By late December 1944, the British and US armies were advancing from the West and the Soviet armies from the East to encircle Nazi Germany. By the end of January 1945, the German armies were virtually within their own territory, save for a brittle hold in Hungary and in northern Italy.
Allied-occupied territories (red) on February 15, 1945, four days after the end of the conference. Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_ConferenceBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had sustained a close personal and professional relationship with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, wrote in his memoires: “The President was fully convinced of the need for another meeting of ‘The Big Three’, for which arrangements had been discussed for some time. The usual debate about meeting places had followed. ‘If [the Soviet leader] Stalin cannot manage to meet us in the Mediterranean’, the President said, ‘I am prepared to come to the Crimea and have the meeting at Yalta, which appears to be the best place available in the Black Sea having the best accommodation ashore and the most promising flying conditions.”
As the place for the approaching meeting was being discussed in messages, on December 29, 1944, Churchill cabled to Roosevelt: “I send you the Admiralty report on Yalta. If this place is chosen. it would be well to have a few destroyers on which we can live if necessary. There would be no difficulty in flying from the great air base and weather centre at Caserta [Sicily].”
The next day (December 30), Roosevelt informed his British counterpart that “he would leave the United States as soon as possible after his presidential inauguration, and would travel by warship to the Mediterranean, and from there by air to Yalta”.
Churchill agreed on this and “promised to send a passenger ship to Sebastopol to supplement their quarters on shore”. He also proposed to fly direct via Caserta.
As the structure of post-war Europe appealed for review, on December 31, Churchill cabled to Roosevelt: “Have you a name for this operation? If not, I suggest ‘Argonaut’, which has a local but not deducible association.”
‘Argonaut’ was one in a series of high-level conferences held by the US and British leaders, including in Washington, DC, Casablanca, Quebec, Cairo, Tehran, Malta, Yalta and Potsdam to formulate the Allied grand strategy.
The choice of Malta
A plaque at the Upper Barrakka commemorating the Malta Conference of 1945 and the Malta Summit in 1989.
A set of three stamps issued by the Maltapost commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Malta Conference in 1945.
At the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Soviet leader Josef Stalin was also in attendance and played an important role. However, due to Roosevelt’s poor health, one of his advisers, Admiral Hewitt, recommended going by sea to Malta and flying onwards. Thus, it was the Americans who suggested that the US and British governments and their chiefs of staff meet in Malta, before continuing their trip to Yalta.
It was at this moment that a famous phrase that remained synonymous with Malta due to its place in the Yalta Conference was made.
On the first day of the New Year (1945), Churchill cabled Roosevelt: “We shall be delighted if you come to Malta. I shall be waiting on the quay. You will also see the inscription of your noble message to Malta of a year ago. Everything can be arranged to your convenience. No more let us falter! From Malta to Yalta! Let nobody alter!”
President Roosevelt replied to Churchill on January 2, 1945: “We plan to arrive by ship at Malta early forenoon February 2, and hope to proceed at once by plane without faltering. It will be grand to meet you on the quay. Your suggestion of ‘Argonaut’ is welcomed. You and I are direct descendants.”
No more let us falter! From Malta to Yalta! Let nobody alter!
After a number of messages, on January 10, Churchill sent this message to Roosevelt: “Thank you very much about the combined chiefs of staff’s preliminary meeting. Eden has particularly asked me to suggest that Stettinius might come on forty-eight hours earlier to Malta with the United States chiefs of staff.”
On January 29, Churchill boarded his Douglas C-54B Skymaster. The first leg was southeast to Malta, which, due to an Atlantic storm, was brought forward to 9.30pm. Churchill’s Skymaster took off from Northolt towards St Valery-en-Caux, flew directly across the country to Marseille on the Mediterranean; over Cagliari on the southern shore of Sardinia; and southeast along the Sicilian Strait to Malta.
Churchill’s Douglas C-54B Skymaster EW999 in flight. Photo: https://airscapemag.comThe same aircraft also carried Churchill’s daughter, Sarah, and the official party, together with Mr Martin and Mr Rowan, his private secretaries, and Commander Thompson.
