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Contact Info
Home Town Boonville, MO
Last Address Lexington, MO
Date of Passing Oct 29, 1979
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
This is to Certify that
The President of the United States of America
Takes Pride in Presenting
THE
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS
to
HOGE, WILLIAM M.
Major, U.S. Army
7th Engineers, 5th Division, A.E.F.
Date of Action: November 4, 1918
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William M. Hoge, Jr., Major, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Brieulles, France, November 4, 1918. After personally and voluntarily reconnoitering the site of a pontoon bridge over the Meuse, in daylight and under direct shell fire, Major Hoge commanded the movement of a train of heavy wagons, under enemy observation, to this location. Major Hoge then supervised the construction of the bridge and the successful crossing of the train.
General Orders No. 37, W.D., 1919
Hoge directed one of the great engineering feats of World War II, the construction of the 1,519-mile (2,450 km) ALCAN Highway in nine months. Later, in Europe, he commanded the Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group in the assault on Omaha Beach. He then directed Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division, in its heroic actions in the Ardennes and in its celebrated capture of the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine. By war's end, Hoge commanded the 4th Armored Division.
During the Korean conflict, at General Matthew Ridgway's request, Hoge commanded the U.S. IX Corps. General Hoge achieved his senior command in the Army as Commander in Chief, U.S. Army, Europe. He retired from active duty in January 1955.
Hoge moved to his son's farm in Kansas in October 1975 and he died suddenly on 29 October 1979 at Munson Army Hospital, Fort Leavenworth.
On graduating from West Point in 1916, William M. Hoge was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers and commanded a company of the 7th Engineers at Fort Leavenworth in 1917–18. During World War I, Hoge received the Distinguished Service Cross personally from General John Pershing for heroic action under fire as a Battalion Commander in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. During the interwar years, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from the Command and General Staff School.
Other Comments:
William M. Hoge’s career reflects the diversity of duties that an Engineer officer may be called upon to perform — soldier, engineer, combat leader, and senior commander. It is a career that spans the spectrum of responsibilities from military and training education, to all facets of peacetime civil and military engineering, to combat in three wars.
Upon graduating from the US Military Academy in June 1916, Hoge served briefly on the Mexican border in Texas with the 1st Engineers before being assigned to duty with the newly organized 7th Engineer Regiment, first in the United States and then in France during the First World War. There he earned the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star for extraordinary heroism under fire during a bridging operation in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (October-November 1918). Before leaving Europe in July 1919, he directed drilling, salvage, and construction work in France and Luxembourg.
Once back in the United States, Hoge spent much of the next 20 years in military education and training and in Civil Works assignments. After two years as assistant professor of military science and tactics at Virginia Military Institute he was assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1922 to 1923 for advanced work in civil engineering. A brief assignment to the Rock Island Engineer District in Illinois was followed by a two-year tour of duty at the Engineer School, Fort Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir), Virginia, where he was an instructor in tactics. Following a year (August 1927-June 1928) at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Hoge went to the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, as the Engineer instructor and commander of the Engineer troops. It was there that Hoge served with and came to know many of the men who would lead the US Army during World War II, soldiers such as George C. Marshall, Omar N. Bradley, J. Lawton Collins, Matthew B. Ridgway, and James Van Fleet. His years at Fort Benning ended the educational phase of Hoge’s Army career.
With his assignment to the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, from July 1931 to September 1932, Hoge entered fully into the Civil Works phase of his career. He was then transferred to the Memphis Engineer District where he served as an assistant district engineer under Brehon B. Somervell until September 1933. Hoge was then District Engineer at Memphis until May 1935. From June 1935 to November 1937, he commanded the 14th Engineers, Philippine Division, at Fort William McKinley. During the latter part of this tour, he also served as the Division Engineer, Philippine Division, and as the Chief Engineer of the Philippine Army under GeneralDouglas MacArthur, who was then the military advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth. Hoge was promoted to lieutenant colonel before returning to the United States in January 1938 as the District Engineer at Omaha, Nebraska. While District Engineer at Omaha, he was responsible for the early planning and development of the large dams on the Missouri River.
In December 1940, with Europe already embroiled in a second world war and the United States beginning to mobilize its military forces, Hoge was assigned to command the Engineer Replacement Training Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. At Fort Belvoir, with the assistance of Paul W. Thompson, another Engineer officer, he built the first obstacle course for military and physical fitness training. After he saw the course, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, ordered similar courses for all Army training camps.
In February 1942, Hoge was pulled out of Fort Belvoir and given a seemingly impossible task-to build a military highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Big Delta, Alaska, through largely unmapped and at places impassable territory. Promoted to Brigadier General in March 1942, he initially had complete control over the construction from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks—a distance of more than 1,500 miles. The distances involved and lack of reliable communications resulted in a division of responsibility for the highway in May 1942. Hoge was left with the Northern, or Whitehorse, Sector that ran across one of the most inaccessible and rugged areas of North America from Watson Lake, British Columbia, to Big Delta, Alaska. Although he was reassigned in September 1942, before the Alaska Highway was actually opened to truck traffic, Hoge was largely responsible for driving the pioneer road to completion that year.
