The war office general staff 1940 to 1942 — a worm's eye view

Abstract

As an inexperienced 23 year old Adjutant in 1940, F D Goode found himself transferred to the War Office General Staff, suddenly responsible for the nebulous ‘General Staff Coordination’, a new post with no coherent job description. This anecdotal first hand account of hand‐to‐mouth organisation and working the system gives an amusing insight by an indispensible ‘dogsbody’ into wartime civil service/forces relations and the realities and confusion of improvised management. It is hardly surprising that on his move to Staff College in 1942, the job was upgraded to first grade.