The rest of his personal staff and some departmental officials travelled in two other aircraft. They landed in Luqa at 3.30am.
During their way to Malta, Churchill had a cold. He stayed in his bed aboard the Skymaster until 10.30am, when he transferred to a cabin aboard HMS Orion, which was standing by in Grand Harbour.
HMS Orion. Photo: National War Museum ArchivesTragedy at sea
However, due to radio distortion that caused an error in navigation, a third aircraft, an Avro York MW116, arrived over Lampedusa. After circling for an hour in darkness, the pilot obtained a correct bearing but then had insufficient fuel to reach Malta, 85 miles away, and the aircraft was brought down on the sea. Soon after alighting, it broke up.
A plane bringing VIPs to Malta that crashed off Lampedusa. Four War Office staff members, four Foreign Office staff members and a Scotland Yard staff member died. Photo: Imperial War MuseumAmong the dead were six members of the British Foreign Office staff, four British Army officers, a group commander and an enlisted man. Three members of the crew were missing. The corpses recovered from the sea were buried at Commonwealth War Graves Mtarfa Cemetery.
One of the victims: Patricia Maxwell Sullivan, Foreign Office. Photo: Author’s collection
Two other victims: Armine Roderick Dew. MVO, First Secretary for the Foreign Office; Captain R. MacDonald Gutherie, King’s Messenger, Foreign Office. Photo: Author’s collection
The names of three of the victims: Peter Noel Loxley, First Secretary, Foreign Office; John Chaplin, Second Secretary, Foreign Office; and Harry Joseph Battley, Special Branch, Scotland Yard, attached to the Foreign Secretary. Photo: Author’s collection
The victims recovered from the sea were buried at the CWGC Mtarfa Cemetery. Photo: Author's collection
The British chiefs of staff included Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Admiral Sir James Somerville, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, General Sir Hastings Ismay, Major-General Robert Laycock, Lord Leathers and Sir Ralph Metclafe.
The American chiefs of staff consisted of George Marshall, Fleet Admiral Joseph King, Major-General Lawrence S. Kuter, Brigadier-General A.G. McFarland, Lieutenant-General Breban B. Somerwell, Major General W. Bedell Smith, Rear-Admiral Lynde Daniel McCormick and Vice-Admiral Charles N. ‘Savvy’ Cooke.
Field Marshal Harold Alexander with Captain Roderick Latimer Mackenzie Edwards of HMS Sirius in Grand Harbour. Photo: National War Museum Archives
British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden with Captain Roderick Latimer Mackenzie Edwards of HMS Sirius in Grand Harbour. Photo: National War Museum Archives
US Secretary of State Mr Stetinius, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Captain Roderick Latimer Mackenzie Edwards and crew of HMS Sirius in Grand Harbour. The civilians are government officials. Photo: National War Museum Archives
HMS Sirius. Photo: National War Museum Archives
Malta Conference
Montgomery House in Floriana. Before the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, General Bernard Montgomery used it as a headquarters. Subsequently, it was known as Montgomery House. Photo: www.facebook.com/historicmalta/posts/montgomery-houseThe Malta Conference was held at Montgomery House (now Middle Sea House), in Floriana from January 30 to February 2, 1945. It consisted of a series of discussions designed primarily to coordinate American and British views on a number of important problems that were expected to come up with the Russians at Yalta a few days later. Most of the Malta discussions concerned military topics and centred around five meetings of the Anglo-American combined chiefs of staff.
Winston Churchill with Captain James Parrington Gornall of HMS Orion in Grand Harbour. Photo: National War Museum ArchivesAfter his arrival in Malta, Churchill spent most of the next day on HMS Orion where General Marshall was his luncheon guest. In the evening, however, he went ashore to join a large dinner hosted by the Governor of Malta, General Sir Edmond Schreiber, at San Anton Palace.