In October 1942, Hoge was assigned to the Armored Force at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After a brief orientation, he moved to Fort Riley, Kansas, in November 1942 to take command of Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division, under his old friend from World War I, Major General John W. Leonard. He remained with the 9th until September 1943 when he was again reassigned, this time to command the 4th Engineer Special Brigade, an amphibious Engineer unit. A month later he received orders to proceed to England as commander of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade, which was to participate in the Allied invasion of the Continent, Operation OVERLORD. In March 1944, Hoge was given command of the Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, which included the 5th Engineer Special Brigade, now under Colonel Paul W. Thompson, and the 6th Engineer Special Brigade. His mission was to prepare for and conduct landing operations with the assault divisions on D-day on OMAHA Beach and then develop the beachhead to support the combat troops once they were ashore. On 6 June 1944, Hoge’s command successfully carried out its duties and played a significant part in securing theinitial foothold at OMAHA Beach. He remained in charge of the beachhead until July 1944 when he assumed command of the 16th Port, a Communications Zone unit responsible for supporting the VIII Corps in the Brittany Peninsula and then for clearing the captured French Channel ports, including Le Havre, and establishing supply lines for the American armies fighting in France. Hoge cared little for this work and soon requested transfer to a combat unit. He contacted John Leonard, whose 9th Armored Division had recently landed in France, and Leonard offered him his old command. After a brief reassignment to the 12th US Army Group in October, Hoge rejoined the 9th Armored in November 1944, just in time to gain fame for his stubborn defense of St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge. In the critical and savage fighting at St. Vith, Hoge combined with the 7th Armored Division’s Combat Command B, under Colonel Bruce C. Clarke, another Engineer officer, to hold off the vastly superior Germans from 16 to 24 December. The defensive fighting at St. Vith bought the valuable days that the Americans and British required to reestablish their defenses and contain Adolf Hitler’s Ardennes Offensive. For his actions at St. Vith, Hoge received a Distinguished Service Medal (DSM).
On 7 March 1945, the leading elements of Combat Command B seized the Ludendorff Railroad Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen. Quickly exploiting his good fortune in capturing the only major bridge over the Rhine that was still standing, Hoge pushed over the river and established a firm bridgehead on the eastern shore. For this he received an Oak Leaf Cluster to his DSM and later in March was given command of the 4th Armored Division in George S. Patton’s Third Army. On 2 May 1945, he was promoted to the rank of Major General.
After the war and a special assignment with the Operations Division, War Department General Staff (July-December 1945), Hoge was assigned for several weeks as the Division Engineer, New England Engineer Division (December 1945 - January 1946), before being given command of The Engineer Center at Fort Belvoir (January 1946-June 1948). He was appointed Commanding General, US Troops in Trieste (TRUST) in June 1948. He remained in Trieste until General Matthew B. Ridgway, commander of Eighth US Army in Korea, summoned him to command IX Corps in March 1951. In June 1951 he was promoted to Lieutenant General, and his distinguished service in the Korean fighting earned him another Oak Leaf Cluster for his DSM.
From February 1952 to March 1953, Hoge commanded the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In March 1953, General J. Lawton Collins, Army Chief of Staff, asked Hoge to take command of the Seventh Army in Germany, the major American ground component in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In September 1953, he received his fourth star upon becomingCommander-in-Chief US Army, Europe (USAREUR). He retired on 31 January 1955.
In February 1957, Hoge became Chairman of the Board of Interlake Iron Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, finally retiring from that job in 1965. He loved outdoor sports, especially hunting, fishing, and riding. Also he enjoyed his dogs and seldom failed to take them on daily walks until the last few years of his life.
In 1975 his failing health led him to move in with his son, Colonel George F. Hoge, US Army (Retired), in Easton, Kansas. Beside curtailing his physical activity and independence, Hoge’s deteriorating health affected his eyesight and deprived him of his ability to read. Throughout his life, he was an avid reader, especially of military history and biography. General Hoge died at Munson Army Hospital, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 29 October 1979 at the age of 85.
General William M. Hoge was remarkable in that he accomplished so much so well during his career. Certainly his extensive achievements in peace and war-in military engineering, combat, military education and training, Civil Works, and senior command-are goals not just for Engineers but for all Army officers to strive toward in their military careers.
His close friend and classmate from the Class of 1916, Major General Thomas D. Finley, put it best: In my opinion, Bill Hoge’s service in War and Peace has been unequaled by anyone in the Army in its diversity, the challenges it posed and the value to the Service and the Country. He has known so many people and influenced so many lives, both civilian and military . . . I can say it, and not just as an old and dear friend, that he was the best man I have ever known, and the best soldier.
