Impulsive, impatient, plagued by heart problems, and out of touch with the situation on the ground in England, Arnold was, nonetheless, unyielding. He pressed Eaker to fire both his fighter and bomber commanders, who were both “playing safe,” he charged, unwilling to take big losses by sending larger formations of bombers and escorts against the enemy. With intemperate cables flying back and forth across the Atlantic, “it began to look,” recalled Eaker’s aide, James Parton, “as if generals Arnold and Eaker were devoting more time to fighting each other than to defeating the Germans.”
