General Eisenhower at the Guildhall
The welcome that was given to General Eisenhower, not only by privileged guests at the Guildhall, but by the massed crowds who greeted him in the streets on his way to receive the honorary freedom of the City of London, was a genuine expression of the nation's feeling for this great American. When he said that one of the passions of his life was to promote real and practical cooperation among the British and American peoples he was saying quite simply what has been manifest at every stage of his leadership of the Allied armies. Again and again Mr. Churchill has emphasised the fact that British and American officers and officials have been working together as a single team. How much the success in practical opera- tion owes to the judgement, tact and generous spirit of General Eisenhower will be revealed when the history of the war is written. He has never forgotten that he was not simply the American Com- mander but the Allied Commander-in-Chief, and he won the full• support and loyalty of British and American officers alike. His name has been happily associated from first to last with great victories, and more especially with those which were planned by him and the combined Staffs before D Day and were carried out in Normandy and in Germany. There were moments, as Mr. Churchill pointed out, when fateful decisions had to be taken by him, and he took them unflinchingly. He has proved the ideal leader of a combined force.
Previous page
