to Moscow on August 12. The party arrived at 17.00 the same day after a 10 and a half hour flight. Moscow 12 August 1942 The British delegation led by Churchill and Cardogan was met by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Chief of Staff, Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov. Upon arrival Churchill and American representative Averell Harriman inspected an honour guard. Churchill then addressed the assembly saying, State Villa No. 7 was allocated to Churchill while Harriman stayed at the US Embassy. Of the villa, Churchill wrote, 'Everything was prepared with totalitarian lavishness'. He was supplied with an aide-de-camp and 'a number of veteran servants in white jackets and beaming smiles'. Churchill was collected from the villa at 19.00 and taken to the Kremlin and his first meeting with Stalin. The initial meeting was had by only a small party consisting of Churchill, Major Charles Dunlop (Embassy Interpreter), Clark Kerr and Harriman. This was due to the aeroplane carrying the rest of the delegation having to return to Tehran because of a technical fault. Churchill reported back to London that the first two hours 'were bleak and sombre'. Stalin reported grave problems on the Eastern Front and that the Germans were making 'a tremendous effort to get to Baku and Stalingrad'. The conversation moved on to the possibility of a second front in 1942, which the Soviets were hoping for. Churchill reported that after an 'exhaustive Anglo-American examination', the western allies did not feel able to launch an attack across the English Channel in September 1942. However, he was able to report that preparations were in hand for a landing by 48 divisions in 1943. Churchill added that even by the time the 1943 operation was ready it was conceivable that the Germans may be able to field a stronger force to oppose them. At this the minutes of the meeting note, 'Stalin's face crumpled into a frown'. After further conversation regarding a Second Front in France, Stalin said that the British 'should not be so afraid of the Germans'. He went on to ask, 'Why were we [the British] so afraid of the Germans?' Churchill offered 1940 and the German failure to land troops as a comparable situation, saying that Hitler 'was afraid of the operation'. Stalin disagreed but consented to allow the respective generals to go into the details of the operation. Churchill turned to the subject of bombing Germany,