Endnotes for Chapter IV

1 See Ch. II.

2 General Gerow was fifty-two years old when assigned as WPD chief in 1940. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and accepted a commission in the Infantry in 1911, ten years after General Marshall's graduation from the same school. Until April 1935 he had served in the Infantry continuously except for about three years (1918-21) when he was on duty with the Signal Corps, mostly in France during and shortly after World War I. He reported to WPD as a major, was shortly promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, became Division executive under General Krueger in May 1936, and worked in that capacity until his tour ended in March 1939. In less than two years he was recalled to Washington to take over WPD. For approximately a year he served with the title of Acting Assistant Chief of Staff. The modifying term "Acting" was necessary because, having left the Division only twenty months before, he could not meet the peacetime requirement for two years of service with troops just previous to formal administrative action reassigning an officer to a regular detail in the General Staff Corps. On 24 December 1941 he finally received the formal designation of Assistant Chief of Staff. He became a permanent colonel 1 September 1940 and a temporary brigadier general 1 October 1940. From WPD General Gerow moved on to a career in the field with combat forces. He successively commanded the 29th Infantry Division the V Corps (which he led ashore in Normandy in June 1944), and the Fifteenth Army in Europe. He held the rank of lieutenant general at the end of hostilities.

3 WPD adm memo, May 41, sub: Orgn and Functions of WPD, WPD 3354-55. Several quotations from this memo are contained in succeeding paragraphs without separate citations.

4 See the accompanying chart.

5 There is no record of an official grant of authority to WPD to perform this function. However, no other agency could possibly have done it because WPD maintained the only Army file of Joint Board papers. For dependence on members of the Army Joint Planning Committee for supervision of "follow-up action by the Army on Joint Board decisions," see informal memo, Lt Comdr S. F. Bryant, USN, no addressee, 6 May 24, sub: Jt Planning Com and JB Procedure, copy filed Misc Folder 19, JB files, P&O.
By 1941 procedural custom had solidified sufficiently for WPD to state, without citation of authority: "WPD is the War Department agency designated to implement The Joint Board decisions." See Guides for WPD Officers to Supplement the Green Book, Item 4, OPD Hist Unit file.

6 For WPD authorization to take action on certain Joint Board cases, see memo, WPD for CofS, 22 May 41, sub: Jt Army and Navy Procedure, WPD 3963-3.

7 Memo for rcd, 19 Dec 41, sub: WPD Membership on Departmental and Interdepartmental Bds, etc., WPD 3797-8. WPD was represented on thirteen boards and committees at the end of 1941.

8 E.g., see WPD charts, Tab C, Item 7, Exec 4.

9 (1) For an explanation of the "Overseas Defense Projects" drafted by General Gerow in an earlier period, see memo, WPD for G-1, 24 Feb 39, sub: Increase in Almt of Commissioned Pers for WPD, WPD 3354-25. (2) Cf. memo, WPD for TAG, 26 May 37, sub: Jt Plan for Def of Panama Canal, WPD 1621-10.

10 WPD adm memo, May 41, sub: Orgn and Functions of WPD, WPD 3354-55. Cf. orgn chart, 30 Jun 41, in Orgn Survey of WPD, WDGS, 26 Jul 41, atchd to ltr, A. H. Onthank to CofS, envelope with OPD 321.19 OPD.

11 For detailed study of WPD's organization and personnel, January-December 1941, see OPD Hist Unit Study E.

12 (1) Memo, WPD for CofS, 7 Feb 41, sub: Pers Reqmts for WPD, WPD 3354-47. (2) Memo, WPD for CofS, 24 Jun 41, sub: Dtl of Add Offs for Dy in WPD, WPD 3354-55.

13 WPD adm memo, 5 Dec 41, sub: Orgn, WPD, Paper 20, Item 2A, OPD Hist Unit file. This list properly does not include General McNarney, still in England though nominally assigned to WPD.

14 For personnel procurement in general in this period, see WPD 3354 (Pers Asgmt) as a whole. For a good example, see: (1) note, Brig Gen Gerow for Lt Col W. P. Scobey, Sep 41, WPD 3354-2; (2) list, Sep 41, sub: Dtl of Offs to WPD, WPD 3354-2; (3) memo, WPD for G-1, 9 Sep 41, sub: Request for Dtl of Offs, WPD 3354-2.

15 (1) List, 24 Mar 39, title: Employees by Name, Gr, Rate of Pay, and Divs, OCS, G-1 file 15466-12A, filed with G-1/16054-5, G-1 file, Army Dept Rcds Br. The other staff divisions had considerably larger civilian staffs. (2) WPD Civ Pers roster, 24 Nov 41, Paper 79, Item 2A, OPD Hist Unit file. (3) WPD Civ Pers roster, 18 Dec 41, Paper 78, Item 2A, OPD Hist Unit file.

