ANNEX 2
 
        This paper was not approved but was returned to the Joint
Planning Committee for reconslderation.and resubmission for further
consideration.
 
....... ~r ...................................
 
u. s. SEaIAL ABe-4/2
BRITISH SEBIAL W.W.'(J.P.C.)2
 
PROJECT - GYMNAST
 
        We submit below a provisional examination of the project for
join,t operations in Northwest Africa. Our exs~nination is based on the
following hypotheses'-
 
            _a    That we receive an actual invitation or reasonable
assurance there will be only token resistance.
 
h    That owing to their pre-occupations on the Eastern
front, it would take the Germans six weeks to prepare to invade Spain,
the forces now in France being unsuitable, and that without Spanish
cooperation it would take them about a further six weeks to become
firmly established with land and air forces in the South of Spain after
they had crossed the Pyrenees. We
    therefore anticipate a period of about three months before a heavy
scale of attack could be mounted against French North Africa from
Spain. Spain would probably o~'fer no very effective resistauce on the
mainland to a Germa~ invasion, but would not give the Germans free
entry and full facilities. Once the mainland had been invaded our
forces would probably be a~itted freely into Spanish Morocco.
 
c That the Germans are not established in French North
Africa in sufficient strength to oppose effectively the
occupation of French Morocco.
 
OBJECTIVE.
 
        We consider our primary object is to establish ourselves in
Northern French Morocco as quickly as possible. This would provide a
base i'rom which Spanish Morocco could be occupied at short notice and
thus block Germany's line of advance from Spain. The area would also
form a base from which Allied control of all North Africa could be
extended.
 
- 1 -