John C. H. Lee: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox military person

|birth_name=John Clifford Hodges Lee

|birth_date= {{Birth date|1887|8|1|df=y}}

|death_date= {{Death date and age|1958|8|30|1887|8|1|df=y}}

|placeofburial=[[Arlington National Cemetery]]

|placeofburial_label= Place of burial

|caption=John Clifford Hodges Lee

|nickname=Jesus Christ Himself

|serviceyears=1909–1947

|servicenumber=0–2582

|commands=[[2nd Infantry Division (United States)|2d Infantry Division]]<br />[[Services of Supply|Services of Supply (ETO)]]<br />Communications Zone (ETO)<br />Mediterranean Theater

|unit=[[United States Army Corps of Engineers]]

|awards=[[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Army Distinguished Service Medal]] (2)<br />[[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]]<br />[[Silver Star]]<br />[[Legion of Merit]]<br />Honorary [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (Britain)<br />Grand Officer of the [[Legion of Honor]] (France);<br />[[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de Guerre]] with Palm (France)<br />Commander of the [[Ordre du Mérite Maritime|Order of Merit Maritime]] (France)<br />Commander of the [[Order of Agricultural Merit|Order of Merite Agricole]] (France)<br />Grand Officer of the [[Order of the Crown (Belgium)|Order of the Crown]] with Palm (Belgium)<br />[[Croix de guerre (Belgium)|Croix de Guerre]] with Palm (Belgium)<br />Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Oak Crown]] (Luxembourg)<br />[[Luxembourg War Cross|Croix de Guerre]] (Luxembourg)<br />Grand Officer of the [[Order of Adolph of Nassau]] (Luxembourg)<br />Grand Cordon of the [[Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus]] (Italy)<br />[[Military Order of Italy]]<br />[[Papal Lateran Cross]]

|laterwork=Episcopalian Layman

'''John Clifford Hodges Lee''' (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of [[lieutenant general (United States)|lieutenant general]] and commanded the [[Communications Zone]] (ComZ) in the [[European Theater of Operations]] during [[World War II]].

 

 

After World War I, Lee served again in the Philippines, then became District Engineer of the Vicksburg District, responsible for flood control and navigation for a section of the [[Mississippi River]] and its tributaries. During the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]], he directed relief work, attempted to shore up the levees, and coordinated the evacuations of towns and districts. He then directed various engineer districts around Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the [[Great Depression]].

 

==Early life==

 

 

==Early military engineer career==

 

 

In October 1913, Lee and the 3d Engineer Battalion departed for the Western Pacific. He conducted topographical survey work on [[Guam]] from 23 October 1913 to 30 July 1914, and then in the Philippines, where he was Senior Topographical Inspector with the [[Philippine Department]] from December 1914 to October 1915. He commanded the Northern District on [[Luzon]] from December 1914 to June 1915, and the [[Cagayan]] District from July to September 1915. He returned to the United States in November 1915, and was assigned to the Wheeling District in [[Wheeling, West Virginia]], where he was responsible for the completion of the No. 14 Dam on the Ohio River. Lee was promoted to [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] on 3 June 1916. For his thesis, he submitted the ''Manual for Topographers'' he had written in the Philippines.{{sfn|Cullum|1920|pp=1412–1413}}

 

==World War I==

 

 

 

==Between the wars==

 

===Overlord===

Eisenhower was succeeded as commander of ETOUSA by Lieutenant General [[Frank M. Andrews]] on 4 February 1943.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=113}} On Somervell's advice, Lee submitted a proposal to Andrews that he be named deputy theater commander for supply and administration, and that the theater G-4 branch be placed under him. This would have given Lee a status similar to that enjoyed by Somervell. Andrews rejected the proposal,{{sfn|Ohl|1994|pp=210–211}} but he did make some changes, moving part of SOS Headquarters to London while its operations staff remained in Cheltenham. Weaver was appointed Lee's deputy for operations.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|pp=160–162}} Andrews regarded Lee as "oppressively religious", and resolved to ask Marshall for his recall. Before he could do so, Andrews was killed in a plane crash in Iceland on 3 May,{{sfn|Ohl|1994|pp=210–211}}{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=123}} and was succeeded by Lieutenant General [[Jacob L. Devers]],{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=123}} who agreed to abolish the theater G-4 and transfer its functions to Lee.{{sfn|Ohl|1994|pp=210–211}}

For the cross-channel attack, now postponed to 1944 and codenamed [[Operation Overlord]],{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=132}} the service chiefs wanted 490,000 SOS troops. Devers trimmed this to 375,000, which would be 25 percent of the theater troop strength, a figure that was accepted by the War Department.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|pp=125–128}} The most acute shortages in 1943 were of engineer units to build new airbases, hospitals, supply depots and training facilities. As in 1942, Lee was forced to accept partly trained units.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=131}} In the first four months of 1944, the number of SOS troops in the UK increased from 79,900 to 220,200.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=132}} Some lessons had been learned from 1942. The New York POE started turning back incorrectly labelled cargo. In the first day this system went into operation, some 14,700 items were returned to the depots.{{sfn|Ruppenthal|1953|p=99}}

