#3-239
To General Sir Alan Brooke
June 29, 1942 Radio [Washington, D.C.]
Secret
Greatly relieved that you have made a safe trip and deeply appreciate the gracious message just received from you.1 If nothing else was accomplished during the visit of the Prime Minister I feel that the intimate accord and I believe understanding developed between us justified the trip. It was an honor to the Army to have you here and a great privilege to me.
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed radio message.
1. Brooke had left Washington for the return trip to England with the rest of Churchill's party on the evening of June 25. On June 29 Brooke sent the following message to Marshall: "I have returned with deep gratitude for all your kindness and the conviction that our discussions have gone a long way towards ensuring that close co-operation and understanding so essential between us in the execution of the task we are engaged in." (Brooke to Marshall, Radio No. 98259, June 29, [1942], GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].) While on his return flight, the chief of the British Imperial General Staff recorded in his diary that it had been "a very interesting trip and real good value. I feel now in much closer touch with Marshall and his staff, and know what he is working for and what his difficulties are. . I found it difficult at the first few meetings to be able to appreciate the degree of importance to attach to the President's military suggestions and I did not know how Marshall would react. With the President and P.M. planning on their own in the White House, it made it difficult at first to carry on business with Marshall. However, I finally got on sufficiently intimate terms with him to be able to discuss freely with him the probable reactions of both President and P.M. to the plans we were discussing. There is no doubt that Dill is doing wonderful work and that we owe him a deep debt of gratitude." (Bryant, Turn of the Tide, p. 334; for Brooke's account of the Second Washington Conference and his return trip, see pp. 323–36.)
Recommended Citation: ThePapers 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), p. 257.