[PEN-L:310] Churchill "Planned Third World War

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Folloiwng is taken from russia today (www.russiatoday.com)   Thu., Oct.
01, 1998 at: NY 7:14 a.m.
                                                      3:14 p.m.

                                   Churchill "Planned Third World War
                                   against Stalin"

                                   LONDON -- (Agence France Presse) Winston
                                   Churchill, the British wartime leader,
ordered
                                   his War Cabinet within days of the
defeat of
                                   Germany in 1945 to draw up contingency
                                   plans for an invasion of the Soviet
Union, it
                                   was reported Thursday.

                                   The battle plan, said to be contained in
Top
                                   Secret documents obtained by the Daily
                                   Telegraph, recommended re-arming up to
                                   100,000 German troops to help half a
million
                                   British and U.S. soldiers fight their
erstwhile
                                   wartime ally.

                                   The 29-page report, codenamed Operation
                                   Unthinkable, was presented to Churchill
on
                                   May 22, 1945, 14 days after the end of
the
                                   World War II in Europe, according to the
                                   London newspaper.

                                   It assumed that the Third World War
would
                                   start on July 1, 1945, probably with a
                                   surprise attack by 47 British and
American
                                   divisions between Dresden and the
Baltic, the
                                   daily said.

                                   Stalin in retaliation was expected to
invade
                                   Turkey, Greece, Norway and the oil
fields of
                                   Iran and Iraq, as well as launch
extensive
                                   sabotage operations in France and the
                                   Netherlands.

                                   But the War Cabinet plan ruled out
"total
                                   war" against the Red Army, which
                                   outnumbered the allies by more than two
to
                                   one, adding that there was no reason why
an
                                   Anglo-American invasion of Russia would
                                   fare any better than Hitler's Operation
                                   Barbarossa.

                                   The documents, discovered in Britain's
                                   Public Records Office, showed that
planning
                                   was carried out at the very highest
level of the
                                   British government and military, said
the
                                   Daily Telegraph.

                                   Churchill described the plan as "a
purely
                                   hypothetical contingency" but
nonetheless set
                                   his planning staff to work on it amid
the
                                   euphoria of victory.

                                   He eventually rejected the plan on the
advice
                                   of the Chiefs of Staff and replaced it
with a
                                   defensive scheme to guard against
invasion
                                   by the Red Army, the newspaper said.
                                   ( (c) 1998 Agence France Presse)