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Discover the definitive account of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Supreme Allied Command during World War II's European Theater of Operations. This comprehensive military history chronicles the coalition warfare strategies, command decisions, and Allied cooperation that led to victory over Nazi Germany from D-Day through the final surrender in 1945.
THE SUPREME COMMAND
by Forrest C. Pogue
UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
The European Theater of Operations
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY WASHINGTON, D. C., 1989
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 53-61717
First Printed 1954—CMH Pub 7-1
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington D.C. 20402
THE SUPREME COMMAND
GENERAL OF THE ARMY DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force.
UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
Kent Roberts Greenfield, General Editor
Advisory Committee
(As of 1 May 1953)
James P. Baxter President, Williams College
John D. Hicks University of California
William T. Hutchinson University of Chicago
S. L. A. Marshall Detroit News
Charles S. Sydnor Duke University
Brig. Gen. Verdi B. Barnes Army War College
Brig. Gen. Leonard J. Greeley Industrial College of the Armed Forces
Brig. Gen. Elwyn D. Post Army Field Forces
Col. Thomas D. Stamps United States Military Academy
Col. C. E. Beauchamp Command and General Staff College
Charles H. Taylor Harvard University
Office of the Chief of Military History
Maj. Gen. Albert C. Smith, Chief *
Chief Historian Kent Roberts Greenfield Chief, War Histories Division Col. G. G. O'Connor Chief, Editorial and Publication Division Col. B. A. Day Chief, Editorial Branch Joseph R. Friedman Chief, Cartographic Branch Wsevolod Aglaimoff Chief, Photographic Branch Maj. Arthur T. Lawry
*Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward was succeeded by General Smith on 1 February 1953.
... to Those Who Served
Foreword
This is a history of coalition warfare. It is focused upon the agency in which the decisions of governments were translated into orders, and upon the decisions of General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. The narrative describes the plans and recounts the events, controversial or otherwise, leading up to the creation of the Supreme Command and the choice of a Supreme Commander for the cross-Channel attack. It follows the history of this great command to the surrender of Germany. It is the history not only of the decisions that led to victory, but of the discussions, debates, conferences and compromises that preceded decisions. Controversy was inevitable in an undertaking that required the subordination of national interests to the common good. The author does not gloss over the conflicts that arose between allied nations or individuals. The picture that emerges from these pages is one of discussion and argument, but nevertheless one of teamwork. Differences of opinion and the discussion incident thereto are often the price of sound decisions.
The nature of the subject, the purpose of the author, and generous contributions of information by the British make this an Anglo-American, rather than a strictly American, history. Subsequent publications based on a full exploration of British sources may be expected to round out the picture and give it deeper perspective as the history of a joint undertaking.
ORLANDO WARD Maj. Gen., U.S.A. Chief of Military History
Washington, D. C. 27 January 1953
Note on the History of the European Theater of Operations
This volume tells the story of the Supreme Headquarters of that Allied Expeditionary Force which seized a foothold on the German-held shores of western Europe in 1944 and which, by the following year, had completed the liberation of all western Europe.
The history of the battles fought by the American armies of the Grand Alliance as they drove from the Normandy beaches into the heart of Germany is given detailed exposition in other volumes of this series, some of which already have been presented to the public. The present volume deals with the command exercised by the Supreme Allied Commander, the decisions made by the Supreme Commander and his staff, and the operations conducted under the aegis of the Supreme Headquarters.
The reader constantly will be reminded that the war in western Europe was fought by Allies and that the commands and decisions which determined the ultimate conduct of this war came from an Allied headquarters. Every effort has been made to draw on the records of all the Western Allies and the memories of their leaders, as well as the records and memories of the German High Command. But this volume is an integral part of a series dedicated to the United States Army in World War II and inevitably is written from an American point of view.
Research for the volume was completed in 1951 and an initial draft circulated to more than fifty key participants in the events therein described. The author completed a final and revised manuscript in January 1952. No effort has been made to include information or record opinions which have been published in the United States or abroad since that date.
The author, Forrest C. Pogue, has studied diplomatic history and international relations at Clark University and the University of Paris, receiving the Ph.D. degree from the former institution in 1939. Before his entry into military service, in 1942, he taught European history at Murray (Ky.) State College. Dr. Pogue made the five campaigns of the First United States Army as a combat historian, collecting information on battles from OMAHA Beach to Pilzen.
Washington, D. C. 15 May 1952
HUGH M. COLE Chief, European Section
Preface
The purpose of this volume is to tell how the Supreme Allied Command prosecuted the war against the enemy in northwest Europe in 1944-45. A part of that story has to do with the way in which an integrated command, devoted to the Allied cause, waged one of the most effective coalition wars in history.
I have deliberately focused this account on the Supreme Commander and his staff, including for the most part only those decisions of the Prime Minister, the President, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff which affected the activities of the Supreme Commander. On the enemy side, I have included enough detail on Hitler and his commanders to provide a contrast between the Allied and enemy command organizations.
Although General Eisenhower commanded air, sea, and ground forces in the operations in northwest Europe, it has been necessary for reasons of limitations of space and time to restrict the narrative basically to his command of the ground forces. Only enough material has been retained on air and naval matters to show how they affected the SHAEF command organization and to deal with those cases where SHAEF's intervention was required. This approach has seemed doubly important in a volume comprising part of the UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II series.
The Allied point of view has been considered throughout, but it has not always been possible to present British and French views as fully as the American because of the lack of the same ready accessibility to British and French files.
Operations have been considered from the standpoint of their influence on the Supreme Commander's decisions and the effects of his directives on the field commanders. A corrective to this emphasis on command at the expense of tactical action may be found in the operational volumes of this series and in similar accounts now in preparation by the British and Canadian historical sections.
This volume differs from others in the European series because of the greater attention necessarily given to political or nonoperational questions. To tell the full story of SHAEF, I have had to interrupt the operational narrative on occasion in order to interject discussions of such matters as press relations, civil affairs, military government, psychological warfare, and relations with the liberated countries of Europe. As the war progressed these matters tended to occupy an ever-increasing proportion of the Supreme Commander's time.
The accounts of Allied operations in this volume rest heavily on after action reports and semiofficial histories of the army groups and armies. These in turn were based on daily situation and operational reports made during the battle. Since the latter reports were prepared under the stress of battle and may not always be wholly accurate, the narrative may repeat some of their inaccuracies as to dates, units involved, and precise achievements. Whenever it has been clear that the reports were in error, corrections have been made. The primary sources, however, represent operations much as the Supreme Commander saw them at the time when he issued his directives and are therefore more valuable for throwing light on his decisions than later amended accounts.
A word of caution is necessary for the reader who may be unduly impressed by the accounts of controversy and difference of opinion which arose between commanders of the same nationality, officers of different nationalities, and heads of governments. The debates that stemmed from divergent viewpoints were in all probability heightened by disparate national interests or by clashes of temperament and personality. When the discussions of the participants in Allied conferences are seen in cold print, without the benefit of the smile which softened a strong argument or the wry shrug which made clear that the debate was for the record, and when there is no transcript of the friendly conversation which followed the official conference, the reader may get the impression that constant argument and heated controversy marked most meetings between Allied leaders. Likewise, interoffice memorandums, written by men at planning levels, frequently give the erroneous impression that the officers concerned were engaged mainly in baiting traps and digging pitfalls for their opposite numbers. It is inevitable that a study of such discussions will emphasize the disagreements and spell out the problems in reaching accords. The numerous basic decisions which were reached with only minor debate attract less attention. No true history of the war can be written by describing merely the disputes and controversies of the Allies; even less can it be written on the assumption that even the best of Allies can achieve agreement without prolonged discussion and debate. It is important to remember that different nations, although Allies, have divergent interests, and that they are not being unfriendly if they pursue those interests.
An alliance is based on an agreement by two or more powers that they will oppose their combined forces and resources to a common enemy. They do not agree thereby to have an absolute community of interest. The success of such an alliance is to be judged, therefore, not by the amount of heat which may be engendered between the powers in their attempts to find a course of action which will most nearly preserve their individual aims while gaining a common goal, but rather by the degree to which the powers, while frankly working on a basis of self-interest, manage to achieve the one aim for which their forces were brought together. On that basis the Western Powers forged a unity seldom, if ever, achieved in the history of grand alliances. Their commanders, while striving to preserve national identity and gain individual honors for their forces, still waged a victorious war.
