The British American Forces Dining Club

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2004 by Larry G. Carter

Editor's Note: PIREP is aviation shorthand for pilot report. It 's a means for one pilot to pass on current, potentially useful information to other pilots. In the same fashion, we intend to use this department to let readers know about air and space power items of interest.

In war it is not always possible to have everything go exactly as one likes. In working with Allies it sometimes happens that they develop opinions of their own.

--Sir Winston Churchill The Hinge of Fate

SITTING IN THE reviewing stands that overlook the main parade yard inside the ancient walls of the Tower of London, HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, leaned over and explained the maneuvers of a British military marching band to Brig Gen Kurt B. Anderson. (1) Commander of the United States Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing, based at Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath, General Anderson was the senior American officer in attendance that day. Prince Philip's act underscored the very special relationship between the United States and Britain--the product of a long history between the two countries, conscious decisions, and much nurturing. That day the Duke of Edinburgh, the queen's consort, hosted one of those nurturing institutions--a meeting of the British American Forces Dining Club (BAFDC).

The club began on 1 March 1943, during the dark days of World War II, under the patronage of Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower and William Richard Morris, first Viscount Nuffield--an English philanthropist and automobile manufacturer who produced aircraft during the war. General Eisenhower, who had replaced Adm Harold Stark as overall commander of US forces in the European theater in June 1942, assumed responsibility for the daytime US strategic bombing campaign against Germany just as it began. In close cooperation with the British staff, he also directed initial planning for the land invasion of occupied Western Europe. (2)

Hailing from "two countries divided by a common language," (3) officers of the combined staff who planned Operation Overlord found that their different cultures, experiences, and military traditions adversely affected their knowledge of each other's staffing processes and procedures, thus straining relationships and creating distrust. Seeking to reverse those misgivings and this growing animosity, in the latter part of 1942 several senior British and American officers--some of whom became original members of the BAFDC--had drinks together, and "after about the fourth round they began to feel much more sympathetic to each other's point of view--and regular dinners were suggested." (4)

At the time of that first BAFDC dinner in 1943, General Eisenhower and his staff were in Algiers; his combined forces found themselves at an operational turning point in North Africa; and planning proceeded apace for follow-on operations in Sicily and Italy. In November 1942, the Allies had executed Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, with Eisenhower as the combined-forces commander. Until the Casablanca conference in January 1943, the general had remained commander of all US forces in Europe and in that capacity continued to encourage activities to help build trust and confidence in the combined forces. At that conference, Gen George C. Marshall, US Army chief of staff, announced the establishment of a separate European theater of operations in the United Kingdom led by Gen Frank Andrews, who attended the first BAFDC dinner as commander of US forces in Europe) (Marshall's directive ran contrary to the positions of Eisenhower and American generals Henry H. Arnold and Carl A. Spaatz, who saw the bombing efforts of Eighth Air Force in England and the operations of US forces in North Africa as part of one theater that should remain under a single command.)

Viscount Nuffield was the guest of honor at that initial BAFDC dinner attended by 12 senior British and American officers, including UK representatives Adm Sir Dudley Pound, Field Marshal Sir Alan Francis Brooke, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles "Peter" Portal, as well as Admiral Stark and General Andrews of the United States. The senior British naval officer, Sir Dudley Pound had served as Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord since 1939 and would continue to do so until his death in October 1943. Field Marshal Brooke, chief of the Imperial General Staff (the head of the British Army), was the foremost military advisor to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Dominating British military leadership by virtue of his intellect and personality, he reportedly was the only senior British officer able to challenge Churchill's sometimes volatile and impetuous military judgments. (6) The leaders of the Casablanca conference had selected Air Chief Marshal Portal, the senior British Airman, to coordinate the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany. A strong supporter of daylight precision bombing, he had helped American Airmen convince a skeptical Prime Minister Churchill of its value. Winning Churchill's confidence and establishing friendships with senior Allied leaders allowed Air Chief Marshal Portal to contribute significantly to the war effort. He became Marshal of the RAF in January 1944.