Alexander Patch | |
|---|---|
 LTG Patch, new commander ofFourth Army, August 1945 | |
| Birth name | Alexander McCarrell Patch |
| Nickname | "Sandy"[1][2] |
| Born | (1889-11-23)23 November 1889 |
| Died | 21 November 1945(1945-11-21) (aged 55) Fort Sam Houston,Texas, U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Service years | 1913–1945 |
| Rank |  General |
| Service number | 0-3589 |
| Unit |  Infantry Branch |
| Commands | 3rd Machine Gun Battalion,1st Division 1st Battalion,18th Infantry Regiment 47th Infantry Regiment Task Force 6814 Americal Division XIV Corps IV Corps Seventh Army Fourth Army |
| Conflicts | Pancho Villa Expedition World War I World War II |
| Awards | Army Distinguished Service Medal (3) Navy Distinguished Service Medal Bronze Star |
Alexander McCarrell Patch (23 November 1889 – 21 November 1945) was a seniorUnited States Armyofficer who fought inboth world wars, rising to rank ofgeneral. DuringWorld War II, he commanded U.S. Army andMarine Corps forces during theGuadalcanal campaign in thePacific, and theSeventh Army on theWestern Front in Europe.
With an invasion of Japan still an apparent likelihood, Patch returned to the U.S. in August 1945 to take charge of theFourth Army headquartered atFort Sam Houston,Texas. He died three months later in November 1945 at age 55,[3][4] his health having been ravaged during his time in the Pacific early in the war. "Sandy" Patch andLucian Truscott were the only two U.S. Army officers on active service during World War II to command adivision,corps, andfield army.
In July 1954, he was posthumously promoted from his rank oflieutenant general tofour-star general.
Patch was born atFort Huachuca,Arizona Territory and raised inPennsylvania. His father, Captain Alexander M. Patch, was a formercavalryman in theUnited States Army and a graduate (1877) of theUnited States Military Academy (USMA) atWest Point, and his mother was Annie Moore Patch, the daughter ofCongressmanWilliam S. Moore ofPennsylvania.[5][2]
_at_West_Point_in_1913.png)
OfGerman,Scottish, andIrish descent, Patch attendedLehigh University for a year, then received an appointment to West Point in 1909. His eldest brotherJoseph Dorst Patch, commonly known as "Dorst", also enlisted in the army the same year. Originally interested in joining thecavalry, but realizing that it was becoming obsolete, Alexander Patch chose theInfantry Branch of theUnited States Army and wascommissioned in 1913 on 12 June that year, ranked 75th in a graduating class of 93.[5]
Upon being commissioned, Patch's first assignment was with the18th Infantry Regiment, then based inTexas City, Texas. He later saw action in thePancho Villa Expedition intoMexico in 1916, and was later promoted tofirst lieutenant. In November that year he married Julia A. Littell, the daughter of an army general, whom Patch had met while he was a cadet at West Point.[5]
In June 1917, two months after theAmerican entry into World War I, Patch was promoted to the rank of captain and was, along with his brother Dorst, sent overseas with his regiment, which became part of the1st Division, to join theAmerican Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on theWestern Front where he remained until November.[a]
He then attended theBritish Army's Machine Gun School inEngland and commanded the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 1st Division until April 1918, when he then went on to direct the U.S. Army's Machine Gun School until October. Towards the end of 1918, returning to the 18th Infantry, he fought in theSecond Battle of the Marne, theBattle of Saint-Mihiel and theMeuse–Argonne offensive, the largest battle in thehistory of the United States Army.
