Arnold’s journey to Normandy started in London early on the morning of the twelfth. He, Gen. George C. Marshall, and Adm. Ernest J. King boarded prime minister Winston Churchill’s private train to Portsmouth, where they transferred to the destroyer USS Thompson. Together with Adm. William D. Leahy, these four men made up the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After plowing through the concentrated mass of ships that spanned the English Channel, the group of “brass hats” were ushered aboard suitable landing craft. Through calm seas, several of the highest-ranking Allied officers in Europe then disembarked onto the beachhead.