SZ/AEAF/7/1/2 - Minutes of the meeting held in the Defence Map Room on Wednesday, 5th April, 1944, at 10.30 p.m, 14/4/44

SZ/AEAF/7/1/2

Item

Minutes of the meeting held in the Defence Map Room on Wednesday, 5th April, 1944, at 10.30 p.m, 14/4/44

1944

9 leaves

Great Britain. War Cabinet. Defence Committee (Operations).

D.O.(44) 5th meeting

With slip attached requesting return of the draft minutes of the meeting to the Office of the War Cabinet, and MS annotations by SZ. The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Sir Arthur Tedder, Air Marshal Bottomley, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore S.O. Bufton, Air Ministry, and SZ were in attendance in addition to members of the committee. The committee had before it papers COS (44) 319 (0) and COS (44) 320 (0), a report by the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee on "the probable reations of French and Belgian opinion to the bombing of railway centres in enemy occupied territory" and a memorandum from the Air C-in-C, AEAF, requesting authority to attack a number of such railway centres. The latter had been formulated under cover of a note from Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces.

The Committee approved the continuation of "experimental" attacks on these centres where there was "no great risk of inflicting heavy civilian casualties and invited the Deputy Supreme Commander (Tedder) to review "his plan" in consultation with the Chief of the Air Staff with a view to eliminating those less important targets, attack of which was likely to incur "very heavy casualties" and to prepare a revised list of targets showing, for each, "the corrected estimate of the civilian casulaties likely to be caused".

The Committee agreed to "reconsider the matter" in the light of the revised plan requested.