Operation Alacrity - British US bases in the Azores

[spidge]

Moved this from operations thread to place them singularly here.

Quite a secret operation from a book by one who was there. The Portugese government actually gave permission for the bases and refuelling depots to be built/placed on their soil.

OPERATION ALACRITY: The Azores and the War in the Atlantic

Anyone who has ever studied the Atlantic War is well aware that despite the strategic prominence of the Azore Islands, located almost in the middle of the Atlantic, little mention was made of them during the war years and even less was revealed about their wartime role in many supposedly definitive histories later published. As students, we learned the Azores were Portuguese property, and everyone of course knew Portugal was neutral. Or was it? Was this tiny cluster of islands the "Black Hole of the Atlantic" or merely pawns in a cunningly orchestrated political game? Operation Alacrity sheds light on this long ambivalent issue.
To win the war against German U-boats in World War II, the Allies had to protect their convoys in the vast black hole of the mid-Atlantic known as the Azores Gap. In 1943 they devised a plan to set up air bases on the Azores Islands, owned by neutral Portugal. It was essential for the operation to remain secret so that the Allies could get the islands before the Germans, who also planned to build bases there from which to launch bombing raids against American seacoast cities.
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The author of this book, Norman Herz, took part in the Allied operation, called Operation Alacrity, as a corporal with the US Army Corps of Engineers'928th Engineer Aviation Regiment. At the time he was given little information about the operation and told never to talk about what he did. After the war the operation remained mostly unknown, kept secret, Herz suggests, so as not to embarrass the US government, which had publicly denied plans to invade the Portuguese territory while secretly preparing an invasion task force.
In researching this book, Herz could not find the operation mentioned in official US histories of World War II, but he discovered a treasure trove of memos and other documents among the files of the US Joint chiefs of Staff, the Combined US-UK Chiefs of Staff, and the State Department. Told here for the first time, the story is filled with diplomatic intrigue and double-dealing and includes secret meetings between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. It also provides a fascinating account of Churchill's efforts to justify landing in the Azores by referencing a 1373 treaty between Portugal and Britain. From US Navy Seabees to RAF Sappers, all Allied engineering branches participated in the invasion. The success of their operation is undeniable: U-boats stopped patrolling the Azores Gap and not a single Allied ship in the area was lost again. Today the base is an important link to American and NATO defenses worldwide.

[spidge]

With respect to the 600 year old treaty:

The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 was signed between King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. It established a treaty of "perpetual friendships, unions [and] alliances" between the two seafaring nations.
It was reinforced throughout history, including in 1386, 1643, 1654, 1660, 1661, 1703, 1815 and by a secret declaration in 1899. It was recognized in the Treaties of Arbitration in the 20th century between Britain and Portugal in 1904 and 1914.
It was activated again during the Second World War, whereupon the Portuguese remained neutral, in agreement with Britain, which did not want to bring the war into the Iberian Peninsula, until 1943, when it was fully reactivated by the National Government of Winston Churchill and Portugal. Britain, after 3 months' negotiations, was accorded aerodrome and nautcial facilities in the Portuguese Azores to help combat the U-boat threat.

Excerpt

An excerpt of the treaty is given below:
"In the first place we settle and covenant that there shall be from this day forward... true, faithful, constant, mutual and perpetual friendships, unions, alliances, and needs of sincere affection, and that as true and faithful friends we shall henceforth, reciprocally, be friends to friends and enemies to enemies, and shall assist, maintain, and uphold each other mutually, by sea and by land, against all men that may live and die."

Source

• "Closing The Ring", Churchill, Sir Winston Spencer, 1951

[raf]

i was going to ask a question about the Azores but most of my answers and more are printed brilliant work guys...

was it down to the treaty that the uk couldnt use the Azores before 1943 and was the Azores within reach of Torpeado alley by bombers/fighters.

cheers