Quiet Operator

At his first London press conference since his return (see above), General Eisenhower had some news: Lieut. General Omar Nelson Bradley is to be senior commander of U.S. ground forces in the United Kingdom.

General Ike did not make it clear whether Bradley would command all U.S. land forces in the coming invasion, thus serving as British General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery's opposite number. But it was certain that tall, imperturbable Infantryman Bradley would have much to do with shaping the invasion.

Doughfoot's General. No soldier in the U.S. Army has a firmer faith in the role of infantry in battle than Omar Bradley. In his report at the close of the Tunisian campaign, Bradley wrote:

"No matter how excellent our equipment or how effective our artillery, it is the infantry which must bear the brunt of the battle. The infantry must have the will and the ability to close with the enemy and destroy him."

Bradley took command of the U.S. II Corps in Tunisia last April, skillfully moved it to the north and directed its drive to Bizerte. Later, he commanded a corps with great skill and little notice in Sicily, where loud Lieut. General George S. Patton got most of the acclaim. One Washington report last week was that Generals Bradley and Patton may each have an army in the invasion.

From Missouri. Omar Bradley will be 51 next month. Born in Clark, Mo., he was commissioned from West Point in 1915. He is what soldiers call a "quiet operator," totally without side. He hates casualties, is as thrifty with his troops as war allows. He once admitted to Ernie Pyle, Scripps-Howard's roving battlefront reporter, that the responsibility of sending brave men to death did not help a general sleep any too well. Then Omar Bradley quietly added:

"I've spent 30 years preparing a frame of mind for accepting such a thing."

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