I believe that the first and great principle of war is that you must first win your air battle before you fight your land and sea battle. If you examine the conduct of the campaign from Alamein through Tunisia, Sicily and Italy you will find I have never fought a land battle until the air battle has been won. We never had to bother about the enemy air, because we won the air battle first.

The second great principle is that Army plus Air has to be so knitted that the two together from one entity. If you do that, the resultant military effort will be so great that nothing will be able to stand against it.

The third principle is that the Air Force command. I hold that it is quite wrong for the soldier to want to exercise command over the air striking forces. The handling of an Air Force is a life-study, and therefore the air part must be kept under Air Force command.

The Desert Air Force and the Eighth Army are one. We do not understand the meaning of "army cooperation". When you are one entity you cannot cooperate. If you knit together the power of the Army on the land and the power of the Air in the sky, then nothing will stand against you and you will never lose a battle.

The plan of the campaign was worked out by the competent authorities in Shaef-Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. It was entirely the conception of Tedder, who certainly has one of the most brilliant minds in any of the services, and it was forced through against continuous opposition, some of which was based on the fear that it would turn the French against us. There was, of course, no reason to believe that the bombing would be as accurate as it proved to be, and I myself doubted whether we could achieve the extraordinary precision needed if the project was to succeed. It was Tedder, and the men under him, who saved the British Army in the Middle East when Rommel was threatening Egypt, and then did so much to make El Alamein a victory. In the invasion of Italy, Elsenhower saw what a great commander he was. It was, of course, of the greatest importance that the Deputy Supreme Commander should come from the Air Force, since air power would be dominant in any combined campaign. It was at one time suggested that the Deputy should come from the British Army, but Elsenhower knew both Tedder's worth and the importance of the weapons he understood so well, and insisted on his appointment and his retention of it. In such matters there was often the difficulty that Air Ministry regulations were so contrived that R.A.F. Commanders-in-the-Field were invariably outranked by those who held similar positions in other services. To the working out of the plan of campaign for the disorganization of the French railways, Tedder brought a genuinely scientific mind, with all the detachment of the scientist.

I ought to let you know that the War Cabinet is unanimous in its anxiety about these French slaughters, even reduced as they have been, and also in its doubts as to whether almost as good military results could not be produced by other methods. Whatever is settled between us, we are quite willing to share responsibilities with you.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur William Tedder. He ranks close to Admiral Cunningham in qualifications, except in the one thing of broad vision. I believe that the history of the establishment of the Royal Air Force is reflected somewhat in his way of thinking and that, therefore, he is not quite as broad-gauged as he might be. I do not register this opinion as a fixed conclusion, but I sometimes have the feeling I have just expressed. Certainly in all matters of energetic operation, fitting into an allied team, and knowledge of his job, he is tops. Moreover, he is a leader type.

I share fully with you your distress at the loss of life among the French population. However regrettable the attendant loss of civilian lives is, I am not prepared to impose from this distance any restriction on military action by the responsible commanders that in their opinion might militate against the success of Overlord or cause additional loss of life to our Allied forces of invasion.