This Military Service Page was created/owned by
MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Beiderlinden, William Arthur, MG.
If you knew or served with this Soldier and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Springfield
Last Address Arlington, VA
Date of Passing Apr 12, 1981
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Major General William Arthur Beiderlinden
Born on March 4, 1895. He attended DruryCollege in his hometown of Springfield, Missouri, from 1913 to 1917 as a pre-medical student. As a student, Beiderlinden was a member of Lambda Epsilon, a scientific honorary society, and served as the president of that organization during his senior year. As a junior, he was a member of the yearbook board. He was also a member of Obelisk, a local fraternity that joined the Sigma Nu national fraternity in 1919.
He graduated in 1917 with a Bachelor of Science degree. His wife, Ann Symon Beiderlinden, also attended Drury and graduated in 1920. They married on Thanksgiving Day, 1917.
After graduation, he enlisted and served with the Missouri National Guard until November 26, 1917, when he was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Field Artillery.
On Christmas Eve 1917 he sailed to France for duty with the American Expeditionary Forces. During World War I he studied at the FieldArtillerySchool at Samur, served as an instructor at the CoastArtillerySchool, and fought on several sectors of the front with the 30th Separate Artillery Brigade. He returned to the United States in March 1919 and was commissioned in the Regular Army.
Following assignments with the 83rd Field Artillery at Camp Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Benning, Georgia, Lieutenant Beiderlinden attended the Field Artillery School and graduated in June 1926. He then was assigned to Camp Lewis, Washington with the 10th Field Artillery. In January 1928 he became the Adjutant, and later Commander, of the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade.
Following his promotion to Captain in February 1930, he served as Associate Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the University of Missouri, from June of that year until October 1934, when he was reassigned to FortStotsenburg, Philippine Islands.
While stationed in the Philippines with the 24th Field Artillery (Philippine Scouts), he served as the Regimental Supply Officer (S-4), was promoted to Major (December 1938), and then served as the Plans and Training Officer (S-3).
In June 1939, Major Beiderlinden graduated from the Command and General Staff College and was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, as Executive Officer, 1st Battalion, 83rd Field Artillery. During this period, the 83rd Field Artillery participated with the 1st Division during intensive training at FortBenning and the Louisiana Maneuver area.
He was named Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, 4th Motorized Division, in June 1940. In April 1941 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became the division's Assistant Chief, G-4. During this period, he helped develop operational and administrative procedures which became standard for various echelons. In December 1941, the division moved from FortBenning to Camp Gordon, Georgia. Six months later, in June 1942, he was promoted to Colonel and became the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4, of the X Corps at Sherman, Texas.
In March 1943 he was promoted once again, and reassigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he became the Commanding General, 44th Division Artillery. The high standards that Brigadier General Beiderlinden instilled not only superbly fitted his Division Artillery for combat, but materially raised the disciplinary and training standards of the entire 44th Infantry Division.
In January 1944, the division left for Louisiana Maneuvers to practice tactics, coordination and teamplay. When they left Louisiana, they were ready to face the enemy on his own ground. They soon got their chance. Early on the morning of September 5, 1944, the division left Boston harbor on board the U.S.S. Monticello bound for Cherbourg.
In battle, under General Beiderlinden's leadership, the 44th Division Artillery played a major role in the success of the 44th Infantry Division. During this period, the division served with the Seventh Army in the Northern France, Rhineland, Central European, and Ardennes-Alsace Campaigns.
At Schalbeck, France, and near Saarbrucken, Germany, the 44th participated in bitter fighting against savage enemy onslaughts. Despite freezing weather and mounting casualties, their discipline, training and endurance made inevitable their eventual overthrow of the forces, often superior in number, which were opposed to them.
As the winter ended and the war in Europe drew to a close, the 44th crossed the Rhine and turned southward to pursue the scattered remnants of the Wehrmacht into Austria. The division occupied large areas in the final weeks of the campaign and captured enormous numbers of enemy soldiers.
For meeting every demand for artillery support and thus contributing to the defeat of the enemy's efforts to effect a breakthrough, General Beiderlinden was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He is also credited with negotiating for the dramatic surrender of the city of Heidelberg, with its magnificent castle and its historic university, containing many of Germany's greatest cultural treasures, which his artillery was prepared to destroy.
With the war in Europe over, the 14,756 members of the 44th Division boarded the world's largest ship, the Queen Elizabeth, to return to the United States and prepare for redeployment to Japan. However, with the Japanese surrender, the division was inactivated at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, and General Beiderlinden was transferred to Army Ground Forces headquarters as Deputy G-1.