The Supreme Command has benefited greatly from the advice and help of a number of individuals in the United States and abroad. Only a few can be singled out for special mention. To the others, I have space only to express my deep appreciation.
For recommending me to Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith as the person to write a history of SHAEF and for many helpful suggestions, I wish to thank Col. S. L. A. Marshall under whom I served as a combat historian in Europe. In addition to the present Chief Historian, Dr. Kent Roberts Greenfield, and other officials of the Office of the Chief of Military History whose important contributions to the volume go without saying, I should like to list the names of Maj. Gen. Harry J. Malony, Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, Col. A. F. Clark, and Col. John Kemper, who are no longer with the Office, as persons who helped make this volume possible.
The footnotes indicate only partially the generous way in which fellow historians employed by the Army, Air Force, and Navy in this country, Great Britain, and Canada have made available information in their files. I wish to thank in particular Brigadier H. B. Latham, Chief, British Historical Section, Cabinet Office, Lt. Col. A. E. Warhurst, formerly of that section, and other members of Brigadier Latham's staff for their assistance in gathering material on British forces. I am similarly indebted to Col. C. P. Stacey, Chief, Canadian Historical Section, for aid extended to me when I was writing those portions of the volume relating to the Canadian Army. These historians, it should be noted, do not by these actions concur in the conclusions reached by me nor are they responsible for my interpretations.
Nearly one hundred British, U.S., and French officers and civilians aided me greatly by granting interviews in which they talked candidly of the work of the Supreme Commander and his headquarters. Their names have been listed in the bibliographical note. I have a special debt to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith, Marshal of the Air Force Lord Tedder, Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Morgan, and Maj. Gen. Ray W. Barker for giving generously of their time and supplying me with their private papers on the period concerned. Some fifty former participants in the activities of the Supreme Command were kind enough to read part or all of my manuscript. Of these I must make special mention of Brigadier E. T. Williams, now Warden of Rhodes Scholars at Oxford, who generously took many hours from his vacation in 1951 to check the British side of this story. It is, of course, to be understood that neither he nor the other officers who checked the manuscript necessarily agreed with my conclusions.
For assistance in exploring a number of documents in the Department of the Army files and the German sources I wish to express my especial appreciation to Mr. Royce Thompson of the European Section, and to Mr. Detmar Finke and Mrs. Magna E. Bauer of the Foreign Studies Section. I was always able to count on their willing assistance even when they were carrying on similar duties for other writers in our series. I have made specific mention elsewhere of their precise contributions to the volume. Among the employees of the Departmental Records Branch, AGO, who dealt so willingly with my requests for the files in their keeping, I wish to thank in particular Mr. Albert Whitt, Mrs. Blanche Moore, and Mrs. Ellen Smith Garrison. I have also drawn heavily on the patience and the labor of Mr. Israel Wice and members of his Reference Branch staff in the OCMH.
I have been fortunate throughout the writing of this volume in having the advice of Editor Joseph R. Friedman who has saved me from numerous errors and has made many suggestions for improving the narrative. Miss Constance Gay Morenus edited the footnotes and copy-edited the entire manuscript. Mrs. Helen McShane Bailey had the difficult job of preparing the index. Typing of the manuscript in its initial form was done by Mr. John Lee and after revision by Miss Beatrice Bierman. The excellent maps of the volume bear the imprint of Mr. Wsevolod Aglaimoff, whose skill as a cartographer has distinguished all the volumes of this series.
The Supreme Command was written under the general direction of Dr. Hugh M. Cole, Chief of the European Section, Office of the Chief of Military History. His broad knowledge of military history and wise counsel have been of great aid to me throughout the writing of this volume.
Recognition of their contributions by no means implies that the individuals who lent their assistance have approved either my English or my interpretations. For these, as well as for the general outline and the major research on this volume, I must bear the responsibility.
Washington, D. C. 15 January 1952
FORREST C. POGUE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter
I. THE SUPREME COMMANDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Selection of the Supreme Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The New Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Heads of Governments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Combined Chiefs of Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Supreme Commander and His Subordinates . . . . . . . . . . . 41
The Organization of the Subordinate Commands . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Supreme Commander's Directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Contributions of AFHQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Contributions of COSSAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Chief Deputies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The Powers Reserved to SHAEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Operations Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Intelligence Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Civil Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Publicity and Psychological Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The Special Staff Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Political Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Locations of SHAEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Early Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Allied Planning and Preparation in 1943 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
The COSSAC Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Strengthening and Widening the Assault and the Postponement of ANVIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Increase of Airborne Units in the Assault . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Revised Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Problems of Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Railway Bombing Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CROSSBOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Effect of the Air Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Allied Liaison Machinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Civil Affairs Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Troubled Relations With the French Committee . . . . . . . . . . 140
IX. FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION . . . . . . . 158
Intensified Air Efforts Against the Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Propaganda Efforts Against the Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Security for the Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
The Patton Episode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Exercises and Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
The Decision To Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Unfolding of the Grand Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
The Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Allied Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
The Battle for Caen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
The Allied Situation in Late July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
The German Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Plans for the Breakout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
The COBRA Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Hitler Outlines His Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Eisenhower Prepares for Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
The Mortain Counterattack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Closing the Falaise Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Withdrawal to the Seine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
The Second Phase of the ANVIL Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . 218
The Landings and the Advance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Civil Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Command of the French Resistance Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Activities of French Resistance, June-August 1944 . . . . . . . . . 237
The Liberation of Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
The Situation at the End of August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Allied Plans for an Advance to the Rhine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Logistical Reasons for the Halt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
The Ground Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
The Air and Naval Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Shifts in Locations of Supreme Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Background of Operations in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . 279
The MARKET-GARDEN Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Discussion of Future Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
The Battle for Antwerp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
The Enemy Regroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Plans To End the War Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
October Battles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The November Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Allied Strategy Re-examined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Action in December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Relations With France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Relations With Belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Relations With the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Allied Public Information Activities in the Liberated Countries . . . . 336
Other Aid to Liberated Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Efforts To Induce German Surrender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Military Government of Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
The German Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Allied Estimate of Enemy Intentions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
The Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Preparations for an Allied Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
The Allies Take the Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
The Attack in Northern Alsace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
The Question of Strasbourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
6th Army Group Counterattack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Effects of the German Counteroffensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Russian Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Formulation of Allied Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
General Eisenhower's Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Discussion of Strategy by the Combined Chiefs . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Looking Toward the Rhine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
German Difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
SHAEF Establishes a Forward Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Allied Operations, January-February 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
The Crossing of the Rhine in the North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
A Change of Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Encircling the Ruhr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
The Ruhr Pocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Shall It Be Berlin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
The Area and the Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
The Nature of the Pursuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Operations in the North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
The Main Thrust to the Elbe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
6th Army Group Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Aid for the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
The Stuttgart Incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Avoiding Clashes With the Russians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
The End of Hitler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Early Peace Feelers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Doenitz Appraises the Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Piecemeal Surrenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Preliminary Talks With SHAEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Surrender at Reims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Ceremony at Berlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Initial Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Disarming the German Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
The Final German Surrenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Disarming the Enemy in Denmark and Norway . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Closing Out Supreme Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Appendix
Tables
Charts
Maps
Biographical Sketches
BRIG. GEN. FRANK A. ALLEN, JR. served as chief of the Pictorial and Radio Branch of the Bureau of Public Relations, War Department, from February to August 1941. From August 1941 to June 1943 he held various command assignments in the United States with the 1st, 5th, and 9th Armored Divisions. In June 1943 he assumed command of one of the 1st Armored Division's combat commands in North Africa. Later, in Italy, he headed Task Force Allen, which was organized by II Corps. In July 1944 he was appointed G–2 of the 6th Army Group. He came from that post in September 1944 to SHAEF as chief of the Public Relations Division.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY HENRY H. ARNOLD, one of the first Army fliers, was a pioneer in the development of airplanes and air techniques in the Army. After being selected Chief of the Air Corps in 1938, he pressed for the development of aircraft production and for a program for the civilian training of flying cadets. In 1940 he became Deputy Chief of Staff (Air) and in the following year Chief, Army Air Forces. In 1942 his title was changed to Commanding General, Army Air Forces.