Korean War/CCF Spring Offensive (1951)
From Month/Year
April / 1951
To Month/Year
July / 1951
Description
On 22 April enemy activity across the whole front suddenly increased and the U.N. advance halted abruptly. The expected spring offensive was at hand.
Following a four-hour artillery bombardment, three Chinese Communist armies attacked the U.N. line in the evening hours of 22 April. The main attack was against the U.S. I and IX Corps in the Seoul sector, coupled with a secondary thrust in the central Yonch'on-Hwach'on area and a p w h in the seat near Inje. U.N. lines held firm except in the IX Corps central sector, where ROK units were forced back in confusion. With the line broken, Van Fleet ordered the I and IX Corps to withdraw through a series of delaying positions to Line KANSAS, thus giving up the ground gained in recent U.N. offensives. When the enemy cut the Seoul-Kaesong highway on 26 April, Van Fleet withdrew the IX Corps back to the Hongch'on River.
Meanwhile, in the I Corps area, the enemy crossed the Imjin River on 22 April and drove the ROK unite south of the KANSAS Line on the 23d. On 27 April the enemy outflanked Uijongbu, forcing U.N. units to pulls back to within four miles of Seoul, and also made an unsuccessful attempt to outflank the city to the east. On the east-central front North Koreans captured Inje. By 29 April, however, their drive had been halted. On this date Van Fleet established a new line, designated NONAME-LINE, extending from north of Seoul to Sabangue and thence northeast across the 38th parallel to Taepo-ri on the east coast. Because the major enemy attack had been in the west, Van Fleet reshuffled his units to put more American divisions there. By the end of April, U.N. forces had stopped the enemy short of Seoul and the Han and held a strong, continuous defense line.
As the enemy withdrew to recoup losses, Van Fleet improved his defenses on NO-NAME-LINE and planned an offensive to carry the Eighth Army back to Line KANSAS; but signs of another impending enemy attack led him to postpone it.
On the night of 15-16 May an estimated 21 Chinese divisions, flanked by 3 North Korean divisions in the west and 6 in the east, struck in the central sector against the U.S. X and the ROK III Corps in the Naep'yong-ni-No-dong area. ROK units were again forced back by the swarming columns of Chinese and North Koreans. Once more Van Fleet reshuffled his units, moved in reserves, and laid down a tremendous curtain of artillery fire which exacted heavy casualties and stopped the enemy offensive.
On 17 May the enemy struck down the Pukhan River toward the Han in the western sector, against the I and IX Corps, with a force of about 250,000 men. This attack was also contained after three days of violent action. By 20 May U.N. troops brought the enemy to a standstill, having thus stopped two major offensives in two months.
Van Fleet decided to renew the offensive, so as to give the enemy no chance to gather himself for another counterstrike. On 18 May he opened a series of local attacks. Once more enemy forces pulled back and U.N. forces moved forward against light resistance. Within a few days the I Corps reached the Imjin River north of Munsan-ni and entered Uijongbu and Sinp'al-li. The IX Corps pushed toward Kap'yong, drove the enemy across the Hanch'on River, and moved toward the Hwach'on Reservoir. In the X Corps area the 1st Marine Division attacked Yanggu on 24 May. The 187th RCT headed for Inje, which it captured on the 27th. The Marines were pushing toward the Hwach' on Reservoir and Yanggu. The 7th Division of the I Corps took Hwach'on. By 31 May the U.N. forces scored a significant advance which brought them just about back to the KANSAS Line, and South Korea was virtually cleared of the enemy.
At this point the Joint Chiefs of Staff prescribed that the Eighth Army was not to go beyond the general vicinity of Line KANSAS. The only tactical operations permitted were those necessary to protect itself, to maintain contact, and to harass the enemy. This was the basic pattern of U.N. military operations which was to be followed throughout the remainder of the war.
On 1 June, therefore, Van Fleet ordered his reserve forces to strengthen KANSAS so as to make it virtually impregnable. Meanwhile the I and IX Corps were to continue Operation PILEDRIVER toward Line WYOMING (the bulge north of KANSAS that ran from the Imjin River to points just south of Ch'orwon and Kumhwa and thence southeast). Ch'orwon and Kumhwa were captured on 11 June. Two tank-infantry task fences reached P'yongyang, the northern tip of the Iron Triangle, on 13 June and found it deserted. The dominating high ground north of the city was held by the enemy, however, and U.N. forces withdrew. The Chinese reoccupied P'yongyang on 17 June. Meanwhile the X Corps on the east-central front pushed through mountains toward its sector of the KANSAS Line, which extended over a series of ridges from the Hwach'on Reservoir northeastward to the lower lip of the "Punchbowl," an aptly named circular depression north of Inje. Thus by mid-June the Eighth Army had attained the principal terrain objectives of Operation PILEDRIVER. Action for the rest of the month was confined to developing the KANSAS and WYOMING Lines, and to patrolling and local clashes.