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Home Town Uniontown
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Oct 16, 1959
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
George C. Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on 31 December 1880. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901; the next year, he married Elizabeth Carter Cole.
Marshall was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1902 and served with the 30th Infantry in the Philippines for the next two years. In 1907, he was promoted to first lieutenant and graduated from the Infantry and Cavalry School. He was a student, and then taught at, the Staff College from 1908 to 1910.
From 1913 to 1916, Marshall was assigned to the 4th Infantry at Forts Logan H. Roots and Crocket; he then served a tour with the 13th Infantry in the Philippines. In 1917, he was promoted to captain, and then to temporary major. In 1918, he was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel and temporary colonel.
During the First World War, he served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France as an operations officer of the 1st Division and the First Army. Later he was assigned as the chief of staff of the VIII Corps. Marshall participated in the Cantigny, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne operations. He also served as an aide to General John J. Pershing after the war.
In 1920, Marshall was made a permanent major; in 1923, he became a permanent lieutenant colonel. From 1924 to 1927, he led the 15th Infantry in China, and then was an instructor at the Army War College. He then served as assistant commandant of the Infantry School until 1932. In 1930, he married Katherine Boyce Tupper Brown. Promoted to full colonel in 1933, Marshall commanded the 8th Infantry until being reassigned as the senior instructor of the Illinois National Guard from 1933 to 1936. In 1936, Marshall was made a brigadier general and led the 5th Infantry Brigade. In 1938, he became the head of the War Plans Division, General Staff.
From 1938 to 1939, Marshall was the deputy chief of staff of the Army. In 1939, he became the acting Chief of Staff. In September, 1939, Marshall was promoted to major general, and full general. He served as the Army Chief of Staff from 1 September 1939 to 18 November 1945. As Chief of Staff, he centralized the professional leadership of the Army in the Chief of Staff’s office, urged pre-war mobilization, coordinated wartime industrial conversion, streamlined administration, oversaw grand strategy once the U.S. entered the Second World War and was the principal American architect of Allied victory. In 1944, he was made a temporary General of the Army, a rank made permanent in 1946.
After the war, Marshall served as President Harry S Truman’s personal representative to China, until 1947.
He retired from active service and became the Secretary of State until 1949. In 1948, at the commencement speech at Harvard, he urged a program of European economic recovery, which became known as the Marshall Plan. In 1949, Marshall was recalled to the active list and was the president of the American Red Cross from 1949 to 1950.
Marshall then served as the Secretary of Defense until 1951. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for the Marshall Plan. Marshall headed the American Battle Monuments Commission from 1949 to 1959. He died in Washington, D.C., on 16 October 1959.
Somme Offensive, 8 August - 11 November 1918. On 8 August the British began limited operations with the objective of flattening the Amiens salient. This attack marked the beginning of the great Somme Offensive, which continued until hostilities ceased on 11 November. The British Fourth Army, including the American 33d and 80th Divisions, struck the northwestern edge of the salient in coordination with a thrust by the French First Army from the southwest. No artillery barrage preceded the attack to forewarn the enemy. Some 600 tanks spearheaded the British assault, which jumped off during the thick fog. The completely surprised Germans quickly gave up 16,000 prisoners as their positions were overrun. Ludendorff himself characterized 8 August as the "Black Day of the German Army." The Germans were forced to fal1 back to the old 1915 line, where they reorganized strong defenses-in-depth. Haig then shifted his attack farther north to the vicinity of Arras on 21 August, forcing the Germans to withdraw toward the Hindenburg Line. By the end of the month they had evacuated the whole of the Amiens salient.
The drive to breach the main Hindenburg Line began at the end of September. The American II Corps (27th and 30th Divisions), forming part of the British Fourth Army, attacked the German defenses along the line of the Cambrai-St. Quentin Canal, capturing heavily fortified Bony and Bellicourt on the 29th. By 5 October the offensive had broken through the Hindenburg Line, and the Allied forces advanced through open country to the Oise-Somme Canal (19 October). During this phase of the operations the 27th and 30th Divisions alternated in the line. When the American II Corps was relieved on 21 October, it had served 26 days in the line and suffered 11,500 casualties.
The British advance in the Somme region continued until the Armistice, constituting the northern arm of Foch's great pincers movement on the Germans' vital lateral rail communications system. The key junction at Aulnoye, southwest of Maubeuge, was reached on 5 November. A total of about 54,000 Americans participated in the Somme Campaign.