GENERAL DER PANZERTRUPPEN HERMANN BALCK served as a company grade officer in World War I. At the outbreak of war in 1939 Balck was in the General Staff of the Army and was transferred to the command of a motorized rifle regiment in late October 1939. During the winter and spring of 1940–41 he commanded a Panzer regiment and later a Panzer brigade. He returned to staff duties in the Army High Command in July 1941. In May 1942, Balck went to the Eastern Front and successively commanded Panzer divisions, corps, and an army. He was transferred from command of the Fourth Panzer Army in Russia to the command of Army Group G in September 1944 and in late December was transferred back to the Eastern Front to command Army Group Balck. Balck was captured in Austria by Allied troops on 8 May 1945.
MAJ. GEN. RAY W. BARKER was an artillery colonel in early 1942 when he was sent to the United Kingdom. In May of that year, under orders from General Marshall, he associated himself with British planners working on plans for a cross-Channel operation for 1943. General Barker became head of the planning group at Headquarters, U.S. Forces in Europe, and in addition met regularly with the Combined Commanders planning group. He worked from July to September 1942 on Operation TORCH and then returned to the cross-Channel project. He served as G–5 (then head of war plans) for ETOUSA from June to October 1942, as G–3, ETOUSA, from October 1942 to April 1943, as Deputy Chief of Staff, ETOUSA, from February to April 1943, and as G–5, ETOUSA, from April to October 1943. In the spring of 1943 he became deputy to General Morgan on the COSSAC staff and remained there until the spring of 1944 when he became the SHAEF G–1.
GENERALOBERST JOHANNES BLASKOWITZ served as an infantry officer in World War I. In World War II he commanded the Eighth Army during the Polish campaign, and after a short term of service as Commander in Chief East in Poland he was transferred to command of the Ninth Army in the west. In early June 1940 he became Military Governor of Northern France. Blaskowitz held this position until October 1940 when he was transferred to the command of the First Army. He retained this post until May 1944 when he was named commander in chief of Army Group G. He was relieved of command of Army Group G in late September 1944 and reinstated on 24 December 1944. On 28 January 1945 he was appointed commander in chief of Army Group H. This command was redesignated in early April 1945 and Blaskowitz became Commander in Chief Netherlands. He was captured on 8 May 1945 at Hilversum, Holland.
GEN. OMAR N. BRADLEY in 1940 became an assistant secretary of the General Staff in the War Department. In February 1941 he was given command of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga. From this post he went to the 82d Division early in 1942. In June of that year he assumed command of the 28th Division. General Marshall sent him to North Africa in February 1943 to act as an observer for General Eisenhower. A few weeks later Bradley became deputy commander of II Corps under General Patton, and in April, when Patton was given the task of planning the Sicilian campaign, he took command of II Corps. In the new command, General Bradley fought in Tunisia and Sicily. He was selected in September 1943 to head the First U.S. Army in the invasion of northwest Europe as well as a U.S. army group headquarters. General Bradley led the First Army in the Normandy campaign until 1 August 1944 when he became commander of the 12th Army Group.
LT. GEN. LEWIS H. BRERETON graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1907, transferred to the Army in 1911, and in turn transferred to the flying section of the Signal Corps in 1912. He was a flier in Europe in World War I. In July 1941, General Brereton was given command of the Third Air Force. When war broke out, he was the commanding general of the Far East Air Force in the Philippine Islands. At the beginning of 1942 he became Deputy Air Commander in Chief, Allied Air Forces, on the staff of General Wavell besides serving as commander of the Fifth Air Force. General Brereton organized and commanded the Tenth Air Force in India in March 1942. Two months later he became commander of the Middle East Air Force. In February 1943 he assumed in addition the command of U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East. In October 1943 he was transferred to the United Kingdom where he became commanding general of the Ninth Air Force. He was appointed commander in chief of the First Allied Airborne Army in August 1944.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR ALAN BROOKE (Now LORD ALANBROOKE), a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, served in World War I, receiving the Distinguished Service Order with bar and other awards for his actions. By 1941 he had gained a reputation as the Army's expert on mechanization. He commanded the 2d British Corps in France in the early part of World War II and helped to make possible the successful evacuation at Dunkerque. Generals Montgomery and Alexander served under him at that time. Shortly thereafter he became commander of the British Home Forces and organized the defenses of the United Kingdom against possible attack by the Germans. He succeeded Field Marshal Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1941.
MAJ. GEN. HAROLD R. BULL served as Secretary, General Staff, of the War Department in 1939. He followed this duty with assignment as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Culver Military Academy, and later as assistant division commander of the 4th Motorized Division. After the outbreak of war, he became G–3 of the War Department, and went from this post to head the Replacement School Command, Army Ground Forces. In the summer of 1943 General Marshall sent him to North Africa as a special observer. On his return, he became the commanding general of III Corps, holding this post from June to September 1943. In the latter month, he was sent to London where he became deputy G–3 of COSSAC. In February 1944 he was appointed G–3, SHAEF.
ADMIRAL HAROLD M. BURROUGH was assistant chief of the Naval Staff, Admiralty, at the beginning of the war. From 1940 to 1942 he commanded a cruiser squadron. He was commander of Naval Forces, Algiers, in 1942, and Flag Officer Commanding Gibraltar and Mediterranean Approaches, 1943–45. In January 1945 he succeeded Admiral Ramsay as Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force. After the dissolution of SHAEF he became British Naval Commander-in-Chief, Germany.
LT. GEN. M. B. BURROWS served in the North Russian Expeditionary Force, 1918–19. In the period 1938–40 he was military attaché at Rome, Budapest, and Tirana. He served as head of the British Military Mission to the USSR in 1943–44, and as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the West Africa Command in 1945–46.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL ERNST BUSCH served as an infantry officer in World War I. He commanded the VIII Corps in the Polish campaign and in October 1939 was appointed commander of the Sixteenth Army. In November 1943 he was made acting commander in chief of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front. From May 1944 until August 1944 Busch was commander in chief of Army Group Center. He was then relieved and placed in the officers' reserve pool until March 1945 when he was made commander of Fuehrungsstab Nordkueste which was renamed OB NORDWEST in early May 1945.
MAJ. GEN. A. M. CAMERON, a member of the antiaircraft operations section of the War Office at the beginning of the war, went to Antiaircraft Command Headquarters in 1940. Later he commanded a brigade and a group in the Antiaircraft Command. He was commanding a group on the south coast of England when sent to SHAEF in May 1944.
MAJ. GEN. JOHN G. W. CLARK was commander of an infantry brigade at the start of the war and led it to France. Later he was a divisional commander in Palestine and Iraq. He served in North Africa and Sicily in 1942 and 1943 and at the end of 1943 he became Major General in Charge of Administration, Middle East. In January 1944 he was transferred to Allied Force Headquarters as chief administrative officer. One year later he became head of the SHAEF Mission (Netherlands).
LT. GEN. J. LAWTON COLLINS was chief of staff of VII Corps in January 1941. After the attack at Pearl Harbor he became chief of staff of the Hawaiian Department. In May 1942 he became commanding general of the 25th Division. He relieved the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal in December 1942 and later fought in the New Georgia campaign. In December 1943 he was transferred to the European Theater of Operations where he assumed command of the VII Corps and led it in the assault on northwest Europe.
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR ARTHUR CONINGHAM served with the New Zealand Forces Samoa and Egypt from 1914 to 1916 and then in Europe from 1916 to 1919. In World War II he served with Bomber Command, working with the Eighth Army in North Africa and forming the First Tactical Air Force, French North Africa. He furnished air support to the Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy in 1943 and commanded the 2d Tactical Air Force in northwest Europe in 1944–45.
MAJ. GEN ROBERT W. CRAWFORD was district engineer in New Orleans in 1939 when he was called to the War Plans Division in Washington and assigned duties in connection with overseas supplies, munitions, allocations, and the like. By July 1942 he was transferred to the 8th Armored Division as head of a combat command. Near the end of 1942, he became Commanding General, Services of Supply, U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East. From this post he was sent in July 1943 to the United Kingdom where he served for a time as deputy commander and later as chief of staff of the Services of Supply organization, and as G–4, Headquarters, ETOUSA. In November 1943 he became deputy G–4 of COSSAC. On the activation of SHAEF he became G–4 of SHAEF.
