Ike's Tour

Solemn-faced Yank infantrymen in Normandy looked up in astonishment as a wide-smiling officer leaned out of a speeding jeep and waved. The doughboys did not know whether to wave back, salute, or just yell; some contrived to do all three. They looked at one another and grinned: "The Old Man himself."

It was indeed the Old Man: Supreme Commander Eisenhower. In a five-day tour he traveled the battle area from the British-Canadian wing in the east to the westernmost American positions, visited air, ground and airborne forces, conferred with his top commanders, including General Sir Bernard Montgomery and Lieut. General Omar N. Bradley.

An old field soldier, General "Ike" slept in a tent with a cot and bedroll. Most of the time he was in danger areas; twice German barrages fell in districts he had just left. Once a flak tower from which he had been observing U.S. artillery fire took hits from 88-mm. guns just after he had climbed down.

The Allied Commander went beyond enemy positions by land and air. The first time his jeep skirted an isolated pocket of German resistance on the western side of the Cherbourg peninsula. Later he visited a Ninth Air Force field and jumped at the chance to go across the line, riding pickaback in a specially converted PSI Mustang, with dashing Major General "Pete" Quesada as pilot.

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