full-scale Lend-Lease aid to RUSSIA will continue and JAPAN'S major efforts will be directed toward securing and exploiting the territory she controls, and eliminating CHINA from the war. 17. If CHINA is eliminated from the war. JAPAN may succeed in eliminating CHINA as an active UNITED NATIONS ally, either through Military action or political in- trigue. If accomplished, JAPAN will be relieved of many of her Military commitments in CHINA, will be free to employ the forces thus relieved in other areas, and the prospect of bombing attack from CHINA on her homeland will be eliminated. UNITED NATIONS SITUATION 18. In the EUROPEAN - AFRICAN area, the bulk of the ground forces are engaged on the RUSSIAN Front. The UNITED NATIONS occupy advantageous positions for an air offensive against the EUROPEAN AXIS and for invasion of the continent from their bases in the UNITED KINGDOM and to a lesser degree in AFRICA. At present the principal American and British ground forces in the EUROPEAN - AFRICAN theater are concentrated in NORTH AFRICA. An air offensive is proceeding and will continue at a gradually increasing rate. The initiation of an invasion awaits the build up of essential forces and the logistic requirements for their support. The time that it may be undertaken, the location of the staging area, and the scale of effort required is dependent upon the reduction of GERMANY'S war potential and morale through the UNITED NATIONS air offensive and other means. 19. In the PACIFIC and FAR EAST, the UNITED NATIONS are in con- tact with the enemy in the ALEUTIANS, the SOLOMONS- NEW GUINEA area, BURMA, and CHINA. Limited offensives in these areas are de- signed to apply pressure on the enemy, to accomplish attrition of enemy forces including shipping, to retain the initiative, to gain positions for a full-scale offensive, and to sustain CHINA as an active ally. -12- |