Winston Churchill with members of his Imperial General Staff, British Embassy, Cairo, August 5, 1942. Directly behind him is Gen. Sir Alan Brooke and to Brooke’s right is Air Officer Arthur Tedder, RAF Middle East Commander who in 1944–1945 would serve as Deputy Supreme Commander at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) beneath Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Churchill, Brooke, and members of the Imperial General Staff were fresh from a late-June meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Chiefs of Staff. Taking part in the discussions was Eisenhower. Together the Allied leaders plotted the Anglo-American invasion of Northwest Africa set for November (Operation TORCH), which in six months cleared Axis forces from the whole of North Africa and opened the door for the invasions of Sicily and Italy.