16 As late as December 1941, WPD officers were assigned custody of Registered War Plans (color plans) of the static type developed in the 1920's, prepared, that is, without reference to the current international situation. Seven color plans were current at the time. See list, 1 Dec 41, title: WPD Custodians of Registered Documents, Tab B, Item 7, Exec 4.

17 War Department RAINBOW 5 consisted of two registered plans: War Department Operations Plan RAINBOW 5 (WPD WDOP-R5) and War Department Concentration Plan RAINBOW 5 (WPD WDCP-R5-41). The War Department plans are closely connected with and based upon the same premises as Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan RAINBOW 5 (JBWP-R5). Copies of the various RAINBOW plans and drafts are among the obsolete registered documents of Plans and Operations, GSUSA, in classified files, AGO.

18 The situations postulated in RAINBOWS 1, 3, 4, and 5 are set forth in the Draft of Joint Board Directives submitted in JB 325, ser 642, 11 May 39, sub: Jt Army and Navy Bsc War Plans. The situation postulated in RAINBOW 2, added to this list as a result of a recommendation by the Joint Planning Committee, was set forth in JB 325, ser 642, 23 Jun 39, sub: Alternative Situations Set Up in Directive for Jt RAINBOW Plans. The original directives issued by the Joint Board were drafted by the chief of WPD and his Navy counterpart. This procedure was suggested in memo, WPD for CofS, 2 May 39, sub: JB 325, ser 634, WPD 4175-1.

19 (1) JB 325, ser 642/JB 325, ser 642-1, 9 Apr 40, sub: Jt Army and Navy Bsc War Plans—RAINBOW. (2) Memo, WPD for CofS, 10 Jul 41, sub: WD Oper Plan RAINBOW 1, 1940, and WD Concentration Plan, 1940, WPD 4175-11.

20 See correspondence in WPD 4175, especially memo, WPD for G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4, sub: Color Plans, RAINBOW, WPD 4175-13.

21 JB 325, ser 642/JB 325, ser 642-1, 9 Apr 40, sub: Jt Army and Navy Bsc War Plans-RAINBOW.

22 Memo, WPD for G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4, 17 Jun 40, sub: Color Plans, RAINBOW, WPD 4175-13.

23 WPD files contain studies on "Main Courses of Action to Meet a RAINBOW No. 5 Situation" prepared as early as May 1940. See RAINBOW 5 Development File in OPD Registered Documents. The fall of France virtually nullified this work. For later WPD activities, see: (1) memo, WPD for G-2, 14 Dec 40, sub: RAINBOW 5, WPD 4175-18; (2) memo, WPD for CofAC, 18 Dec 40, sub: Data for RAINBOW 5, WPD 4175-18; (3) memo, Gen Marshall for Rear Admiral H. R. Stark, 29 Nov 40, sub: Tentative Draft, Navy Bsc War Plan-RAINBOW 3, WPD 4175-15.

24 JB 325, ser 674, 14 Dec 40, sub: Jt Instrs for Army and Navy Representatives for Holding Stf Convs with British, Including Agenda for Convs.

25 (1) Memo, WPD for CofS, 26 Dec 40, sub: Army Representatives for Stf Convs with Great Britain, WPD 4402. (2) Ltr, TAG to Maj Gen Embick, 30 Dec 40, AG 334.8 (12-26-40).

26 (1) JB 325, ser 674, 21 Jan 41, sub: Jt Instrs . . . (2) Memo, FDR, 26 Jan 41, copy filed JB 325, ser 674, P&O rcds. (3) For WPD action, see memo, WPD for CofS, 14 Jan 41, sub: Stf Convs with British, WPD 4402-1. (4) Brig Gen Gerow's personal ABC-l papers, Item 11, Exec 4.

27 For a note on the use of U. S. Army forces, e.g., see memo, WPD for CofS, 5 Mar 41, sub: US-British Stf Convs, WPD 4402-3.

28 (1) US-British Stf Convs: Rpt and Annexes, 27 Mar 41, Short Title ABC-1. (2) US-British Stf Convs: Air Collaboration, 29 Mar 41, Short Title ABC-2. For minutes of ABC-l meetings and an extensive collection of papers considered at the conference, see five folders filed WPD 4402-89. According to War Department oral tradition, "ABC" as a designation for British-American staff agreements was a derivation from the phrase "American-British Conversations."