In June 1946, General Beiderlinden was assigned to GHQ Army Forces, Pacific, as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, with administrative and social affairs duties for SCAP and Japan. In October 1946, he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1, of the Far East Command at Tokyo. In July 1949 he was promoted to Major General, and in July of the following year he assumed additional duties as G-1 for the newly formed United Nations Command. He served in these capacities until May 1951.
For his service during the Korean War, General Beiderlinden was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. The citation reads, in part:
"During the early crucial days of the campaign, he initiated the prompt readjustment of military and civilian personnel to meet the strength challenge inherent in sudden armed conflict. He evolved a system that continuously provided reinforcements to units in Korea and superbly directed the evacuation to Japan of non-Korean nationals whose survival was threatened by the invading forces. Despite the chaotic political conditions attendant upon both international and civil armed conflict within that country's confines, he achieved admirable relations between the diverse military forces and the civil population of Korea. His keen foresight early in the campaign enabled him to direct the initiation of a combat rotation program which, when the situation in Korea permitted, was ready for immediate implementation."
In 1951 and 1952, Major General Beiderlinden served at Fort McPherson, Georgia, first as Deputy Commanding General and then Commanding General of the famed Third United States Army. During this period, the Third Army served as headquarters for the southeastern United States. The focus of the commander centered on the arduous tasks of mobilizing and training sufficient troops to support international commitments and the national emergency that resulted from the crisis in Korea.
General Beiderlinden was named to head the Joint Brazil-United States Military Commission (JBUSMC) in December 1952. He served concurrently as Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Brazil; Commanding General, Army Section, JBUSMC; and Chief of Army Section, MAAG. During this period he was an honorary graduate of the Escola Superior de Guerre, and was awarded the Order of Merit Militar, degree of Grand Commander (Brazil), and the Order of Merit Aeronautic, degree of Grand Commander (Brazil).
In April 1955, Major General Beiderlinden returned to the United States to serve in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Washington, D.C. He retired at Fort Myer, Virginia, on June 30, 1955.
In retirement, the Beiderlindens enjoyed playing bridge and entertaining family and friends in their Arlington, Virginia, home. The general was a gourmet cook, a master gardener, and an expert woodworker. In the rec room hung a sign, "There is no fun like WORK."
General Beiderlinden passed away at home on April 12, 1981. He is buried next to his wife of 63 years in ArlingtonNationalCemetery near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Condolences were received from the Burgermeister and City Council of Heidelberg, and the West German government sent a military honor guard to participate in his funeral.
General Beiderlinden was the one of the first recipients of the DruryCollege Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award, which he received in 1951 in recognition, among other things, for his role in saving the city of Heidelburg during World War II. The citation read:
"He recognized the international significance of the accumulated learning of the ages, the culture, refinement and ideals of the centuries stored at the University of Heidelberg, and thus became the savior of Heidelberg."
World War I/Meuse-Argonne Campaign
From Month/Year
September / 1918
To Month/Year
November / 1918
Description Meuse-Argonne, 26 September - 11 November 1918. At the end of August Marshal Foch had submitted plane to the national commanders for a final offensive along the entire Western Front, with the objective of driving the enemy out of France before winter and ending the war in the spring of 1919. The basis for his optimism was the success of Allied attacks all along the front in August. Furthermore, he pointed out, the Allies already had active operations in progress between the Moselle and Meuse, the Oise and Aisne, and on the Somme and Lys Rivers. Foch acknowledged that the Germans could stave off immediate defeat by an orderly evacuation combined with destruction of materiel and communications. Therefore the overall aim of the fall offensive would be to prevent a step-by-step enemy retirement. As Foch anticipated, the Germans eventually contributed to the success of his strategy. Their High Command could not bring itself to sacrifice the huge stores collected behind the front lines, and so delayed the withdrawal of its armies.
Foch's great offensive, planned to begin in the last week of September, called for a gigantic pincers movement with the objective of capturing Aulnoye and Mézières, the two key junctions in the lateral rail system behind the German front. Lose of either of these junctions would hamper seriously the German withdrawal. Despite grumbling from the English that they lacked the necessary manpower, a chiefly British army was assigned the teak of driving toward Aulnoye. The A.E.F. was designated for the southern arm of the pincers, the thrust on Mézières. Simultaneously the Belgian-French-British army group in Flanders would drive toward Ghent, and the French armies in the Oise-Aisne region would exert pressure all along their front to lend support to the pincers attack.
