In January 1943, two months after the Anglo-American landings in French North Africa in November 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, engaged in the decisive battle of Stalingrad, did not attend.
At the Casablanca Conference, FDR and Churchill agreed to:
- concentrate efforts against Germany in an effort to draw Axis forces away from the Eastern front
- increase shipments of supplies to the Soviet Union
- launch an invasion of Italy and increase strategic bombing of Germany prior to invading France
- increase efforts against Japanese forces in Papua New Guinea
- open new supply lines to China through Japanese-occupied Burma.
- demand unconditional surrender from the Axis powers