29 Promoted to brigadier general 7 April 1941.

30 JB 325, ser 642-5, 30 Apr 41, sub: Jt Bsc War Plan—RAINBOW 5 and Rpt of US-British Stf Convs, Mar 27, 41.

31 Ltr, SW and SN to President, 2 Jun 41, copy filed JB 325, ser 642-5, P&O rcds.

32 Memo, Secy JB for CofS, 9 Jun 41, sub: JB 325, ser 642-5—Jt Army and Navy Bsc War Plan—RAINBOW 5 and Rpt of US-British Stf Convs—ABC-1, WPD 4175-18. The Chief of Staff stated that the President, although he had not approved RAINBOW 5, "is not disapproving it, and we can go ahead with our tentative arrangements." The British had similarly withheld approval of the US-British Commonwealth Joint Basic War Plan. Notes on Conferences in OSW, 10 Jun 41, Vol. I, WDCSA rcds.
Minor revisions in RAINBOW 5 were approved by the Joint Board on 19 November 1941 as set forth in JB 325, ser 642-5, Revision 1, 7 Nov 41, sub: Proposed Changes in Jt Army and Navy Bsc War Plan—RAINBOW 5.

33 The rearmament program and the problem of foreign aid is treated in some detail in this series in Watson, Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations, Chs. X and XI.

34 Memo, USW R. P. Patterson for SW, 18 Apr 41, sub: Ultimate Mun Pdn Essential to Safety of America, WPD 4494.

35 Memo, Lt Col Bundy for ACofS WPD, 20 May 41, sub: Coordination of Planning and Supply, WPD 4321-12.

36 (1) WDCSA Notes on Conferences, 21 May 41, WDCSA Binder 15. (2) Memo, WPD for CofS, 7 Jun 41, sub: Ultimate Mun Pdn . . ., WPD 4494.

37 Ltr, President to SW, 9 Jul 41, photostat copy filed WPD 4494-1.

38 Memo, Brig Gen Gerow for ASW McCoy, S Aug 41, no sub, Tab G, Item 7, Exec 4.

39 (1) Memo, WPD for CofS, 19 Sep 41, sub: Resume of Conferences, etc., WPD 4494-12. (2) Cf. memo, WPD for CofS, 8 Dec 41, sub: Army and Navy Est of U. S. Over-All Pdn Reqmts, WPD 4494-21.

40 JB 355, ser 707, 11 Sep 41, sub: JB Est, etc., Parts II and III of App. II. Since no Joint Board action on Serial 707 was ever taken, the papers remained simply the estimates of the Army and Navy. They had "already been acted upon by the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Staff" in October 1941. See min of JB meetings, 22 Oct 41. For WPD background on the "Victory Program," see WPD 4494 file. JB Serial 707 is filed WPD 4494-13. App. II contains the Army estimate, Parts I and II being WPD's study, including Army Air Forces summary statistics, and Part III being a detailed study by the Army Air Forces, WPD.

41 Memo, Actg ACofS WPD for CofS, 12 Aug 40, sub: Allocation of Responsibilities Between WPD and GHQ, WPD 3209-5.
This chapter presents only the aspects of the GHQ story that affected the status and work of WPD. For the full treatment of GHQ, see K. R. Greenfield and R. R. Palmer, "Origins of the Army Ground Forces: General Headquarters, United States Army, 1940-42," in The Organization of Ground Combat Troops, UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II (Washington, D. C., 1947). This study hereafter is cited as Greenfield and Palmer, "GHQ, US Army, 1940-42."

42 Informal memo, SGS for CofS, 1 May 41, WDCSA Binder 15.

43 (1) Diary, Brig Gen Gerow, entry for 17 Jun 41, Item 1, Exec 10. (2) Note for rcd, Brig Gen Gerow, 17 Jun 41, WPD 3209-11.

44 Memo, Actg ACofS WPD for CofS, 19 Jun 41, sub: Enlargement of Functions of GHQ, WPD 3209-10.

45 (1) AG ltr, 3 Jul 41, sub: Enlargement of Functions of GHQ, AG 320.2 (6-19-41) MC-E-M. (2) Memo, WPD for TAG, 28 Jun 41, same sub, WPD 3209-10.

46 (1) Diary, Brig Gen Gerow, entry for 15 Jun 41, Item 1, Exec 10. (2) Memo, WPD for G-1, 13 Jun 41, sub: Orders, WPD 3354-53. General Malony reported to GHQ 15 June 1941.

