Omar Nelson Bradley (1893-1981) – Brief Profile & History

Omar Bradley (American General), the principal ground commander of U.S. forces in the European theater of World War II, led a corps in North Africa and Sicily and an army at Normandy. Shortly after the breakout from the French beaches, Bradley assumed command of the Twelfth Army Group, composed of 1,300,000 men—the largest single formation of American troops in U.S. history—and led them into the German interior to defeat the Nazis. Common sense and dedication to the common soldier earned him the tide “GI General.”

Bradley, born on February 12, 1893, to a Clark, Missouri, fam- ily of limited economic means, worked hard at academics and sports and earned an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. At the Academy, both he and Dwight David Eisen­hower [18] were members of the class of 1915, known as the “class that stars fell on” because of the general officers it produced.

When Bradley became one of America’s principal leaders of World War II, he was without combat experience. Although he had made numerous attempts to deploy to France during World War I, Bradley was assigned to stateside posts. Bradley’s postwar career followed a pattern similar to that of other U.S. officers, with troop duty alternating with school assignments during a dme of slow pro­motions and low pay. Bradley did not gain the rank of major undl nine years after graduating from West Point; and he did not re­ceive another promotion for twelve years.

Rank aside, Bradley began making his mark on the U.S. Army early in his career. In 1929, after a three-year tour with the Twenty- seventh Infantry Regiment in Hawaii and a year at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Bradley re­turned to Fort Benning, Georgia, for his second tour as an in­structor in the Infantry School. During this period, Bradley came to the attention of future army chief of staff George Catlett Mar­shall, who recognized the young officer’s organizational and leadership abilities.

For the next twenty years, Bradley and Marshall intermittently served together. Marshall, in mentoring his talented subordinate, ensured assignments that benefited both the army and Bradley’s career. In February 1941, Marshall arranged for Bradley to become the commandant of the Infantry School, which resulted in his pro­motion to brigadier general. After the declaration of war, Bradley briefly commanded the Eighty-second and Twenty-eighth Infantry Divisions as they prepared for war.

Bradley’s initial combat assignment came as an assistant to his old classmate Eisenhower, who commanded the U.S. forces in North Africa. His first field duty was as assistant commander of the II Corps under George S. Patton [95]. When Patton was pro­moted to command the Seventh Army, Bradley assumed the lead­ership of the II Corps, with the rank of lieutenant general for the remainder of the North African campaign. On May 7, 1943, Bradley’s corps occupied Bizerte and took forty thousand Axis prisoners.

Bradley remained in command of the II Corps, serving under Patton’s Seventh Army during the July 10, 1943, invasion of Sicily. He spearheaded the Allied offensive and took Messina only five weeks after the landings.

In October 1943, Eisenhower chose Bradley to command the U.S. First Army, composed of the ground forces preparing for the Operation Overlord landings at Normandy. Patton, not selected for the command because of the much-publicized incident of slap­ping several soldiers, now became subordinate to Bradley.

Bradley’s responsibilities again increased as the Allies broke through the defenses at Normandy and moved into the French in­terior. At the lead of the 1.3 million men of the Twelfth Army Group, Bradley exploited the attack, preventing the Germans from preparing any formidable defenses as he liberated Paris and ad­vanced toward the German homeland. Despite the setback caused by Hider’s final counteroffensive in the Ardennes Forest in late 1944, Bradley breached the Siegfried Line and crossed the Rhine at the Remagen bridgehead in early 1945. Bradley’s rapid advance forced more than 335,000 German soldiers to surrender after he surrounded them in the Ruhr Pocket.

On March 12, 1945, Bradley received his fourth star. The next month, his forces linked up with the Soviets along the Elbe River, forcing the surrender of Germany.

For two years following the war, Bradley headed the Veterans Administration. In 1948 he replaced Eisenhower as the Army Chief of Staff and on January 16, 1949, became the first chairman of the newly formed Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he served during the early days of the cold war and the Korean Conflict. In September 1950, Bradley joined the select few Americans to ever be promoted to five-star rank. While five-star generals do not “retire,” Bradley stepped down from active duty on August 15, 1953, and served as consultant to the military and private industry until his death in New York City on April 8, 1981, at eighty-eight years of age.

Bradley was a major contributor to the Allied victory in World War II. He capably led huge forces of men and maintained the del­icate balance of coalition warfare with the British and other allies while also achieving maximum results from such excellent but tem­peramental generals as Patton. Lastly, Bradley’s influence also ex­tended to soldiers who served under him. Beloved is not a characteristic ascribed to many military leaders of any age, but it certainly is an adjective Bradley earned.

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