Workd War II In 1942, Holmes served as the executive officer for the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff. In order to set the forces committed to
Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of
French North Africa, he landed with Generals
Mark W. Clark and
Lyman Lemnitzer near
Cherchell,
Algeria, to meet secretly and set an accord with
French resisters (as
Jose Aboulker,
Bernard Karsenty,
Henri d'Astier de La Vigerie) and officers (General
Charles Mast, Lieutenant Colonel
Germain Jousse) in order to prevent the reaction of
French Vychist armed forces and civil powers. This paved the way for the fast success of the November 8, 1942, landing of
Allied Forces of World War II in
Algiers, and then in the remaining of Algeria and in
Morocco, that
Winston Churchill called "the end of the beginning". That same year (and until 1944), he served in the liaison section of the
Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ). In 1944, he served as
Deputy G-5 for the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) while simultaneously acting as the Assistant
U.S. Secretary of State until 1945. He was promoted to
brigadier general,
U.S. Army in 1943.
Post–World War II In 1953, Holmes was minister at the
American Embassy in London. Two years later, in 1955, Holmes served as Ambassador to Iran, a position he reprised from 1961 to 1965. From 1956 to 1959, Holmes was the special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State for
NATO Affairs. From 1959 to 1961, Holmes served as
Consul General to Hong Kong. ==See also==