Patton's Men

As the U.S. Seventh Army pounded through Sicily it became apparent that this raw army was putting on an even better show than the II Corps had staged in Tunisia. General Sir Harold Alexander himself commented on the excellent performance, said the Americans were "at least 100% better" than six months ago.

Obvious reasons for the improvement: 1) months of intensive invasion training, both in the U.S. and North Africa; 2) priceless experience for the staff officers in handling troops under battle conditions. But, these considerations aside, it remained clear that Lieut. General George S. Patton Jr. had put together an exceedingly good team of unit commanders to lead his troops.

Almost to a man, the top troop commanders of the Seventh were officers who had come to Chief of Staff General George Marshall's attention when he was the First Army's chief of operations in 1918. They had impressed him then; he had kept them in mind for future jobs.

At the top of the list was Lieut. General Omar Nelson Bradley, who took command of the U.S. II Corps for the victorious push in Tunisia. General Bradley was leading a corps of the Seventh Army. Dispatches at the fall of Palermo (see p. 33) identified Major General Geoffrey Keyes as General Patton's deputy commander, and indicated that he might be leading another army corps. Keyes is an old associate of Patton's and an armored-force expert, whose last published command was the 9th Armored Division at Camp Campbell, Ky.

Of the divisional commaders, one of the highest-rated soldiers of the U.S. Army is Major General Hugh J. Gaffey, an artillery specialist turned leader of the 2nd Armored Division. Major General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, commander of the 82nd, first U.S. airborne division to strike the enemy, is a strapping six-footer who made a reputation as G-3 (operations) officer in the Second Army maneuvers of 1936.

Of the three major generals commanding infantry divisions, the best known is Terry de la Mesa Allen, leader of the 1st, only division in the Seventh Army that fought the Germans and Italians before Sicily. Lucian K. Truscott Jr. of the 3rd Infantry is a hell-roaring cavalryman, tall, lean, wiry. He developed U.S. Ranger tactics in England, accompanied a unit of Canadian Commandos on the bloody Dieppe Raid.

Troy H. Middleton, of the 45th Division, resigned from the Army in 1937 to become a university (Louisiana State) dean, then went back to active duty at the beginning of 1941. He had a tough morale problem in his outfit, partly because of a hangover of Oklahoma politics (the 45th was a National Guard outfit), partly because of the unusually long training period the division had to undergo to learn special amphibious tactics for the Sicily show.

Bradley, Keyes, Allen and Ridgway went to West Point. Gaffey and Truscott entered the Army as reserve officers in 1917. Middleton began as an infantry private in 1910, and eight years later, because of outstanding leadership in battle, was a full colonel and the youngest regimental commander in the Regular Army.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.