D-Day Resource C: The Chain of Command
D-Day Resource C: The Chain of Command
MEETING OF THE SUPREME COMMAND, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, LONDON, 1 FEBRUARY 1944
IWM Negative Number: TR 1541
Left to right: Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Commander in Chief, 1st US Army; Admiral Sir
Bertram H Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander in Chief, Expeditionary Force; Air Chief Marshal Sir
Arthur W Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander, Expeditionary Force; General Dwight D
Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Expeditionary Force; General Sir Bernard Montgomery,
Commander in Chief 21st Army Group; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Allied Air
Commander, Expeditionary Force; and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell-Smith, Chief of Staff to
General Eisenhower.
Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan
Frederick Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander
(COSSAC) in early 1943. It was his job to produce a plan for the invasion of Europe in 1944.
He identified Normandy as the best landing site and devised the deception strategy
which fooled the Germans into thinking the invasion would be in the Pas de Calais area.
Despite the narrow beachhead proposed in his plan, he laid the foundations for
Operation Overlord. His earlier wartime career had given him useful knowledge and
experience. He had served with the Royal Artillery during the First World War and in 1940
was among the forces evacuated from France. He served as a divisional and a corps
commander in Britain and from October 1942 assisted with plans for the Allied landings in
North Africa. At the end of the war he countersigned the German surrender at Rheims and
was the chief of operations in Germany for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration.
The chain of command
In December 1943 a command team was formed to plan and lead the Allied air, sea and
ground forces for the forthcoming invasion. General Dwight D Eisenhower was named as
Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces. Air C