The Supreme Commander
Page 87
AEF Allied Expeditionary Force
AFHQ Allied Force Headquarters
AKA Cargo ship, attack
ANVIL Invasion of south of France, 1944
ARCADIA Chiefs of Staff meeting, Washington, 1941
AVALANCHE Invasion of Italy at Salerno, 1943
BCOS British Chiefs of Staff
BOLERO Build-up of U.S. forces in U.K., 1942
BUTTRESS Planned operations against Italian toe, 1943
CCS Combined Chiefs of Staff
CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff
COBRA U. S. First Army breakout in Normandy, 1944
COM Z Communications Zone
CORKSCREW Invasion of Pantelleria, 1943
COSSAC Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (Designate) and his staff
CROSSBOW Operations against German rockets and pilotless aircraft, 1944
DRAGOON Invasion of south of France, 1944
DUKW Amphibious truck (duck)
EAC European Advisory Commission
ECLIPSE Posthostility plans for Germany, 1944–45
EM Eisenhower Manuscripts
EP The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
ETO European Theater of Operations
ETOUSA European Theater of Operations, United States Army
FCNL French Committee of National Liberation
FORTITUDE Cover and deception plan for OVERLORD, 1944
G-l Personnel section of divisional or higher staff
G-2 Intelligence section
G-3 Operations and training section
G-4 Logistics section
G-5 Civil affairs section
GIANT II Plan to drop 82d Airborne Division near Rome, 1943
GOODWOOD Offensive across the Orne River south of Caen, by 21st Army Group, 1944
GRENADE Ninth Army supporting attack for VERITABLE, 1945
GYMNAST Proposed invasion of French North Africa, 1942
HUSKY Invasion of Sicily, 1943
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
KINGPIN Code name for Henri Giraud
LCA Landing craft, assault
LCI Landing craft, infantry
LCI (L) Landing craft, infantry (large)
LCT Landing craft, tank
LSD Landing ship, dock
LSI Landing ship, infantry
LST Landing ship, tank
LUMBERJACK Offensive to close the Rhine north of the Moselle, 1945
MARKET-GARDEN Airborne operation in Nijmegen-Arnhem area, with a ground operation to open a corridor from Eindhoven northward
MTO Mediterranean Theater of Operations
MULBERRY Artificial harbor off Normandy
NATO North African Theater of Operations
NEI Netherlands East Indies
OPD Operations Division, War Department General Staff
OVERLORD Invasion of France at Normandy, 1944
PLUNDER 21st Army Group crossing of the Rhine, 1945
POINTBLANK Combined strategic bombing assault on Germany
QUADRANT CCS meeting, Quebec, 1943
ROUNDUP Proposed 1943 invasion of France
SCAEF Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force
SGS Secretary General Staff
SHAEF Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force
SHINGLE Invasion of Italy at Anzio, 1944
SITREPS Situation reports
SLEDGEHAMMER Proposed suicide invasion of France, 1942
SOS Services of Supply
TIDALWAVE Air attack at oil refineries at Ploesti, Rumania, 1943
TRIDENT CCS meeting, Washington, 1943
TORCH Invasion of North Africa, 1942
UNDERTONE 6th Army Group offensive to breach West Wall and cross the Rhine, 1945
V-l Flying bombs; pilotless aircraft
V-2 Supersonic rocket
VERITABLE Canadian First Army attack between the Maas and the Rhine, 1945
WPD War Plans Division, War Department General Staff
Notes
BOOK ONE
PART 1
1. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (New York, 1948), pp. 14–15; Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall, 2 vols. (New York, 1963–66), Vol. II, Ordeal and Hope 1939–1942, p. 238.
2. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 237.
3. Ibid., pp. 238–39; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 16–18.
4. “Steps to Be Taken,” in Alfred P. Chandler (ed.), The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (5 vols., Baltimore, 1970), No. 1, hereinafter cited as EP. See also Louis Morton, Strategy and Command: The First Two Years, in Kent Roberts Greenfield (ed.), The United States Army in World War II (Washington, 1962), pp. 90–91, and Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941–1942, in Greenfield (ed.), U. S. Army in World War II (Washington, 1953), pp. 87–88. On Eisenhower’s typing the document himself, my source is an interview with Eisenhower on October 11, 1967.
5. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 239; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 21–22; interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967.
CHAPTER 1
1. Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease, Stories I Tell to Friends (New York, 1967), pp. 185–89, 195; interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967.
2. MacArthur’s comments are in Eisenhower’s 201 file in the Pentagon; the best biography is Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy: A Biography of Dwight Eisenhower (New York, 1945); see also Eisenhower, At Ease, pp. 1–233.
3. There are many competent accounts of WPD. Especially good are Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 289–301, and Ray S. Cline, Washington Command Post: The Operations Division, in Greenfield (ed.), U. S. Army in World War II (Washington, 1951), pp. 90–106.
4. Cline, Washington Command Post, p. 28.
5. Eisenhower to Krueger, December 20, 1941, EP, No. 13.
6. Interview with Eisenhower, December 14, 1964.
7. See Eisenhower’s speech in Addresses Delivered at the Dedication Ceremonies of the George C. Marshall Research Library (Lexington, Virginia, 1964), pp. 14–15.
8. Morton, Strategy and Command, pp. 148–53; Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 72–73, 82–84.
9. Marshall to Brett, December 17, 1941, EP, No. 6. On War Department outgoing messages, the drafter’s initials appear in the top right-hand corner.
10. Morton, Strategy and Command, pp. 152–53.
11. Marshall to MacArthur, December 24, 1941, EP, No. 24 fn. 1. Morton, Strategy and Command, p. 153.
12. Eisenhower to Marshall, September 25, 1944, EP, No. 1994.
13. Marshall to MacArthur, February 8, 1942, EP, No. 120.
14. Louis Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, in Greenfield (ed.), U. S. Army in World War II (Washington, 1953), pp. 240–42; Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 114–19; Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 244.
15. Eisenhower’s desk pad entry of January 17, 1942, EP, No. 66.
16. Desk pad entry of January 30, 1942, EP, No. 97; Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate (eds.), Plans and Early Operations, January 1939–August 1942, in The Army Air Forces in World War 11, Vol. I (Chicago, 1948) p. 375.
17. Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, p. 108.
18. Eisenhower desk pad entry of January 12, 1942, EP, No. 53.
19. Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 137–38.
20. Eisenhower desk pad entries of January 4 and January 24, 1942, EP, Nos. 36 and 79.
21. Eisenhower desk pad entry of January 22, 1942, EP, No. 73.
22. Ibid.
23. Eisenhower to Edgar Eisenhower, March 30, 1942, EP, No. 216.
24. Eisenhower desk pad entry of January 17, 1942, EP, No. 66; Marshall to Brett, January 17, 1942, EP, No. 67; Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 244–46.
25. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 246.
26. MacArthur to Marshall, #226 and #227, February 8, 1942, quoted in EP, No. 120, fn. 1.
27. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 247.
28. Roosevelt to MacArthur, #1029, February 9, 1942, EP, No. 122.
29. MacArthur to Marshall, #252, February 11, 1942, quoted in EP, No. 123, fn. 2.
30. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 249–51; Morton, Strategy and Command, pp. 194–95.
31. Eisenhower desk pad entry of March 31, 1942, EP, No. 219.
CHAPTER 2
1. Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall, 2 vols. (New York, 1963–66), Vol. I, Education of a General, 1880–1939; Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 95–98.
2. Interview with Eisenhower, December 14, 1964.
3. Eisenhower, At Ease, pp. 248–50.
4. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 338.
5. On ARCADIA, see ibid., pp. 261–88, and Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 97–118.
6. Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 99–102. The quotation is from Maurice Matloff, “The American Approach to War,” in Michael Howard, (ed.), The Theory and Practice of War (London, 1965), p. 234.
7. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 288.
8. Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, p. 101.
9. Undated paper [December 25, 1941], “Methods of Cooperation between U. S. Air and Allied Forces in the Southwestern Pacific,” EP, No. 22.
10. Quoted in EP, No. 23.
11. EP, No. 24; see also Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 123–25.
12. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 277–79.
