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Last updated 19 October 2004 |
1. General Chaney had been serving as the Special Army Observer in the United Kingdom and head of the American mission called the Special Observer Group (SPOBS) since May 1941. British-American military staffs agreed during their meetings in Washington, January-March 1941 (ABC-l Conversations), to exchange military missions to facilitate planning for the eventuality of American entry in the war. General Chaney arrived on 18 May 1941, and on the following day Headquarters, SPOBS, was established in London. After the United States entered the war, SPOBS was succeeded by USAFBI, actually SPOBS under a new name. At the time of the ARCADIA Conference, December 1941-January 1942, the decision was made to place the MAGNET force (U. S. Forces for North Ireland) under the command of Maj. Gen. E. L. Daley, and make him in turn responsible to General Chaney, designated as CG, USAFBI.
2. ETOUSA (successor to USAFBI) was a joint command in which, by agreement of U. S. War and Navy Departments, the Army exercised planning and operational control under the principle of unity of command over all U. S. Navy forces assigned to that theater. Iceland (INDIGO) was included in the ETO in June 1942. General Eisenhower, while he was commanding the invasion of North Africa, remained in command of ETO through a deputy, Maj. Gen. R. P. Hartile, until 3 February 1943.
3. General Devers assumed command in ETO, after the death of General Andrews on 3 May 1943 in an airplane accident.
4. TAG issued orders on 31 December 1943 transferring General Eisenhower to duty as CG, ETOUSA, and relieving General Devers from that theater and assigning the latter to command U. S. Forces in NATO. The effective date of the exchange was to be arranged between these officers. General Devers was relieved of the command on 8 January 1944, but General Eisenhower did not arrive in London until 15 January 1944.
5. General Eisenhower was notified by the CCS on 10 December 1943 that he had been appointed Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force (for OVERLORD), a combined command, and that prior to his assuming command early in January he was to return to Washington for conferences with General Marshall and the CCS. Soon after his notification in early December 1943 that he had been appointed supreme commander, General Eisenhower began to lay his plans and arrange for the adjustment of command and staff assignments for his organization for OVERLORD. Following a hurried trip to the United States at the beginning of the new year, he arrived in London on 15 January 1944. His appointment as supreme commander did not become "formally official" until his receipt of a directive from the CCS on 14 February 1944. In the period 15 January-14 February 1944 General Eisenhower conducted planning for OVERLORD with the COSSAC staff, the Allied planning agency, which had come under his control upon his arrival in the United Kingdom and which he proceeded to expand into the headquarters which became known as SHAEF. COSSAC formally changed its name to SHAEF on 15 January 1944. SHAEF was not officially activated, however, until 13 February 1944. SHAEF was inactivated on 16 July 1945.
6. JCS 1400, approved and dispatched to General Eisenhower on 27 June 1945, provided for the redesignation of ETOUSA as USFET. This message also designated General Eisenhower as Commander in Chief, U. S. Forces of Occupation in Germany. Gen. Mark Clark was designated as Commander in Chief, U. S. Forces of Occupation in Austria. ETOUSA was redesignated USFET effective 1 July 1945.
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Last updated 19 October 2004 |