ABSTRACT
Major-General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, wrote to him from London on 30 December 1943.1 ‘We all believe that Tedder should be the real Air Commander and your adviser in air matters’, but an officer by the name of ‘Mallory’ was claiming that position. Eisenhower agreed, as he informed Marshall next day: this attempt to prevent the ‘supreme’ commander from using ‘trusted and superior’ subordinates in their proper spheres was unacceptable. Having found in Tedder a man of proven capacity, as well as congenial personality, Eisenhower saw no good reason why the British should try to impose upon him a man with limited experience of operations, either with other services or with Americans.2
