Winston Churchill
International conferences in 1942

On 20 May 1942, the Soviet Foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, arrived in London to sign a treaty of friendship. Molotov wanted it done on the basis of territorial concessions regarding Poland and the Baltic countries. Churchill and Eden worked for a compromise and a twenty-year treaty was formalised, with the question of frontiers placed on hold. Molotov also sought a Second Front in Europe; Churchill confirmed preparations were in progress and made no promises on a date.

Churchill felt pleased with these negotiations. However, Rommel had launched his counter-offensive, Operation Venice, to begin the Battle of Gazala on 26 May. The Allies were driven out of Libya and suffered a defeat in the fall of Tobruk on 21 June. Churchill was with Roosevelt when the news reached him, and was shocked by the surrender of 35,000 troops which was, apart from Singapore, "the heaviest blow" he received in the war. The Axis advance was halted at the First Battle of El Alamein in July and the Battle of Alam el Halfa in September. Both sides were exhausted and in need of reinforcements and supplies.

Churchill returned to Washington on 17 June. He and Roosevelt agreed on the implementation of Operation Torch as the necessary precursor to an invasion of Europe. Roosevelt had appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commanding officer of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA). Having received the news from North Africa, Churchill obtained shipment from America to the Eighth Army of 300 Sherman tanks and 100 howitzers. He returned to Britain on 25 June and had to face another motion of no confidence, this time in his direction of the war, but again he won easily.

In August, despite health concerns, Churchill visited British forces in North Africa, raising morale, en route to Moscow for his first meeting with Stalin. He was accompanied by Roosevelt's special envoy Averell Harriman. He was in Moscow 12–16 August and had lengthy meetings with Stalin. Though they got along well personally, there was little chance of real progress given the state of the war. Stalin was desperate for the Allies to open the Second Front in Europe, as Churchill had discussed with Molotov in May, and the answer was the same.
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