REAR ADM. GEORGE E. CREASY commanded a destroyer flotilla from 1939 to May 1940. From June 1940 to August 1942, he headed the division of antisubmarine warfare at the Admiralty, and in 1942–43 commanded the Duke of York, taking part in the North African landings. In August 1943 he joined COSSAC as naval chief of staff, becoming chief of staff to Admiral Ramsay when the latter was named to the post of Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force.
GEN. HENRY D. G. CRERAR was senior officer, Canadian Military Headquarters, London, in 1939–40. In 1940–41 he served as Chief of General Staff, Canada. He became commander of the 2d Canadian Division Overseas in 1941. From 1942 to 1944 he commanded the 1st Canadian Corps and for a part of the same period commanded the Canadian Corps Mediterranean Area (1943-44). He led the 1st Canadian Army in 1944–45.
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SIR ANDREW B. CUNNINGHAM entered the Royal Navy in 1898 and participated in World War I. As Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, between 1939 and 1942, he directed operations against the Italian Fleet at Taranto and Matapan and evacuated the British forces from Greece. He headed the British naval delegation in Washington briefly in 1942 before becoming Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force, North Africa. In October 1943 he replaced Admiral Sir Dudley Pound as First Sea Lord.
BRIG. GEN. THOMAS J. DAVIS was an aide of General MacArthur in the Philippines from 1928 to 1930 and returned with him to the U.S. to duty in the Office of the Chief of Staff in 1930. In September 1933 he returned to the Philippines, serving as assistant military adviser under MacArthur until January 1938 when he became adviser in the Philippines on adjutant general affairs. In January 1940 Davis came back to the War Department, first in The Adjutant General's Office and then as executive officer of the Special Service Branch of the War Department. In April 1942 he became executive officer in the office of the Chief of Administrative Services, Headquarters, SOS. He was appointed adjutant general of Headquarters, ETOUSA, in July 1942. From August 1942 to January 1944 he was adjutant general of Allied Force Headquarters. In February 1944 he was named adjutant general of SHAEF. In April when the SHAEF Public Relations Division was established, he became its head. In October 1944 he returned to the post of adjutant general of SHAEF.
MAJ. GEN. JOHN R. DEANE was secretary of the War Department General Staff in February 1942. He became American secretary of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in September 1942. In October 1943 he was appointed as head of the U.S. military mission to the USSR.
MAJ. GEN. FRANCIS DE GUINGAND, a graduate of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was Military Assistant to the Secretary of State for War in 1939–40 and later became Director Military Intelligence Middle East. In 1942–44 he served as chief of staff of the British Eighth Army, and in 1944 he took over the same post in the 21 Army Group.
GEN. SIR MILES DEMPSEY commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade in France in 1940, receiving the D.S.O. He returned to England to become Brigadier General Staff with the Canadians under Gen. A. G. L. MacNaughton. Shortly after El Alamein, he took command of the 13th Corps of the Eighth Army and led it in the Sicilian campaign and in the invasion of Italy. In January 1944 he became commander of the Second British Army, which he led through the remainder of the war in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
GEN. JACOB L. DEVERS became chief of the Armored Forces, Fort Knox, Ky., in the summer of 1941. From this post he went in May 1943 to the command of the European Theater of Operations. While there he helped COSSAC in its planning for the OVERLORD operation. In December 1943 he succeeded General Eisenhower as commanding general of the North African Theater of Operations. Later he was Deputy Commander in Chief, Allied Force Headquarters, and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater. In September 1944 he became commander of the 6th Army Group, which consisted of Seventh U.S. and First French Armies.
MAJ. GEN. RICHARD H. EWING was a brigadier instructing at the Imperial Defence College in 1939. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Director of Military Operations at the War Office with the rank of major general. In 1940 he became Chief of Staff, Far East, and in 1942 joined the British Army staff in Washington. He spent the next two years as head of the United Kingdom Liaison Staff in Australia and in 1945 was appointed head of SHAEF Mission (Denmark).
FIELD MARSHAL SIR JOHN DILL, a veteran of the Boer War, served near the end of World War I as Field Marshal Haig's Brigadier General Staff Operations. Later he was on the general staff in India, Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in the War Office, and commander in chief at Aldershot. He served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff from May 1940 to the end of 1941. In December 1941 he was sent to Washington as head of the British Joint Staff Mission and senior British member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff organization in Washington. He was serving in this capacity at the time of his death in November 1944. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
GROSSADMIRAL KARL DOENITZ served in naval air and submarine forces in World War I. He was placed in sole charge of Germany's U-Boats in 1935 when he was appointed Fuehrer der Unterseeboote. In early 1941 Doenitz' position was raised and he was named Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote. He held this position until the spring of 1943 when he was given supreme command of the German Navy and named Grossadmiral. In late April 1945 Hitler designated Doenitz as his successor in place of Goering. After Hitler's death Doenitz carried on the German government until his arrest by the Allied Command in May 1945.
LT. GEN. JAMES H. DOOLITTLE served in World War I as a flier. He resigned from the Army in 1930 but continued his work in aeronautics as a civilian. He was recalled to duty in 1940, and in April 1942 led the first aerial raid on the Japanese mainland. He was assigned to duty with the Eighth Air Force in the United Kingdom in July 1942 and in September of that year assumed command of the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa. In March 1943 he became commanding general of the North African Strategic Air Forces. He was named commander of the Fifteenth Air Force in November 1943. From January 1944 until the end of the war he headed the Eighth Air Force in the European Theater of Operations.
BRIG. GEN. BEVERLY C. DUNN was district engineer at Seattle, Wash., in July 1940. In March 1942 he was assigned to the North Atlantic Engineer Division, New York. He became deputy chief engineer at Headquarters, SHAEF, in February 1944. Shortly before the dissolution of SHAEF he succeeded General Hughes as chief engineer.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER was graduated from West Point in 1915 and commissioned in that year. His first assignment was with the 19th Infantry Regiment. He remained with this unit, except for short periods of detached service, until 1917. In September of that year he was assigned to duty in the 57th Infantry Regiment. During World War I he served as instructor at the Officer Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., from September to December 1917, taught in the Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., from December 1917 to February 1918, had a tour of duty with the 65th Battalion Engineers, which he organized at Fort Meade, Md., and commanded Camp Colt, Pa. After the war he commanded tank corps troops at Fort Dix, N.J., and at Fort Benning, Ga. In 1919 he returned to Fort Meade where he served in various tank battalions until January 1922. Meanwhile he graduated from the Infantry Tank School. In 1922 he went to the Panama Canal Zone where he served as executive officer at Camp Gaillard. From September to December 1924 he was recreation officer at the headquarters of Third Corps Area. This assignment was followed by a tour as recruiting officer at Fort Logan, Colo., until August 1925. He then attended Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, graduating as an honor student in June 1926. A brief tour with the 24th Division followed. From January to August 1927 he was on duty with the American Battle Monuments Commission in Washington. He graduated from the Army War College in June 1928 and then went back for a year with the Battle Monuments Commission with duty in Washington and France. From November 1929 to February 1933 he was Assistant Executive, Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. During this period he graduated from the Army Industrial College. From 1933 to September 1935 he was in the Office of the Chief of Staff (Gen. Douglas MacArthur). He served as assistant to the military adviser of the Philippine Islands from September 1935 to 1940. In 1940 he was assigned to duty with the 15th Infantry Regiment. In November of that year he became chief of staff of the 3d Division, in March 1941 chief of staff of the IX Corps, and in June 1941 chief of staff of the Third Army. He joined the War Plans Division of the War Department in December 1941 and became chief of the division in the following February. On 25 June 1942 he was named commanding general of the European Theater of Operations. In November 1942 he commanded the Allied landings in North Africa and in the same month became Commander in Chief, Allied Forces in North Africa. As commander of Allied Forces in the Mediterranean he directed operations in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy until December 1943 when he was named Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. In this post he directed the invasion of northwest Europe and the campaigns against Germany.