13. Ibid., pp. 282–85; Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 125–26.
14. The JCS operated on an informal basis, never receiving formal approval.
15. Eisenhower desk pad entries of January 4 and 24, 1942, and February 28, 1942, EP, Nos. 36, 80, and 161. Eisenhower to Lutes, December 31, 1941, in Lutes Scrapbook; interview with Milton Eisenhower, March 13, 1965. Eisenhower was also involved in numerous conferences and meetings, as the Stimson diary entry of December 24, 1941, Yale University Library, indicates.
16. Eisenhower’s notes of March 11, 1942, EP, No. 189.
17. Eisenhower desk pad entry of February 6, 1942, EP, No. 119.
18. The best account is Cline, Washington Command Post, pp. 90–141.
19. Eisenhower desk pad entry of February 23, 1942, EP, No. 145.
20. Eisenhower desk pad entry of January 27, 1942, EP, No. 89.
21. Eisenhower’s undated paper is in EP, No. 160.
22. EP, No. 162.
23. Cline, Washington Command Post, pp. 147–49.
CHAPTER 3
1. Cline, Washington Command Post, p. 153.
2. Ibid., p. 151.
3. Ibid., pp. 149–50.
4. Eisenhower’s desk pad entry of March 10, 1942, EP, No. 185, indicated that he agreed with Handy.
5. “Critical Points in the Development of Coordinated Viewpoint as to Major Tasks of the War,” March 25, 1942, EP, No. 207.
6. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 305–6; Cline, Washington Command Post, p. 155.
7. See Gordon A. Harrison, Cross-channel attack, in Greenfield, ed., U. S. Army in World War II, (Washington, 1951), pp. 12–19.
8. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 306–20; Cline, Washington Command Post, pp. 156–60.
9. Cline, Washington Command Post, p. 160.
10. Eisenhower desk pad entry of April 20, 1942, EP, No. 254.
11. Memo for Record, April 20, 1942, EP, No. 255.
12. Marshall to Roosevelt, May 4, 1942, EP, No. 276.
13. See ibid., espc. fn. 1.
14. Eisenhower desk pad entries of May 5 and 6, 1942, EP, Nos. 278 and 280.
15. See EP, No. 292, fn. 2.
16. “Notes on Bolero organization charts attached hereto,” May 11, 1942, EP, No. 292.
17. Eisenhower desk pad entry of May 21, 1942, EP, No. 314.
18. Eisenhower kept a diary of his BOLERO trip; see EP, No. 318. See also Kay Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss (New York, 1948), pp. 5–9.
19. Mark W. Clark, Calculated Risk (New York, 1950), p. 19; Eisenhower’s diary, EP, No. 318.
20. Sir Arthur Bryant, The Turn of the Tide: Study Based on the Diaries and Autobiographical Notes of Field Marshal the Viscount Alanbrooke (London, 1957), p. 285.
21. Eisenhower desk pad entry of June 4, 1942, EP, No. 320.
22. “Command Arrangements for Bolero,” June 3, 1942, EP, No. 319.
23. “Command in England,” June 6, 1942, EP, No. 325.
24. “Establishment of Western Theater of Operations,” May 12, 1942, EP, No. 293; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 50.
25. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 50.
26. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 338–39.
27. Eisenhower desk pad entry of June 8, 1942, EP, No. 328.
28. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 51.
29. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 330–35.
30. Eisenhower kept the minutes of the meeting; see EP, No. 344.
31. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, 6 vols. (Boston, 1948–53), Vol. IV, The Hinge of Fate, p. 383.
32. Eisenhower to Akin, June 19, 1942, EP, No. 341.
CHAPTER 4
1. Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, p. 24.
2. Captain Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower (New York, 1946), p. 7.
3. Eisenhower to Marshall, June 26, 1942, EP, No. 353.
4. Interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967; Butcher, My Three Years, p. 7.
5. Interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967.
6. Butcher, My Three Years, pp. 25–26.
7. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 55–56.
