in fact, courtney hodges, lieutenant general commander of the u.s. first army had what appears to be a nervous break down of sorts at a very inopportune moment. he closed the door of his office and put his head down on the desk and basically for 24 hours, the chief of staff ran first army at a time when it appeared as though the germans might overrun first army. there was concern that hodges was obvious they not up to it. field marshal montgomery, although this is not a defector was given the responsibility of taking over hodges first army and a big portion of the american forces. in summary went and looked hodges directly in the eye and came to the conclusion that in fact he had righted the ship somehow, that whatever affliction had caused him to put his head down on the desk seemed to have passed. he wrote to eisenhower, who was the supreme commander in europe that is not the man i would've chosen, but i think were going to be okay. i'll keep a close eye on him. hodges recovered sufficiently to finish the war out. there were a number of instances w