[SunkenCiv]

Maintaining the initiative against the Reich remained his speciialty throughout. :^)

[colorado tanker]

Marshall's most urgent mission when he was appointed Chief of Staff was to clear out the dead wood that had accumulated in the senior ranks of the Army since WWI and advance leaders for a wartime Army everyone knew would be needed eventually. A young Lt. Col. named Eisenhower made it into Marshall's book.

Still, by the time of the Sicily campaign and planning for Overlord there were not enough officers capable of leading a field army effectively. That's why Ike saved Patton's bacon in Sicily by giving him a reprimand to head off having him ordered home. And Ike surely needed commanders. Hodges has always struck me as a mediocrity. Ike knew he would need a commander who could take the initiative and gain ground in the Normandy Breakout and he surely got that in Patton.