The rest of that day is history. Personally, I spent it praying for the invaders … and, like the rest of his official family, aching with sympathy for our apprehensive Boss.
Gen Eisenhower stood the appalling strain for another day. Then, in the early morning of June 7 it was 0720-H, just twenty-six hours after H-Hour he left for Normandy’s beaches. I fled to the lonely comfort of our trailer-headquarters. Working on the General’s “fan mail” never seemed so difficult, so unimportant; but it helped smother worries.
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Nov
30
2009
Oct
27
2009
Big Brass gathered for the Cairo Conference were concerned mostly with world-wide strategy. But they also wanted to hear testimony on the war raging right there in the Mediterranean… so Gen Marshall dispatched a special C-54 to bring the star witness. Instead of flying over in lonely pomp, Gen Eisenhower made a characteristic gesture. He invited about a dozen of his lower-rank staff members to go along : There’s no use wasting all the space in this big plane, he explained. Besides, it may be the only chance you’ll ever get to visit the Middle East.
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Aug
07
2009
The US Army fought World War II with matériel much of which was developed in the decade prior to our entry, particularly in the period following the German blitz in Poland. Our efforts to develop munitions to the point where our armies could cope on equal terms with those of potential enemies are covered here in this, the first of three projected volumes on the history of the Ordnance Department in World War II. How well the Ordnance Department succeeded in matching the Germans in quality continues to be a matter of debate both within the Ordnance Department itself, and between the using arms and the Department. That the battle of quantity was won with the help of a superb industrial machine can hardly be denied.
This volume, the result of diligent research by Dr. Constance McL. Green and her associates, should interest not only military men but also scientists, industrialists, and laymen in general. Among other things, it shows the urgent necessity of a directed, continuous, and intensive research program and the danger in failing to recognize and profit by developments abroad. Also shown is the inherent time interval between the drawing board and the production of the end item in quantity.
ORLANDO WARD
Washington, D.C. Maj. Gen., U.S.A.
15 January 1953 Chief of Military History
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