#3-164
Memorandum for General McNarney
April 23, 1942 Washington, D.C.
Secret
1. I have directed General McNair to assemble certain officers in Washington for duty with Lord Mountbatten's Commando Headquarters, and with General Paget's Headquarters, of the Home Forces in Great Britain. These officers are to be oriented here and then to report to General Chaney for duty. He will be advised as to the assignment he is to give them, which I have indicated below:1
To Lord Mountbatten's Headquarters, of the Commando Forces:
Colonel Lucian Truscott, Cavalry (now commanding the 5th Cavalry in the First Division.)
Major Theodore J. Conway, Infantry (now instructor at West Point.)2
To General Paget's Headquarters, of the Home Forces:
Colonel Arthur S. Nevins, War Plans Division.
Colonel Josef R. Sheetz, F.A. of General McNair's Headquarters.3
I have to add to the first group an Air man, but have not yet gotten the name from General Arnold.
2. In the attached paper from McNair, you will find a reference to the First Division. I explained what was developing in England, which somewhat changed McNair's point of view. He was thinking only of 1943 and not of the possibility of the late summer or early fall of 1942. He is to think this over and give me a further statement in the matter.4
3. Also attached is a memorandum from G-1 regarding General Russell, of the 30th Division, and General Lawton of the 33d Division.
We will proceed with the classification proceedings in the case of General Russell. However, I have directed General McNair to make a very careful search in order to produce a new commander for the 30th Division who is from that section of the country, and if such a man is available of high efficiency, one who served with the 30th Division in France.5
General Lear is to be advised that the present policy of the War Department authorizes Army Commanders to reassign general officers to any appropriate positions in their commands. Therefore, if General Lear desires to assign General Lawton to the command of the Great Lakes Frontier, he is authorized to do so. But the reason for General Lawton's relief from the 33d Division must be made a matter of record. Otherwise, it may bounce back with complications later on.6
G. C. M.
Document Copy Text Source: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (RG 165), Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (OCS), 210.311, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.
Document Format: Typed memorandum signed.
1. Throughout April, Marshall contemplated the structure of the troop buildup in the United Kingdom. By April 20 he had decided to establish the United States Army Forces in the British Isles, with Major General James E. Chaney as commanding general of a corps of ground forces in England, another corps in Northern Ireland, a Services of Supply command, and the Eighth Air Force with its separate bomber, fighter, and service commands. (Papers of DDE, 1: 261; Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., Plans and Early Operations: January 1939 to August 1942, a volume in The Army Air Forces in World War II [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948], pp. 586–90.)
2. Colonel Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., led a four-man detachment to Mountbatten's Combined Operations Headquarters to study planning, to initiate plans for the participation of American troops, and to provide information on training and equipment for those operations. In addition to Conway (U.S.M.A., 1933), the detachment initially included Lieutenant Colonel Haskell H. Cleaves (U.S.M.A., 1925), a Signal Corps officer, and Lieutenant Colonel John P. McConnell (U.S.M.A., 1932), an Air Forces officer. (Eisenhower to Truscott, May 5, 1942, GCMRL/ L. K. Truscott, Jr., Papers [Military Records, European Theater of Operations]; Papers of DDE, 1: 274.)
3. The Home Forces under General Sir Bernard Paget consisted of troops in training and transit, antiaircraft units, the Field Force, Home Defense units, and the Home Guard (originally designated the Local Defense Volunteers). Nevins became Operations Division representative on the British Joint Planning Staff. Colonel Archelaus L. Hamblen joined Sheetz on the Home Forces staff. (J. R. M. Butler, Grand Strategy, volume 2, September 1939-June 1941, a volume in the History of the Second World War [London: HMSO, 1957], p. 279; Papers of DDE, 1: 261; Paget to Marshall, April 27, 1942, NA/ RG 165 [OPD, 320.2 Great Britain (2-10-42) Sec. 1].)
4. McNair had objected to the movement of the First Infantry Division overseas until it had "furnished its proportionate quota of cadres for new units.” He had advised keeping the Second Army Corps, which consisted of the First Division and the Fourth Motorized Division, in the United States for training until early September 1942. (McNair Memorandum for Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, April 21, 1942, NA/ RG 165 [OCS, 210.311].)
5. The editors have not found the G-1 memorandum. Major General Henry D. Russell's relief as commanding general of the Thirtieth Division had been recommended in October 1941 by both Hugh Drum (see Papers of George Catlett Marshall, #2-589 [2: 661–3]) and Lesley J. McNair on the grounds that he was "not a military commander." (McNair Memorandum for General Marshall, October 7, 1941, NA/ RG 407 [AG, 210.311].) At a meeting in Marshall's office on April 22, senators from each of the four states encompassed by the Thirtieth Division (i.e., Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas) and the adjutant general of North Carolina protested Russell's relief. Major General William H. Simpson—a native of Texas who had served with the Thirty-third Division (Illinois National Guard) for a year during World War I—was named to command the Thirtieth Division.
6. The Thirty-third Division—commanded since March 1941 by Major General Samuel T. Lawton—was a component of Second Army, which was commanded by Lieutenant General Ben Lear. In his general assessment of division commanders the previous October, Lieutenant General McNair observed that Lawton's leadership showed force, but it was not well directed and his military knowledge was too limited. (Ibid.) Lawton returned to Chicago as commanding general of the Great Lakes Sector of the Central Defense Command. Brigadier General Frank C. Mahin, former assistant commander of the Forty-fifth Division, was made commanding general of the Thirty-third Division.
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 167–169.