The Mediterranean Command and Unification, September 1943–June 1944

Abstract

AFHQ began its life in 1942 as a small planning team assembled with the specific task of supervising Operation ‘Torch’. During the first few months of 1943 it swelled with the burdens of presiding over the campaign in Tunisia and administering the Anglo-American presence in the western Mediterranean. The progress of Allied operations and the evolution of strategy in the theatre was, however, to provide AFHQ with yet more tasks and duties in the central Mediterranean in the spring and summer of 1943. A further substantial widening in the responsibilities of AFHQ was seen at the end of 1943, which, combined with changes to its leadership, signalled a radical change in the character of the Mediterranean command. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the causes of this last set of modifications to the theatre’s command structure and then to identify some of the political problems that accompanied these changes, particularly from the point of view of the British Resident Minister at AFHQ during the first half of 1944. Again the local stress is placed on continuing British perceptions of their ‘senior’ position in the Mediterranean theatre, but in the context of an overall balance in the alliance that was speedily shifting in Washington’s favour.