The European Civil Affairs Division (ECAD) was a unit assigned to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) from February 1944 [1] to July 1945. ECAD was created in Shrivenham, England before D-Day and Colonel Cuthbert P. Stearns was its first commander and was soon promoted to Brigadier General. [2]
After the Normandy invasion, ECAD began to move into the formerly Nazi controlled areas beginning on September 9, 1944 to set up civil government run by the US Army until such time as it was practical to allow local administration. As the US Army moved east, the amount of former Nazi held territory grew and ECAD could not keep up with the need for specialists in medical, educational, sanitation [3] , and every other type of civil management.
Fighting against disease was just as important to the ECAD as de-Nazifying the populace and installing working governance. The ECAD found typhus outbreaks as well as a lack of food and drinking water. [4] In August 1944, ECAD set up a School of Military Government near Paris to help with the issue.