(CG) of the 29th Infantry Division, an Army National Guard formation recruiting largely from Virginia, although the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General George C. Marshall, had doubts about Gerow's ability. He received the Legion of Merit on 27 September 1943 for his work as a division commander and as Chief of Staff of the War Plans Division. Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, the commander of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) selected Gerow to replace Major General Russell P. Hartle as commander of V Corps on 17 July 1943. At the time this was the largest unit of troops in ETOUSA. As such, Gerow played a major part in the planning of Operation Overlord, the invasion of continental Europe. When Eisenhower replaced Devers as theater commander, he and Bradley removed three other corps commanders, Willis D. Crittenberger, Emil F. Reinhardt and Roscoe B. Woodruff, and replaced them with three generals with combat experience in the war as division commanders, but they retained Gerow. He was awarded an oak leaf cluster to his Distinguished Service Medal on August 8, 1944, for his contributions to the planning phase of Operation Overlord. Gerow was the first corps commander ashore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and continued in command through the Battle of Normandy, which saw his divisions sustain heavy casualties. V Corps was initially composed of two infantry divisions: the veteran 1st under Clarence R. Huebner and the green 29th, his old division, now commanded by Charles H. Gerhardt. He was the first American officer of the rank of major general to enter Paris after its liberation by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. For his part in this campaign he was awarded the Silver Star. His citation read: Gerow commanded V Corps from 17 July 1943 to 17 September 1944 and again from 5 October 1944 to 14 January 1945. In the gap between the two periods of command he returned to the United States to appear before the Army Board's Pearl Harbor Investigation. The resulting Clausen Report found fault with Gerow's performance, citing his failure to keep Lieutenant General Walter Short fully informed and to give him clear guidance. Eisenhower and Bradley held Gerow in high regard and ranked him as one of the top American field commanders of World War II. In a February 1945 memo General Eisenhower