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MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Eddy, Manton Sprague, LTG.
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Contact Info
Home Town Chicago
Last Address Fort Benning, GA
Date of Passing Apr 10, 1962
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Manton Sprague Eddy was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He attended the Shattuck Military School in Faribault, Minnesota, United States between 1910 and 1913. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1916 and served in France during WW1 as an infantryman of the 4th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces. With the war time rank of major, he served during the occupation of Germany until 1919. In 1920, he was reverted to the regular rank of captain. Between 1920 and 1934, he took the Infantry School Officers Course, advanced course, and the Command and General Staff School. On 23 Nov 1921, he married Mamie Peabody Buttolph. In the 1920s, he served as a member of the Infantry Board and an instructor of tactics at the Command and General Staff College, Kansas, United States. In 1941, he became commanding officer of the 114th Regiment of the 44th Division and led this unit through fighting in Tunisia, Sicily, and France. US Army infantry officer Lieutenant Charles Scheffel recalled Eddy as the officer who saved Patton from a bad choice of words on the eve of the Sicily invasion.
Patton began an amazingly bellicose and agitated tirade about what we were going to do to the enemy when we got to Sicily. Then he said, "And gentlemen, when we land on the beaches of Sicily, there will be no prisoners taken."
I sat stunned in the first row of officers, not ten feet away from the pompous man. His words made my skin crawl. Nobody said anything for a long moment.
General [Manton] Eddy stepped forward and tugged gently at Patton's shirtsleeve. "General," he said so softly I could barely hear him, "you might want to rethink your last statement."
Patton looked out over the group of officers sitting on the sand before him. Then he wagged his hand toward us. "Forget what I just said."
In France, Eddy won the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership during the capture of the city of Cherbourg. In 1944, he was given command of the XII Corps, which fought in the southern front of the Battle of the Bulge. In Apr 1945, he returned to the US due to illness and largely ended his involvement in WW2. After the war, in 1946, he commanded the 3rd Service Command and Deputy Command of the 2nd Army. In 1947, he served as the Information Chief of the US Army. In 1948, he became the commanding general of the Command and General Staff College and was involved in developing modern US Army officer schooling programs. In 1950, he was nominated as a candidate to lead all US Army personnel in Europe, though did not receive the appointment. He went on to command the 7th Army. He retired at the rank of lieutenant general. Eddy passed away in 1962 and now rests in peace at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, United States.
Beyond the Distinguished Service Cross, Eddy's American awards also included the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart. From the United Kingdom, Eddy was given the rank of Honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath. From France, he received the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. The Russians gave him the Order of War For The Fatherland and the Medal for Valor. From Belgium, he received the title of Commander of the Order of Leopold.
Sources:
Charles Scheffel with Barry Basden, Crack! and Thump
Arlington National Cemetery
World War I/St. Mihiel Campaign
From Month/Year
September / 1918
To Month/Year
September / 1918
Description St. Mihiel, 12 - 16 September 1918. By September 1918, with both the Marne and the Amiens salients eliminated, there remained but one major threat to lateral rail communications behind the Allied lines-the old St. Mihiel salient near the Paris-Nancy line. Active preparations for its reduction began with the transfer of Headquarters First Army, effective 13 August, from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in the Marne region to Neufchateau on the Meuse, immediately south of St. Mihiel. On 28 August the first echelon of headquarters moved closer to the front at Ligny-en-Barrois.
American unite from Flanders to Switzerland were shifted into the area near the salient. The fourteen American and four French divisions assigned to the First Army for the operation contained ample infantry and machinegun units for the attack. But because of the earlier priority given to shipment of infantry (at the insistence of the British and French) the First Army was short of artillery, tank, air and other support units essential to a well-balanced field army. The French made up this deficiency by loaning Pershing over half the artillery and nearly half the airplanes and tanks needed for the St. Mihiel operation.
Shortly before the offensive was to begin, Foch threatened once again to disrupt Pershing's long-held desire to carry out a major operation with an independent American force. On 30 August the Allied Commander in Chief proposed to exploit the recently gained successes on the Aisne-Marne and Amiens fronts by reducing the size of the St. Mihiel attack and dividing the American forces into three groups-one for the salient offensive and two for fronts to the east and west of the Argonne Forest. Pershing, however, remained adamant in his insistence that the First Army should not now be broken up, no matter where it might be sent into action. Fina1ly a compromise was reached. The St. Mihiel attack was subordinated to the much larger offensive to be launched on the Meuse-Argonne front in late September, but the First Army remained intact. Pershing agreed to limit his operations by employing only the minimum force needed to reduce the salient in three or four days. Simultaneously he was to prepare his troops for a major role in the Meuse-Argonne drive.
The St. Mihiel offensive began on 12 September with a threefold assault on the salient. The main attack was made against the south face by two American corps. On the right was the I Corps (from right to left the 82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions in line with the 78th in reserve) covering a front from Pont-à-Mousson on the Moselle westward to Limey; on the left, the IV Corps (from right to left the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions in line with the 3d in reserve) extending along a front from Limey westward to Marvoisin. A secondary thrust was carried out against the west face along the heights of the Meuse, from Mouilly north to Haudimont, by the V Corps (from right to left the 26th Division, the French 15th Colonial Division, and the 8th Brigade, 4th Division in line with the rest of the 4th in reserve). A holding attack against the apex, to keep the enemy in the salient, was made by the French II Colonial Corps (from right to left the French 39th Colonial Division, the French 26th Division, and the French 2d Cavalry Division in line). In First Army reserve were the American 35th, 80th, and 91st Divisions.
Tota1 Allied forces involved in the offensive numbered more than 650,000-some 550,000 American and 100,000 Allied (mostly French) troops. In support of the attack the First Army had over 3,000 guns, 400 French tanks, and 1,500 airplanes. Col. William Mitchell directed the heterogeneous air force, composed of British, French, Italian, Portuguese, and American units, in what proved to be the largest single air operation of the war. American squadrons flew 609 of the airplanes, which were mostly of French or British manufacture.
Defending the salient was German "Army Detachment C," consisting of eight divisions and a brigade in the line and about two divisions in reserve. The Germans, now desperately short of manpower, had begun a step-by-step withdrawal from the salient only the day before the offensive began. The attack went so well on 12 September that Pershing ordered a speedup in the offensive. By the morning of 13 September the 1st Division, advancing from the east, joined hands with the 26th Division, moving in from the west, and before evening all objectives in the salient had been captured. At this point Pershing halted further advances so that American units could be withdrawn for the coming offensive in the Meuse-Argonne sector.
This first major operation by an American Army under its own command took 16,000 prisoners at a cost of 7,000 casualties, eliminated the threat of an attack on the rear of Allied fortifications at Nancy and Verdun, greatly improved Allied lateral rail communications, and opened the way for a possible future offensive to seize Metz and the Briey iron fields.