[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Tunisia, 1942: Final Allied Offensive – 22 April Attack, 3 May Attack, and Exploitation
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Prime Minister to Chief of the Air Staff 1 May 43

I asked Monsieur Maisky last week to explain to me why the Russians had not accepted our twenty squadrons, with their personnel, as proposed in “Velvet”. He replied that they understood about 25,000 men would be required to maintain these squadrons on the British and American scales, and this seemed too great a strain upon their resources in proportion to the fighting assistance that would be obtained. Even at the figure now given me by the Air Ministry of, say, 20,000, it would be 1,000 men per squadron, of which 11,750 would be British.

Please let me have a full explanation of why it is necessary that 11,750 British personnel should be required to man fourteen squadrons. Who made this calculation, and who approved it? How does it compare with air establishments in other quarters?

Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate