Operation Unthinkable or a failed blitzkrieg of Winston Churchill
Operation Unthinkable (“Unthinkable”), developed on the instructions of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill by the British Military Planning Headquarters in the deepest secret even from other headquarters, envisaged a military campaign against the USSR immediately after the end of World War II. The plans of the operation included the defeat of the Soviet troops on the territory of the former Nazi Reich and a new invasion of the Soviet Union, as well as the total destruction of Soviet cities from the air weapons. Forces intended for a Blitzkrieg modeled after the Germans would include both Anglo-American troops and German, Polish and Hungarian divisions. The events and facts described in this article may seem incredible. In fact, it is difficult to believe in them how difficult it is to believe a sane person in the possibility of the mean betrayal of someone whom he considered an ally and friend. And, nevertheless, perfidious treachery was conceived and actually was committed. For nearly seven decades, information about him was kept in the strictest secrecy and only recently became publicly available. And it happened unintentionally. It all started with the fact that the British journalist T. Meyer published his book "When the Lions Roar: Churchill and the Kennedy Clan." The book, in particular, dealt with the FBI document declassified in the USA, in which English ex-premier Winston Churchill asked US Senator Samuel Bridges to convince US President Harry Truman to drop an atomic bomb on Moscow in 1947, and at the same time to bomb four more the ten largest industrial centers of the USSR.
In this “radical” way, Churchill hoped to stop the “communist conquest” of the West. Documents confirming these truly cannibalistic plans are stored in the National Archives of Great Britain.
First you need to remember how the situation on the fronts emerged victorious in the spring of the forty-fifth.
By April 1945, the Red Army had liberated the territory of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and partly Czechoslovakia. Both Soviet and Anglo-American troops advanced rapidly through the territory of the Nazi Reich's agonizing. At the same time, there was a tacit competition: who will quickly approach Berlin and take it. The Soviet troops had an undeniable advantage in this regard: on April 13 they occupied Vienna, the capital of Austria, and on April 16 they launched an operation to capture Berlin. April 25 happened historical meeting of American and Soviet troops on the Elbe near the city of Torgau.
In the Pacific Ocean, Japanese troops were driven out of almost all the territories they had captured, and the Japanese navy fleet routed. However, the Japanese ground forces still represented a powerful force, the fight against which in China and on the Japanese islands themselves could, according to the calculations of the American command, drag on until 1947 and require great sacrifices. This made the United States vitally interested in the help of the Soviet Union, which at the Yalta Conference in XNUMX had committed to act against Japan after the victory over Germany.
The secret development of a plan of war against the USSR — essentially, the unleashing of the Third World War — began at the beginning of April 1945, even before the signing of the Surrender Act of Nazi Germany.
Sir Winston personally came up with the code word for its designation - Unthinkable, which means “Unthinkable” in Russian. What did Churchill want to say with this name? What is meant only about the hypothetical possibility of a military clash with the Soviets in the event of an extreme aggravation of the situation? Or maybe (most likely), he simply understood that the Allies were doing an incredible meanness against the Soviet Union, which had borne the brunt of the fight against the fascist beast and saved the world, including, of course, Western democracies, from the brown plague? In addition, being a sober realist, Sir Winston, perhaps, was aware that it was impossible to crush the USSR and its Armed Forces in 1945, that this matter was unthinkable and deliberately doomed to failure, and therefore appropriated to the Third World launch plan such an exotic name, fundamentally contradictory to the spirit and fighting traditions of the British army, which was used to fight only with the enemy, over whom it was able to win. Of course, after the order of the prime minister in London, top-secret work began on the design and details of a sudden super-powerful strike on the Soviet troops in Berlin and East Germany.
But the Soviet leadership learned about the planning of Operation Unthinkable, its far-reaching goals, the forces involved, the immediate, subsequent and final tasks only a few days after the start of this work.
As is clear from the recently declassified documents of the Main Intelligence Directorate, May 12, 18 was already military attache in London, Major General I.A. Sklyarov sent a telegram to Moscow, to the Center (GRU of the General Staff of the Red Army), on which, besides the “Top Secret” heading, there was another heading, “Super Lightning.” This designation, which was not accepted in the daily practice of the attache, indicated that the extraordinary telegram from London should have been deciphered first and immediately report to the country's top leadership, namely I.V. Stalin and his closest comrades in the State Committee for Defense and the Supreme Command Headquarters.
