Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Saturrday, May 29, 2004

On the 60th anniversary of the great Allied invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe, the names of many of the U.S. lions of World War II are firmly and forever enshrined in our national pantheon of heroes.

These great men were the progenitors of the Greatest Generation, the young men and women who sacrificed to win the war.

Any thoughts of D-Day, of course, would be bare of essentials if not laced through and through with the contributions of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), the man who pulled together an historic alliance and drove it across the bloody beaches of Normandy and all the way to Berlin.

Unlike the colorful George Patton, “Ike” saw no action in WWI. Instead he led a post war team to study the great land battles and tactics of that war to end all wars. The genius of the lowly lieutenant colonel came to the attention of Gen. George Marshall, who jumped his protégé above the heads of more senior officers to make him commander of the North African landings – and later Supreme Allied Commander In Europe.

After the successful D-Day landings, Ike overcame raging egos as well as political and logistical nightmares to lead the Allies to victory. When it was all over, even the Soviets had to hand it to the American 5-star, awarding him the “Order of Victory,” the highest Russian military award in existence. Eisenhower is the only American to earn one.

Speaking of Gen. George Patton (1890-1945), this aggressive WWI tank officer earned a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Service Cross on the battlefields of France in the Great War, later being elevated to Superintendent of West Point.

At the outbreak of WWII, “Old Blood and Guts” became head of II Corps in North Africa, and then led the 7th Army into Sicily. After an infamous episode of slapping a couple of GIs for “cowardice,” he was demoted to serve under his former junior, Omar Bradley.

Nonetheless keeping his date with history, the flamboyant general smashed through German lines in France with his 3rd Army and rode to the rescue in the Battle of the Bulge.

As the war ground to a halt, the prescient Patton would have liked to carry the battle to defeat his Russian allies, but his tanks were stopped short in Czechoslovakia before confronting the Russian Bear.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Gen. Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946) found himself assigned to China when WWII got underway in earnest. Fluent in both the Chinese and Japanese languages, he became legendary in the Burma campaigns in which he commanded largely Chinese troops, and served as chief of staff to the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek.

“Vinegar Joe” was America’s point man in the Far East, and despite suffering initial setbacks, the cantankerous leader enjoyed a victorious sequel between February 1943 and August 1944 -- breaking the Japanese stranglehold on the region.

Back at home in probably the most daunting position of the war, Gen. George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was christened Army Chief of Staff at the very outbreak of hostilities.

Marshall had to increase the U.S. Army’s manpower and strength with breakneck speed.

By the time of the infamy at Pearl Harbor, he had engineered the transformation of the ill-prepared American military and was elevated to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, becoming President Franklin Roosevelt’s right hand man throughout the war.

After the end of fighting, he was appointed Secretary of State and devised a plan to rebuild Europe, aptly named “The Marshall Plan”.

Taking charge in the air, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold (1886-1950) rose to become overall commander of the Army Air Forces in World War II -- the only air commander ever to attain the five-star rank of general of the armies.

In 1938, already head of the army air corps, Arnold was a strong advocate of strategic bombing, and it was under his leadership that the Third Reich’s industrial might was eventually pulverized from the air.

In the end, his mighty Eighth Air Force was able to destroy the Luftwaffe’s fighter force, wreck the German oil industry, and interdict the flow of supplies to strategic Normandy.

A two theatre phenomenon, Arnold provided the air might that supported the army and navy campaigns in both Europe and the Pacific.

Speaking of the Pacific, that was the personal pond of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964). Unlike some of the relative newcomers, MacArthur was already a full general in 1930. Retired in 1937, Mac Arthur was recalled to active service by Roosevelt and charged with mobilizing the Philippine Army against the Japanese onslaught.

By October 1941, MacArthur informed his boss, General George Marshall that he now had 135,000 troops, 227 assorted fighters, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. But the well armed and well trained Japanese force soon had MacArthur’s forces retreating to the Bataan peninsula.

And the rest is, indeed, history, as the American forces are eventually re-organized under MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific.

Pushing the Japanese back across the broad Pacific, MacArthur developed what became known as his island hopping tactics. This strategy involved amphibious landings on vulnerable islands -- bypassing Japanese troop concentrations on fortified islands. This had the advantage of avoiding frontal assaults and reducing the number of American casualties.

Not to be outdone by the enormous undertaking of D-Day, MacArthur’s last amphibious operation was at Okinawa. More than 300,000 soldiers were involved in the fighting, making it comparable to the Normandy landing of June 1944.

But whenever talking of large commands, it is Gen. Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) who takes the grand prize. Bradley graduated in the same class as Eisenhower and began his WWII career by taking Patton’s old job as head of II Corps in Africa. He then won decisive battles in Sicily and Normandy and became head of the U.S. 1st Army. Soon after, he took control of the 12th Army Group and led his men to victory in Germany.

At its peak, his last command, the 12th U.S. Army Group was the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under one field commander.

The understated style of the leader and his lack of interest in personal glory earned him the sobriquet “the soldier’s general.” Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, considered him indispensable.