47 For a full account of GHQ work, see Greenfield and Palmer, "GHQ, US Army, 1940-42."

48 For a brief administrative report of the most important of GHQ's early accomplishments, see memo, GHQ for CG Fld Forces, 15 Sep 41, sub: Quarterly Rpt of Planning and Opns Activities. GHQ, WPD 3209-14.

49 Memo, WPD for CofS, 19 Jun 41, sub: Enlargement of Functions of GHQ, WPD 3209-10.

50 WPD chart approved by CofS, Jul 41, title: Opn of GHQ-Relation of GHQ to WD, copy atchd to memo, WPD for CofS, 21 Jul 41, sub: GHQ Functional Chart, WPD 3209-10. G-4 did not concur in this allocation of responsibilities.

51 Memo for file, 30 Jun 41, WPD 4247-18.

52 For Army Air Forces hostility to the GHQ system, see Chs. V and VI.

53 Memo, G-4 for WPD, 24 Jan 42, sub: Coordination Between WPD; G-4, WDGS; GHQ and O'seas Theater Comdrs, WPD 3963-23.

54 Memo, GHQ for CofS, 25 Jul 41, sub: Def Comds, WPD 4558, Tab. 1.

55 Memo, GHQ for WPD, 2 Sep 41, sub: Functions, Responsibility, and Auth of GHQ, WPD 4558. Tab 10.

56 Pearl Harbor Attack: Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Part 3, p. 1187.

57 Foreword, Command and Staff Principles.

58 Memo, Brig Gen Gerow for Col Bundy, 20 Nov 41, no sub, WPD 4493-174.

59 AG ltr, 13 Oct 41, sub: Asgmt of Colors as Code Designations of WD Plans and Projects, AG 311.5 (9-29-41) MC-E-M.

60 Projects Gp roster, with duties assigned to offs, 24 Sep 41, Paper 30, Item 2A, OPD Hist Unit file. One officer was designated as "WPD adviser on AA Artillery and AWS [Air Warning Service] matters," another, as "WPD adviser on Harbor Defense matters." One officer had "Miscellaneous" assigned to him as well as British, Guiana, South American bases, St. Lucia, and Trinidad.

61 Notes on Conferences in OCS, I, 12, WDCSA rcds. For an example of the detailed instructions General Marshall gave WPD concerning the preparation of important studies, see Notes on Conferences in OCS, II, 389-91.

62 WPD adm memo, 16 May 41, sub: Orgn and Procedure, Paper 109, Item 2A, OPD Hist Unit file.

63 WPD draft memo for CofS, sub: Delegation of Auth by Head of WPD, WPD 3963-20. This memorandum is undated but refers to the "Chiefs of Plans and Projects Groups," positions which existed May-December 1941.

64 Note, Maj C. K. Gailey, Jr., Exec WPD for Brig Gen Gerow, n.d., atchd to WPD draft memo for CofS, sub: Delegation of Auth . . ., WPD 3963-20. After receiving Major Gailey's comment, General Gerow wrote on it: "No action at present, G."

65 Memo, Brig Gen McNarney for ACofS WPD, 8 Apr 41, sub: Allocation of Responsibilities Between WPD and GHQ, WPD 3209-7.

66 Memo, GHQ for CofS, 25 Jul 41, sub: Def Comds, WPD 4558, Tab 1. The specific bases in question were in Alaska, the Caribbean, and the North Atlantic.

67 Memo, WPD for CofS, 11 Aug 41, sub: Activation of Alaskan and Caribbean Def Comds and North Atlantic Def Comd (Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland), WPD 4558, Tab 3.

68 (1) Memo, DCS for WPD, G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, AAF, and GHQ, 12 Aug 41, no sub, WPD 4558. (2) Memo, DCS for WPD, G-1, etc., 14 Aug 41, no sub, WPD 4558.

69 AR 95-5, 20 Jun 41.

70 See Craven and Cate, AAF I, Chs. 2 and 3 for developing Army Air Forces autonomy and Ch. 7, pp. 258-65, for the GHQ issue and the 1942 reorganization of the War Department. For parallel treatment of the GHQ issue, see Greenfield and Palmer, "GHQ, US Army, 1940-42," Chs. IX, X.

71 AR 95-5, 20 Jun 41.

72 Draft memo, AAF (AWPD) for CofS, n.d., sub: Allocation of Responsibilities Between WPD of GS and AWPD of AS, ASWA 320.2 (10-4-41). Notation on memorandum states "written 4 October 1941."