Major General Sklyarov, military attache in England, reported to the Center absolutely reliable information received by his subordinate, Lieutenant Colonel I.M. Kozlov from a secret agent, encrypted with the letter "X". According to the agent, 15 May 1945. The headquarters of the joint planning of the military cabinet of Great Britain began to develop a plan of war against the USSR - the plan "Unthinkable".
“X” (its real name is still strictly classified, and perhaps the GRU will never open it at all!) Informed Moscow that the development of the “Unthinkable” plan is being carried out under the guise of the strictest secrecy, and several high-ranking military planners are taking part in it , including generals Peak and Thompson, deputy. Head of Planning, Colonel Barry, Colonel Tanji, and some other reputable staff.
Agent “X” was constantly in touch with a member of the USSR Military Attachment, Lieutenant Colonel Kozlov, and during the war he transmitted a large amount of important information to Moscow.
This information revealed the plans of both the Wehrmacht command and the bosses of Nazi Germany and the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition. So, "X" reported on secret negotiations, which were conducted in Switzerland by the representative of the American Directorate of Strategic Services (military and political intelligence) Allen Dulles with the SS General Karl Wolf. 18, on the other hand, on May 1945, “X” informed the Center that on May 15, under the strictest secrecy, the first meeting on the development of Operation “Unthinkable” was held. The meeting was chaired by General Thompson. He began his speech by warning members of the working group that “all preparatory activities should be carried out under special secrecy” and that Winston Churchill wants “to teach Stalin a good lesson, impose the Anglo-American war on the Soviet Union, strike the Soviets with a sudden and terrible blow ".
The initial postulates for the developers of the “Unthinkable” plan, according to agent “X”, were to serve as Churchill’s intentions “to drive the Russians to the line east of the Curzon line and then make peace.”
Agent "X" also reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately stated: "It is impossible to draw up a plan on the basis of such a limited operation, and he will have to draw up a plan for a total war against the Soviet Union."
By special order of Churchill, the Anglo-American troops on the European continent were brought to full combat readiness and were to begin military operations against the Soviet military units 1 on July 1945.
Literally to this day, few people knew how Stalin managed to thwart the plans of the treacherous "allies", why we had to hastily take Berlin, against whom the English instructors in April forty-five were training unformed German divisions that had surrendered to them as a prisoner, and why it was inhumanly cruel Dresden was destroyed in February of 1945 and who wanted to intimidate the Anglo-Saxons.
The legend of "honest allies - the United States and Great Britain" in every possible way was welcomed in our country, that in the USSR, during perestroika times. Yes, and documents were then published a little - this period was hidden for many reasons. True, in recent years the British and Americans themselves began to partially open the archives of that period, because there is no one to be afraid now - the USSR is no longer there.
So, 1 July 1945, the 47 of the British and American divisions, without any declaration of war, should have dealt a crushing blow to the naive Russian who had not expected such infinite meanness from the allies.
The strike was supported by the 10-12 of the German divisions, which the "allies" held unformed in Schleswig-Holstein and southern Denmark, they were trained daily by British instructors: they were preparing for war against the USSR. In theory, the war of the united forces of the whole Western civilization against Russia was to start - later other countries were also to take part in the “crusade” against the “communist contagion” - Poland, then Hungary ... The war was to lead to a complete defeat and unconditional surrender of the USSR. The final goal was to end the war at about the same turn where Hitler planned to finish it according to the plan of “Barbarossa”: Arkhangelsk - Stalingrad.
The Anglo-Saxons intended to break us with total bombing terror - the savage destruction of the largest Soviet cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Vladivostok, Murmansk, etc. The devastating blows were to be delivered by the armadas of the “flying fortresses” - the notorious American B-29 bombers. How many millions of Soviet people had to perish in the most cruel "firestorm" that Hamburg and Dresden were wiped off, Tokyo was destroyed ... Now they were going to do this with us, faithful allies.
Later, in his memoirs, Churchill described the situation in the spring of 1945 in the following way: “The destruction of Germany’s military might led to a radical change in relations between Communist Russia and Western democracies. They lost their common enemy, the war against which was almost the only link linking their alliance. From now on, Russian imperialism and communist doctrine did not see and did not put a limit to their advancement and striving for ultimate domination. ” From this, according to Churchill's assessment, concrete practical conclusions for Western strategy and policy inexorably flowed.