MAJ. GEN. GEORGE W. E. JAMES ERSKINE was a lieutenant colonel on the staff of a division in England at the outbreak of war. In June 1940 he was given command of a battalion and in January 1941 a brigade. He went with the latter to the Middle East in June 1941. In February 1942 he became Brigadier General Staff, Headquarters, 13 Corps, and in January 1943 was given command of the 7th Armoured Division. He commanded this unit in the Western Desert, Italy, and Normandy. In August 1944 he became head of the SHAEF mission to Belgium.
GENERALADMIRAL HANS VON FRIEDEBURG, was commanding admiral of submarines in June 1944. He was appointed commander in chief of the German Navy by Doenitz in early May 1945 and as such signed the final capitulations in Reims and Berlin. He committed suicide soon thereafter.
LT. GEN. SIR HUMFREY M. GALE was deputy director of supplies and transport in the War Office at the beginning of the war. Two months later he became G–4 of 3 British Corps and went to France. In 1940, after Dunkerque, he became Major General in Charge of Administration (includes both G–1 and G–4 functions in the British Army) in the Scottish Command. He left this assignment in July 1941 to take a similar position at Home Forces under Sir Alan Brooke. In August 1942 he was appointed chief administrative officer on General Eisenhower's staff in the Mediterranean, where he remained until February 1944. At that time he was appointed one of the deputy chiefs of staff of SHAEF with the title Chief Administrative Officer.
LT. GEN. LEONARD T. GEROW was executive officer of the War Plans Division of the War Department from 1936 to 1939. He served as chief of staff of the 2d Division through 1939. In 1940 he was appointed assistant commandant of the Infantry School. In October 1940 he was transferred to the 8th Division and in December of that year he was assigned to the War Plans Division, War Department. He was chief of that division at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. In February 1942 he was given command of the 29th Division and later was put in charge of field forces in the European theater. In July 1943 he became commander of V Corps and led that unit in the assault in northwest Europe. He became commanding general of the Fifteenth Army in January 1945.
REICHSMARSCHALL HERMANN GOERING was one of Germany's outstanding flyers in World War I. He became a member of the Nazi party in 1922 and held many party positions. In 1933 he was made Reich Minister for Air and in 1935 named Commander in Chief of the Air Force. As President of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich and as Trustee for the Four Year Plan, Goering exercised great influence on the political and economic life of the Reich. Long designated as Hitler's successor, he was removed from this position in late April 1945. Goering was captured by American forces in May 1945.
LT. GEN. SIR A. E. GRASETT, a Canadian-born officer, was stationed in China in 1938-41. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1941 to command a division, and from 1941 to 1943 a corps. He next served as chief of the Liaison Branch of the War Office, and after the organization of Supreme Headquarters he became chief of the European Allied Contact Section. In April 1944 he was appointed chief of the G-5 Division.
GENERALOBERST HEINZ GUDERIAN, a veteran of World War I, was a strong proponent of armored warfare. At the outbreak of World War II, he was given command of XIX Panzer Corps and in this position fought in the Polish and French campaigns. He commanded the Second Panzer Group, later designated Second Panzer Army, in the Russian campaign from June to December 1941. Guderian was then placed in an officers' reserve pool until February 1943, at which time he was assigned as Inspector General of Panzer Troops. In July 1944, while still on this assignment, he was designated as acting chief of the Army General Staff. He held these positions until he was relieved in March 1945. Guderian was captured near Zell am See, Tirol, 10 May 1945.
MARSHAL OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE SIR ARTHUR T. HARRIS, who was commanding the RAF in Palestine and Transjordan in the summer of 1939, became chief of the No.5 Group of Bomber Command at the outbreak of war. In 1940 he became deputy chief of the Air Staff under Air Chief Marshal Portal. In May 1941 he came to the United States as head of the RAF delegation and as member of the British Joint Staff Mission. He remained in Washington until February 1942 when he was named Commander-in-Chief, Bomber Command.
GENERALOBERST DER WAFFEN SS PAUL HAUSSER was a member of the General Staff Corps and served as a divisional and corps staff officer in World War I. He was retired from the Army with the rank of Generalleutnant in 1932. Hausser became a member of the Waffen SS in 1934 and by 1939 had again reached his former rank of Generalleutnant. During the Polish campaign Hausser served on the staff of Panzer Division Kempf. From October 1939 until October 1941 he commanded the 2d SS Panzer Division "Das Reich." During this period he was wounded and had to be hospitalized until June 1942, at which time he became commander of the II SS Panzer Corps. He led this corps until the end of June 1944, fighting in the east, in Italy, and finally in Normandy. At the end of June 1944 Hausser was assigned to command the Seventh Army, holding this position until late August 1944, when he was again severely wounded and hospitalized until January 1945. From the end of January until the beginning of April 1945 Hausser commanded Army Group G. Thereafter, until he was taken prisoner on 13 May 1945, Hausser served on the staff of OB WEST.
REICHSFUEHRER SS UND CHEF DER DEUTSCHEN POLIZEI HEINRICH HIMMLER served as a 2d lieutenant in a Bavarian infantry regiment in World War I. A Nazi party member since 1925, Himmler by 1936 had brought all of the German police and the SS under his control. After the putsch of 20 July 1944 Himmler was also appointed Chief of the Replacement Army (Chef der Heeresruestung und Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres). In late November 1944 all of the defenses on the eastern bank of the upper Rhine were placed under him as Oberbefehlshaber Oberrhein. Himmler retained this command until late January 1945 when he became commander in chief of Army Group Weichsel on the Eastern Front. On 20 March 1945 Himmler relinquished command of Army Group Weichsel. He was captured by Allied troops in early May 1945 and committed suicide shortly thereafter.
GEN. COURTNEY H. HODGES, an overseas veteran of World War I, became commandant of the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Ga., in October 1940. He was named Chief of Infantry, War Department, in May 1941, and commanding general of the Replacement and School Command, Army Ground Forces, in March 1942. Later he became commanding general of X Corps. From this post he went to the command of the Third Army in February 1943. In March 1944 he was sent to the European Theater of Operations as deputy commander of the First Army. He succeeded General Bradley in command of that army on 1 August 1944 and led it through France, Belgium, Germany, and to the Czechoslovakian frontier at the war's end.
MAJ. GEN. H. B. W. HUGHES was chief engineer of the Western Command in 1939 and engineer-in-chief of General Wavell's Middle East Command from 1940 to 1943. In December 1943 he became chief engineer of COSSAC and in February of the following year chief of the Engineer Division of SHAEF. The latter post he held until the spring of 1945.
GENERALOBERST ALFRED JODL served as an artillery officer in World War I. In September 1939 Jodl was assigned to the OKW/Wehrmachtfuehrungsstab, becoming chief of this office in the following month. He held this position until the close of the war. He became a prisoner of war in May of 1945.
GENERAL ALPHONSE PIERRE JUIN was born in Algiers and spent much of his early career in North Africa. He served for a time as an aide of Marshal Lyautey and was regarded as a strong disciple of that commander. From 1938 to 1939 Juin was chief of staff to General Nogues, commander of the North African Theater of Operations. Near the close of 1939, he headed an infantry division in northern France and helped to cover the withdrawal to Dunkerque the following year. On the fall of France he became a German prisoner, but was released in 1941. In the summer of that year, he was given a command in Morocco and later in 1941 was named commander in chief of French forces in North Africa. In 1943 he was placed at the head of the French Expeditionary Corps, which performed brilliantly in Italy. In 1944 General de Gaulle appointed him to the post of Chief of Staff of the Ministry of National Defense.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL WILHELM KEITEL served in various staff positions at corps and army headquarters in World War I. He was appointed chief of OKW in 1938, a position he held for the duration of the war. Keitel was taken into custody in mid-May 1945.
