Moran, Edmond J., Rear Adm., USNR (Ret.)

Admiral Moran: When Eisenhower told me to go over there to London — I had gone across the channel with Ike on a destroyer. One day after the storm I was told to report to Portsmouth at 5:00 o'clock in the morning. At 5:00 o'clock in the morning I was there, and I asked the British officer of the day what I was to do.

He said, "You are going out on a destroyer."

"Where is the destroyer going?"

He said, "I don't know." I went out on the Thompson, and I asked the officer of the deck if I could get some breakfast, because I hadn't any.[‡‡‡]

So he said, "Sure, go down to the wardroom; they'll fix you up." So I went down to the wardroom and sat down at a table for two. Pretty soon a fellow came along, sitting alongside me as you are now. I looked at him, and it was Eisenhower.

So I said, "Good morning, General."

He said, "Can I get some breakfast here?"

I said, "Sure, just a minute. Mine is coming." So when mine came, I said, "Won't you take this?"

"No, no," and he said to the messman, "Get me [whatever]. So the messman came along with his breakfast.

We were talking, and I said, "General, when I came over here, my little daughter assumed that I would see you, and, based upon that assumption, she asked me if I could get your autograph, but I never thought that I would see you. I told her that if by chance I did, I would ask for it, so I hereby request your autograph if it is consistent with your wishes."

"Oh, sure." He wrote out his autograph, and I put it in my pocket. And he said, "We are going to have a meeting later on this morning, after breakfast, and I want to talk to you." So we went up into the wheelhouse and talked things over.

Doctor Mason: And what was the substance of the conversation?

Admiral Moran: The subject was the need for more equipment, because he was afraid his army was then at St. Lo. It was only two weeks after the invasion, and he thought, "God, if they get pushed back again, how can I ever supply them?" I think Bradley was pushing him, too, for more reserves. So he said, "We have to send more equipment over there, and this stuff that we've got may not last, and we'll probably need more. I'm sending this cable to King and Land and Marshall, and I want you to go over tonight."

Doctor Mason: Back to the States?

Admiral Moran: Back to the States — no orders, no nothing. He said, "I'll tell Beetle Smith to arrange for your transportation and send you over.[§§§] So he met me back on the beach about 4:00 o'clock, and we went back to the destroyer. I went up to Prestwick the next morning, took a flight over to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then we went down to Greenland in a hell of a snowstorm, and then we flew to Washington.

Then I saw Marshall and King. King said to me, "I saw that place you built there at Normandy, and I must say it was a great job.”

[‡‡‡] USS Thompson (DD-627) was active in providing naval gunfire during the landings at Normandy. On 12 June she carried a group of VIPs from England to the invasion beaches at Normandy. Included were General George C. Marshall, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Admiral Ernest J. King, and General Henry H. Arnold.

[§§§] Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, USA, was Eisenhower's chief of staff.