Chapter 2: Command and Organization
Many American leaders in the Mediterranean theater did not share Churchill’s doubts over the value of ANVIL and its chances for success, and more than a few were convinced of its absolute necessity. If any effort had shown itself to be a dead end, it was clearly the Italian campaign where the difficult terrain had favored the defense and allowed a comparatively small number of German divisions to throttle the Allied advance northward for over a year. The temporary stalemate at Normandy in June and July 1944 only made the need for ANVIL more pressing. Yet, considering the demands of the other Allied theaters—including those in the Pacific—for ships and aircraft, for tanks and artillery, and above all for trained manpower, the men who would put together and lead the ANVIL assault and the ensuing thrust north toward the German heartland would have to be both daring and innovative. With the limited resources available for ANVIL, there would be little room for error or second thoughts during this most ambitious enterprise.
The High-Level Command Structure
Ultimate responsibility for planning and launching ANVIL rested with General Wilson as Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, whose combined headquarters was known as Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ).1 The land areas under Wilson’s jurisdiction included northwest Africa, Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, most of the islands in the Mediterranean (except Cyprus and Malta), and
southern France.2 Wilson’s deputy commander was Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, an American officer who was also the Commanding General, North African Theater of Operations, U.S. Army (NATOUSA), the U.S. Army’s senior administrative command in the Mediterranean.3 Devers’ NATOUSA organization functioned simultaneously as a U.S. Army headquarters and as the American component of AFHQ. In his capacity as commanding general of NATOUSA, Devers supervised the Services of Supply (SOS NATOUSA), commanded by Maj. Gen. Thomas B. Larkin, which was responsible for the logistical support of U.S. Army forces in the Mediterranean. General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander’s4 Headquarters, Allied Armies Italy, supported British forces in Italy, while Headquarters, North Africa District, handled British logistical functions in rear areas. Both logistical systems furnished support for other national forces—French, Polish, Greek, Yugoslavian, and Italian—with French requirements being met mainly through the Services of Supply, NATOUSA.
General Alexander also exercised operational control over all Allied ground forces in Italy, but allocated them to either Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark’s U.S. Fifth Army or Lt. Gen. Sir Oliver W. H. Lease’s British Eighth Army for actual employment. Allied forces outside Italy fell under a variety of smaller national commands. The U.S. Seventh Army headquarters, which was temporarily in reserve, was tentatively scheduled to command all ground forces participating in the ANVIL assault.
The Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean was Admiral Sir John H. D. Cunningham, who bore the somewhat confusing title of Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean.5 For the execution of the naval and amphibious phases of ANVIL, Admiral Cunningham created the Western Naval Task Force and placed this command under Vice Adm. Henry K. Hewitt (USN), who was also the commander of the U.S. Eighth Fleet. Hewitt integrated British, French, Greek, and Polish vessels into the various subdivisions of the Western Naval Task Force, along with the
Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers
ships and landing craft of his own Eighth Fleet.
Wilson’s air commander was Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker. Eaker served both as Commander in Chief, Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF), and as Commanding General, U.S. Army Air Forces, NATOUSA, and as such was administratively responsible to General Devers at NATOUSA headquarters. Eaker’s principal assistant for operations was Air Marshal Sir John C. Slessor, who was also the administrative commander of all British air formations in the theater.
Eaker’s MAAF consisted of three major commands: the Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Force (MATAF), under Maj. Gen. John K. Cannon, who was also Commanding General, U.S. Twelfth Air Force; the Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force, under Air Vice Marshal Sir Hugh P. Lloyd; and the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force, under Maj. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, also Commanding General, U.S. Fifteenth Air Force. Each command combined both British and American units; Cannon’s MATAF, for example, consisted of the Twelfth Air Force (less elements assigned to Coastal Air Force) and the British Desert Air Force. Eaker’s control over the Strategic Air Force was limited by the fact that Twining’s primary operational direction came from the U.S. Strategic Air Force, based in England and commanded by Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz.
