Courtney Hodges

Courtney Hodges
Born	January 5, 1887 Perry, Georgia, United States
Died	January 16, 1966 (aged 79) San Antonio, Texas, United States
Buried at	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia, United States
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1906 – 1949
Rank	General
Unit	Infantry Branch
Commands held	X Corps Third Army First Army
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Army Distinguished Service Medal (3) Silver Star Bronze Star

General Courtney Hicks Hodges (January 5, 1887 – January 16, 1966) was a decorated senior officer of the United States Army, most prominent for his role in World War II, in which he commanded the U.S. First Army in the Western Europe Campaign. In his career Hodges was a notable "mustang" officer, rising from private to general.

Early life and military career

Hodges was born in Perry, Georgia where his father published a small-town newspaper. He attended North Georgia Agricultural College (now known as the University of North Georgia) before transferring to West Point. He would have graduated with the Class of 1909, but he dropped out after just one year because of poor test scores ("found deficient" in mathematics). In 1906 Hodges enlisted in the United States Army as a private, and he received his commission as an officer three years later after performing well on a competitive examination. He served with George Marshall in the Philippines and George Patton in Mexico.

World War I and postwar years

He served with 6th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division during World War I. Hodges rose to lieutenant colonel and commander of a battalion in the 6th Infantry, and earned the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism while leading an attack across the Marne River during the closing days of the war. After the war he was sufficiently well thought of that he became an instructor at West Point, even though he was not a West Point graduate.

He graduated from the Command and General Staff College in 1925, and the Army War College in 1934.

Hodges was a member of the Infantry Board at Fort Benning from 1929 to 1933. In 1938, he became an Assistant Commandant of the United States Army Infantry School, and in 1941, he became Commandant.

World War II

In May 1941, during World War II, he was promoted to major general, and he was given various assignments, including Chief of Infantry, until he finally received a frontline command, that of X Corps, in 1942. In 1943, while commanding X Corps and then the Third Army, he was sent to England, where he served under Omar Bradley. During Operation Overlord in June and July 1944, Hodges was under the command of Bradley as the Deputy Commander of the First Army. In August 1944, Hodges succeeded Bradley as the commander of First Army, taking over when Bradley moved up to command the 12th Army Group. Hodges continued to serve under the command of Bradley and General Dwight D. Eisenhower all the way through to Nazi Germany's surrender in May 1945.

Hodges's troops were the first ones to reach and liberate the French capital of Paris in large numbers, and then he led them through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg on their way to Germany.

Hodges's troops had a major role in blunting the Wehrmacht's major counteroffensive in the Ardennes: the Battle of the Bulge. When the German advance cut the First Army off from the 12th Army Group and Bradley, he was placed under the command, for several weeks, of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The 21st Army Group usually consisted of divisions from the British Army and the Canadian Army. The U.S. Ninth Army was also assigned to it temporarily because of the Battle of the Bulge.

Before, during, and after the Battle of the Bulge and the Allied reconquest of the Bulge, the First Army fought the Germans in the bloody Battle of Hurtgen Forest in the Eifel mountains west of Aachen, Germany. World War II writer Ernie Herr and many others blame General Hodges for the heavy American losses in the costly battle of attrition waged by entrenched German forces there between September 1944 and spring of 1945.^[1]

The 9th Armored Division of the First Army captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen on 7 March 1945. The First Army was the first enemy of Germany to cross the Rhine since the Napoleonic Wars. By the time the bridge collapsed after 10 days, the First Army had built two heavy duty bridges across the Rhine and established a bridgehead 40 kilometers (25 mi) long, extending from Bonn in the north almost to Koblentz in the south, and 10 to 15 kilometers (6.2 to 9.3 mi) deep, occupied by five U.S. divisions. They advanced slowly, waiting for Montgomery and the 21st Army Group to launch Operation Plunder attack across the Rhine on 23 March.

A month later, Hodges's troops of the First met those of the Soviet Red Army near Torgau on the Elbe River. Hodges was promoted to the rank of four-star general on April 15, 1945. He was only the second soldier in the history of the U.S. Army to make his way from private to four-star general, the other being Walter Krueger of the Pacific Theater, who fought under five-star General Douglas MacArthur.

After the end of World War II in Europe on May 7, 1945, Hodges and his troops were ordered to prepare to be sent all the way west to the War in the Pacific for the proposed invasion of Japan in late 1945 and March 1946. However, that move became unnecessary when two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Emperor Hirohito ordered the defeated Japanese Empire to surrender immediately. The official surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

General Hodges was present at the surrenders of both Nazi Germany in Rheims, France and of the Japanese Empire at Tokyo Bay.

Post-war life

After World War II, Hodges continued command of First Army at Fort Jay at Governors Island, New York until his retirement in March 1949.

Hodges died in San Antonio, Texas in 1966. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 2, Grave 890-A

Legacy

In Perry, Georgia, the State Route 7 Spur, a former section of U.S. Route 41/State Route 7, was named General Courtney Hodges Boulevard.

Awards

References

1. ↑ http://www.5ad.org/hurtgen_joe.htm

External links

• Papers of Courtney Hicks Hodges, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Short Timeline on Hodges
• Biography on Hodges