Soviet Russia, which only intensified during the Second World War, grew into a mortal threat to the whole "free" world; it was necessary to create a new front against its rapid advance.
This front in Europe was to extend as far east as possible; the main target of the Anglo-American armies is Berlin; the seizure of Czechoslovakia and the entry of American troops into Prague is essential; Vienna, and better all of Austria, should be ruled by the Western powers ...
Subsequently, Agent X reported the details of the operation plan. According to the information he obtained, Churchill based it on the following most important considerations: the Anglo-Saxons strike the Soviet troops at roughly 1 on July 1945 of the year without warning, with maximum surprise; the morale of the British and American armed forces and public opinion will surely be “at 100 percent reliable”; the German army and the capabilities of the defeated Third Reich and its allies "will be used against the Soviets with maximum force" ...
According to the agent, by the decision of General Thompson, the head of British military intelligence, General Sinclair, and his trusted associate, Lieutenant Colonel Stockdale, were involved in developing the Unthinkable plan.
“X” also conveyed that the plan “Unthinkable” in general terms “requires the execution of an unexpected tick movement by two army groups. One group moves from the north of Germany, the other from the Leipzig region as quickly as possible to the center of Poland. This will be accompanied by powerful air raids on major communications centers and key railway bridges on the main river barriers (Oder, Spree, Wisla). An additional offensive is to begin in Austria at the Linz-Vienna line. Special forces on aircraft towers should be deployed to the Black Sea to bomb the Caucasian and Baku oil refineries and oil fields (this was planned by the British in 1940 year, and the developers of Operation Unthinkable) simply removed the old skeleton from the closet waiting for their hour). Also considered, and very seriously, "the probability of air and sea operations against St. Petersburg."
The land campaign plan involved two main attacks in North-Eastern Europe in the direction of Poland.
In general, according to Churchill's instructions, the allied forces involved in the operation were to be: 50 infantry, 20 armored, 5 airborne divisions, as well as the Wehrmacht and Poland. By the opening of hostilities, the Allies planned to fully arm and re-form at least 10 German divisions. In total, the implementation of the plan "Unthinkable" should have been attended by at least 83 divisions totaling more than one million people ...
It was also planned to occupy a vast Soviet territory, in order to reduce the material and human potential of the USSR to a level at which "further resistance of the Soviets would be impossible." Politically, the plan of the entire operation was a model of Anglo-Saxon goal-setting: the imposition of the political will of the British Empire and the United States on Russians.
News from London were for our leadership a complete and, obviously, discouraging, surprise.
To verify this, it suffices to recall that in the first days of May, forty-five, Stalin and Churchill repeatedly exchanged personal, and sometimes secret and very confidential messages. Churchill, as is evident from the published correspondence, sent eight lengthy letters to Stalin and received as many in reply. The Supreme Commander and the British Prime Minister thoroughly discussed the most serious problems of the postwar structure of Europe and attempted to harmonize the positions of their governments. In particular, they discussed the issue of allied control over the situation in the Italian province of Julia, they also discussed the preparation of a meeting on the zones of responsibility of the allies in Europe and the activities of the European Advisory Commission. In addition, the leaders of the victorious powers agreed on the time and procedure for announcing Victory Day.
Comparing the facts, one involuntarily marvels at the truly limitless hypocrisy with which Sir Winston led an “interested” dialogue with the Soviet leader, while carrying out plans for his physical destruction.
In a message from 9 May, Churchill, on behalf of the entire British nation, expressed to Stalin "cordial greetings on the occasion of a brilliant victory", which the Red Army and the peoples of the USSR gained, "having driven the invaders from their land and defeating Nazi tyranny", and also stated that it was " the future of mankind depends on friendship and mutual understanding between the British and Russian peoples. ” Further, the British Prime Minister, as it has now become clear with feigned kind-heartedness, wrote: “Here, in our island fatherland, we often think of you today, and we send you wishes of happiness and well-being from the depths of our hearts. We want, after all the sacrifices and sufferings in that gloomy valley through which we passed together, we now, bound by true friendship and mutual sympathies, could go further under the shining sun of the victorious world. ” Churchill concluded this message with very eloquent words: “I ask my wife to convey to you all these words of friendship and admiration.”