While Eaker’s MAAF headquarters had general control and coordination of air support for ANVIL, he delegated responsibility for direct air support of ANVIL to Cannon’s MATAF. Cannon, in turn, appointed as tactical air task force commander Brig. Gen. Gordon P. Saville, the commander of the XII Tactical Air Command, Twelfth Air Force. British and French air units reinforced the XII Tactical Air Command during ANVIL, while the British Desert Air Force temporarily assumed most of the burden of air support for ground operations in Italy.
Although AFHQ was responsible for planning, mounting, and executing ANVIL, Allied planners knew that the ANVIL forces would ultimately pass to Eisenhower’s control, thereby unifying the command of all forces in northwestern Europe. No specific date was set for the passage of command, but Wilson intended to make the change when ANVIL troops had established physical contact with
Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Maj. Gen. John K. Cannon, General Devers, and Maj. Gen. Thomas B. Larkin.
OVERLORD forces or when Eisenhower might otherwise be able to exercise effective control over the units coming north from southern France.
The 6th Army Group and the First French Army
Allied planners envisaged that about the time the ANVIL forces passed to SHAEF control, an army group headquarters would be created in southern France to coordinate the activities of two army headquarters, one American and one French, which would be operational at the time of the transfer. At least indirectly, the French played a significant role in establishing an army group headquarters.6
Under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Committee of National Liberation and Chief of French Armed Forces, the French military leaders pressed for a high command position during ANVIL.7 De Gaulle wanted to regain for France the prestige lost during the 1940 debacle and also desired to enhance the importance of the Committee of National Liberation. This last aim complicated command discussions, for de Gaulle, seeking recognition for the committee as France’s lawful government, sought to have agreements concerning the command and employment of French forces consummated between the committee and the British and U.S. governments. But President Roosevelt refused to extend such recognition and persuaded the British to follow his lead, making agreements with the French only on the military level, that is, between de Gaulle and AFHQ. With little leverage at the time, de Gaulle was forced to accept American conditions, but the basic political controversy involving the legitimacy of de Gaulle’s French government-in-exile remained alive throughout the war.
When AFHQ brought the French into the ANVIL planning process, the French learned that virtually the entire Army of Free France would be employed in southern France—seven or eight divisions plus separate regiments
and battalions, support and service units, and so forth.8 Because of the size of their commitment, the French thus proposed that a senior French general serve as the ground commander under a higher American or British headquarters that also had appropriate air and naval components. To further justify the request, they pointed out that the initial American contribution to ANVIL would be limited to less than four division equivalents and cited the excellent combat record of their forces in Italy—the French Expeditionary Corps—which had operated as part of the U.S. Fifth Army. Finally, they pointed out that many of their troops had intimate knowledge of the terrain of southern France and that French guerrilla forces in the ANVIL area might rally more enthusiastically to French leadership than to American.
American military leaders, as might be expected, rejected the French proposals, and compromise came gradually. When Wilson pointed out that the French, with almost no experience in amphibious warfare, could play little part in the initial assault, de Gaulle agreed that the landings should be under American command. However, after the amphibious assault phase had ended, the French leader recommended that an army group headquarters be established to control the operations of two separate armies, one French and the other American, both advancing northward side by side. Wilson felt that this was reasonable, but at first feared that the French would demand control of the army group headquarters. However, further talks revealed that de Gaulle and his generals were willing to settle for an independent army command, even under an American army group commander. Although favorable to such a command arrangement, Wilson felt that a second army headquarters should not be inserted so early. Instead he supported an interim phase between the end of the assault and the establishment of an army group headquarters, during which an American army headquarters would control three corps—two French and one American.
De Gaulle was not satisfied with what he considered Wilson’s equivocal position, and about 20 April he unilaterally appointed General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny as the commander of all French ground forces participating in ANVIL. This step brought another army headquarters into the picture, for de Gaulle had previously made de Lattre the commander of Army B, a headquarters that the French had organized especially for ANVIL. De Gaulle also appointed de Lattre as his personal representative to AFHQ, for all matters pertaining to French participation in ANVIL.
