In accordance with the experience of World War I, it was usually conceived of as a large land mass over which continuous operations would take place and was divided into two chief areas-the combat zone, or the area of active fighting, and the Communications Zone, or area required for administration of the theater.

[2] Major General James E. Chaney, an Army Air Corps officer, arrived in the United Kingdom on 18 May 1941, and on the following day, Headquarters, Special Observer Group (SPOBS), was established in London.

At the time of the ARCADIA Conference, December 1941 – January 1942, the decision was made to place the MAGNET forces (U.S.

Forces for Northern Ireland) under the command of Maj. Gen. E.L. Daley, and make him in turn responsible to General Chaney, designated as CG, USAFBI.

Its mission was to conduct planning for the eventual retaking of Europe and to exercise administrative and operational control over U.S. forces.

These units were designated as U.S. Army Northern Ireland Forces, later incorporated within the European Theater of Operations.

[6] Eisenhower then relinquished command of ETOUSA to Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews in February 1943, who was killed in an air crash in May.

The ETOUSA planning staff in London was usually referred to by its Army Post Office number, "APO 887".

Albert Coady Wedemeyer was chief author of the Victory Program, published three months before the U.S. entered the war in 1941, which advocated the defeat of the German armies on the European continent.