Stalin, already aware of the plans of the Allies, responded to Churchill less emotionally, in a more constructive and businesslike manner, translating the discussion from enthusiastic bursts to the specific problems of the post-war Europe, in particular the need to endow Poland, which had suffered so much from German Nazism, German Silesia. But he led the conversation, we emphasize, in a no less friendly, affable tone.
In history, alas, there is no documentary evidence how the Soviet leader reacted to the report of a military attaché from London that Winston Churchill, swearing his eternal friendship, gave the order to develop a plan of attack on Soviet troops and the USSR. We can only assume that the document handed to him by the head of the GRU Kuznetsov caused Stalin a reaction of bewilderment and many questions ...
By the way, during this period, the Supreme Commander kept up a lively correspondence with the US President Harry Truman. 8 of personal messages to Truman was sent from Moscow to Washington and received from him 5.
Judging by the content of these letters, the correspondence was conducted in a constructive tone, and although its participants adhered to their principled positions, they demonstrated deep respect for the opinion of their partner opponent and patiently searched for ways to compromise problems that arose.
It should be immediately noted that Churchill's undertaking with a surprise attack on the Soviet troops was greeted with great disapproval in the circles of the British ruling elite. First of all, this idea was criticized at a secret meeting of the English military cabinet. For example, the head of the British military intelligence, General Sinclair, directly called it "a nonsense that cannot be seriously considered at all." Sinclair immediately stressed that “the situation of Germany itself with its communication problem, millions of refugees, the problem of nutrition and the state of industry makes it impossible to wage a big war through Germany and Poland.”
Agent "X" brought to the attention of Moscow and the final results of the first meeting on the plan "Unthinkable". “I think,” he concluded, “that the most responsible of his advisers will view the idea of war against Russia now as an adventure, but there are many of his instigators who, like Thornton, say:“ Now or never. ”
An urgent report to Moscow by the military attache in London, Sklyarov, concluded with the words: "In words, the source said that the final decision on this issue is still unknown."
The next report from London was the head of the GRU Kuznetsov exactly reported to Stalin, so that he had the opportunity to get acquainted with both objective information and reasoning and evaluations of agent “X”.
In the second or third decade of May – June 1945, all new reports on the development of Operation Unthinkable continued to be received from the London GRU residency.
For example, on May 19, Agent X reported: “The Allies effectively betrayed the USSR with separate secret talks in Bern with the German commander in Italy and secured their advance in Yugoslavia with a political stunt, forcing Tito to wage a tough battle.”
28 May - another message from “X”: “There are no new facts about the plan. Rumors are not soothing. Beware of provocations for obvious political reasons. ” This was a very significant warning.
In fact, a knowledgeable agent reminded about the provocation of SS thugs led by Otto Skorzeny in the German town bordering with Poland Xleum 31 in August 1939 August, when the SS man read the whole world, broadcasting an attack on German territory, reading the whole world about the attack on German territory, the time of the war of Poland against Germany has come. ” “X”, one must think, not without reason, suspected that the operation “Unthinkable” - an attack on Soviet troops in Germany - could begin with a similar provocation in West Berlin.
Fortunately, sober heads were found in the English Military Planning Headquarters.
Despite the attraction of German, Polish, Hungarian troops, they concluded that the operation "Unthinkable" in view of the apparent superiority of the Soviet forces is doomed to failure.
And no matter how many resources the Anglo-Americans use, they will not succeed anyway, - so strong was the grouping of Soviet troops in Germany and Poland.
22 May 1945, the Military Planning Headquarters completed its calculations for the planned adventure operation and reported its findings to Churchill. In general, Sir Winston agreed with them, but ordered to immediately start work on a new plan of the same operation “Unthinkable”, this time in a defensive form. And already June 9, the draft of the new plan, Churchill received from General Ismey for approval. The next day, the prime minister wrote to Ismayu: “I studied the draft plan“ Unthinkable ”, developed by 8 June 1945, which reflected Russian superiority in ground forces as 2 to 1. If the Americans withdraw their troops to their zones and transfer the main forces to the territory of the United States and to the Pacific, the Russians have enough strength to move to the coast of the North Sea and the Atlantic. We need to think out a clear plan for how we can protect our Island, taking into account that France and the Netherlands will not be able to resist Russian supremacy. ”
Concluding his message to the general, Churchill drew such a conclusion, testifying that he had not yet completely survived the mind: “Keeping the code name of the operation“ Unthinkable ”, the command understands that this is only a preliminary sketch of what I hope is still a hypothetical probability ... ".
