General Omar Bradley :: Essays Papers

General Omar BradleyGeneral Omar Nelson Bradley was the first member of his 1915 West engineer class to receive a star. Gen. George C. marshal played a paint role in his rapid advance, and he served one year as an assistant in the War Department under marshal. Promoting him from lieutenant colonel to brigadier superior general general in 1940, Marshall made Bradley head of the Infantry School, gave him a second star in 1941, and after that appointed him commanding general of the 82nd and 28th divisions. Impressed by Bradleys success as a planner, Marshall move him to North Africa early in 1943 to be Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhowers eyes and ears. in brief Bradley commanded the U.S. Second Corps in Tunisia. As a corps commandant under Gen. George Pattons 5th host, Bradley played a key role in the conquest of Sicily in the summer of 1943. Early in preparations for the 1944 invasion of Normandy, Marshall selected Bradley to command the 1st Army, which he later directed in the D-Day l andings and Normandy campaign. When Patton was sent with the 3rd Army to assist in the breakout from France several weeks later, Bradley became the twelfth Army Group commander, with Gen. Courtney Hodgess 1st and Pattons 3rd armies under his command. He conduct this force in a rapid movement across northerly France and Belgium to the German frontier. Slowed by rugged terrain and supply shortages, Bradleys forces were hard hit in the Ardennes area in mid-December. When the German advance made it necessary for him to reach out over command of the American forces north of the German penetration to British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, Bradley used Pattons troops to restore his lines in the south. His reenforce force in February pushed the Germans back across the Roer and led to a exaltation of a bridge across the Rhine in early March. In April Bradleys Army Group, now consisting of the 1st, 3rd, 9th, and 15th armies, led a massive drive through central Germany to the Elbe, to link up with the Russians at Torgau on April 25th originally pushing into Czechoslovakia at the end of the war. When General Eisenhower retired from his job as head of staff in 1948, Bradley assumed the position until he became the first moderate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position made necessary by the new-fangled unification of the armed forces. Soon involved in supporting military operations in Korea, Bradley was caught up first with getting additional forces to MacArthur and hence in the controversy between the Far East commander and working capital over policy.