In November, 1943, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met together in Teheran, Iran, to discuss military strategy and post-war Europe. Ever since the Soviet Union had entered the war, Stalin had been demanding that the Allies open-up a second front in Europe. Churchill and Roosevelt argued that any attempt to land troops in Western Europe would result in heavy casualties.
Stalin believed that there were political, as well as military reasons for the Allies' failure to open up a second front in Europe. Stalin was still highly suspicious of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt and was worried about them signing a peace agreement with Adolf Hitler. Stalin was fully aware that if Britain and the USA withdrew from the war, the Red Army would have great difficulty in dealing with Germany on its own.
At Teheran, Joseph Stalin reminded Churchill and Roosevelt of a previous promise of landing troops in Western Europe in 1942. Later they postponed it to the spring of 1943. Stalin complained that it was now November and there was still no sign of an allied invasion of France. After lengthy discussions it was agreed that the Allies would mount a major offensive in the spring of 1944.
From the memoirs published by those who took part in the negotiations in Teheran, it would appear that Stalin dominated the conference. Alan Brook, chief of the British General Staff, said that Stalin had a military brain of the very highest calibre. Never once in any of his statements he made any strategic error. In this respect he stood out compared with Roosevelt and Churchill.
The landings in June, 1944, created a second-front and took the pressure off the Red Army and from that date they made steady progress into territory held by Germany.
GRAMMAR FOCUS
Perfect Continuous/Progressive
| Present | Past | Future | |
| Time expressions | for (for a month, for a long time, for an hour). since , , . | (for hours/weeks/years //, since 10 oclock 10 , sincemorning , since 2005 2005 ) | by the time - , , ; by that time, by then - , ; before , ; after , . |
| Affirmative | Have/has+ been +V-ing My sisters have been watchingTV for 3 hours. ( 3 .) | Had been+V-ing He had been sleeping for half an hour when the phone rang. ( () , .) | Will+have been+V-ing You will have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives. ( , , , .) |
| Negative | Have/has+not+been+V-ing I havent been waiting for my brother for a long time. ( ) | had+not+been+V-ing I have not been working since 10 oclock, so I am not very tired now. ( 10 , .) | Will+not+have been+V-ing You will not have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives. ( , , , .) |
| Interrogative | Have/has+S+been+V-ing Has he been living in Minsk for 5 years? ( 5 .) | had+S+been+V-ing Hadhebeen working since 10 oclock? ( 10 ?) | Will-S+have been+V-ing Will you have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives? ( , , , ?) |
| Perfect Continuous ( Future Perfect Continuous) , . , Continuous, Perfect Continuous. to be, to know, to see, to hear, to love .. Perfect Continuous Perfect. |
