Okay, I grant you, this isn’t the original building, but the building that stood on the spot in St James’s Square during the Second World War (called Norfolk House) was where General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, planned Operation Overlord, the invasion of German occupied Europe in June 1944.
Imagine the scene. London was on a war footing with thousands of allied soldiers passing through the city, some on leave, some on their way to their units and while all this activity was going on, Eisenhower and his close team of Generals would have been feverishly working here, drawing up the immense plans of the invasion.
D Day was the biggest military undertaking of the Second World War and it took a man of great knowhow and diplomatic skill to head such an operation. Eisenhower was without doubt, the best man for the job.
Closer to the invasion date, Eisenhower and his team moved to Southwick House in Portsmouth on the south coast to be closer to the action, but the intricate and ultimately successful planning took place here in St James’s Square – something we should all be eternally grateful for!
