LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dwight Eisenhower: Western Europe
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At the end of 1943, after Eisenhower had conducted successful landings in Sicily and Italy and negotiated an Italian surrender, the Combined Chiefs of Staff named him Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force for the invasion of Europe. At the Teheran Conference in November, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin had agreed upon the opening of a second front in northwest Europe... validating what had been the essence of American strategy since the beginning of the war. Operation OVERLORD, in this sense, was the culmination of all of America's mobilization and training efforts; all other campaigns had merely prepared the way. Americans believed that Germany could only be defeated by military operations on the Continent itself, and had made an attack across the English Channel the heart of strategic planning since the days before Pearl Harbor. In the eyes of American planners, OVERLORD was to be the decisive act of the war. If it succeeded, then eventual victory was not in question.
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This is another entry that is not a biography, but it records Arthur Nevins' (brother of historian Allan Nevins) adult lifetime friendship with Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. Nevins was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry in 1917 and was assigned to the 57th Infantry in Texas, where he met the regimental supply officer, Captain Eisenhower. The two officers met again in 1936 in the Philippines, and their families began a social life that ended only with Ike's death in 1969. In 1941, Nevins worked under Eisenhower in the War Plans Division of the General Staff and eventually served as head of the Plans and Operations Section of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expenditionary Force (SHAEF). Nevins, who became a research editor after the war, helped Ike prepare Crusade in Europe for publication. Also, after the Eisenhowers' purchased their farm in Gettysburg, Permsylvania, Nevins managed it for some seventeen years.
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In June 1942, Eisenhower was designated Commanding General, European Theater, based in London . Here he planned and executed the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria, codenamed Operation Torch. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in North Africa from November 1942. In December 1943, he was Appointed Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces, charged with planning and carrying out the Allied invasion of France, Operation Overlord, in June 1944. He commanded all Allied forces in the Normandy invasion, which took place on D-Day, June 6, 1944. On December 20, he was promoted to General of the Army. By the end of 1944 Eisenhower was in overall command of armed forces comprising 4.5 million men and women.
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On December 15th, 1944, in recognition of the work he had done, Eisenhower was promoted to the highest rank in the American army – General of the Army. Just days later, Eisenhower had to fight back the Germans counter-attack in the Ardennes – the so-called Battle of the Bulge. Despite high casualties, the Allies did push back this counter-attack but it did show up disunity between the Americans and British with the American senior commanders accusing Montgomery – in charge of the British land forces in Europe – of being too cautious in his tactics. Whereas Patton wanted the Allies to get up and take on the Germans, Montgomery wanted a more planned approach. It was not the first time the Americans and British had had differing approaches as to how the war should be fought. ‘Monty’ had been accused of being too cautious in the breakout at Normandy.
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Eisenhower's close professional relationship with the Chief of Staff continued after he moved to London. The new theater commander continued to look at problems as he believed Marshall would see them, and he solved them in accordance with his understanding of the Chief of Staffs policies. That was fortunate, because the grand alliance against the Axis was in large part Marshall's conception; the Supreme Allied Command in Europe was the direct result of his drive and determination; and the essential Allied strategy was the product of his imagination. Where policy was concerned, Marshall's was the guiding hand. Eisenhower was perfectly attuned to his chiefs ideas, and was the ideal officer to translate Marshall's grand strategy into practice.
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Following the war, Eisenhower replaced Marshall as chief of staff before retiring in 1948 to become president of Columbia University. Three years later, he returned to Europe to lead NATO. In 1952, Ike campaigned as a Republican for the presidency and won by the largest popular-vote margin up to that time. His administration brought an end to the Korean War. After two terms, Eisenhower retired to his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, farm with a final warning of the dangers of big government and what he labeled the "military-industrial complex." He died at age seventy-eight in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 1969.
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