Engineer Memoirs
Lee had sent through a request. Somervell was somewhat negative about this. He
thought I should just be shuttled into the system, that I would learn more that way. But
Lee's idea was that if I would go into his headquarters briefly, I would get an overview
of the war that I would never get otherwise.
So I did go overseas in October and was assigned to the COMZ headquarters in Paris
from the middle of October until New Year's Eve. I was not an aide. There was a rule
against regular officers being aides.
I was on the headquarters staff and I lived with Lee's aides in the George V Hotel. I
went on a lot of trips with him. When I wasn't doing that, I worked in the Control
Section, a group that kept statistics on all the logistic activity. This section produced
many different reports, some daily, some weekly, some monthly. Some of the key
reports were reduced to miniature size so that they could be kept in a pocket notebook
issued to all the senior officers.
Q:
I think we have some of those.
A:
If you do, you will find them very informative. Preparing some of the pages for these
notebooks was what I did when I wasn't acting as an aide.
Q:
What was General Lee like?
A:
General Lee was an interesting combination. He was an extremely bright guy. He could
be a very courtly gentleman. He had very high standards. His biggest shortcoming was
his inability to relate to people who didn't measure up to his way of doing things.
Because of this he got into awkward situations. He had awkward relationships with
some of his contemporaries. I think his relationship with General [Dwight D.]
Eisenhower was somewhat awkward.
He had a formula, and if you fitted into his formula, it was great. But if you didn't, then
he wasn't very flexible. I am talking about interpersonal relationships.
Q:
I understand.
A:
I think he did a good job of running the Communications Zone. He certainly was well
organized and bright. He was aggressive, and he was energetic.
There is a fundamental question about whether his ideas on military discipline were
right or wrong. It was an interesting thing to watch the Army over there at that time.
Eisenhower was always seen as being friendly with the troops. Eisenhower didn't have
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