?
- 📝 What was the 1970s name for skinny jeans?
- 📝 Who was responsible for the partition of India?
- 📝 Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
- 📝 Was Hiroshima targeted because its mountains would "rebound the explosion back into the city for more damage"?
- 📝 Was the title "Prince of Wales" originally claimed for the English crown prince via a trick?
- 📝 "More Frenchmen bore arms for the Axis than for the Allies during the Second World War"?
- 📝 Was the "natural born citizen" requirement for the President inserted into the US Constitution by Alexander Hamilton's enemies?
- 📝 Was there a pre-determined arrangement for the division of Germany in case it surrendered before any Soviet forces entered its territory?
- 📝 Was the use of captured tanks an effective strategy for Germany?
- 📝 What was it like for a coastal village to experience a Viking raid in around the tenth century?
- 📝 What was the original process for becoming a US citizen?
- 📝 Was Islam really responsible for the Italian Renaissance?
- 📝 In the first half of 20th century, how was gold inspected for authenticity?
- 📝 Was the act of servicemen exchanging their weapons for enemy weapons common during WWII?
- 📝 Did any ancient polytheistic religion hold that theirs was the only pantheon?
- 📝 What was the motivation for the Gregorian Calendar?
- 📝 Was it not clear to the WWI allies that they were over-reaching with the treaty of Sevres?