Operation Unthinkable
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Operation Unthinkable was a plan ordered by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and developed by the British Armed Forces at the end of World War II. The primary goal of the operation was declared as follows: "to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire." (The word "Russia" is used heavily throughout the document, although at the time Russia as a political entity had been replaced by the Soviet Union.) The Chiefs of Staff were concerned that given the enormous size of Soviet forces deployed in Europe at the end of the war, and the perception that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unreliable, there existed a Soviet threat to Western Europe. Churchill stated within the briefing documents for Unthinkable that it was a "precautionary study" of what he hoped was a "purely hypothetical contigency".[1]
The majority of the operation would have consisted of American and British forces, but it also contemplated the use of Polish forces and up to 100,000 surrendered German soldiers.
The plan was rejected by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as militarily unfeasible.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- ^ British War Cabinet, Joint Planning Staff, Public Record Office, CAB 120/691/109040 / 002 (1945-08-11). "Operation Unthinkable: 'Russia: Threat to Western Civilization'" (online photocopy). Department of History, Northeastern University. Retrieved on 2006-05-09.
- Bob Fenton: The secret strategy to launch attack on Red Army Telegraph, Issue 1124, October 1. 1998