8. Eisenhower to Somervell, July 27, 1942, EP, No. 398.
9. Same to same, June 26, 1942, EP, No. 355.
10. Same to same, July 27, 1942, EP, No. 398.
11. Butcher, My Three Years, pp. 35–36; Eisenhower to Handy, July 16, 1942, EP, No. 378.
12. John Gunther, Eisenhower, the Man and the Symbol (New York, 1951), p. 75.
13. Summersby, Eisenhower Was My Boss, pp. 25–26.
14. Ibid., p. 28.
15. Eisenhower to Russell Hartle and others, July 19, 1942, EP, No. 382.
16. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 58–59; Eisenhower to Hartle and others, July 19, 1942, No. 382. Eisenhower often put into his personal letters to members of his family or old friends a paragraph or two on the need for discipline.
17. Eisenhower to Prichard, August 27, 1942, EP, No. 457.
18. Life, July 27, 1942.
19. Butcher, My Three Years, p. 23.
CHAPTER 5
1. Eisenhower to Marshall, June 30, 1942, EP, No. 358.
2. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 67.
3. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, p. 433.
4. Ibid., pp. 345–46.
5. Ibid., pp. 381–82.
6. Ibid., pp. 344–45.
7. Eisenhower to Marshall, July 11, 1942, EP, No. 370.
8. Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, p. 276.
9. Marshall to Eisenhower, #2135, July 13, EP, No. 371, fn. 1.
10. Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1940–43, in Greenfield, (ed.), U. S. Army in World War II, (Washington, 1955), pp. 385–86.
11. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, pp. 342–43.
12. Eisenhower reported making this statement in a cable to Marshall, July 14, 1942, EP, No. 371.
13. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 70–71.
14. See Harry Hopkins’ remarks, quoted by J. M. A. Gwyer, Grand Strategy, in J. R. M. Butler (ed.), History of the Second World War, (London, 1964), Vol. III, Pt. 1, pp. 125–26.
15. Sir Ian Jacob, “A Year Late?” The Economist, September 28, 1946.
16. Bryant, Turn of the Tide, p. 341.
17. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, p. 439.
18. Ibid., pp. 434–38.
19. EP, No. 379.
20. Ibid., No. 381.
21. Eisenhower memo for record, July 21, 1942, EP, No. 386.
22. Eisenhower note of July 20, 1942, EP, No. 384.
23. Eisenhower to Somervell, July 27, 1942, EP, No. 398.
24. Eisenhower note of July 2
2, 1942, EP, No. 387.
25. Matloff and Snell, Strategy Planning, pp. 276–78; Leighton and Coakley, Global Logistics and Strategy, p. 387.
26. Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York, 1948), p. 610.
27. Butcher, My Three Years, pp. 29–30.
28. Eisenhower memo for Marshall, July 23, 1942, EP, No. 389.
29. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 347; Matloff and Snell, Strategic Planning, pp. 272–81; George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, in Greenfield (ed.), U. S. Army in World War II (Washington, 1957), pp. 7–10.
30. Butcher, My Three Years, p. 23.
CHAPTER 6
1. Eisenhower, At Ease, p. 252.
2. Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, p. 348; E. Dwight Salmon, et al, History of AFHQ, lithograph copy in author’s possession, p. 2; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 71; interview with Eisenhower, December 7, 1965.
3. Salmon, History of AFHQ, p. 6.
4. Ibid., p. 8.
5. Ibid., p. 17.
6. Interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967.
7. Hastings L. Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay (New York, 1960), pp. 258–59, 263.
8. Butcher, My Three Years, p. 49.
9. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, pp. 54–55; interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967; interview with Sir Frederick Morgan, July 17, 1965; interview with Sir Ian Jacob, July 21, 1965.
10. Interview with Dr. Forrest Pogue, September 11, 1967.
11. Eisenhower to Gailey, September 19, 1942, EP, No. 510; interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967.
12. Quoted in Salmon, History of AFHQ, p. 13.
13. Howe, Northwest Africa, p. 16.
14. Eisenhower to Ismay, October 10, 1942, EP, No. 541.
15. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 82; the best biography is Ladislas Farago, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph (New York, 1964).
16. Interview with Eisenhower, October 11, 1967; see Eisenhower’s tribute to Cunningham in Crusade in Europe, p. 89.
17. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 77.
18. Butcher, My Three Years, p. 47.
19. This discussion is based on Leo J. Meyer, “The Decision to Invade North Africa (TORCH),” in Kent Roberts Greenfield (ed.), Command Decisions (Washington, 1960), pp. 188–89.