#3-418
To Field Marshal William R. Birdwood
November 22, 1942 Washington, D.C.
My dear Lord Birdwood:
During a meeting of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Sir John Dill handed me your note of October 21st. I appreciate very much your taking the trouble to write to me, and am even more appreciative of your generous reference to me personally.1
I not only enjoyed reading your autobiography but obtained some wise counsel from your discussions, particularly with relation to the Australians, with whom I must deal. I had added interest from the fact that I saw you receive your degree at Cambridge in 1919, and later had a brief conversation with you at a dinner in the House of Commons. I do not expect you to recall this because I was a mere Colonel on General Pershing's staff at the time.
We are involved in a vast pattern of warfare, of which the logistic phases alone at times appear overwhelming. I might say that in meeting these problems I find a great source of comfort and reassurance in the presence here in Washington of Sir John Dill, and in my personal relations with the present British Chiefs of Staff.
With high regard,
Faithfully yours
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed letter.
1. The seventy-seven-year-old Birdwood—first Baron Birdwood of Anzac and of Totnes, World War I commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—had recently published Khaki and Gown: An Autobiography (London: Ward, Lock and Company, 1941), to which Churchill had contributed a foreword. He wrote to Marshall that his "old and good friend John Dill" had told him that the chief of staff had read his book. Birdwood expressed his appreciation for Marshall's interest and told of the "great and real confidence all we of the British Army have in you." (Birdwood to Marshall, October 21, 1942, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].)
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 446–447.