MAJ. GEN. ALBERT W. KENNER was chief surgeon of the Armored Service at Fort Knox, Ky., at the beginning of the war. He was taken by General Patton to North Africa as chief surgeon of the Western Task Force in November 1942. One month later he became Chief Surgeon, North African Forces, under General Eisenhower. In 1943 he returned to Washington as Assistant Surgeon General with the task of training and inspecting Ground Forces medical troops. He came to SHAEF in February 1944 as chief medical officer.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL ALBERT KESSELRING, served on various divisional and corps staffs in World War I. After staff and troop assignments he was assigned as administrative chief to the Reich Air Ministry. Kesselring remained in this position until June 1936 when he was assigned as chief of the Air Force General Staff. In the Polish campaign he commanded First Air Force and later in 1940 Second Air Force in France. In December 1941 Kesselring was appointed as Commander in Chief South with command of all German Air Force units in the Mediterranean and North African theaters. In the fall of 1943 he was redesignated as Commander in Chief Southwest with nominal command of the German armed forces in Italy. Kesselring was transferred to Germany as Commander in Chief West in March 1945 and later designated as Commander in Chief South. He was taken prisoner at Saalfelden on 6 May 1945.
FLEET ADMIRAL ERNEST J. KING graduated from the Naval Academy in 1901. He served during World War I as assistant chief of staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet. Beginning in 1937 he served in succession as member of the General Board of the Navy, commander of the U.S. Fleet Patrol Force, and commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. In December 1941 he became Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and in 1942 also took the title of Chief of Naval Operations.
VICE ADM. ALAN G. KIRK in 1941 was naval attaché in London, where his duties included reporting on German naval organization. From March to October 1941 he served as Chief of Naval Intelligence in Washington. This assignment was followed by brief tours on convoy duty in the North Atlantic and in transporting troops to Iceland. In May 1942 he became chief of staff to Admiral Stark in London. Admiral Kirk was appointed Commander, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet, in March 1943 and helped prepare the forces for the Sicilian operation. Later he was in charge of transporting some 20,000 soldiers to the Mediterranean. He served as commander of U.S. Naval Forces for the cross-Channel attack and held operational control of all U.S. naval forces under General Eisenhower except those in the south of France. Later he was head of the U.S. Naval Mission at SHAEF and was for a short time acting Allied Naval Commander after Admiral Ramsay was killed in January 1945.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL GUENTHER VON KLUGE served as an infantry and mountain troop officer in World War I. During the Polish and French campaigns, and the early part of the Russian campaign, of World War II von Kluge commanded the Fourth Army. In December 1941 he was assigned as commander in chief of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front, a position he held until May 1944. Von Kluge relieved von Rundstedt as Commander in Chief West in early July 1944, and was relieved in turn by Model at the beginning of September 1944. On his way to Germany he committed suicide.
GEN. PIERRE JOSEPH KOENIG was serving as a captain in the French Foreign Legion at the outbreak of war. As a major he led elements of the legion at Narvik in May and June 1940. After these forces were withdrawn, he went back to France. On the fall of France he fled to the United Kingdom where he joined the Gaullist forces. Shortly thereafter he went to Africa. As the commander of a brigade, he fought at Bir Hacheim in Libya. On 1 August 1943 he became assistant chief of staff of the French ground forces in North Africa. The French Committee of National Liberation named him its delegate to SHAEF in March 1944 and also gave him the title of commander of French Forces of the Interior in Great Britain. When Allied forces entered France, he assumed command of the French Forces of the Interior in France. On the liberation of Paris in August 1944 he was named military governor of Paris and commander of the Military Region of Paris. In July 1945 he became commander in chief of French forces in Germany.
GENERAL DER INFANTERIE HANS KREBS served as an infantry officer in World War I. In 1939 he was in the Intelligence Division of the General Staff of the Army. Krebs was assigned as chief of staff of the VII Corps in December 1939 and served in this capacity until March 1941. He was then appointed as acting German military attaché in Moscow, remaining in this post until the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union. From January 1942 until September 1944 he served as chief of staff first of the Ninth Army and later of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front. Krebs was appointed chief of staff of Army Group B at the beginning of September 1944 and remained in this position until 1 April 1945 when he was named acting chief of the General Staff. Krebs was killed or committed suicide in Berlin in May 1945.
MAJ. GEN. FRANCIS H. LANAHAN, JR., was chief of the War Plans Division, Signal Corps, from December 1941 to June 1942. From June to December 1942 he served as assistant director of planning in charge of the Theater Section. He was director of planning of the same branch from January to June 1943. From August 1943 to February 1945 he served as deputy chief of the Signal Division at COSSAC and SHAEF. In March 1945 he succeeded General Vulliamy as chief of the Signal Division, SHAEF.
GEN. JEAN DE LATTRE DE TASSIGNY commanded the 14th Infantry Division in 1940. He withdrew his forces into the French zone in that year. He was commanding a military region in the south of France in November 1942 when he was arrested for a demonstration he made at the time of the Allied landings in North Africa. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by the Vichy authorities but escaped from the Riom prison in September 1943 and went to the United Kingdom. At the end of the year he went to North Africa. On 18 April 1944 he was appointed commanding general of Armée B, which was later named the First French Army.
FLEET ADMIRAL WILLIAM D. LEAHY graduated from the Naval Academy in 1897 and served in the war against Spain. During World War I he served on ships of the line and on a transport. In 1933 he became chief of the Bureau of Navigation. Four years later he became Chief of Naval Operations. In 1939, after he had retired, President Roosevelt appointed him governor of Puerto Rico and in the following year made him Ambassador to France. He was recalled to active duty in 1942 and made chief of staff to the Commander in Chief, a post he held under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman.
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR TRAFFORD LEIGH-MALLORY won the Distinguished Flying Order in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I. He commanded the 11 and 12 Fighter Groups in the Battle of Britain in World War II. From November 1942 to December 1943 he served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command. At the close of 1943 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, and as such commanded the tactical air forces in support of the Allied Expeditionary Force. He was transferred to the post of Commander-in-Chief, South-East Asia Command, in the early fall of 1944, but was killed in a plane crash en route to that headquarters in November 1944.
MAJ. GEN. JOHN T. LEWIS served in 1941 in the Office of the Secretary, General Staff, War Department. In February of the following year he was assigned to a coast artillery brigade in New York. He was named Commanding General, Military District of Washington, in May 1942. While in this post he was a member of the commission which tried the Nazi saboteurs. In September 1944 he was selected as chief of SHAEF Mission (France).
BRIG. GEN. ROBERT A. MCCLURE, U.S. Military Attaché in London in 1941 and military attaché to the eight governments-in-exile in the United Kingdom, became G-2 of ETOUSA under General Eisenhower early in 1942. From November 1942 to November 1943 he headed the Public Relations, Psychological Warfare and Censorship Section at AFHQ. In November 1943 he was sent to COSSAC to organize a similar section. In February 1944 he became G-6 of SHAEF. When that division was divided later in the year, he was appointed chief of the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF.
BRIGADIER KENNETH G. MCLEAN at the outbreak of war became a member of the staff of the 52d Division in Scotland. From April 1940 to June 1941 he was an Army representative on the British GHQ Planning Staff. When COSSAC was established in 1943, he became the Army member of the planning staff. On the activation of SHAEF he was named head of the Planning Section of G-3.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY GEORGE C. MARSHALL was graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1901 and commissioned early in the following year. He served on the staffs of the First and Second Armies in World War I. In July 1938 he became Assistant Chief of Staff, War Plans Division, General Staff, and in October was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. In September 1939 he became Chief of Staff of the Army.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL WALTER MODEL served as an infantry officer in World War I. During the Polish and French campaigns in 1939 and 1940 he served as a corps and army chief of staff. In the Russian campaign from 1941 until 1944 he served in succession as a division, corps, and army commander. Model in January 1944 was assigned as commander in chief of Army Group North on the Eastern Front. In mid-August 1944 he was transferred to the west as Commander in Chief West and concurrently as commander in chief of Army Group B. Upon Rundstedt's return as Commander in Chief West in early September 1944, Model retained command of Army Group B, a post he kept until the final dissolution of Army Group B in April 1945. Model is said to have committed suicide at this time.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY commanded the 3d British Division in France in the winter and spring of 1939-40. He was given temporary command of the 2 Corps at Dunkerque. In the fall of 1940 he was given the 5 Corps and, in 1941, the 12 Corps. In 1942 he became head of the Southeast Command. In the summer of that year he was told that he would head the First British Army in the North African invasion, but the death of General Gott, who was slated for the command of the British Eighth Army led to Montgomery's selection for the post. As commander of this army he won the battle of El Alamein, pursued Marshal Rommel's forces to Tunisia, and helped defeat the enemy in Tunisia. Later he led the Eighth Army to Sicily and Italy. His appointment as Commander-in-Chief, 21 Army Group, was announced in December 1943. He commanded the Allied assault forces in Normandy, serving in that capacity until 1 September 1944 when General Eisenhower assumed control of field operations. Field Marshal Montgomery led the combined British and Canadian forces in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany for the remainder of the war. During much of this time the Ninth U.S. Army was also under his command. In the course of the Ardennes counteroffensive he was also given command of the First U.S. Army.
