'on capturing the tip of Sumatra island irrespective of what our general plan for the war against japan may be. He refused to accept that any general plan was necessary, recom
brak: in '43 leed 84 % van die militairen aan malaria (dat percentage was in '45 tot 13Brits-IndiƫBrooke, A.Churchill, W. S.Joint Chief of Staff(Ameribanse)MacArthur, D.Malakka/SingaporeMalariaMounrbarten, L.Quebec, conferentie vanSouth-East Asia Command (SEA C)HOE JAPAN DE OORLOG VERLOORmended a purely opportunist policy. . He had found with a pair of dividers that we could bomb Singapore from this point and he had set his heart on goirlg there. It was 110t a suitable base for further operations against Malaya, but I could not get any definite reply from him as to what he hoped to accomplish from there. vf/hen I drew his attention to the fact that when he put his left foot down, he should know where the right foot was going to, he shook his jist in my face, saying: 'I do not want any of your long-term projects, they cripple initiative!' ... I told him he must know where he was going, to which he replied that he did not want to know.' 1 Niet alleen op zijn eigen Chiefs oj Staff maar ook op de Amerikaanse joint Chiefs oj Staff maakte Churchills plan geen indruk, ook niet toen hij het daags na zijn bewogen gesprek met Brooke bepleitte in een vergadering van de Combined Chiefs die door hem en president Roosevelt werd bijgewoond. Hij noemde zijn Sumatra-plan, aldus de notulen van deze bijeenkomst, 'of highest importance', vergeleek het 'in its promise oj decisive consequences, u/it]i the Dardanelles operation oj 1915' 2 en wees er op dat het alternatief zou zijn'to toil through the swamps oj Southern Burma.' 3 Ook Roosevelt weigerde Churchills voorstel te aanvaarden. 'Ta him it seemed', aldus Grace Person Hayes, 'that the direct route to japan lay along the Burma Road to China and through China to japan . . . The Sumatra operations u/ould be heading aUlay jrom the main direction oj our advance to japan.'4 Wat in die 'main direction oj our advance' van eind '43 uit ondernomen werd, zullen wij straks weergeven - zinvollijkt het ons, even te blijven bij de strategie in het gebied van Southeast Asia Command