During October, Bradley incurred very heavy casualties in fighting in the [[Battle of Aachen]] and the [[Battle of Hürtgen Forest]] in October and November.{{sfn|Cox|2018|pp=155–156}} This resulted in a critical shortage of infantry replacements even before the crisis situation created by the Ardennes Offensive. Noting that casualties among newly arrived reinforcements greatly exceeded those among veterans, Lee tried to humanize the replacement depots, and suggested changing the name so that they sounded less like spare parts. Bradley opposed this, arguing for more substantial changes.{{sfn|Bradley|1951|p=446}}

 

 

Reflecting the prevalent racial prejudices of most US Army officers at the time, Smith did not believe Black troops capable of combat duty.{{sfn|Crosswell|1991|p=288}} His opinion was that a one-for-one replacement should not be attempted; only replacements as full [[platoon]]s of Black soldiers. As a result of the directive 2,500 volunteers were organized into 53 rifle platoons, and sent to the front, to be distributed as needed to companies. In the 12th Army Group they were attached to regiments, while in the 6th Army Group the platoons were grouped into [[company (military unit)|companies]] attached to the division. The former arrangement were generally better rated by the units they were attached to, because the Negro platoons had no company-level unit training.{{sfn|Lee|1966|pp=695–705}}

 

 

==Post-war career==

 

Lee then became theater commander as well as MTOUSA commander. He was responsible for the maintenance and repatriation of hundreds of thousands of American service men and women, opened the [[Sicily–Rome American Cemetery and Memorial]], and restored infrastructure of many of the nations surrounding the Mediterranean. The Allied Occupation of Italy ended when the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947|Peace Treaty with Italy]] went into effect in September 1947, and Lee returned to the United States.{{sfn|Cullum|1950|p=130}}{{sfn|Cox|2018|pp=213–215}}

 

 

==Retirement and honors==

 

==Death and legacy==

 

There is a large portrait of General Lee in the West Point Club at the [[United States Military Academy]].

 

==Reputation==

 

Official historian Roland G. Ruppenthal wrote:{{quote| General Lee continued to be a controversial personality throughout the history of the theater, owing in part to the anomalous position which he held. But the controversy over the SOS was heightened by his personal traits. Heavy on ceremony, somewhat forbidding in manner and appearance, and occasionally tactless in exercising authority which he regarded to be within the province of the SOS, General Lee often aroused suspicions and created opposition where support might have been forthcoming.

 

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

 

==References==

{{refbegin|30em}}

* {{cite book |last = Cox |first = Hank H. |title = The General Who Wore Six Stars: The Inside Story of John C. H. Lee |year = 2018 |publisher = Potomac Books |location = Lincoln, Nebraska |isbn=978-1-61234-963-3 |oclc = 989124130 }}

* {{cite book |last = Crosswell |first = D. K. R. |title = The Chief of Staff: The Military Career of General Walter Bedell Smith |place = Westport, Connecticut |publisher = Greenwood Press |year = 1991 |isbn = 0-313-27480-0 |oclc = 22273487 |url-access = registration |url = https://archive.org/details/chiefofstaff00cros }}

* {{cite book |last=Eisenhower |first=Dwight D. |author-link=Dwight D. Eisenhower |title=Crusade in Europe |

title-link=Crusade in Europe |year=1948 |location=London |publisher=Heinemann |oclc=559866864 }}

* {{cite book |last=German |first=Kathleen M. |title=Promises of Citizenship: Film Recruitment of African Americans in World War II |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4968-1235-3 |oclc=962552520 }}

* {{cite book |last=Ohl |first= John Kennedy |title=Supplying the Troops: General Somervell and American Logistics in World War II |publisher=Northern Illinois Press |location= DeKalb, Illinois |year=1994 |isbn=0-87580-185-4 |oclc=29182051 }}

* {{cite book |editor-last=Onofrio |editor-first=Jan |title=Kansas Biographical Dictionary: People of All Times and Places Who have been Important to the History and Life of the State |location=New York |publisher=Somerset Publishers |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-403-09922-1 |oclc=28890001 }}

* {{cite thesis |last=Pearcy |first=Matthew Todd |title=A History of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879–1928: from Levees-Only to a Comprehensive Program of Flood Control for the Lower Mississippi Valley |publisher=University of North Texas |date=August 1996 |degree=PhD |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277642/ |access-date=5 May 2018 }}

{{refend}}

 

{{s-end}}

 

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