73 (1) Draft memo, WPD for AAF, Oct 41, sub: Allocation of Responsibilities . . ., ASW A 320.2 (10-4-41). No copy is in WPD files, the draft evidently having been handed informally to the Army Air Forces. (2) Memo, Lt Col K. N. Walker (AWPD) for CofAS, 14 Oct 41, sub: Allocation of Responsibilities . . ., ASWA 320.2 (10-4-41). Penciled note attached reads: "Think Mr. Lovett should see this as an example of Army Air Force autonomy and what part the General Staff thinks we play in the present organization. H. G."

74 (1) Draft, AR 95-5, n.d., Tab Q, Item 7, Exec 4. This copy was circulated for concurrence. It differed from an earlier, 6 October, draft chiefly in designating the various parts of the Air Staff as "Air Divisions of the General Staff." (2) Cf. draft, AR 95-5, 6 Oct 41, Air Corps 300.3 AR 95-5, Air Corps 1941 files, Hist Rcds Sec, AG Rcds Br.

75 Memo, WPD for CofS, 12 Nov 41, sub: Revision of AR 95-5, copies in WPD 3774-20 and Tab Q, Item 7, Exec 4. A note attached to the latter copy states that the action officer, Lt. Col. W. K. Harrison, drew up the study on the basis of comments by Colonels Bundy and Handy, Col. R. W. Crawford, and General Gerow.

76 The action of the committee and General Marshall's position are described in memo, GHQ for DCofS, 21 Oct 41, sub: Functions, Responsibilities, and Auth of GHQ, WPD 4558, Tab 12.

77 Unused memo, WPD for CofS, n.d., sub: Orgn of Army High Comd, WPD 4618. The study bears no indication of author. Since this study was never officially dispatched to the Chief of Staff, it was stamped "NOT USED." In an interview with the author and Maj. D. H. Richards of the OPD History Unit, 15 October 1946, General Gerow stated that study of the reorganization problem was the work of Colonel Harrison, who represented WPD in all the later activities incident to the reorganization. General Gerow of course familiarized himself with the ideas in it (OPD Hist Unit Interv file). This unused WPD study clearly antedates official recommendation of the general plan by the Army Air Forces. The WPD draft memorandum is undated except for a stamped "November 1941," probably the filing date. The end limiting date for its composition was 30 September 1941 because the paper recommended appointment of a reorganization board to report "not later than September 30, 1941." In an interview with the author, 16 April 1947, General Harrison stated that he worked out the main ideas in the reorganization plan early in 1941 and drafted his unused study in August, when it was approved by the committee which resolved in favor of reorganizing the War Department as the only solution of the GHQ problem (OPD Hist Unit Interv file).

78 Ibid.

79 For official WPD proposal, see WPD draft memo for CofS, 30 Aug 41, sub: Functions, Responsibilities, and Auth of GHQ, WPD 4558.
In his October 1946 interview with the author and Major Richards, General Gerow stated that General Marshall had indicated that he still wished to keep his command post outside the War Department, as in the case of GHQ (OPD Hist Unit Interv file). In his April 1947 interview with the author, General Harrison stated that one of General Gerow's principal reasons for refusing to approve the Harrison reorganization plan officially was a feeling that it was inappropriate for him to recommend so great an increase in power and responsibility for his own Division (OPD Hist Unit Interv file).

80 Memo, AAF for WPD, 24 Oct 41, sub: Functions . . ., WPD 4558, Tab 11. In his April interview with the author, General Harrison stated that he informally had urged Army Air Forces officers to take official action on this plan (OPD Hist Unit Interv file).

81 Memo, GHQ for DCofS, 21 Oct 41, sub: Functions . . ., WPD 4558, Tab 12. For General McNair's desire to "assist the War Department and facilitate operations," see particularly memo, GHQ for WPD, 2 Sep 41, sub: Functions. . ., WPD 4558, Tab 10.

82 Memo, AAF for WPD, 14 Nov 41, sub: Proposed Revision of Directive to GHQ, etc., WPD 3209-10, Tab G.

83 Memo, AAF for CofS, n.d., sub: Orgn of Armed Forces for War, WPD 4614. General Arnold's plan bears no date, but a chart attached to it as Tab A is dated 14 November. The second part of the memorandum dealt with the supra-War Department organization for national defense, a topic then coming to a deadlock in the Joint Board due to Army and Navy inability to agree.

84 Memo, WPD for CofS, 18 Nov 41, sub: Orgn of Armed Forces for War, WPD 4614.

85 Notes on Conferences in OCS, II, 424C, WDCSA rcds.

86.. Ibid, p. 424D.

87., Ibid, p. 424C.

88.. Memo, SGS for WPD, 25 Nov 41, WPD 4614.

Return to the Table of Contents

Search CMH Online
Last updated 19 October 2004