Fredendall for Lear

To Memphis to take over the Second Army command from Lieut. General Ben Lear (see col. 1) last week went Major General Lloyd R. Fredendall. who was relieved in Tunisia by Lieut. General George S. Patton Jr.

Like his close friend Ben Lear (whom he was slated to succeed when he was pulled away from his corps command last October), cocky, Wyoming-born, West Point-educated Lloyd Fredendall is a spit-&-polish disciplinarian, a top-notch administrator, a stern critic of incompetent commanders. At one maneuver critique last summer he cracked: "The opposing commanders got their lines so far extended it would have taken a week to send a postcard from one end to the other."

For training troops, Lloyd Fredendall will be able to draw on personal combat experience in both victory and defeat in World War II. After a smoothly handled landing at Oran, he was fated to lead U.S. troops in their first major engagement against Rommel and suffer the February defeat at Kasserine Pass, which cost more than 2,000 casualties and seriously delayed the offensive. His lines were extended so far it would have taken a week to send a postcard from one end to the other. Rightly or wrongly, Fredendall became the goat of the U.S. defeat, although he later turned and with a vastly inferior force drove the enemy from the Pass. As commander of the Second Army he will be promoted to lieutenant general.

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