Pershing decided to strike his heaviest blow in a zone about 20 miles wide between the Heights of the Meuse on the east and the western edge of the high, rough, and densely wooded Argonne Forest. This is difficult terrain, broken by a central north-south ridge that dominates the valleys of the Meuse and Aire Rivers. Three heavily fortified places-Montfaucon, Cunel, and Barricourt-as well as numerous strong points barred the way to penetration of the elaborate German defenses in depth that extended behind the entire front. This fortified system consisted of three main defense lines backed up by a fourth line less well-constructed. Pershing hoped to launch an attack with enough momentum to drive through these lines into the open area beyond, where his troops could then strike at the exposed German flanks and, in a coordinated drive with the French Fourth Army coming up on the left, could cut the Sedan- Mézières railroad.
The task of assembling troops in the concentration area between Verdun and the Argonne was complicated by the fact that many American unite were currently engaged in the St. Mihiel battle. Some 600,000 Americans had to be moved into the Argonne sector while 220,000 French moved out. Responsibility for solving this tricky logistical problem fell to Col. George C. Marshall, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3 (Operations), First Army. In the ten-day period after St. Mihiel the necessary troop movements were accomplished, but many untried divisions had to be placed in the vanguard of the attacking forces.
On the 20-mile Meuse-Argonne front where the main American attack w to be made, Pershing disposed three corps side by side, each with three divisions in line and one in corps reserve. In the center was the V Corps (from right to left the 79th, 37th, and 91st Divisions with the 32d in reserve), which would strike the decisive blow. On the right was the III Corps (from right to left the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions with the 3d in reserve), which would move up the west aide of the Meuse. On the left was the I Corps (from right to left the 35th, 28th, and 77th Divisions with the 92d in reserve), which would advance parallel to the French Fourth Army on its left. Eastward across the Meuse the American front extended in direct line some 60 miles; this sector was held by two French Corps (IV and II Colonial) and the American IV Corps in the St. Mihiel sector. Pershing had available to support his offensive nearly 4000 guns, two-thirds manned by American artillerymen; 190 light French tanks, mostly with American personnel; and some 820 aircraft, 600 of them flown by Americans.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive falls into three phases. During the initial phase (26 September-3-October) the First Army advanced through most of the southern Meuse-Argonne region, captured enemy strong points, seized the first two German defense lines, and then stalled before the third line. Failure of tank support, a difficult supply situation, and the inexperience of American troops all contributed to checking its advance.
In the second phase (4-31 October) the First Army, after the inexperienced divisions had been replaced by veteran units, slowly ground its way through the third German line. The enemy was forced to throw in reserves, drawn from other parts of the front, thus aiding the Allied advances elsewhere. In the face of a stubborn defense, American gains were limited and casualties were severe, especially as a result of the newly devised enemy tactic of attacking frontline troops with airplanes. First Army air unite retaliated with bombing raids which broke up German preparations for counterattacks. By the end of October the enemy had been cleared from the Argonne and First Army troops were through the German main positions. Two notable incidents of this phase of the campaign were the fight of the "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division (2-7 October), and the feat of Corp. (later Sgt.) Alvin C. York, who single-handedly killed 15 Germans and captured 132 on 8 October.
In mid-October the organization of the Second Army was completed, at Toul in the St. Mihiel sector, to provide means for better control of the lengthening American front and solutions of the diverse tactical problems that it presented. Pershing assumed command of the new army group thus formed.
Before the third and final phase (1-11 November) of the offensive got under way, many of the exhausted divisions of the First Army were replaced, roads were built or repaired, supply was improved, and most Allied units serving with the A.E.F. were withdrawn. On 1 November First Army units began the assault of the now strengthened German fourth line of defense. Penetration was rapid and spectacular. The V Corps in the center advanced about six miles the first day, compelling the German units west of the Meuse to withdraw hurriedly. On 4 November the III Corps forced a crossing of the Meuse and advanced northeast toward Montmédy. Elements of the V Corps occupied the heights opposite Sedan on 7 November, thus finally accomplishing the First Army's chief mission-denial of the Sedan- Mézières railroad to the Germans. Marshal Foch, at this juncture, shifted the First Army left boundary eastward so that the French Fourth Army might capture Sedan, which had fallen to the Prussians in 1870. American units were closing up along the Mouse and, east of the river, were advancing toward Montmédy, Briny, and Metz, when hostilities ended on 11 November.
General Pershing authorized the results of the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, the greatest battle in American history up to that time, in his Final Report: "Between September 26 and November 11, 22 American and 4 French divisions, on the front extending from southeast of Verdun to the Argonne Forest, had engaged and decisively beaten 47 different German divisions, representing 25 percent of the enemy's entire divisional strength on the western front.
The First Army suffered a loss of about 117,000 in killed and wounded. It captured 26,000 prisoners, 847 cannon, 3,000 machineguns, and large quantities of material." More than 1,200,000 Americans had taken part in the 47-day campaign.