LT. GEN. SIR FREDERICK E. MORGAN served in France in 1940 as commander of a group of the 1st Armoured Division. In May 1942 he was appointed to command the 1st Corps District, which included Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. In October of that year he was made commander of the 1 Corps and placed under General Eisenhower. He was given the task of preparing a subsidiary landing in the western Mediterranean either to reinforce the initial landings or to deal with a German thrust through Spain. When neither operation proved necessary, he was directed to plan the invasion of Sardinia. In time this was abandoned and he was directed to plan the invasion of Sicily. This project was later given to the armies in North Africa. In the spring of 1943 he became chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander and as such directed planning for the invasion of northwest Europe. He served in 1944 and 1945 as Deputy Chief of Staff, SHAEF.
AMBASSADOR ROBERT D. MURPHY, a career diplomat, was counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Paris when war began in Europe. After the fall of France, he served briefly as chargé d'affaires at Vichy. In November 1940 he was detailed to Algiers. In the fall of 1942 he helped in negotiations between Allied military leaders and the French forces in North Africa. After the invasion of that area he was named political adviser to General Eisenhower. Later he became Chief Civil Affairs Adviser for Italian Affairs on General Eisenhower's staff and also served as U.S. member of the Advisory Council to the Allied Control Commission for Italy. At this time he was given the rank of Ambassador. In August 1944 Mr. Murphy was named political adviser at SHAEF and Chief of the Political Division for the U.S. Group Control Council set up to plan postwar occupation of Germany. Later he served as political adviser to Generals Eisenhower, McNarney, and Clay.
BRIG. GEN. ARTHUR S. NEVINS served in the Strategy Section of the War Plans Division of the War Department from May 1941 until after the outbreak of war with Japan. In the spring of 1942 he went to the United Kingdom as a member of the planning staff for the North African invasion. When II U.S. Corps was activated he became its deputy chief of staff. Later he became G-3 of the Fifth U.S. Army. After a month in that position he worked as an Army planner on the Sicilian invasion, and was then appointed operations officer on General Alexander's combined headquarters staff. In October 1943 he went to the United Kingdom to head the Plans and Operations Section of COSSAC, a post he was holding when he was appointed chief of the Operations Section, G-3 Division, SHAEF.
GEN. SIR BERNARD PAGET was commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, at the outbreak of war. He then took command of the 13th Division in East Anglia and in the spring of 1940 commanded British forces in the Andalsnes area during the expedition to Norway. After Dunkerque he was named Chief of Staff, Home Forces, and then served for a time as chief of the Southeast Command. When General Brooke became Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1942, General Paget succeeded him as commander of Home Forces. As head of this command, Paget was a member of the Combined Commanders. When the 21 Army Group was established in the summer of 1943, he was named to command it. On 24 December 1943 he was assigned to the Middle East Command.
LT. GEN. ALEXANDER M. PATCH was in command of the Infantry Replacement Center at Camp Croft, N. C., at the outbreak of war. In the spring of 1942 he commanded a U.S. infantry division in New Caledonia, and on 8 December 1942 he assumed command of Army, Navy, and Marine forces operating against the enemy on Guadalcanal. He became commander of the XIV Corps in January 1943. In April of that year he returned to the United States where he took command of the IV Corps. He was designated commanding general of Seventh Army in March 1944, and in August of that year brought it into southern France. He commanded it in Alsace during that fall and winter and led it into Germany the following spring. In July 1945 he became commanding general of the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., where he died in November 1945.
GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON, JR., commanded the ground elements of the Western Task Force in the landings in North Africa in November 1942. In March 1943 he assumed command of the II Corps in Tunisia. In April of that year he began the work of planning the invasion of Sicily. He commanded the U.S. forces in the assault on that island. His headquarters was renamed Seventh U.S. Army after the landings in Sicily. He was brought to the United Kingdom as commander of the Third U.S. Army in the spring of 1944. It became active on the Continent on 1 August 1944 and under his direction campaigned in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. After the war's end he became commanding general of the Fifteenth Army. He died as a result of an automobile accident in December 1945.
MR. CHARLES B. P. PEAKE entered the British diplomatic service in 1922. In 1939 he was made head of the News Department of the Foreign Office and Chief Press Adviser to the Ministry of Information. In 1941 he was temporarily attached to Viscount Halifax as personal assistant in Washington and promoted to be a counsellor of embassy. From 1942 to 1943 he was the British representative to the French National Committee and in October 1943 he was appointed to General Eisenhower's staff as political liaison officer to the Supreme Commander with the rank of minister.
AMBASSADOR WILLIAM PHILLIPS began his career in the foreign service of the United States as private secretary of the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain in 1903. Among his important appointments after that time were Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1920, Undersecretary of the Department of State, 1922–24 and 1933–36, Ambassador to Italy, 1936–41, and personal representative of the President to India, 1942–43. He was appointed political adviser to the COSSAC staff in September 1943 and held the same position at SHAEF from its activation until September 1944.
MARSHAL OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE SIR CHARLES PORTAL served as an observer and fighter pilot in World War I. In the 1930's he commanded the British Forces in Aden and was Director of Organization, Air Ministry. Early in World War II he served on the Air Council and was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Bomber Command. He was appointed Chief of the Air Staff in October 1940.
GROSSADMIRAL ERICH RAEDER served in fleet and staff service during World War I. He was commander in chief of the German Navy from 1935 until 1943, when at his own request he was replaced by Doenitz and appointed Inspector General of the German Navy (Admiralinspekteur der Kriegsmarine), a nominal title.
ADMIRAL BERTRAM H. RAMSAY retired in 1938 after forty-two years in the Royal Navy, serving the last three as Chief of Staff, Home Fleet. He was recalled to duty in 1939 as Flag Officer Commanding, Dover, and in that post organized the naval forces for the evacuation of Dunkerque. Later he helped plan the TORCH operation, commanded a task force in the Sicilian invasion, and became British naval commander in the Mediterranean. He was appointed Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force, in the fall of 1943 and served in that post until his death in a plane crash in France on 1 January 1945.
MR. SAMUEL REBER entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1926. He was stationed in Washington at the beginning of the war, but went to Martinique on a special mission in early 1942. After the landings in North Africa he was transferred to Mr. Murphy's staff in Algiers. From there he went to Italy in October 1943 as a member first of the Allied military mission and later of the Allied Control Commission. While in Italy he was attached for special duty to the Fifth Army. He left Italy in July 1944 and joined SHAEF as a political adviser.
MAJ. GEN. HAROLD REDMAN was instructing at the British Staff College in 1939. He was then appointed to the War Cabinet Secretariat. In 1940 he was given command of a battalion in the United Kingdom. From June to December 1941 he commanded an infantry brigade in the Middle East. At the end of the year he was selected to be Brigadier General Staff, Headquarters Eighth Army. In March 1942 he returned again to a brigade command, which he held until 1943 when he was appointed secretary to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In August 1944 he was promoted to major general and became deputy commander of the French Forces of the Interior. In the following month he was appointed deputy head of the SHAEF mission to France.
AIR MARSHAL JAMES M. ROBB went to Canada at the beginning of the war to help plan the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. In 1940 he became commander of the No. 2 Bomber Group in the United Kingdom. Later, he was made chief of the No. 15 Fighter Group, commanding the Western Approaches to the United Kingdom. In 1942, he served as deputy chief of Combined Operations Headquarters and then acted for a brief period as air commander at Gibraltar during the invasion of North Africa. He next served as air adviser to General Eisenhower. On the formation of the Northwest African Air Forces in 1943, he became commander of RAF North Africa and deputy to General Spaatz in the Northwest African Air Forces. He became Deputy Chief of Staff (Air), SHAEF, in March 1944. On the dissolution of AEAF in October 1944, he became Chief of the Air Staff (SHAEF).
