Frederick E. Morgan

Frederick E. Morgan

Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgeworth Morgan KCB (5 February 1894 – 19 March 1967) was a British Army officer who fought in both world wars. He is best known as the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), the original planner of Operation Overlord.

A graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Morgan was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in 1913. During the First World War he served on the Western Front as an artillery subaltern and staff officer. Afterwards he served two long tours with the British Army in India.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Morgan was promoted to brigadier and assumed command of the 1st Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division, which he led during the Battle of France. In May 1942 he was became a lieutenant general and given command of the I Corps. Morgan's headquarters was designated Force 125, and given the task of dealing with a German thrust through Spain to Gibraltar that never occurred. In March 1943 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (Designate), or COSSAC. As COSSAC he directed the planning for Operation Overlord. When General Dwight Eisenhower became Supreme Allied Commander, Major General Bedell Smith became Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), while Morgan became Deputy Chief of Staff.

After the war, Morgan served as Chief of Operations for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Germany until his position in Germany was eliminated following publication of "off the record" comments concerning incompetence and corruption within UNRRA, including diverting the resources of UNRRA to the support of Zionist ambitions to further political ambitions. In 1951, Morgan became Controller of Atomic Energy, and was present for Operation Hurricane, the first British atomic weapons tests at the Montebello Islands in 1952. His position was abolished in 1954 with the creation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority but he remained as Controller of Nuclear Weapons until 1956.