Content area
Full Text
ON 12 February 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower received the famous order from the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) to "enter the continent of Europe and . . . undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces."1 It was simple, direct, and clear guidance. In the masterful hands of Eisenhower and his commanders and staff, this mission order was translated into Overlord, the operation designed to achieve military victory in Europe.
Often forgotten, however, is that Operation Overlord was only the first of two campaigns waged to conclude the war in Europe. The other was called Eclipse. Initiated as the victorious armies crossed the Siegfried Line, it provided for the occupation of Nazi Germany and addressed every aspect of civil government and administration. Eclipse was the bridge linking war and peace. Overlord was the terminal combat operation of the war; Eclipse was the initial operation of the peace.
Laboring in the shadow of Overlord, the "main effort," were thousands of officers and soldiers in scattered headquarters in Europe and the United States who sought to lay the foundation for winning the peace by ensuring a smooth transition from war. Their experiences demonstrated the difficulties inherent in conducting postconflict planning and operations concurrently with combat operations. Operation Eclipse, the product of their efforts, established the framework that the western Allies would use in occupying Nazi Germany. It set procedures and objectives for disarming and demobilizing German military forces. It provided for a system of military government to administer the occupied territory until Nazism could be extirpated and a civil administration established. Eclipse drew up detailed plans for rapidly returning Allied prisoners of war to their homes, as well as repatriating liberated forced laborers and concentration camp survivors.
The various plans for implementing Eclipse were not flawless. They were plagued by vague and shifting political objectives. They were limited by the higher priorities attached to combat operations and the real security concerns of combatant commanders. Most of all, the plans paled in the face of the physical devastation that awaited those who would implement them. Nevertheless, despite such difficulties, the daunting task was done. The occupation was not an ad hoc, extemporaneous affair, but the product of careful calculations...