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL ERWIN ROMMEL served as an infantry officer in World War I. In August 1939 he was assigned as commandant of the Fuehrerhauptquartier, a position he held until February 1940. Rommel participated in the French campaign as Commander of the Seventh Panzer Division. In February 1941 he was assigned to command the German troops assisting the Italians in North Africa. Rommel remained in Africa from September 1941 until March 1943 and commanded first Panzer Army Africa and later Army Group Africa. In the late summer of 1943 Rommel was assigned as commander of Army Group B in northern Italy. In the fall and winter of 1943 he conducted surveys of coastal defenses in the west. In January 1944 he again became commander of Army Group B in the west and retained this position until he was severely wounded in July 1944. Rommel, suspected of complicity in the plot of 20 July 1944, was forced to commit suicide in October 1944.
MAJ. GEN. LOWELL W. ROOKS was chief of the training division of Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, in March 1942. In June of that year he became chief of staff of II Corps. He was named G-3 of Headquarters, North African Theater of Operations, when that headquarters was organized, and in January 1944 he was named deputy chief of staff of Allied Force Headquarters. In March 1945 he became Deputy G-3, SHAEF. In this position he helped to liquidate OKW at the end of the war.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL GERD VON RUNDSTEDT served as chief of staff of various division and corps headquarters in World War I. He was retired in October 1938. In June 1939 he was recalled to command Army Group South in the Polish campaign. After a very short term as Commander in Chief East in occupied Poland he was redesignated as commander in chief of Army Group A and transferred to the Western Front. In May 1940 his forces broke through the Ardennes and advanced to the Channel coast. In October 1940 he was designated as Commander in Chief West, a position he held until the transfer of his headquarters to the east in the spring of 1941. During the Russian campaign von Rundstedt commanded Army Group South (formerly Army Group A) from June until December 1941, when at his own request he was relieved of command because of ill health. In March 1942 he was assigned as Commander in Chief West. He retained this position until he was relieved early in July 1944. Von Rundstedt was reassigned to his former position as Commander in Chief West on 4 September 1944 and remained as such until his final relief on 10 March 1945. He was taken prisoner in Bad Toelz on 1 May 1945.
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL FERDINAND SCHOERNER served as an infantry officer in World War I. From September 1939 until October 1943, he served with mountain troops, rising from regimental to corps commander. After a short time as an armored corps commander on the Eastern Front and then as a staff officer at OKH, he was assigned as acting commander in chief of Army Group A on the Eastern Front. Schoerner was appointed commander in chief of Army Group A in May 1944 and transferred to Army Group North as commander-in chief in July 1944. In January 1945 he became commander of Army Group Center.
LT. GEN. WILLIAM H. SIMPSON, veteran of overseas service in World War I, held the command of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2d Division, in June 1940. He was given command of the Infantry Replacement Training Center of the Army in April 1941. Six months later he became commanding general of the 35th Division, and he served from April to September 1942 as commander of the 30th Division. For one month he commanded the XII Corps. In September 1943 he was placed at the head of the Fourth Army. In the spring of 1944 an additional army headquarters (the Eighth) was formed from the Fourth Army, and General Simpson was made commander of the new headquarters. He took it to the United Kingdom in May 1944 and remained as its head when it was renumbered the Ninth Army. He commanded the Ninth Army in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
LT. GEN. WALTER BEDELL SMITH was assistant secretary of the General Staff in October 1939. He became Secretary, General Staff, in September 1941. In February 1942 he was named U.S. secretary of the Combined Chiefs of Staff and secretary of the Joint Board. General Eisenhower chose him in September 1942 to be chief of staff of the European Theater of Operations. Later he became chief of staff of the Allied forces in North Africa and of the Mediterranean theater. At the end of 1943, he became chief of staff of SHAEF.
GEN. CARL SPAATZ served with the First Aero Squadron of the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916. During World War I he won the Distinguished Service Cross in combat over St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne. In 1940 he was sent to the United Kingdom as an official observer of the Battle of Britain. On his return to the United States he became commander of the Air Corps Materiel Division. At the beginning of 1942 he became chief of the Army Air Forces Combat Command. In May of that year he was given the command of the Eighth Air Force, which he took to the United Kingdom in the following July. Shortly thereafter he also became Commanding General, U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe. At the close of the year he was appointed commander of the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa. Two months later he was named commander of the Northwest African Air Forces. When the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces headquarters was established in 1943 under Air Chief Marshal Tedder, General Spaatz became its deputy commander. In January 1944 he went back to the United Kingdom where he assumed command of the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe.
MAJ. GEN. KENNETH W. D. STRONG served as assistant military attaché in Berlin shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, and in the first one and a half years of the war as head of the German Section, War Office. Later he commanded a battalion and then became chief of intelligence of Home Forces. In February 1943 he was appointed G-2 of Allied Force Headquarters in the Mediterranean. In this capacity he helped General Smith in armistice negotiations with the Italians. In the spring of 1944 he became G-2 of SHAEF.
GENERALOBERST KURT STUDENT was one of Germany's first fighter pilots—in 1913—and served in the Luftwaffe during World War I. After the outbreak of World War II, he took an active part in the paratroop attack on Rotterdam and in May 1941 commanded the paratroop attack on Crete. When the Allies invaded Europe, Student held the position of Commander of Paratroops in OKL in Berlin, and from 3 September until 31 October 1944 he was commander of the First Parachute Army under Army Group B in the Albert Canal-Maastricht sector. For the next three months he commanded Army Group Student, later renamed Army Group H, in Holland. During the month of April 1945 he again commanded the First Parachute Army in the Weser-Ems area. For the remaining week of the war, General Student commanded Army Group Weichsel on the Eastern Front. He was captured on 28 May 1945 near Flensburg.
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR ARTHUR W. TEDDER served as British air commander in the Middle East in 1942, helping to stop Rommel's advance toward Egypt. His forces also contributed to the success of the El Alamein attack and the subsequent drive toward Tunisia. From February 1943 until the end of the year, he served as Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, which included RAF Middle East, RAF Malta Air Command, and the Northwest African Air Forces. In January 1944 he was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander, SHAEF.
LT. GEN. HOYT S. VANDENBERG served from June 1939 to June 1942 as assistant chief of the Plans Division in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps. From June to August 1942 he was chief of the organization and equipment section in the A-3 Division of the same office. He went overseas in August 1942 as chief of staff of the Twelfth Air Force and served in that capacity until August of the following year. From August 1943 to March 1944 he was deputy chief of the Air Staff in Washington. He filled the post of Deputy Air Commander, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, from March to August 1944, and was then appointed to the command of the Ninth Air Force.
MAJ. GEN. C. H. H. VULLIAMY served in 1939-40 as chief signal officer of the Antiaircraft Defence of Great Britain. In 1940 he became chief signal officer of a corps in Northern Ireland. He held a similar post in an army in 1941-42 before going to the Middle East Command as chief signal officer in 1943. In November of that year he became head of the Signals Division of COSSAC, and in February 1944 became chief of the Signal Division, SHAEF. He held this post until the spring of 1945.
MAJ. GEN. J. F. M. WHITELEY, veteran of World War I, in which he was awarded the Military Cross, served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General India from 1932 to 1934. In the following year he became General Staff Officer, War Office, continuing as such until 1938. In World War II he served as deputy chief of staff at Allied Force Headquarters, was assigned briefly as chief of intelligence at SHAEF, and became Deputy G-3, SHAEF, in May 1944.
GENERALOBERST KURT ZEITZLER served as an infantry officer in World War I. In World War II he served as a corps chief of staff in the Polish and French campaigns and as chief of staff of First Panzer Group, later First Panzer Army, in Russia in 1941. After a short tour as chief of staff of OB WEST he was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff in September 1942. He was relieved of this position in July 1944 and retired from the Army in January 1945.
*The rank given in each biography is the highest held by the individual concerned during the 1944–45 period. Unless otherwise noted, the last position given for each name on the list was the one held at the end of the war.
