Marshall’s World War II Cap

The Episode

Welcome to this edition of “Now & Then at Dodona Manor.”

In this episode, we focus on the events surrounding George Marshall while he wore this cap during the uncertain and tumultuous times of World War II. On the same day that Germany set yet another world war in motion by invading Poland, Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, a position he would hold until the end of the war. 

Questions for Thought and Discussion

Marshall’s advancement to chief of staff started humbly enough. In July 1938 he was assigned to be deputy chief of staff, and he attended a conference at the White House, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a plan to provide aircraft to England in support of its war effort. After all the other attendees had given their approval for the plan, Marshall voiced an objection to it. He also rejected Roosevelt’s strategy to implement a large air force in favor of another strategy that implemented a large ground army. Marshall’s peers thought he had ended his career by challenging the president, much as he had done in World War I with General John Pershing. As Pershing did, however, Roosevelt recognized a strong leader when he saw one, and he appreciated Marshall’s courage and candor. Accordingly, he nominated Marshall to be the Army chief of staff. 

Marshall became acting chief of staff upon the retirement of General Malin Craig on July 1, 1939. He was promoted to four-star general and sworn in as permanent chief of staff on September 1, 1939, the day the German Army invaded Poland. As chief of staff, he organized the largest military expansion in U.S. history, expanding an outmoded, poorly prepared army of 189,000 men to more than two million. His experience developing techniques as an instructor at the Army War College helped Marshall coordinate the growth and modernization of the U.S. Army. Unlike some of his contemporaries who led troops in battle, Marshall’s skill was proven at headquarters with a talent for inspiring other officers. In fact, Marshall handpicked many of the famous top generals of World War II, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Lloyd Fredendall, Lesley McNair, Mark Clark and Omar Bradley.

What was Marshall like as a leader? The stern face portrayed in many of his military portraits suggests to those who neither knew nor worked with him that he was a cold, impersonable and humorless figure. Within the walls of his wartime office, that was often true. Marshall could be quiet and austere, but he had a warm regard for the common soldier and little tolerance for red tape, inefficiency and prejudice. He was a no-nonsense military officer who demanded the best of his staff members. At the end of his first week in office, Marshall called his staff into his office and said, “I am disappointed in all of you. You haven’t disagreed with a single thing I have done all week.” Marshall did not want a staff of “yes” men but instead wanted clever, honest and trustworthy military strategists. 

Marshall also enforced strict dress codes. “I cannot trust a soldier who is not adequately dressed in the colors of his comrades,” he asserted. The most iconic World War II Army uniform is the quintessential winter service uniform of olive drab coat and khaki pants. Officers were identified by an olive drab, peaked cap. The cap we saw in this episode, however, is khaki tan because it was part of Marshall’s summer uniform. These uniforms were made from lighter khaki fabric to keep soldiers cool and comfortable in the heat. Marshall wore this hat with his uniform throughout the summers of World War II. The striking gold eagle emblem indicates the wearer is a commissioned officer. On Veterans Day in 2019, the U.S. Army announced that it was readopting the World War II uniform design back into official use as a nod to General Marshall and the “greatest generation.”

Marshall was also instrumental in preparing the U.S. Army and Army Air Forces for the invasion of the European continent and wrote the document that became the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe. It was assumed that Marshall would become the supreme commander of Operation Overlord, the code name for those operations, but Roosevelt selected Eisenhower instead. While Marshall enjoyed considerable success in working with Congress and Roosevelt, he refused to lobby for the position of supreme commander. When rumors circulated that the top job might go to Marshall, many critics said that the transfer to supreme commander would be a demotion because he would leave his position as chief of staff of the Army and lose his seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president could not bear the thought of losing the general’s presence near him. “I didn’t feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington,” he told Marshall. 

On December 16, 1944, Marshall became the first Army general to be promoted to five-star rank, the newly created rank of General of the Army. He was the second American to be promoted to a five-star rank because Navy Admiral William Leahy was promoted to fleet admiral the previous day. Since General Omar Bradley’s death in 1981, no officer in the U.S. military has held the five-star rank.

Throughout World War II, Marshall coordinated Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. He was characterized as the “true organizer of Allied victory” by Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain. Marshall was on the cover of Time magazine six times in his life, three of which were during World War II. He was also named Time’s Man of the Year for 1944 and 1948.