Faced with this fait accompli, Wilson worked out a compromise. De Lattre, he informed de Gaulle, would temporarily assume command of the first French corps ashore in southern France, but would have to take orders from the commander of the U.S. Seventh Army. When the second French corps reached France, de Lattre would then assume command of
Army B, later to be redesignated the First French Army, but would remain under the direction of the American army commander. The U.S. Seventh Army would, in effect, assume a dual role as an army and an army group headquarters.
The aim of this arrangement was to keep top control of civil affairs, troop and supply priorities, and major tactical decisions in American hands, and to ease coordination with Eisenhower’s SHAEF forces. The solution limited French authority and placed a French full general under an American lieutenant general. Nevertheless, late in May de Gaulle declared himself satisfied with the command arrangements as long as de Lattre could retain all other prerogatives of an army-level commander.
During the following month British and American planners elaborated further on the projected command arrangements. By this time they had also concluded that an army group headquarters separate from the Seventh Army would ultimately be needed in southern France.9 A reexamination of command and control problems expected in southern France indicated that the combined command of the Seventh Army and Army B, the First French Army, would eventually place intolerable burdens on the American army commander and his staff. Another thought, shared by Wilson and Devers, was that Clark’s Fifth Army might ultimately drive up the west coast of Italy and swing west to join the Seventh Army in France. It was illogical to think that Patch’s army headquarters could coordinate the operations of three separate armies. Finally, the establishment of an army group headquarters in southern France would parallel the command system developed in northern France, where Eisenhower had two army groups under his command. Thus, when ANVIL and OVERLORD forces joined, Eisenhower would receive another army group with generally similar command arrangements.
Early in July, Wilson took a preliminary step toward the formation of an army group headquarters when he decided to set up the Advanced Detachment AFHQ on Corsica during the ANVIL assault phase. Under the command of Wilson’s chief deputy, Devers, this detachment was to provide liaison between AFHQ and the Seventh Army headquarters; aid coordination between the Fifth and Seventh Armies; and recommend priorities for air and naval support between Allied forces in Italy and those in southern France.
Devers informed General Marshall of the plans for the Advanced Detachment AFHQ, suggested that the detachment could readily be expanded into an army group headquarters, and
requested that he, Devers, be considered for the post of army group commander. Subsequently he added that Wilson also favored the formation of an army group headquarters and would support his appointment to command it.
Realizing that the proposed headquarters would ultimately come under the authority of SHAEF, Marshall sought Eisenhower’s views on the matter. As the American chief of staff, Marshall thought highly of Devers, but knew that Eisenhower might have certain misgivings over the selection.10 Eisenhower and Devers had, in fact, been rivals. Both had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and, although Devers had entered active service several years earlier than Eisenhower, the latter was now his superior in rank by one grade. Although neither had seen combat service in World War I, both had risen to high positions by the time the United States entered the current conflict: Devers as chief of the Armored Force, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Eisenhower as the Assistant Chief of Staff for operations on Marshall’s staff. Subsequently Eisenhower, as Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army, had commanded American and Allied forces during the invasion of North Africa and the ensuing campaigns in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy, while Devers had concentrated on the task of organizing, equipping, and training the vast armored force that Marshall wanted to put in the field. In May 1943 Marshall had named Devers commander of the European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army (ETOUSA), and Devers had been one of Marshall’s leading candidates to head an OVERLORD army group command at some future date. Eisenhower, however, following his appointment as Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Corps, in December 1944, had successfully pushed Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley for the post and had subsequently persuaded Marshall to move both Devers and Eaker, then the U.S. Eighth Air Force commander, to the Mediterranean Theater. Simultaneously he requested many other officers who had served under him in North Africa and Italy, such as Patton, for combat commands in OVERLORD. Marshall felt that Eisenhower was trying to pack SHAEF with his own supporters, but also found it natural that Eisenhower would prefer commanders he was already familiar with and trusted thoroughly.
