General Walter Bedell Beetle Smith GBE KCB (October 5, 1895 August 9, 1961) was Dwight D. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff during Eisenhower's tenure at SHAEF. When General George C. Marshall became the Army's Chief of Staff, he called in Smith (then a Major) to be Assistant to the Secretary of the General Staff. He became Secretary in September 1941 and in February 1942 was named U.S. Secretary of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Just before the invasion of North Africa, Marshall sent him to England to be Chief of Staff for the European Theater of Operations. In March 1944, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Smith Chief of Staff. He remained in that role until V-E Day, including making the arrangements for and accepting the surrender of German military forces on May 7, 1945. [1][2]