Russia at war 1941-1945

Stalin: The reason why I asked about this is that everywhere—whether in Poland, Hungary, Rumania or Yugoslavia—the Germans always try to round up officers

and pack them off to Germany. But how do you stand for airmen?

De Gaulle: We have very few airmen, and even those we have need complete re-training, as they are unfamiliar with modern planes.

Stalin: Now the French airmen of the Normandie Squadron are doing very well on the Russian Front; so if you are so hard up for airmen, we could perhaps send them back to France?

De Gaulle: No, no, this is quite unnecessary. They are contributing nobly to the common cause while in Russia.

Stalin: I suppose you have very few training schools for airmen?

De Gaulle: Yes, very few, and very few planes.

Having got over this phase of the talk, in which he had to act the poor relation (there is no mention of these remarks in his Memoirs), de Gaulle tried to get down to more serious business. It would be a good thing for both France and Russia, he said, if the Rhineland could be joined to France. Maybe the Ruhr would have to be given an international

régime, but not the Rhineland proper.

Stalin asked how Britain and America looked upon this, to which de Gaulle replied that these had already let France down in 1918 by insisting on a temporary arrangement,

which just didn't work. As a result, France was again invaded. Perhaps Britain and

America had learned their lesson, but he couldn't be sure.

Stalin: As far as I know, the British are considering a different solution: an international control of Rhineland-Westphalia. What you are proposing is

something quite different. We must find out what Britain and America think about

it.

De Gaulle: I hope the matter may be examined by the European Advisory Commission.

Stalin: Yes.

De Gaulle then went on with his sharp criticism of Britain and America. They were

neither geographically nor historically on the Rhine, and the French and Russians had had to pay a heavy price for this. Even though they were fighting there now, they would not be on the Rhine forever, while France and Russia would always remain where they were.

The full-scale intervention of Britain and America always took place in peculiar

conditions—much too late; as a result, France was nearly destroyed in 1940.

Stalin was not convinced. The strength of Russia and France alone were insufficient to keep Germany in order. The experience of the two world wars had demonstrated this.

Frontiers in themselves were not of decisive importance; what mattered was a good and well-commanded army. It was no use relying on the Maginot Line, or Hitler's Ostwall.

And when de Gaulle still persisted, Stalin said:

Please understand me. We simply cannot settle this question of France's eastern

frontier without having talked about it to the British and the Americans. This and many other problems must be decided jointly.

Obviously not at all satisfied with this, de Gaulle tried to approach the question from a different angle by bringing up Germany's eastern frontier.

De Gaulle: If I understand the question correctly, the German frontier should run along the Oder and then along the Neisse, that is, west of the Oder.

Stalin: Yes, I think the old Polish territories-—Silesia, East Prussia, Pomerania—

should be returned to Poland, while the Sudeten country should be given back to

Czechoslovakia.

But he did not rise to the bait.