American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
later on 15 December. It was not until 18 December, the second
day after Arnold returned to his Pentagon desk, that
Eaker was informed of his reassignment. 167 Arnold had been
in touch with Eaker through other cables that week, informing
him of his wife Ruth Eaker’s progress in battling pneumonia.
It is not unreasonable to speculate that Arnold held off
informing Eaker of his reassignment until his wife’s condition
had improved. 168 Nevertheless, Eaker would refer years later
to his learning of his new command as the “darkest hour” of
his career. 169
Eaker’s biographer has speculated that had Arnold been
“thoughtful or considerate enough to send a personal letter”
informing Eaker of the change, the Eighth commander would
have accepted it without demurrer. Instead, deeply hurt,
Eaker took it as a dismissal and made every effort to prevent
its implementation (“dig in his heels” in the words of his biographer),
particularly since Arnold’s 18 December notification
had indicated that this was “tentative.” 170 Eaker then contacted
Arnold, Jacob L. Devers, John G. Winant, Portal,
Eisenhower, and Spaatz, seeking assistance in reversing the
planned action. 171 None proved successful and, four days after
Eaker was informed of the change, the Army Adjutant General
cabled him that orders had been issued with the new assignment
effective 1 January, ending any thought that the reassignment
was still tentative. 172 Although deeply affected by the
action, Eaker cabled Arnold the next day that he would comply
with the issued orders. 173
The contretemps was not finished, however. On returning
from his trip to Australia, traveling the long way home after
the Cairo conferences, Marshall saw the issue from a different
perspective. The impression he drew was that Eisenhower,
now departing the Mediterranean for England as the Overlord
commander, was going to “gut” the leadership of the southern
headquarters, leaving a “most complex situation to be handled
by General Wilson” since he was taking Spaatz, Doolittle,
Beedle Smith, and Tedder with him. Additionally, Marshall
went on to decry the “selfish” and nonobjective “pressure” of
Tedder and Spaatz “to move Eaker to the Mediterranean
because to me he did not appear at all particularly suited for
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