His leadership came to the attention ofColonelGeorge C. Marshall, then a member ofGeneralJohn J. Pershing's staff. The war came to an end on11 November 1918, at 11:00 am, by which time Patch was alieutenant colonel, having been promoted to the rank a month before, andmajor the previous January. In February 1919, he reverted to the rank of captain and was astaff officer at AEF Headquarters.[5]
After briefly serving on occupation duties, Patch returned to the United States in May 1919 and, as a professional soldier, chose to remain in the army during what would later be known as theinterwar period. After four years atFort Benning,Georgia, andWashington, D.C., he spent the next few years as professor of military science and tactics atStaunton Military Academy,Virginia. He returned to this post twice in the interwar years, from 1925–28 and 1932–36. In 1922 he attended the Field Officer's Course at theU.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning. In 1924, he attended theU.S. Army Command and General Staff School atFort Leavenworth,Kansas and graduated there with distinction a year later.[7]
This was followed by service with the 3rd Battalion,12th Infantry Regiment from 1929–31 atFort Washington, Maryland. He then entered theU.S. Army War College in 1931 and graduated the following year. Promoted again to lieutenant colonel, he was later a member of the Infantry Board at Fort Benning, Georgia, from 1936–39, where he helped to develop the army's transformation from the oldsquare division, with four infantry regiments, into thetriangular division, with three.[8]
In November 1940 he was promoted tocolonel and assumed command of the47th Infantry Regiment, then part of the9th Infantry Division commanded byMajor GeneralJacob L. Devers. GeneralGeorge C. Marshall, now theU.S. Army Chief of Staff and someone who had been impressed with Patch's leadership in France in 1918, was appointed Army Chief of Staff in 1939, just beforeWorld War II. He promoted Patch to theone-stargeneral officer rank ofbrigadier general in August 1941, and sent him toFort Bragg,North Carolina, to supervise the training of new soldiers there.[8]
Patch was promoted tomajor general in November 1941 and was assigned to commandTask Force 6814, a hastily assembled force of divisional size, composed of twoArmy National Guard infantry regiments. The following month theJapaneseattacked Pearl Harbor, followed shortly after by theGermandeclaration of war on the United States, officially bringing the United States intoWorld War II. He was sent to thePacific Theater of Operations inNoumea to organize the reinforcement and defense ofNew Caledonia, arriving there in March 1942. En route he was struck withpneumonia, recovering sufficiently to take command of a loose collection of units and form them into theAmerical Division (a contraction of "American, New Caledonian Division").[8]
The Americal Division first saw action in theGuadalcanal campaign in December 1942, when it relieved the valiant but tired andmalaria-ridden1st Marine Division there. The Americal Division and the 1st Marine Division were both relieved by the25th Infantry and2nd Marine Divisions, respectively and, in early January 1943, Patch moved up to command of theXIV Corps, and was given charge of the entire offensive onGuadalcanal. Patch personally led troops under his command on a dangerous offensive in theBattle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse to capture several fortified hills and ridges from theJapanese forces. Under Patch's leadership, by February 1943 the Japanese were driven from Guadalcanal.[9]
In the wake of Guadalcanal's conquest, the state of Patch's health, battered by his bout of pneumonia, tropical dysentery and malaria, forced George Marshall to recall him back to the U.S., after recovering from his illness, he took command in May 1943 of theIV Corps atFort Lewis,Washington.[10] That fall he commanded the 100,000 man strongOregon Maneuver in central Oregon, the largest training exercise of World War II, designed to test American units prior to deployment in support of Allied combat operations in both the European and Pacific Theaters. In early 1944 he took the corps, then just a headquarters, overseas toAlgiers,Algeria to theMediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO). By mid-summer he would put his Oregon Maneuver experience to the test inOperation Dragoon, the amphibious assault of southern France that was pressed clear to theAlsace-Lorraine on Germany's southwest flank before year's end.[5]
.jpg)
In March 1944, after handing over command of IV Corps to Major GeneralWillis D. Crittenberger, a fellow 1913 West Point classmate, Patch took over command of theSeventh Army from Lieutenant GeneralMark W. Clark, who was then also commanding theFifth Army during the fighting on theItalian Front. Under the leadership ofGeorge S. Patton, the Seventh Army had been the first Americanfield army to be deployed in Europe during the war, landed as part of theAllied invasion of Sicily (codenamed Operation Husky) in July 1943 capturingMessina on 17 August and bringing the Sicilian campaign to an end.[11] It was then reduced from a maximum strength of some six divisions and supporting units to a skeleton headquarters with relatively little to do, with Clark taking over from Patton in January 1944.[11]
Under Patch's command, the Seventh Army was organized to participate in an upcomingamphibiousoperation insouthern France, codenamedOperation Dragoon. For this operation the Seventh Army was composed of several veteran formations pulled out of the fighting in Italy. These were Major GeneralLucian Truscott'sU.S. VI Corps andGeneralAlphonse Juin'sFrench Expeditionary Corps (CEF), along with numerousairborne units in support.[11]
Under Patch, the Seventh Army invaded southern France in Operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944. Patch – promoted to thethree-star rank of lieutenant general three days later – then led the Seventh Army in a fast offensive up theRhône valley. On 9 September 1944, nearDijon, France, it met up with the U.S.Third Army, under Patton, which haddriven east from Normandy. The Seventh Army came under the command of the6th Army Group, commanded by Lieutenant GeneralJacob L. Devers.[12] One of Patch's corps commanders, Major General Truscott, who commanded the VI Corps, which came under command of Patch's Seventh Army, wrote of him:
I came to regard him as a man of outstanding integrity, a courageous and competent leader, and an unselfish comrade-in-arms.
Patch's Seventh Army distinguished itself in difficult winter conditions during the Vosges Mountains campaign, clearing strong and entrenched German forces from the west bank of the Rhine and stopping a German counteroffensive,Operation Nordwind, while reserve forces were being committed to theBattle of the Bulge. The campaign markedthe only contested advance through the Vosges Mountains ever to succeed.[clarify]Arthur R. Wilson became the Seventh Army's new chief of staff around this time.[13]
In the spring of 1945, theSupreme Allied Commander on theWestern Front,GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower, offered Patch aB-25 Mitchell and pilot for his personal use. Patch turned down the fleet twin-engined bomber because he wished to remain in touch with his subordinate commanders during fast-moving operations and preferred a smaller plane that could land on unimproved fields and pastures. Patch narrowly escaped injury or death on 18 April 1945, while flying fromKitzingen toÖhringen in Germany during theBattle of Nuremberg. HisStinson L-5 Sentinel liaison aircraftSea Level was intercepted by a GermanMesserschmitt Bf 109 fighter, but the pilot, Technical Sergeant Robert Stretton, maneuvered the L-5 so skillfully that it escaped and landed safely at Öhringen. Stretton later received theDistinguished Flying Cross for the flight.[14]
Patch stayed in command of the Seventh Army through theend of the war in Europe in May 1945, leading the Seventh Army inOperation Undertone through the Siegfried Line, over theRhine, and then theWestern Allied invasion of Germany into southern Germany. By war's end forward elements sprawled as far afield as Austria[15] and northern Italy.[16][17]
In August 1945, Patch returned to the United States to take command of theFourth Army headquartered atFort Sam Houston, Texas, but bound for the expected invasion of Japan.
Patch was hospitalized with lung problems in November and died a week later.[3][4][18]
On 20 November 1915, he married Julia Adrianne Littell (1893–1988), daughter of Brigadier GeneralIsaac William Littell.[19][5] They had two children. Patch suffered a personal tragedy when their 24-year-old son, Captain Alexander M. Patch III, was killed in action on 22 October 1944 while leading C Company of the315th Infantry Regiment of the79th Infantry Division in theMeurthe-et-Moselledepartment in north-easternFrance. Captain Patch was a posthumous recipient of theDistinguished Service Cross, theSilver Star andPurple Heart. He is interred in theEpinal American Cemetery and Memorial, Lorraine, France.[20]
Patch died ofpneumonia on 21 November 1945, two days short of his 56th birthday, atBrooke General Hospital atFort Sam Houston,Texas.[3][4] He is buried inNew York state atWest Point Cemetery on the grounds of the academy.[18]
Kurmärker Kaserne, inStuttgart-Vaihingen,West Germany, was renamedPatch Barracks in his honor on 4 July 1952. Patch Barracks is the home of Headquarters,United States European Command (HQ USEUCOM), the supreme American military command in Europe. Patch Barracks also has an elementary school named after him, as well as the formerhigh school (1979–2015). The former kindergarten at Ft. Benning, Georgia was named Patch. TheU.S. NavytransportUSNS General Alexander M. Patch (T-AP-122) was also named for Patch. Boulevard Patch in southeasternFrance, from the main road to Pampelonne Plage inRamatuelle in theProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, is also named for him.
Patch was promoted posthumously to fullgeneral on 19 July 1954 underPub. L. 83–508.
Ribbon bar with the list of General Alexander M. Patch's decorations:
  |  |  |  | |
  |  |  |  | |
 |  |  |  | |
_-_ribbon_bar.png) |  |  |  |
| 1st Row | Army Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters | Navy Distinguished Service Medal | Bronze Star Medal | Mexican Border Service Medal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd Row | World War I Victory Medal with three battle stars | American Defense Service Medal | American Campaign Medal | Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ two service stars |
| 3rd Row | European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal w/ three service stars | World War II Victory Medal | Companion of theOrder of the Bath (United Kingdom) | Commander of theLégion d'honneur (France) |
| 4th Row | Croix de Guerre with palm (France) | Order of Leopold II, Grand Cross (Belgium) | Croix de Guerre with palm (Belgium) | Order of Abdon Calderón (Ecuador) |
| Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| No insignia | Cadet | United States Military Academy | 1 March 1909 |
| No insignia in 1913 | Second lieutenant | Regular Army | 12 June 1913 |
 | First lieutenant | Regular Army | 1 July 1916 |
 | Captain | Regular Army | 15 May 1917 |
 | Major | National Army | 5 January 1918 |
 | Lieutenant colonel | National Army | 31 October 1918 |
| Captain | Regular Army | 15 March 1920 |
| Major | Regular Army | 1 July 1920 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Regular Army | 1 August 1935 |
 | Colonel | Army of the United States | 26 June 1941 |
 | Brigadier general | Army of the United States | 4 August 1941 |
 | Major general | Army of the United States | 10 March 1942 |
| Colonel | Regular Army | 1 July 1942 |
 | Lieutenant general | Army of the United States | 7 August 1944 |
| General | Posthumous | 19 July 1954 |
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Newly activated organization | Commanding General Americal Division May–December 1942 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Newly activated organization | Commanding General XIV Corps 1942–1943 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Newly activated organization | Commanding General IV Corps 1943–1944 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Commanding General Seventh Army 1944–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Commanding General Fourth Army August–November 1945 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