For the moment, Marshall’s concerns over the nomination of Devers appeared unjustified. On 12 July Eisenhower approved the idea of an army group headquarters for southern France as well as Marshall’s appointment of Devers to head the new command. Although admitting at the time that he had entertained serious doubts about Devers’ ability in the past, Eisenhower explained that they had been “based completely upon impressions and, to some extent, upon vague references in this theater ... [which] never had any basis in positive
information,” and that, based on Devers’ record in the Mediterranean, he would accept the decision “cheerfully and willingly.”11 But Eisenhower must also have known that Devers was eager to have a combat command and that his appointment would further ensure that ANVIL took place as scheduled, thus promising relief for the beleaguered forces under Eisenhower’s command in Normandy. This matter settled, on 16 July Marshall made the appointment official and directed Devers to proceed with the formation of the army group headquarters.
In the end, Devers wore four hats at the time of the ANVIL assault. He was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater; Commanding General, NATOUSA; Commander, Advanced Detachment AFHQ which was activated on Corsica on 29 July; and Commanding General, 6th Army Group, the headquarters of which Devers activated on 1 August. But at first the 6th Army Group headquarters consisted of only the personnel of the Advanced Detachment AFHQ and, for reasons of security, retained the detachment title.
The new arrangements made little practical difference in the chain of command for ANVIL. Devers’ Advanced Detachment headquarters on Corsica functioned primarily as a liaison and coordinating agency, and had no command or operational duties during the assault phase. Initially, ground command of the ANVIL forces remained the responsibility of the Seventh Army, while the 6th Army Group headquarters went about the task of preparing itself for the day it would become operational in France.
Force 163 and the Seventh Army
From the beginning of ANVIL planning, responsibility for producing a theater-level program to coordinate the planning of subordinate headquarters rested with the AFHQ Joint Planning Staff, which included representatives of AFHQ, Cunningham’s naval headquarters, and MAAF.12 But the Joint Planning Staff became so preoccupied with Italy that, after producing draft ANVIL plans in late 1943, it left the burden of ANVIL planning to the Seventh Army staff, temporarily based on Sicily. In December 1943, at Eisenhower’s request, the War Department officially made the Seventh Army headquarters available to AFHQ for planning, preparing, and executing ANVIL.
By December 1943 the Seventh Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, consisted of a skeleton headquarters and a few service units. Patton was scheduled to leave for England in January 1944, and AFHQ had tentatively decided that General Clark, then commanding the
U.S. Fifth Army in Italy, would be the Seventh Army’s commander for ANVIL. During ANVIL preparations, Clark would remain in Italy and leave a deputy in charge of ANVIL planning. After the capture of Rome, or during some suitable lull in the Italian campaign, he would leave Fifth Army and devote his full attention to ANVIL.
The presence of Seventh Army headquarters on Sicily probably served as a useful deception, but in view of the fact that the other major headquarters concerned with ANVIL were located in North Africa, Sicily was not the place to undertake ANVIL planning. AFHQ therefore directed Seventh Army to move a small planning staff to Algiers, where details could be worked out with air, naval, and AFHQ planners. But a large part of the Seventh Army staff remained on Sicily to continue deception operations, and AFHQ took precautions to prevent identification of the Algiers planning group with the staff on Sicily. Air and naval planners assigned to help with the activities at Algiers were also separated from their parent headquarters. Force 163, as the Algiers planning group became known, opened on 12 January 1944; and Rear Force 163, a small group of logistical planners, set up on 27 January at Oran, the location of Headquarters, Services of Supply, NATOUSA, and also of the U.S. Eighth Fleet’s principal supply activity.
Force 163 soon grew into a joint and combined planning headquarters. Capt. Robert A. J. English (USN), from Admiral Hewitt’s staff, was the chief naval planner; Group Capt. R. B. Lees (RAAF) represented MATAF; Brig. Gen. Garrison H. Davidson, formerly the Engineer, Seventh Army, was commander of the U.S. Army component; and Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Caffey, Jr., Clark’s planning deputy for ANVIL, presided over the whole assemblage. In March a small French contingent under Col. Jean L. Petit joined Force 163. Petit had virtually no powers of decision, but acted more as a liaison officer between Force 163 and various French headquarters. It was not until early June, when representatives of the First French Army, the French Air Force, and the French Navy joined Force 163, that planning for French participation became thoroughly integrated. Col. Andre Demetz, the G-3 of the First French Army, became the chief French planner, and his group absorbed Colonel Petit’s staff.
