The A.E.F. in Britain

Under the whiplash of World War II's direst crisis, the U.S. Army had poured troops, arms and supplies into the British Isles for a second-front fighting force. Yet the machine was a long way from being tuned up, would not run at full power before spring. One measure of its progress: the last cogs in its high command were supplied only last week.

Top Commander of the A.E.F. is Lieut. General Dwight David Eisenhower, 51, whose promotion to the top ranks was one of the cheering signs that the War Secretary Stimson and Chief of Staff Marshall had abandoned promotion by seniority, had long been digging deep down in the Army files for the best men it had.

How many U.S. soldiers were under General Eisenhower's command was a military secret. But it could be said that they were already in the hundreds of thousands. The work of organization, of training, feeding, maintenance of equipment and all the other details of behind-the-lines preparation was enough to crowd the days and the bridge-expert mind of the A.E.F.'s top military precisionist.

The A.E.F. now in Britain could bear little resemblance in organization and distribution of fighting units to the A.E.F. that will jump off when the second front is launched. The big emphasis now had to be on troops that pave the way for a drive: Quartermaster, Engineer and Signal Corps outfits, housekeeping units for the Air Forces. Some combat units were on hand. But the bulk of the A.E.F.'s striking power would come later.

As he laid his elaborate groundwork, West Pointer Eisenhower could be well pleased that his top commanders were, like himself, relatively young generals and products of the merit system.

Air Forces Commander in Britain (and therefore the General whose troops will first see action) is Major General Carl ("Tooey") Spaatz, 51, a hardbitten, freckled veteran who has been flying Army aircraft since the year after he left West Point (1914).

"Tooey" Spaatz knew that he would do little flying beyond chases from field to field on his inspection tours. For the time being, his job too was heavily weighted with housekeeping affairs. New airdromes must be built to make room for the U.S. Air Forces. General Spaatz's command had to be accented strongly on the side of ground-bound outfits: Engineers, Air Forces supply men, Air Base groups. These outfits will operate airdromes, build overhaul depots to put planes back in running order when major crackups or plain wear & tear put them out of the fight.

For training his combat crews and starting tactical cooperation with the R.A.F., General Spaatz could leave details to his bomber commander, husky, seasoned, 46-year-old Major General Ira Eaker and to his fighter commander, whose name has not yet been announced. Real U.S. participation in big-scale bombing would have to wait until their organization work was completed and plenty of equipment was on hand.

As Commander of the Ground Forces, the Army last week chose the youngest Major General in the A.E.F.'s top lot: Mark Clark, 46. Lean, broad-shouldered General Clark, a lieutenant colonel of Infantry only two years ago, had been marked by the Army as a comer (TIME, April 27). He had combat service in World War I, then graduated from all the Army's best schools, established a reputation as one of its best staff officers.

There were thousands of combat troops in the British Isles when he arrived, including some armored troops whom British citizens often see thundering over the field and on the peaceful hedge-bordered roads. But Mark Clark's command, in men, is still only a token. If the second front can wait until spring, he is likely to have a good half of all the U.S. troops in Britain under his command.

Commander of the Services of Supply, the most maddeningly complicated job of preparation, is Major General John Clifford Hodges Lee, 55, also announced last week. The endless trivia of supply are an old and no longer fearsome story to West Pointer Lee, who was a staff officer in World War I. Before and after the war he followed the typical Engineer officer's career: he did river and harbor duty, worked on a military survey of Guam, built dams on the Ohio River, bossed a district on the lower Mississippi, studied at the Army War College and instructed at the Army Industrial College.

In London, he now bosses the A.E.F.'s housekeeping troops (except the Air Forces) in all the endless work from unloading ships to feeding the troops, building their camps, tending them when they are sick, shipping their bodies home when they die. If an officer can be judged from his peacetime career, squarejawed, orderly General Lee is the man for the job.

Oldest in Service of the A.E.F.'s top commanders is taciturn, studious Major General Russell P. Hartle, 53, commander of U.S. troops in Northern Ireland. Hartle, whom brother officers call "The Sphinx of the Army" (or by inversion "Scrappy"), took the first big shipment of U.S. troops to the British Isles, has lathered them ever since in field exercises to keep them in fighting trim. Husky, tireless Russell Hartle heads a command that can be presumed to be growing.

Quartering of troops in Northern Ireland takes the strain off the limited facilities of England, has the additional advantage of keeping a crack fighting force close to Eire in case the Germans should try an invasion there. It is also close enough for quick transport to English ports or the coast of France when the big movement begins.

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