Nevertheless, all of the same 10 on June, Churchill gave General Ismey new instructions and demanded to finalize the plan of the operation, which was executed soon.
The new draft defense plan stated that “the Russians will be able to attack the British Isles using the following forms of war: by blocking all sea lanes; by invasion; by air striking aviation forces; in the event of application to the British Isles rocket strike or the use of other new weapons (that is, it was implied that the USSR could well acquire its own nuclear weapons).
As a result, General Ismay summarized: “Only in the case of the use of missiles and other new weapons that may appear in the Russians, will there be a serious threat to the security of our country. An invasion or serious blows to our sea communications can be carried out only after a long preparation, which will take several years. ”
On this in terms of "Unthinkable", thank God, the point was put. He was hid in the archive, where he had been collecting dust safely for several decades, until the researchers who were not engaged by the ruling elite reached it.
However, questions not taken, however, remain.
For example, what dividends did Churchill expect to extract from the implementation of the Unthinkable plan?
First of all, it should be noted that in the global war against the USSR, the British Prime Minister expected to involve the United States, which by the summer of 1954 already possessed nuclear weapons. It becomes obvious that Sir Winston wanted to take advantage of the auspicious moment and “ride” G. Truman, who after the death of F. Roosevelt became the sovereign American president. But despite the Masonic solidarity, in the process of a preliminary secret discussion with the Americans of his plans for a war against the USSR, Churchill could not convince Truman of the expediency of attacking Soviet troops in Germany in 1945. For the United States was in the decisive phase of the war with Japan and was counting on Soviet assistance, the notorious Atlantic solidarity could cost them too much. In any case, if you supported Truman Churchill, we could talk about the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yankees, and an American voter would not forgive this for his president.
Further, American military intelligence could not help but notice that 29 June 1945, literally one day before the planned start of the war, the opposing Red Army unexpectedly changed its deployment. Marshal G.K. Zhukov led the troops of the Group of the Occupation Forces in Germany on full alert, and the vanguards of military units even moved to combat positions. The Soviet soldiers, selflessly obeying the marshal (whom Stalin, of course, devoted to Churchill's plans), were ready with great damage to the enemy to repel any provocation of changeable allies. It seems that this was also a weighty circumstance that outweighed the balance of history - the order to attack the Anglo-Saxon troops was never given. Prior to this, the capture of Berlin, which was considered impregnable, showed the power of the Red Army and the military experts of the former ally came to the conclusion that the attack on the Red Army units was inevitable.
But this happened under conditions when the Allied coalition had a global advantage in forces and assets. Doesn't it remind you of a modern picture of the confrontation between NATO and Russian military forces?
Suffice it to recall that the naval forces of Great Britain and the United States in 1945 had absolute superiority over the Soviet Navy: in the destroyers 19 times, in battleships and large cruisers - in 9 times, in submarines - in 2 times. Over 100 aircraft carriers and several thousand units of carrier-based aircraft - against total zero from the USSR. Yesterday's allies had deployed 4 air armies of heavy bombers that could deliver devastating blows. Soviet long-range bomber aircraft was incomparably weaker ...
By the way, in April, the 1945-th Allies represented our troops exhausted and exhausted, and military equipment - to the limit of worn out. Their military experts were greatly surprised by the power of the Soviet Army, which it demonstrated in the capture of Berlin, which was considered impregnable throughout the world. There is no doubt that the decision of I.V. Stalin on the storming of Berlin in early May 1945-th prevented the Third World War. This is confirmed by declassified documents. It appears from them that Berlin would have been handed over to the “allies” by the Wehrmacht without a fight, and the combined forces of all Europe and North America would have fallen upon the USSR.
Stalin, of course, had no opportunity to prevent World War II, but managed to prevent the Third. The situation was extremely serious, but the USSR won again without flinching.
Now, noisy politicians and corrupt hacks in the West are trying to present Churchill’s plan with a “response” to the “Soviet threat”, to Stalin’s attempt to seize all of Europe.
Did the Soviet leadership have plans at that time to advance to the shores of the Atlantic and seize the British Isles? The answer to this question is obviously negative. This is confirmed by the law on the demobilization of the army and navy, their gradual transfer to peacetime levels, adopted in the USSR on June 23, 1945. Demobilization began on July 5, 1945 and was completed in 1948. The army and navy were reduced from 11 million to less than 3 million people, the State Defense Committee and the Supreme Command Headquarters were disbanded. The number of military districts in 1945-1946 decreased from 33 to 21. The number of troops in East Germany, Poland and Romania was significantly reduced. In September 1945, Soviet troops were withdrawn from northern Norway, in November from Czechoslovakia, in April 1946 from the island of Bornholm (Denmark), in December 1947 from Bulgaria...
As the most prominent foreign policy expert of the post-war period, Doctor of Historical Sciences Valentin Falin, writes, “it is difficult to find in the past century a politician equal to Churchill in his ability to confuse others and his own. But the future Sir Winston, especially in terms of Pharisaism and intrigue in relation to the Soviet Union, was particularly successful.
In the letters addressed to Stalin, he "prayed that the Anglo-Soviet Union would be a source of many benefits for both countries, for the United Nations and for the whole world," wished "complete success to a noble enterprise." There was a view to the widespread advance of the Red Army across the entire eastern front in January 1945, which was hastily prepared in response to the plea of Washington and London to assist the allies in crisis situations in the Ardennes and Alsace. But it is in words. But in fact, Churchill considered himself free from any obligations to the Soviet Union ... ".
It was then that Churchill gave orders to store captured German weapons with an eye on the possible use of it against the USSR, placing the Wehrmacht soldiers and officers who had surrendered in captivity in the division of Schleswig-Holstein and in Southern Denmark. Then the general meaning of the insidious undertaking by the British leader will be clarified. The British took under their patronage the German units, which surrendered without resistance, sent them to the specified land. A total of about 15 German divisions were deployed there. The weapons were stored, and the personnel were trained for future battles ...
In accordance with Churchill’s will, literally everything was clearly stated in the “Unthinkable” plan: the Soviet troops would be exhausted at that moment, the equipment that was involved in the hostilities in Europe would be worn out, and food supplies and medicines would come to an end. Therefore, it will not be difficult to drop them to the pre-war borders and force Stalin to resign. “We were waiting for the change of the state system and the split of the USSR. - writes V. Falin. - As a measure of intimidation - the bombing of cities, in particular, Moscow. She, according to the plans of the British, was waiting for the fate of Dresden, which allied aviation, as is known, had rained to the ground ... ”.
US General Patton - Commander tank he directly stated by the armies that he did not plan to stop on the demarcation line along the Elbe agreed in Yalta, but to move on to Poland, from there to Ukraine and Belarus - and so on to Stalingrad. And to end the war where it did not have time and Hitler could not finish. “He called us only as“ the heirs of Genghis Khan, who need to be expelled from Europe, ”notes V. Falin. “After the war ended, Patton was appointed governor of Bavaria, and was soon removed from office for sympathy with the Nazis ...”
London for a long time denied the very existence of the Unthinkable plan, but several years ago the British declassified some of their archives, and among the documents were papers relating to Operation Unthinkable. At this point, it turned out that there was nowhere further to dissociate ...
In his memoirs, Eisenhower admits that at the end of February 1945 was practically non-existent at the end of February: the Germans retreated to the east without resistance.
The tactics of the Germans were as follows: to maintain, as far as possible, positions along the entire line of the Soviet-German confrontation until the virtual Western and real Eastern Front closed and the American and British forces would take the baton to repel the “Soviet threat” , Which allegedly inevitably hung over Central and Western Europe.
Churchill at this time in correspondence, telephone conversations with Roosevelt trying to convince by all means to stop the Russian, not to let them into Central Europe. This explains the significance that the taking of Berlin had acquired by that time.
It should be recalled that the Western allies could move to the east somewhat faster than they did if the headquarters of Montgomery, Eisenhower and Alexander (Italian theater) planned their actions better, coordinated their forces and resources more efficiently, spent less time on internal squabbles and searching common denominator. Washington, while Roosevelt was still alive, was in no hurry to put an end to cooperation with Moscow for various reasons, and at first Truman, at least until the Potsdam Conference in July forty-five, was in no hurry to tear up or at least spoil relations with the USSR. And for Churchill, "the Soviet Moor did his job, and he should have been removed."
Recall that Yalta ended February 11. In the first half of February, 12 guests scattered to their homes. In the Crimea, by the way, it was agreed that the aircraft of the three powers would adhere to certain lines of demarcation in their operations. And on the night from 12 to 13 February, the bombers of the Western allies wiped out Dresden from the ground, then attacked a terrible force on the main enterprises in Slovakia, in the future Soviet occupation zone of Germany, so that the plants would not get to us whole. In 1941, Stalin proposed to the British and Americans to bomb, using the Crimean airfields, oil fields in Ploiesti. But then they did not touch. They suffered raids in 1944, when the main center of oil production, the entire war supplying Germany with fuel, came close to the Soviet troops.
One of the main objectives of the raids on Dresden were bridges across the Elbe. Churchill's installation, which was shared by the Americans, also operated - to detain the Red Army as far as possible in the East.
In the briefing before the departure of the British crews it was said: it is necessary “to demonstrate to the Soviets the capabilities of the allied bomber aircraft”. That demonstrated. And more than once. In April, forty-fifth bombed Potsdam. Destroyed Oranienburg. We were notified - it turns out, the American pilots simply "made a mistake." They, de, were aiming at Zossen, where the headquarters of Marshal Goering and the German Air Force was located. The classic “distracting statement” that doesn’t have numbers. Oranienburg was bombed by orders of Marshall and Leahy, because there were laboratories working with uranium materials. So that neither the laboratories, nor the personnel, nor the equipment, nor the nuclear materials themselves fall into our hands — they all turned into dust and dust.
Clearly, during Operation Unthinkable, Churchill hoped to drive out Soviet troops from Germany and Eastern European states, beyond the Curzon Line (which is now actually restored by admitting Poland and the Baltic States to NATO, a fascist coup in Ukraine). The British Prime Minister believed that the Allied forces should occupy almost the entire European part of the Soviet Union. Thus, Sir Winston mentally saw himself as the liberator of Europe from both the fascists and the Bolsheviks. By the way, Churchill claimed the role of savior of the European civilization, of the whole “free world” from the “communist contagion” as early as 1918, acting as the organizer of the Anglo-French-American-Japanese intervention in the young Soviet republic.
And the last circumstance arising from the previous ones. Churchill, inclining Truman's fellow-mason to conduct a "preventive" strike at the Soviets, meant air (and most likely nuclear) attacks on the most important targets in the territory of the USSR. In particular, he called for an air and sea operation against Leningrad and inflicting as much damage as possible on the Caucasian oil fields and oil refineries. But at the same time, the British Prime Minister intended to destroy the spiritual power of Russia (which is worth one idea to raze the treasure of Russian national culture - Petersburg - Leningrad!).
Fortunately, Churchill’s attempts to draw the United States into the war against the USSR did not meet with approval in Washington. Looking forward to the results of the test created by the atomic bomb, which provided unprecedented power to the American armed forces, US President G. Truman was not at all eager to dance to Churchill's tune and act on plans developed in London, especially since the Soviet Armed Forces still had to crush the entrenched on the Asian continent Japanese Kwantung Army.
In July 1945, Churchill, as if nothing had happened, headed at the head of the British delegation to the conference of the heads of the Allied Powers in Potsdam. However, after the victory of the Laborists in the parliamentary elections, the British delegation in Potsdam, instead of Churchill, headed the Laborist K. Attlee ...
The “Unthinkable” plan was declassified by the British government only in 1999. But the Soviet military intelligence recognized its contents well in advance, as the most important provisions were developed, and informed the Soviet leadership in a timely manner.
The finale of the Great Patriotic War, by the will of the treacherous British Prime Minister, could well turn into the first action of a new world war. Fortunately, this did not happen. The plan of operation “Unthinkable” was archived. To be fair, their implementation was, in all fairness, the military attache in London, Major General Sklyarov, his subordinate Lieutenant Colonel Kozlov, and most importantly, the archetypal agent under the pseudonym "X".
The story of the development and cancellation of Operation Unthinkable, which became public after the recording of the conversation between the former British Prime Minister and US Senator S. Bridges, which was kept in the FBI special archive, is another confirmation that during the cold war years The world on the planet was constantly exposed to dangerous threats from prudent political schemers like Sir Winston Churchill.
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