Between World War I and II
In 1919, he became an aide-de-camp to General
John J. Pershing. Between 1920 and 1924, while Pershing was Army Chief of Staff, Marshall worked in a number of positions in the US Army, focusing on training and teaching modern, mechanized warfare. Between WWI and World War II, he was a key planner and writer in the
War Department, spent three years in
China, and taught at the
Army War College. From June 1932 - June 1933 he was the Commanding Officer at Fort Screven, Savannah Beach, Georgia, now named
Tybee Island. In 1934, then-Col. Marshall directed the publication of
Infantry in Battle. a book that codified the lessons of World War I.
Infantry in Battle is still used as an officer's training manual in the Infantry Officer's Course, and was the training manual for most of the infantry officers and leaders of World War II.
Marshall was promoted to
Brigadier General in October
1936. He commanded the
Vancouver Barracks in
Vancouver,
Washington from 1936-
1938. Nominated by President
Franklin Roosevelt to be
Army Chief of Staff, Marshall was promoted to full
General and sworn in on September 1, 1939, the day German forces invaded Poland, which began World War II. He would hold this post until the end of the war in 1945.
As Chief of Staff, Marshall oversaw the largest military expansion in U. S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly equipped army of 200,000 men and, partly drawing from his experience teaching and developing techniques of modern warfare as an instructor at the Army War College, coordinated the large-scale expansion and modernization of the U. S. army into a force of over eight million soldiers by 1942 (a forty-fold increase within three years).
On
December 16 1944, Marshall became the first American general to be promoted to
5 star rank, the newly created
General of the Army. He was the second American to be promoted to a 5 star rank, as
William Leahy was promoted to
Fleet Admiral the previous day. This position is the American equivalent rank to
Field Marshal. Marshall once joked that he was glad the U.S. never created a Field Marshal rank during World War II, since he would then have to be addressed as Marshal Marshall.
During World War II, Marshall was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps reorganized and ready for combat. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe, selected
Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander in Europe, and designed
Operation Overlord, the invasion of
Normandy. His success in working with Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with his refusal to lobby for the position, ultimately resulted in his being passed over as the
Supreme Allied Commander in charge of the
D-Day invasion. At the time, the President told him: "I didn't feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington."
Throughout the remainder of World War II, Marshall coordinated Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. He was characterized as the organizer of Allied victory by
Winston Churchill.
Time Magazine named Marshall
Man of the Year in 1944. Marshall resigned his post of Chief of Staff in 1945, but did not retire, as regulations stipulate that Generals of the Army remain on active duty for life.
