William Hood Simpson

William Hood Simpson
Born May 18, 1888
Weatherford, Texas, United States
Died August 15, 1980 (aged 92)
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, United States
Allegiance  United States
Service/branch  United States Army
Years of service 1909–1946
Rank General
Unit Infantry Branch
Commands held 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment
9th Infantry Regiment
35th Infantry Division
30th Infantry Division
XII Corps
Fourth Army
Ninth Army
Second Army
Battles/wars Moro Rebellion
Pancho Villa Expedition
World War I
World War II
Awards Army Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Silver Star
Legion of Merit
Legion of Honour (France)
Croix de guerre (France)

General William Hood Simpson (May 18, 1888 – August 15, 1980) was a senior and highly distinguished United States Army officer who served with distinction in both World War I and World War II. He is most notable, however, for being the Commanding General of the U.S. Ninth Army in Western Europe on the Western Front during the final stages of World War II.

Biography

Early life and Military career

William Hood Simpson was born on May 18, 1888, at Weatherford, Texas. After graduating from the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, in 1909, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Infantry Branch of the United States Army. Before the American involvement in World War I, Simpson served in the United States and in the Philippines, including the Pancho Villa Expedition, in 1916.

He was promoted to captain in May 1917, a month after the American entry into World War I, and served with the 33rd Division of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front, receiving temporary promotions to major and lieutenant colonel and becoming division chief of staff.

Between the wars

In the inter-war years, 1919–1941, Simpson filled staff appointments and attended military schools, both as student and as instructor. On Christmas Eve, 1921, he married Ruth Krakauer, an English-born widow whom he had first met while at West Point. From 1932 to 1936, he served as the Professor of Military Science at Pomona College in Claremont, California. From April to September 1941 he was the first commander of the country's largest Infantry Replacement Training Center, Camp Wolters, located in Mineral Wells, Texas.

World War II

In mid-1940, he was appointed to command the 9th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Before the U.S. entry into World War II, he had commanded divisions and served as the Assistant Division Commander (ADC) of the 2nd Infantry Division. He received a promotion to temporary major general, taking the 35th Infantry Division, an Army National Guard formation,from Camp Robinson, Arkansas, to a training site in California. He relinquished command in May 1942 and briefly assumed command of the 30th Infantry Division, another Army National Guard formation, until July.

Senior American commanders in Western Europe, 1945. Seated are, from left to right, William Hood Simpson, George S. Patton, Carl A. Spaatz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Courtney Hodges, Leonard T. Gerow. Standing are, from left to right, Ralph Francis Stearley, Hoyt Vandenberg, Walter Bedell Smith, Otto P. Weyland, and Richard E. Nugent.

Further promotions followed, including command of XII Corps, and later the U.S. Second Army. In May 1944, now with the three-star rank of lieutenant general, Simpson took his staff to England to organize the U.S. Ninth Army. This formation was activated as part of Lieutenant General Omar Bradley's U.S. 12th Army Group, on September 5 at Brest, France. Brest was liberated on September 20, 1944.

The Ninth Army joined the Allied armies on the Western Front in the general advance and, after a month in the Ardennes forest the Ninth was moved further north. In November 1944 it broke through the Siegfried Line and advanced, in some of the heaviest fighting of the war, to the Roer River. At this point the advance stalled, due to the threat posed by dams upstream.

Allied commanders conference, April 11, 1945. From left to right, Lieutenant General Sir Miles C. Dempsey (GOC British Second Army), General Omar N. Bradley (C-in-C U.S. 12th Army Group); Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery (C-in-C 21st Army Group), Lieutenant General William H. Simpson (GOC U.S. Ninth Army).

During the crisis of the Battle of the Bulge in December Simpson's Ninth Army came under command of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group. After the battle was over in early 1945 the Ninth Army remained with Montgomery's 21st Army Group for the final attack into Germany. As part of Operation Plunder, the River Rhine was crossed on March 24, 1945, north of the Ruhr industrial area and on April 19 the Ninth Army made contact with Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges' First United States Army, making a complete encirclement of the Ruhr. On April 4, it had reverted to Bradley's 12th Army Group.

The Ninth was the first American field army across the Elbe, on April 12, 1945. The Ninth Army continued its advance into Germany until the end of World War II in Europe on May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day. Simpson returned to the United States for a rest a month later, in June 1945.

Postwar

He next undertook a mission to China in July and subsequently commanded the U.S. Second Army at Memphis, Tennessee.

He retired from the army in November 1946 and on July 19, 1954, he was promoted to full general on the retired list by special Act of Congress (Public Law 83-508). After retirement, Simpson lived and worked in the San Antonio, Texas area. In 1971, his wife Ruth died, and soon thereafter, Simpson moved into the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, where he was very popular with the staff. In 1978, at the age of 90, he met Catherine Louise Berman, a retired civil-service worker from a military family, and the two were married that same year.

General William Hood Simpson died at his longtime residence, The Menger Hotel, in downtown San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, August 15, 1980, and was later buried alongside his wife in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Military decorations

Distinguished Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster
Silver Star
Legion of Merit
Philippine Campaign Medal
Mexican Service Medal
Bronze star
Bronze star
World War I Victory Medal with two battle clasps
Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze star
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four bronze service stars
World War II Victory Medal
Légion d'honneur (Knight) (France)
Croix de guerre 1939–1945 (France)
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Hood Simpson.
Military offices
Preceded by
Ralph E. Truman
Commanding General 35th Infantry Division
1941–1942
Succeeded by
Maxwell Murray
Preceded by
Henry D. Russell
Commanding General 30th Infantry Division
May 1942 – July 1942
Succeeded by
Leland Hobbs
Preceded by
Newly activated post
Commanding General XII Corps
1942–1943
Succeeded by
Gilbert R. Cook
Preceded by
John L. DeWitt
Commanding General Fourth Army
1943–1944
Succeeded by
John P. Lucas
Preceded by
Newly activated post
Commanding General Ninth Army
1944–1945
Succeeded by
Post deactivated
Preceded by
Lloyd Fredendall
Commanding General Second Army
1945–1946
Succeeded by
Albert Coady Wedemeyer
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Heinrich Himmler
Cover of Time Magazine
February 19, 1945
Succeeded by
Chester Nimitz
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