Tehran Conference

28 November 1943: an hour alone first

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met privately at 3 p.m. on 28 November 1943, in Roosevelt's quarters inside the Soviet embassy in Tehran — their first face-to-face meeting.

Roosevelt told Stalin that he wanted to discuss how the Western Allies could draw German divisions away from the Eastern Front, naming a figure of 30 to 40.

An hour later, at 4 p.m., Roosevelt, Stalin and Winston Churchill opened their first joint plenary meeting at the embassy.

France, and when

The leaders reviewed the Pacific war, the Soviet-German front, Mediterranean operations and the proposed cross-Channel invasion. Roosevelt argued that secondary Mediterranean operations should not delay Overlord.

Stalin said an invasion through northern or southern France would offer the best direct help to the Soviet front. Churchill confirmed that Britain and the United States intended to invade France in 1944, describing a force of 35 divisions — 16 British and 19 American.

What the opening day did not settle

The 28 November session opened the conference; it did not produce the Overlord agreement. On 30 November the Anglo-American staffs agreed that Overlord would be launched during May 1944, and Stalin pledged a large Soviet offensive at about the same time. The military conclusions were initialled on 1 December.

The Tehran agreement specified May; Overlord was actually launched on 6 June, after a later postponement.

The three leaders met in an occupied capital whose own government had not been included in planning their summit — Iran had declared war on Germany on 9 September 1943.