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 proceeded 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 the 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 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 Plizen.