Eisenhower meeting with Middleton - 9 Sep 44

[Tom from Cornwall]

Back to Eisenhower (and a massive thank you to Delta Tank ):

8 September 1944
"Accompanied by Admiral Ramsay and Colonel Gault on trip to Paris. Met by General W.B. Smith and taken to General Bradley's headquarters for lunch. Visits General Koenig's headquarters. Present are Generals Bradely, W.B. Smith, Morgan, Bull, Barker, Holmes, and Pleas B. Rogers (commanding general, Central Base Section, ETOUSA), and Air Chief Marshals Harris, Leigh-Mallory and Tedder. Greeted by General Koenig at Avenue Porte Dauphine, inspects French Guard of Honor at Arc de Triomphe, lays wreath at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, presents SHAEF shield to the citizens of Paris, and makes speech. Return to Granville."

Which goes some way to answering my question as to whether it would have been possible to send a "senior staff officer" to discuss 21 Army Group's logistic requirements for achieving the missions set it by SHAEF; they were clearly much too busy!!

Regards

Tom

[Aber]

No Lee?

[Tom from Cornwall]

A quick line from Butcher's book on Eisenhower and visits to his commanders:

p.567
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1944
Ike felt that for some days it had been obvious that our military force could advance at will, subject only to supply. He is thinking in terms of advancing on a wide front to take advantage of all lines of communication. He expects to go through the Aachen gap in the north and the Metz gap in the south and to bring the Southern Group of Armies (6th) to the Rhine south of Coblenz. Then he thinks he should use his airborne forces to seize crossings over the Rhine, to be in a position to thrust deep into the Ruhr and to threaten Berlin itself. Patton had been forced to stand still south-east of Paris while supply went to Montgomery’s forces in the north and to Hodges’ First Army, which was moving on Monty’s right. Ike had wanted to make certain there would be no halt in operations toward Antwerp and Brussels, as he needed the port of the former city for further supply, as indeed he needed any improvement in supply. He re-emphasized his satisfaction that Marseille had been taken and that a good line of supply had thus been established up the Rhone valley, permitting rapid advance to Devers.
Ike also had flown to visit Monty at Brussels and had made still another trip, this time to Brest. Yet his movement was inconvenient because of the leg. However, he never likes to have his battle-front commanders leave their jobs to come to see him. He much prefers to place himself at their convenience.

Regards

Tom