Butcher ‘Three Years With Eisenhower’ - Review

The birth of a diary

‘Ike says I’m to keep a diary.'

With these words Captain Harry C Butcher, USNR, begins a diary like no other. He had just been appointed as Naval Aide to General Eisenhower (‘Ike’) who is to command the Allied invasion of North Africa. Butcher’s diary begins on 8 July 1942 and continues until 12 July 1945.

Butcher, though, was no ordinary aide. Ike chose him because ‘he wanted an old friend around to whom he could talk eye to eye, without having to worry about subservience’. While the diary was not official – Butcher was to record whatever he thought fit and in whatever way he chose – it has inevitably become a key record of the planning and implementation of Torch (the invasion of North Africa), and Husky (the Sicily landings) and Overlord (the Normandy landings). Most of this time Ike and Butcher lived together, sharing every meal and sleeping in adjacent bedrooms. This proximity meant that the diary shows both Ike the general and Ike the man, without any distinction.

Butcher’s story begins with Ike billeted in a flat in Grosvenor Square. (He and Butcher later moved out of London to escape the round of social events to which Ike was invited.) A campaign headquarters had already been set up in a house in St James Square in London.

Eisenhower had four months in which to plan and organise landings which were to involve around 125,000 men, 500 aircraft and 850 ships. Butcher faithfully records the dramas of these four months and the problems of putting such a force together in such a short time.

The birth of the plans

The immediacy of Butcher’s diary is there from the start. On Sunday 19 July 1942 he records ‘Ike worked hard today. Kept two stenographers busy.’ They were typing his first proposals for the Allied invasion of North Africa. Later that day, after General Marshall and Admiral King had suggested a few changes, the broad plan was done. ‘These are momentous days,’ wrote Butcher. By the end of the month, planning officers were hurrying from America to begin translating the broad plan into operational details. In turn, the diary goes on to cover the planning and implementing of Husky and then of Overlord, which saw thousands of men pour onto the Normandy beaches.

Daily life

Butcher’s record of, at times, the hour by hour planning and implementing of this vast operation is probably unique. He mixes the mundane with high strategy as he and Ike live side by side in their house outside London and, later, in various houses in North Africa. There is no great entourage. Messengers and visitors come and go. Occasionally life is interrupted by security alerts.

Butcher does an excellent job in conveying the nervous excitement at the launch of a big attack. He and Ike are on edge as the first bits of news of the Torch landings comes in. Their most anxious moments are when no news comes in. Has the attack been a mighty disaster? Is the news too bad to be conveyed in a short message?

Often Ike and Butcher are alone when the day’s work is done. For Ike, Butcher was an aide and a companion rather than a subordinate office to be ordered around. They shared the same bathroom and every meal. They each saw the other’s strains, disappointments and illnesses. You sense you are there as Butcher places his record of high strategic command within the context of the spartan daily life of armies on the move.

Wartime London

Butcher still finds time to record the minutiae of daily life. When he is first in London he notes the women street cleaners (previously a man’s job):

‘Walking back from lunch on Audley Street this afternoon, for the first time I noticed a woman street sweeper. Uniformed, plump, and cheerful, she was gingerly brushing accumulated horse manure into her dustpan on wheels, and humming a tune.’

Skulking in Gibraltar

There are some marvellous passages dealing with the complexities of coordinating the plans of the various powers. At one stage – when Ike is in Algeria – it is imperative for him to coordinate with the Free French. The only feasible meeting place was Gibraltar. Spain, though, was determined to do nothing that could be seen as supporting one or other side in the war. This meant that the participants had to be smuggled in and out of Gibraltar in the depths of the night. (The British contingent had to be landed secretly from a submarine in the pitch black using collapsible boats.) The two groups met at midnight in a cellar and the negotiations were successfully concluded. The travel arrangements, though, were a disaster, resulting in General Clark’s clothes ending up at the bottom of the Mediterranean. This is the reality of war that we rarely see recorded.

Surrender

Another remarkable passage records how difficult it was for Germany to surrender. The Russians were in one place; the allies were in another; and the few remaining senior German officers were scattered to remote corners. Getting the parties to comment on draft documents and to agree on a final wording was a logistical nightmare, worsened by the various parties working under different time zones. Once again, Butcher provides us with an intimate close up view of the complexities of an apparently simple task once the ravages of war have destroyed telephone systems, roads, railways and airports.

An accidental diarist

Butcher’s diary was packed with information of value to the enemy. At times (particularly in North Africa) its pages might have been seized by a local spy. To minimise this risk, his handwritten diary was typed by a trusted secretary and the pages were then regularly shipped back to America where they were safely locked away until the war’s end.

Butcher was an accidental diarist, having been asked to write as part of his duties. Hence he had no personal motive. He was not telling his story but was recording the work of a great general and the ambiance in which Ike worked. Butcher proved to be a natural diarist. He records what happens without fear or favour and has an eye for telling detail. He is not judgemental and reveals next to nothing of his own personality.

Butcher’s diary is as fresh as the day he wrote it – it was never revised or edited. In summary, Three Years With Eisenhower is an outstanding diary.

Richard Freeman

© 2024

Butcher, H C. Three Years With Eisenhower. London. William Heinemann. 1946.