stating "If need be, as the war went on, we hoped to shatter almost every dwelling in almost every German city". This improved Stalin's mood and Churchill to the subject of a second front in 1942. He relayed to Stalin that the Western Allies had decided on another operation, as France was not the only area to attack. He had been authorised to share this secret by President Roosevelt with Stalin. At this, the minutes record, 'M. Stalin sat up and grinned'. Churchill then proceeded to outline the details of the Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, Operation Torch. The British were nervous that Stalin and Hitler might make separate peace terms; Stalin insisted that would not happen. Churchill explained how Arctic convoys bringing munitions to Russia had been intercepted by the Germans; there was a delay now so that future convoys would be better protected. He apologetically explained there would be no second front this year—no British-American invasion of France—which Stalin had been urgently requesting for months. The will was there, said Churchill, but there was not enough American troops, not enough tanks, not enough shipping, not enough air superiority. Instead the British, and soon the Americans, would step up bombing of German cities and railways. Furthermore, there would be Operation Torch in November. It would be a major Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, which would set the stage for an invasion of Italy and perhaps open the Mediterranean for munitions shipments to Russia through the Black Sea. The talks started out on a very sour note but after many hours of informal conversations, the two men understood each other and knew they could cooperate smoothly. Once Churchill had completed his explanation of the Operation Torch and the strategy to open up the Mediterranean, Stalin said, "May God help this enterprise to succeed". The minutes record that at this point Stalin's 'interest was now at a high pitch'. The conversation continued until this first meeting of Stalin, Churchill and Harriman drew to a close at 22.40 after three hours and forty minutes. Churchill later signalled to his deputy in London, Labour leader Clement Attlee - 13 August 1942 On the second day Churchill began with a meeting at the Kremlin with Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov. Churchill took Molotov over the various operations in the West, across the abandoned Operation Sledgehammer and Operation Round-Up to the buildup of American