While on board the naval ship, Churchill “lingered on the deck as the Malta sunshine was very pleasant, and the shattered buildings which encompass us at every side, for we are in one of the creeks, showed their fine warm yellow-ochre shapes”.
Throughout his stay, he received regular reports about the diplomatic and military discussions that were taking place.
Allied commanders outside St John’s Co-Cathedral. Photo: National War Museum ArchivesThe combined chiefs, after completing their work, were taken for a tour of Valletta, visiting the Governors’ Palace, the Library and St John’s Co-Cathedral. That evening, they were all guests at a dinner given by Admiral Sir John Cunningham, commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. This was held at Admiralty House, in Valletta.
On the morning of February 2, the presidential party, on board the USS Quincy, steamed into Valletta harbour. It was a warm day and, under a cloudless sky, Churchill watched the scene from the deck of HMS Orion.
As the US cruiser steamed slowly past towards its berth alongside the quay wall, Churchill wrote: “I could see the figure of the president seated on the bridge, and we waved to each other. With the escort of Spitfires overhead, the salutes and the bands of the ships’ companies in the harbour playing The Star-Spangled Banner, it was a splendid scene.”
USS Quincy. Photo: National War Museum ArchivesThat evening, they all dined together on the USS Quincy, to talk over informally the conversations that had taken place on the previous days between Eden and Stettinius on the political issues that should be raised at Yalta.
Roosevelt had time to visit Mdina, Għajn Tuffieħa and Valletta, while his car stopped at the Palace Square to enable the president to read his citation on the marble tablet on the Palace façade.
Late in the afternoon, Churchill received a delegation from the Chamber of Commerce, who presented him with a silver replica of an old Maltese cannon.
The presence in Malta of the British prime minister, the US president and the joint chiefs of staff was held in secrecy.
Take-off for Crimea
The night of February 2 to 3 was one of busy activity at Luqa aerodrome, when the first of 20 Douglas C-54 Skymasters, four Avro Yorks and several Douglas C-87s began roaring down the runway at Luqa, bound for Crimea.
EW999 joined the procession at 3.25am, flying west until dawn where it met an escort of Lockheed P-38 Lighting fighters, south of Athens, before swinging northeast across Turkey and the Black Sea.
Escorts swapped roles on approach to Saki, when the Lockheed P-38s were obliged to format on the Skymaster and be guided down through the solid cloud cover. After seven hours in the air, the Skymaster landed at Saki in Crimea.
The ‘Big Three’ and their pledges in Yalta
From February 4 to 11, 1945, the ‘Big Three’ – Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin – met at Yalta, in the Crimea.
The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Photo: National War Museum ArchivesEach leader had an agenda for the conference. One of the early discussions was about the new German ‘wonder-weapons’, such as V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets. The U-boat threat was again assessed, primarily because of the introduction of the schnorkel, which allowed for longer, submerged periods and the recharging of a submarine’s battery without surfacing.
The Yalta Conference: Map of Europe showing the division of Germany and Europe after the end of the Second World War conflict. Photo: https://slideplayer.com/slide/7031096/The ‘Big Three’ affirmed the previous agreements about the post-war occupation zones for Germany and Austria, which consisted of three zones of occupation, later including the creation of a French zone in Germany. Berlin itself, although in the Soviet zone, would also be divided into three (later four) sectors.
Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern Europe. Also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. Democracies would be established in all countries. Citizens of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia were to be handed over to their respective countries.
Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern Europe.
By this time, the Soviet Army had already removed Nazi forces from most of Eastern Europe, so Stalin obtained his goals, that is, a significant sphere of influence as a buffer zone. In this process, the freedom of small nations was sacrificed for the sake of stability, which meant that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia would be incorporated into the USSR.
Roosevelt asked for Soviet support in the Pacific War against Japan, specifically by invading Japan. And he obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the United Nations.
Stalin agreed to enter the fight against the Empire of Japan within 90 days after the defeat of Germany.
As a reward, the Soviet Union was allowed to seize the southern part of Sakhalin and Kuril Islands.
Charles Debono is curator, National War Museum.