Victory at Sea

The battles on the high seas also provided an array of giants. Not the least of these was Adm. Ray Spruance (1886-1969). Spruance was promoted to rear admiral in December 1940 and two years later he was appointed head of Cruiser Division 5 in the Pacific.

When a skin disease sidelined Adm. William Halsey, the head of the formidable Task Group 16, Spruance stepped forward into the annals of history in a significant way, leading the task force to a decisive victory over the Japanese forces at Midway.

Historians consider Midway the turning point of the war – pushing Japan back half way across the Pacific and making any designs on America’s West coast a lost dream of the Divine Wind.

In June, 1942, Spruance became chief of staff to Chester Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet. The following year Spruance was promoted to vice admiral and became Nimitz’s deputy, playing a key role in the planning of the Pacific war.

It was Spruance who was the architect of the assaults of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Adm. William “Bull” Halsey (1882- 1959) had the distinction of earning his naval aviator wings at the ripe old age of 52. It was Halsey, while serving as commander, Carrier Division Two aboard the flagship USS Enterprise, who led the first counter-strikes of World War II against the Japanese with carrier raids on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

Halsey also commanded the task force that launched the famous “Doolittle Raid” against targets on the Japanese homeland – just months after Pearl Harbor.

As commander, South Pacific Force and South Pacific Area, Halsey led the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army forces that conquered the strategic Solomon Islands.

As commander, Third Fleet, his task forces spearheaded the campaigns in the Philippines, Okinawa, and other Japanese stronghold islands. His fighting slogan: “Hit hard, hit fast, hit often.”

Adm. Chester Nimitz (1885-1966) was promoted to full Admiral and became Commander-in-Chief Pacific on January 1, 1942. In his short change-of-command speech, Nimitz noted, “I have just taken on a great responsibility. I will do my utmost to meet it.”

Forging victories after the defeat at Pearl Harbor, Nimitz led his forces into the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway and the Guadalcanal campaign.

As supreme commander of the Central and Northern Pacific forces after the conclusion of the Solomons campaign, and later of the Southern Pacific areas as well, Nimitz controlled the most gigantic naval flotilla ever assembled on the planet.

Promoted to Fleet Admiral in December 1944, Nimitz signed the Declaration of Surrender aboard USS Missouri on 2nd September 1945, and became Chief of Naval Operations in December 1945.

Adm. Arleigh A. Burke (1901-1996) commanded the storied Destroyer Squadron 23 (the “Little Beavers”) during combat in the South Pacific. Developing successful tactics to overcome the deadly Japanese expertise in night surface operations, he earned fame as “31-knot” Burke during the 1943 battles of Empress Augusta Bay and Cape St. George.

The younger Burke served initially in the battleship USS Arizona. It was in this formative period of his career that he learned the importance of the Navy adage “loyalty up, loyalty down” -- if you expect loyalty from your people you must be loyal to them in return.

All told during the war, Burke served as commander of Destroyer Divisions 43, 44, 12, and 23 and Chief of Staff assigned to First Carrier Task Force, Pacific.

The remarkable officer went on to become an armistice negotiator in Korea 1951-2, and serve three terms as Chief of Naval Operations 1955-1961.

As Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet after Pearl Harbor, Adm. Ernest King (1878-1956) fought to put the spotlight on the naval war in the Pacific, which was taking a back seat to the Allied offensives in Europe.

Together with Gen. MacArthur and Adm. Nimitz, King was an architect of establishing and protecting a line of communications across the South Pacific to Australia – a strategic move that resulted in the decisive battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where the Japanese Navy lost all four of her carriers.

The aggressive King insisted on launching the Guadalcanal offensive despite MacArthur’s reservations that the U.S. Army was not ready. He also insisted on pushing on through to the Soloman Islands – again contrary to MacArthur’s more conservative timetable.

By December 1944, King was given the five-star rank of Fleet Admiral.

Another remarkable workhorse of the Pacific war was Adm. Marc Andrew Mitscher (1887-1947), who started his war service as captain of the USS Hornet when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Mitscher went on to command an aircraft carrier on the Doolittle raids against Tokyo, April 18, 1942, and in the Battle of Midway, June 3-7, 1942.

By 1943, he was the commander, Fleet Air, Solomon Islands, and was the overall tactical commander of the operations that resulted in the shooting-down of the aircraft carrying Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto on April 18, 1943.

In January 1944, he became commander of Carrier Division 3, which later became Fast Carrier Task Force 58. His fast carriers fought the Battles of Philippine Sea, June 19-20, 1944, and Gulf of Leyte, October 24-25, 1944, and defeated the Japanese Kamikazes in the Okinawa Campaign in the Spring of 1945.

When Guadalcanal had been secured but was still under constant enemy fire from the Japanese occupying the North Islands, Halsey dispatched Mitscher, according to Burke, because he “was a fighting fool and could handle the tough job.”

These giants of the World War all handled the tough job.

Editor's note: