Allied Force Headquarters

AFHQ was established in the United Kingdom on 14 August 1942 under Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower in order to command the forces committed to Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, set for November.

Shortly after the establishment of the headquarters, "Expeditionary" was deleted from its title, for reasons of operational security.

Towards the end of 1942, there was a need to unify command of the Allied forces in North Africa, since those from the west, the British First Army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson, landed during Operation Torch, and those from the east, the British Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, that had fought and won the Second Battle of El Alamein, were now close enough together to need coordination.

Eisenhower, then a full general, returned to the United Kingdom on 14 January 1944 to assume command 2 days later of the Allied forces assembling for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, scheduled for the spring of 1944.

Wilson was in command for just under a year, until he was sent to Washington, D.C., in December 1944 to replace Field Marshal Sir John Dill of the British Joint Staff Mission who had died suddenly.