Through January and February 1944, a confusion in command relationships bedeviled the planning staff. General Caffey found himself in a somewhat anomalous position—he was Clark’s representative but was not a member of the Seventh Army staff. Ill health further crippled his influence. Moreover, Patton retained command of the Seventh Army until his departure for England in January. Brig. Gen. Hobart R. Gay, Patton’s chief of staff, replaced Patton but left for England himself in February, as did a number of key staff officers Patton had selected to take with him. Command of both Force 163 and the residual Seventh Army staff was then assumed by General Davidson, and a few days later General Caffey was transferred to AFHQ-NATOUSA, leaving Davidson as the senior officer at Force 163.
AFHQ had expected that Clark
Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch
would be able to take over Seventh Army and Force 163 sometime in mid-March 1944, but the difficulties in Italy following the landings at Anzio made this impossible. On 15 February, accordingly, Wilson relieved Clark of further responsibility for ANVIL. A new ground force commander was needed, and Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Patch, slated to be promoted in August, had just reached the Mediterranean theater.
By the time of General Patch’s arrival, he had already compiled an impressive military career that stretched back to the American frontier wars. Born at Fort Huachuca, Arizona Territory, in 1889, the son of an officer in the 4th Cavalry, he graduated from West Point in 1913, a classmate of Patton; served in Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing’s expedition into Mexico; and then commanded an infantry battalion in the 1st Infantry Division during World War I. During the interwar years his career, like that of his contemporaries, alternated between military schools, teaching posts, and other routine peacetime assignments. But early in 1942 General Marshall selected Patch to command a hastily assembled Army task force headed for the South Pacific. Quickly transforming that force into the Americal Division, Patch took it to the island of Guadalcanal in December 1942 and, as commander of the U.S. Army XIV Corps, led a force of one Marine Corps and two Army divisions that finally rooted out the island’s stubborn Japanese defenders by the following February. At Marshall’s request Patch then returned to the United States to train American troops in desert warfare as head of the newly organized IV Corps. By the time Patch brought his new IV Corps staff to the Mediterranean in early 1944, the desert campaign had long since ended. Marshall, however, had a new post in mind for Patch and, with the approval of Devers, appointed him commander of the Seventh Army (and automatically of Force 163) on 2 March.13
Patch immediately began rebuilding the depleted army staff with officers and men from the IV Corps headquarters, and gradually enlarged the planning groups at Algiers and Oran
From left to right: General Patch, Air Marshal Sir John C. Slessor, General Devers, General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, with map, and Maj. Gen. Lowell W. Rooks.
with more personnel from the Seventh Army staff.14 In May he terminated the Seventh Army establishment on Sicily and in early July moved the Oran and Algiers planners to Naples, where Force 163 dropped its nom de guerre and the Seventh Army headquarters made its final ANVIL preparations as a united staff. At approximately the same time, the Western Naval Task Force headquarters also moved to Naples, as did some of the air planners. The MATAF air staff divided in two, one part remaining in Italy and the other moving to Corsica, where the bulk of the XII Tactical Air Command had been concentrated during July. Meanwhile, from March to July 1944, the concerned staffs completed most of the ANVIL planning under Patch’s leadership. By the end, Patch had earned the respect of his fellow commanders as a steady if quiet leader and a professional soldier’s general, who was more at home with his own staff and troops than with outsiders and less concerned with the prerogatives of command than with getting the job done.
Between March and July 1944 Devers and Patch had thus become the primary movers within the theater
behind the continued Franco-American planning for the ANVIL assault and the ensuing drive north, even after the CCS had canceled the entire project. While Patch and his army staff devoted themselves to the more detailed planning, Devers, in his capacity as deputy theater commander and commanding general of NATOUSA, labored behind the scene to see that the supply buildup for ANVIL did not dissipate between April and June, when ANVIL was in all respects officially dead. As a result, its resurrection in July for implementation in August—barely one month later—was a practicable if hurried affair. Without the strong support of Devers and Patch, it is doubtful that ANVIL could ever have taken place.