loaded onto a pair of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The staff of the chief-of-staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) was already active, and he had been planning Operation Overlord since April 1943. This staff was absorbed into SHAEF, with COSSAC, with Major General Frederick Morgan, becoming Smith's deputy chief of staff at SHAEF. Gale also held the title of deputy chief of staff, as well as being chief administrative officer, and there was also a deputy chief of staff (Air), Air Vice Marshal James Robb. The heads of the other staff divisions were Major General Ray W. Barker (G-1), Major General Harold R. Bull (G-3), Major General Robert W. Crawford (G-4) and Major General Sir Roger Lumley (G-5). Morgan had located his COSSAC headquarters in Norfolk House at 31 St. James's Square, London, but Smith moved it to Bushy Park, in the outskirts of London in accord with Eisenhower's expressed desire not to have his headquarters in a major city. A hutted camp was built with of floor space. By the time Operation Overlord began, accommodations had been provided for 750 officers and 6,000 enlisted men and women. Eisenhower and Smith's offices were in a subterranean complex. Smith's office was spartan, dominated by a large portrait of Marshall. An advanced command post codenamed Sharpener was established near Portsmouth, where Montgomery's 21st Army Group and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay's Allied Naval Expeditionary Force headquarters were located. Ground operations in Normandy were controlled by Montgomery at first, but the SHAEF Forward headquarters moved to Jullouville in August, and on 1 September Eisenhower assumed control of Bradley's 12th Army Group and Montgomery's 21st Army Group. Smith soon realized that he had made a mistake. The forward headquarters was remote and inaccessible and lacked the necessary communications equipment. On 6 September, Eisenhower ordered both SHAEF Forward and SHAEF Main to move to Versailles as soon as possible. SHAEF Forward began its move on 15 September and it opened in Versailles on 20 September. SHAEF Main followed, moving from Bushy Park by air. The move was completed by October, and SHAEF remained there until 17 February 1945, when SHAEF Forward moved to Reims. By this time, SHAEF had grown in size to 16,000 officers and enlisted men, of whom 10,000 were American and 6,000 British. By November 1944, Strong was reporting that there was a possibility of a German counteroffensive in the Ardennes or