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Letters
Allied use of the Azores in World War II, Operation Lifebelt hello , I am a toursit guide in the azores and one of the members of my last english group said that he was trained at scapa flow for the secret operation calleds lifebelt , a military plan developped by the englsih secret services . its objective was the invasion of the azores islnads by the allied in order to build military bases on the islands
During WW2 both Churchill and Roosevelt were anxious for the two countries to have access to the facilities of the Azores for Naval and Airforce use. Their strategic placement in the Atlantic Ocean, would be of great benefit in Britain's fight against the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. Very early in the war, Churchill had talked to the Portuguese President about using the Azores, and Portugal had indicitated that should Hitler overrun their country, his Government would most likely withdraw to the Azores to carry on from there. At one stage, in considering the necessity for Britain to survive, and for America to use the British Isles as a springboard to invade Nazi occupied Europe, Churchill and Roosevelt did talk about just invading the Azores. It did not become necessary, as negotiations with this old ally, Portugal gave approval for the use of their Azores Islands by British and American Naval and Airforces in 1943. This agreement stemmed from a treaty signed in the year of 1373, yes back to 1373, between King Henry the 111rd. and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. I hope this little bit of old history may be of interest to you. Kind regards from Australia. Mackenzie Gregory.
Thanks a lot for your time and the very interesting 14th century historic background . The Operation was indeed called Lifebelt and the (Australian ? ) author David Irving refers to this military plan several times in his book "Churchill´s War" .The American historian Mc Guill who wrote an impressive history of the Azores´Island also extensively talks about operation Lifebelt. This summer I worked a lot for the English travel agency "Cricketer" and most of their clients are senior citizens and on the last trip this summer there were two gentlemen who got very excited when I started talking about operation Lifebelt as they had been trained they said at Scapa Flow for the invasion of some "European Islands" . It was only after the war they knew it was all about the Azores Islands. On the same bus there was another gentleman stationed on an English war vessel in Sao Miguel (one of the Azores Islands) . They were awaiting the return of Winston Churchill from Casablanca as their vessel was supposed to escort him back to England. He said they had to spend Christmas there. The Azoreans got them a truckload full of ducks as there were no turkeys available for their Christmas dinner . Just some anecdotes but it is very nice to find "real history" one one´s bus full of tourist. I am an historian of the Catholic Univeristy of Leuven in Belgium and I have been living in the Azores for the last 13 years and I am always trying to make my work as guide as interesting as possible and not just stick to gastronomy and some plants. Checking the net on what it offered on Scapa Flow I find your email address. And once again thanks a lot . I will look at this 14th century treaty. Greet Wouters PS I do not know whether you would be interested but I am adding the address of our page on the net
David Irving's Churchill's War in two volumes may be downloaded as PDF compressed files free from this site. It is my understanding that mention of Operation Lifebelt is made by Irving in this history. Mac
Stirling Castle Photo of the Stirling Castle, built by Harland and Wollf at Belfast in 1936. In 1940 she was requisitioned as a troopship, in 1941 she was kept on a 7 day standby as part of a 12,000 strong force, in case it became necessary to occupy the Azores/ and or the Canary Islands, no doubt this was part of the planning for Operation Lifebelt. Are you aware you can download free from the net David Irving's two volumes of Churchill's War? If you enter David Irving Churchill's War in your search engine, and I used Google, it will come up, and Vol 1 is in PDF zipped form. Vol 11 seems to be in PDF form. I was able to see the two references to Lifebelt at pages 787, and 812. Best wishes.
Have a nice weekend.
I am pleased I have been able to help a little. No, I do not think you are being indiscrete, I joined the Royal Australian Naval College at age 13, had 4 years there, and went to WW2 when I was 17. Then I spent the entire war at sea or overseas. I was sunk in our cruiser Canberra in August of 1942 at the Battle of Savo Island. Post war, I spent over a year in UK schools qualifying as a Torpedo-Anti Submarine specialist, hence my particular interest in all things relating to Submarines, as I was involved in the Battle of the Atlantic over 1940/1941. In all, I spent almost 19 years as an executive Naval Officer in the Royal Australian Navy. I am particularly interested in all Naval History. My Ahoy site is a product of working with my very good friend Terry Kearns in Atlanta Georgia, his expertise translates all my writing into the site that faces the world on the internet. We do get a lot of comment about its content, and a number of questions are posed from around the world, I try to answer them to the best of my ability, and do have a significent library on Naval affairs. I hope this answers your question, if only in a small way. Best wishes and regards from both Terry in America, and myself in Australia. Mac. |
